User Reviews

"Calling on Cape Town" is a product of its times. While South Africa was led by a repressive white government, folks around the world didn't seem to care much until the 1960s and later. That is probably why in the film you see no mention of any of this nor the way some South Africans were being treated. Instead of discussing Apartheid, it's mostly about the sublime natural beauty of this world class city. I've been there twice...and it IS this beautiful.

In addition to focusing on the land (particularly Table Mountain), it also takes a trip to the famous vineyards. Unfortunately, the narration is incorrect when they were discussing Groot Costantia and their fine wines as it said that Napoleon was a lover of their wines and supposedly died talking about how great they were. Actually, he was enamored with Klein Costantia...a different nearby winery producing an incredibly sweet icewine that he loved.

Overall, it's a short and superficial visit...pleasant enough but quite incomplete...even by 1950s standards. A colorful visit to one of my favorite cities....but a relatively bland one as well.

James A. Fitzpatrick sends the Technicolor cameras under Hone Glendinning to shoot around Cape Town. We get a look at the cable car to the Table. We get a look at the vienyards in the suburbs; and we get admiring talk about Cecil Rhodes.

We also get a hint that all is not well in Sotuh Africa. Early on, in his high-flown blather, Fitzpatrick refers to" the city of 500,000 people, where people are trying to work out their destinies." We know in retrospect how that went for almost half a century.



Although the vistas offered in this MGM travelogue are certainly dramatic, the views are not as beautiful as Fitzpatrick's shorts usually were. The views of the rugged mountains are grand, but lovely they ain't. Their bowl-like nature makes me think that Cape Town, like Los Angeles, must be a naturally smoggy city.

"Calling on Cape Town" is a product of its times. While South Africa was led by a racist white government, folks around the world didn't seem to care much until the 1960s and later. That is why in the film you see no mention of any of this nor the way black South Africans were being treated. Instead of discussing Apartheid, it's mostly about the sublime natural beauty of this world class city. I've been there twice...and it IS this beautiful.

In addition to focusing on the land (particularly Table Mountain), it also takes a trip to the famous vineyards. Unfortunately, the narration is incorrect when they were discussing Groot Costantia and their fine wines as it said that Napoleon was a lover of their wines and supposedly died talking about how great they were. Actually, he was enamored with Klein Costantia...a different nearby winery producing an incredibly sweet icewine that he loved.

Overall, it's a short and superficial visit...pleasant enough but quite incomplete...even by 1950s standards.