Producer/director: OTTO LANG. Photographed in CinemaScope and Technicolor by Charles Clarke.
Copyright 17 December 1953 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. U.K. release: March 1954. Sydney opening at the Regent. 1,348 feet. 15 minutes.
COMMENT: I don't generally enjoy short subjects. Indeed, in the many, many years that I was a professional movie critic, if the supporting program was made up entirely of shorts, I usually timed myself to arrive at the theater no more than five or ten minutes before the main feature actually commenced.
I did, of course, make an exception for cartoons, particularly if the cartoon was scheduled just before the main feature.
However, in addition to everything else, I'm a train buff, so I made sure I didn't miss seeing "Vesuvius Express" - particularly as it was photographed in early CinemaScope. In fact, I found that although burdened with a distressingly over-facetious commentary, this travelogue turned out to be an ideal subject for CinemaScope. Although I haven't seen it since, I remember it well. The widescreen camera took me on a fast-paced tour of Milan, Florence, Rome and Naples.
Yes, the "express" of the title of course is a train.
The first short subject to be released in CinemaScope, "Vesuvius Express" was nominated for a prestigious Hollywood award in the Two- Reel Short Subjects division, but it lost out to Walt Disney's True Life Adventure, "Bear Country".
Copyright 17 December 1953 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. U.K. release: March 1954. Sydney opening at the Regent. 1,348 feet. 15 minutes.
COMMENT: I don't generally enjoy short subjects. Indeed, in the many, many years that I was a professional movie critic, if the supporting program was made up entirely of shorts, I usually timed myself to arrive at the theater no more than five or ten minutes before the main feature actually commenced.
I did, of course, make an exception for cartoons, particularly if the cartoon was scheduled just before the main feature.
However, in addition to everything else, I'm a train buff, so I made sure I didn't miss seeing "Vesuvius Express" - particularly as it was photographed in early CinemaScope. In fact, I found that although burdened with a distressingly over-facetious commentary, this travelogue turned out to be an ideal subject for CinemaScope. Although I haven't seen it since, I remember it well. The widescreen camera took me on a fast-paced tour of Milan, Florence, Rome and Naples.
Yes, the "express" of the title of course is a train.
The first short subject to be released in CinemaScope, "Vesuvius Express" was nominated for a prestigious Hollywood award in the Two- Reel Short Subjects division, but it lost out to Walt Disney's True Life Adventure, "Bear Country".
