Prospecting for Petroleum

What is crude oil? What do we use it for? How do we find it? Those questions are considered in this, the first of a series of THIS IS OIL short films, produced for public relations by the Shell Oil Company.

Actually, it's produced by George Pal Productions. When you think of Pal, you think of his feature films, like THE TIME MACHINE, or his series of Puppetoons. There's a good deal of the latter here, with various puppets voiced by the like of H. B. Warner and Conrad Nagel. There's a delight in the three-dimensionality of those parts, but his sharp, cartoonish sense of humor is missing. Still, the information offered, while dry, is telling. I learned a couple of things by watching this.