User Reviews

Travetalks travels from Chicago to Mackinac Island, Michigan. It's an old timey place of Indian and French origins near the Canadian border on the northern tip of the state. It's vacation spot untouched by the war. At least, that's what it feels like. The war is not mentioned. There's a golf course and a grand hotel. It's a lazy summer vacation trip. It's a travelogue.

Mackinac Island is a very small vacation spot located in one of the Great Lakes of the US state of Michigan. Although not turned into a resort until the 1800s, this Traveltalks shows how this ancient land once inhabited by Native Americans gave way to a picturesque locale featuring scenic parks, villages, and (believe it or not) no cars. It's shown how the French were the first Europeans to arrive at Mackinac Island about 3 centuries ago while they were trying to establish a new route to Asia. A Jesuit priest named Jacques Marquette was responsible for introducing Christianity to this place, and his legacy is still remembered by the few inhabitants of the island via a statue of him situated in a park that bears his name. Above the island's largest settlement sits a fort that was used by french forces against the British and was later used by the US during the War of 1812. Mackinac Island may be tiny, but it's not irrelevant in commercial affairs, since it was the headquarters of the American Fur Company, founded by a German immigrant John Astor. The old ways come into contact with the new on the streets of the island, as the only means of transportation are bikes or your own two legs. Next, we're shown a hotel which apparently has the longest porch in the world, and many distinguished visitors from numerous countries congregate here. I found this to be a welcome change of pace from the usual Traveltalks featured on TCM, as they typically focus on urban locations that I don't really have interest in. Maybe it's just me, but there's nothing exciting or glamorous about city life. Seeing shorts like these makes you appreciate sparsely populated areas, even if many of them are disappearing. I'm sure Mackinac has underwent some changes since this was made, but I'd still rate it miles ahead of any overrated metropolis.

Mackinac Island (1944)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Another pleasant entry in MGM's TravelTalks series starts off on Lake Michigan where we view the coastline of Chicago. James A. FitzPatrick then takes a cruise to Mackinac Island where we learn about its history from the original Indians who lived there to how the French took control of it. We see various items including the various flowers that grow there before ending our trip at the Grand Hotel, which was originally owned by Chauncey Depew. As expected, the Technicolor is certainly the highlight of this short and it was a lot of fun briefly seeing Chicago even if the series had several visits there. On the island we get the typical stories but they're all told quite well by FitzPatrick and no one can dispute the scenery.

Here's a Traveltalk in which James A. Fitzpatrick's eternal blather cannot destroy or even seriously affect the charm of this glimpse of Mackinack (pronounced, we are told, 'Mack-i-naw'). Island. Even in 1944, with the world at war and the Traveltalks series stuck in the Americas, there's little to see here, but images from the country's past, and its present pleasures, with buildings from the 18th century, hotels from the 19th, and automobiles absent. They still are, though the Feds might helicopter in the occasional Vice-President and the Secret Service might put him in a car, lest one of the crowned horses pulling a buggy take a pot shot at him.

Even in 1944 it was a nostalgic piece. Today it looks even more so.