HOME MOVIES: 1937

Genre: home movie

Year Published: 1937

Format: 16mm

Description: Shot by an unknown American tourist, this 1937 color and black and white home movie presents a silent European travelogue, showing major architectural and natural landmarks in pre-war Germany, Italy, Holland and France (TRT 9:16). Pan to a view of the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany. The dome is present (0:08). The Berlin Victory Column (0:24). A famous Berlin street, Unter der Linden, lined with white columns and Nazi eagles. (Unter den Linden is a boulevard in the central Mitte district of Berlin.) Germans walk by (0:36). Berlin Cathedral from across the street (0:46). Brandenburg Gate with Quadriga chariot statue and doric columns (1:03). The gate at a distance flanked by reichsadler columns (1:17). The Victory Column from a distance, flanked by trees. It is in its original location in Königsplatz (now Platz der Republik), at the end of the Siegesallee (Victory Avenue). A motorcycle with a sidecar and two bicycles head towards it (1:24). A rolling hillside lush with trees. A farmhouse (1:35). Black and white footage of St. Mark’s Basilica and St. Mark’s Square in Venice, Italy. The Campanile and street lamps are also visible. People carry black umbrellas (1:54). Venetian gondolas and a passing ferry boat (2:04). A gondolier steers a boat with an awning (2:17). The Rialto Bridge and Grand Canal viewed from a gondola (2:28). Flower vendors (2:46). Inside the Colosseum in Rome. The ground shows evidence of excavation (2:46). The triumphal Arch of Constantine (2:58). A panoramic view of the Roman Forum at a distance, with automobiles and a parking lot in the foreground. (3:08). Mount Vesuvius in Naples. A street view with smoke billowing from the volcano (3:31). Snow-covered mountaintops in the Alps (3:48). Switch back to color footage. More mountain range vistas (4:35). Dutch boys and girls stand at a dock. Punch holes and a cut back to black and white (5:26). Mountains at a distance (5:30). A farmer leads a group of cows (5:38). A middle-aged man and two women in hats and coats address the camera (5:46). Eindhoven, Holland (6:03). Saint Catherine’s Cathedral and the Railway/Road or Waal Bridge, then the longest tiered-arch bridge in Europe. It was demolished in 1940 (6:19). Saint Catherine’s Cathedral in full view (6:30). Docked boats and Dutch children (6:43). Dutch women in traditional head coverings, bodices, and skirts walk down a residential riverfront street (7:10). A street in Paris, France bustling with 1930s automobiles (7:21). The Luxor Obelisk and the Fontaine des Mers in the distance while cars pass in the foreground (7:28). French Gendarmes watch traffic on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées (8:04). The Hôtel de Crillon and Place de la Concorde. The obelisk in closeup (8:07). The banks of the Seine. The Eiffel Tower in the distance. A French flag waves (8:30). Trucks drive by (8:55). A bridge over the Seine (9:04). Punch hole cue mark and red, animated "Kodak" end leader (9:07).

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