A promo film flashing false credentials as a documentary, under the auspices of the American Film Institute and the American Society of Cinematographers. Hence the concentration on Americans, or at any rate American movies. The clips are often entrancing: Peter Ibbetson, photographed by Charles Lang, still looks glorious; and the 1931 Possessed, by Oliver Marsh, invites renewed investigation; but the print quality of Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons is subpar; and why do we get only a fraction of the transformation scene from the 1932 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? As a rule, the older the clips, the better they look, though the emphasis is predictably on the newer: the photographers of those are more readily available for interview. (1993) — Duncan Shepherd
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