Land of the Taj Mahal (1952)

Best movie of this year hands down!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

. . . prior to tossing in the Taj Mahal as an obligatory afterthought. Obviously, his distributors at film studio MGM rejected Fitz's rough cut (working title: MY DAY AT THE TRACK), and sent a second unit to Agra for some location shots of India's most famous tomb. (Or perhaps they had file footage of the 17th Century Wonder on hand already to splice in at a moment's notice.) Just as many compulsive players of the ponies make an annual pilgrimage to Chuchill Downs on the pretense that they're "into" the latest in ladies' hats, Fitz makes a lame attempt here to claim that he's some sort of a fashion guru, qualified to offer critiques of comparable modes of women's dress. Perhaps a rogue "Traveltalks" editor was responsible for "The Voice of the Globe" spending double the time with the Horsey Set as the few seconds devoted to India's national shrine. Maybe Fitz's tout talk is intended as a warning--"Don't make the mistakes I have done"--HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN style. Possibly horses, saris, and tombs constitute a Trifecta bet in his book.

Land of the Taj Mahal (1952)** 1/2 (out of 4)Another good entry in MGM's TravelTalks series has James A. Fitzpatrick going to India where we learn that the place was under British hands until 1947 when it broke into India and Pakistan. We learns about the importance of the sea port and how customs are currently changing but the people there still remember their past. We start off in Bombay where we see their famous gardens where they show off the farms and animals and especially the beloved elephant. We also see the Bombay racetrack, which we're told gathers up every kind of race and creed. We then stop in Delhi where we see some religious temples as well as how the city operates including a look at movie advertising. Seeing how the theater owners advertise their new movies was pretty funny to see. Fans of the MGM series will certainly want to check this one out as we're told some nice information but of course the visuals are once again the real selling point. The Technicolor really brings the city and the clothing to life and makes this worth watching if you have eight-minutes to kill.