Quaint St. Augustine (1939) User Reviews

Lions And Alligators

[boblipton · 5/10 · 2 April 2022]

Well, Lion as in Ponce de Leon, whom James A. Fitzpatrick seems to think might have found the Fountain of Youth. At least he calls the claim "controversial". Fitzpatrick seems to be straining for enthusiasm here, as he seems impressed by an alligator farm, and thinks that St. Augustine -- which judging by the shots his cameramen have taken, is a modern city for 1939 -- reeks of antiquity.

The copy of this travelogue that plays occasionally on TCM is in pretty good condition.

too many costumes and not enough alligator wrestling

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 2 April 2022]

It's Florida and the oldest permanent White settlement in the United States. The architecture is old Spain. TravelTalks is recreating the old world with people doing a lot of dress-up. I never mind the pretty girls dancing in traditional costumes. I do have a problem with dressing up to recreate an old event or if there is too much of it. It looks cheesy. They do visit an ostrich and alligator farm. There is even alligator wrestling. Costume people return for the last section at the fort. Again it's not necessarily. This is the war years and it's understandable to stay within the States. I'm guessing the costumes are meant to spice things up.

My mom!

[jamesgeoghan · 10/10 · 12 April 2022]

Had to give this 10... fell out of my chair when I first watched... the beauty doing the dance at the Ponce de Leon hotel was my mom! Born and raised in St. Augustine, she was 19 or 20 at the time. She had told me she worked at that hotel and others with a partner ballroom dancing but she never told me she made it into the movies! I'll probably watch this every day for the rest of my life. She's gone since 1995 at the too young age of 75.

TravelTalks

[Michael_Elliott · 7 March 2015]

Quaint St. Augustine (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Fun entry in the TravelTalks series has host James A. FitzPatrick heading to St. Augustine, Florida where he talks about it being the oldest white settlement. Along our journey we see the oldest school house as well as one of the oldest houses on record. From here we see some of the local landmarks including Fort Marion and the location of where Pedro Menendez began his settlement in 1565. From here we take a look at an ostrich farm where we see them eat and finally we view an alligator farm, which was the largest in the country. We get some good shots of the alligators as they eat and we also see one of the workers wrestle one of them. Overall this here does exactly what you'd expect a film in this series to do. It tells you some history of what you're seeing and the Technicolor brings everything to life.