Now You See It (1947)

6/10

Actually quite interesting--at least until Smith talks.

planktonrules27 August 2013

I have marveled in past reviews of the Pete Smith shorts how it is that MGM made so many and a couple of them received Oscars since the narration by producer Pete Smith is so incredibly annoying. Listening to him is like listening to some vain relative who insists on boring you with their stale old jokes...and Smith's are indeed stale. What is unusual, however, is that this short is in color--the only one I've ever seen in color.

Although I'll quickly admit that I hated "Now You See It" whenever Smith spoke, there still is quite a bit to recommend this film. It's all about the use of micro and macro photography and is downright interesting when you see various ordinary things up very, very close. I loved seeing how incredibly tiny the hummingbird baby was but my favorite (wow!) was seeing a cat's tongue. Truly fascinating. Well worth seeing even if Smith was a very annoying host.

1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

7/10

a Pete Smith chapter using microscopes and zoom lenses.

ksf-217 February 2015

Warning: Spoilers

Pete Smith uses microscopes, slow motion, magnification, color filters, and his usual word play banter in this photo-documentary on nature, insects, and hummingbirds. Lots of special effects and close-ups of insects. Pretty cool stuff... probably the first time the folks of the mid 1940s had seen anything like it. We see the birth and life cycle of mosquitoes, and one even siphoning the blood from a human. Just a ten minute shortie. Turner Classics shows this in between films. Nominated for an Oscar in the One-reelers , but lost out to "Goodbye, Miss Turlock !", also from MGM, so they won, either way! As an early, color short, its even more interesting. I find these short films really interesting as a running timeline of life and technology over the early 20th century. While they are pretty tame and dry compared to today, times were much simpler then, and the puns and jokes probably were more entertaining. (James Fitzpatrick's travel dialogues were probably really interesting to people who never got to travel very far.)

Directed by Richard Casell. Seems to be the only thing he ever did in hollyweird, at least that IMDb knows about. couldn't find ANTHING on him. anyone ? anyone ?

1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

5/10

Narration has a sense of humor...

Doylenf9 February 2009

This color short accents the use of micro and macro-photography, so that we can see what a powerful microscope sees when looking at certain plants, animals and insects.

It spends most of the time inspecting the insect world of colorful flowers and how some of them trap the bugs feeding on them. We get a close inspection of a cat's tongue as it washes itself, see a caterpillar maneuvering on a tree branch and later becoming a butterfly, all with close-ups shot in good color.

It's not as fascinating as it sounds and only entertains because the narration is full of fresh perspectives of a humorous kind. Otherwise, it's an easy one to skip.

0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Fun Smith short

Michael_Elliott13 February 2009

Now You See It (1947)

*** (out of 4)

Oscar-nominated, Pete Smith short takes a look at microphotography as well as macrophotography. The earliest definition of this camera format was describe as centering the entire 35mm frame on one small part of an object, which in return would allow you to see that small object up close and unlike previous photography. In this short we see a wide range of objects ranging from a baby hummingbird to insects and even a huge item, which turns out to be a small wristwatch. There's nothing overly special about this short but it does make for a good way to kill 9-minutes as Smith does a good job with his narration and the subject itself is fairly interesting. I think the highlight of the film was seeing perhaps the ugliest thing ever created only to then learn it was a close up view of a cat's tongue!! The film closes with us getting to view a mosquito sucking the blood out of a human and filling it's stomach up.

0 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

User Reviews

See also

Opinion

Details

Storyline

Did You Know?

Photo & Video

Related Items

User Lists

Recently Viewed