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This early 1960s color film presents a travelogue view of Soviet-era Czechoslovakia, with an emphasis on infrastructure and industry (TRT: 22:13).
Opening titles. “United World Films, Inc. Presents Your World Neighbors Series” and “Czechoslovakia and Its People” (0:08). A color map of Eastern Europe shows Germany, Poland, Russia, Austria, Hungary, and Romania, with the boundaries of Czechoslovakia demarcated by a dotted line. Shifting colors illustrate German’s possession of the area during World War II, and Russia’s post-war takeover (0:21). Three regions divide the land mass: Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia. The Sudeten Mountains and the Carpathian Mountains are labeled (0:58). Next, the capital cities of Prague, Brno, and Bratislava are added to the map (1:18). A panorama of Prague shows tree-covered mountains and historic buildings, including distant St. Vitus Cathedral (1:26). The Prague Powder Tower. Residential houses of the middle ages. Prague Castle’s gates and statuary (1:37). A closer look at St. Vitus Cathedral. Our Lady Victorious Church (2:05). The river Vtlava and the Manes bridge (2:23). Traffic in Prague: Automobiles, Vespa type scooters, and Trolleybuses. A motorcycle with a sidecar passes. A person puts a cardboard “clock” on the windshield of their parked car to indicate a time of return (2:30). Parked cars under protective tarps (3:04). The Prague astronomical clock (orloj) and its statues (3:10). Green fields and a passing coal-powered steam locomotive (3:36). Northern Bohemia (4:03). A farmhouse. A quarry. A nearby glass factory exterior (4:15). Men carry bundles of glass rods. A heated shaft of glass is pressed into beads. Red beads are poured out. Polishing barrels spin on a belt-driven system (4:39). Bohemian farmhouses and countryside. An old-fashioned combination family home glassmaking operation (5:15). A middle aged woman and man working on glass molding equipment (6:02). A young woman sits outdoors with a chair draped in beaded necklaces (6:40). A town built around the glass industry. A school, a factory, signage (6:55). Glassblowing in a factory. Men shape bulbous vessels from molten glass (7:26). Young women thread glass beads and shape delicate handicrafts (8:09). The exterior of the state-owned Jablonex glass factory and men using dollies to load a truck with crates, “New York American Property” (8:56). Brno in Moravia. A panorama of the city. Pedestrians and trolleybuses. The Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul. Men and women sit on a red park bench. A storefront selling lamps, “Krystal.” Radios, televisions, and mens shirts for sale (9:11). Womens shoes. An outdoor street market with vegetable vendors (10:12). Fields of state wheat and barley farms (10:29). A road sign for Prušánky. An elderly couple at a water pump. Children walking. A post office. A building under renovation. The state farm headquarters (10:54). A Soviet Zetor tractor. A meter made of paper tracks the progress of dairy production. Rural countryside and cottages. Vineyards (11:50). Pressing grapes for winemaking. Wine barrels. A winemaker tests his beverage (13:02). Hodonín’s wine warehouses. Barrels and bottles (13:33). Bratislava Castle on the Danube. A town square. Ursuline Church and Convent. The Trinitarian Church of Bratislava (14:36). The Modra river. Adjoining houses in a southern Slovakian village (15:17). Women stacking pottery (15:52). A young potter spinning a vase on a potter’s wheel. An older man applies glaze. Loading a large kiln. A woman using a paintbrush to apply a design in glaze (16:00). Finished ceramic ware (17:08). Slovakian forests and hillside villages. Wooden barns and homes. An elderly woman doing needlepoint (17:20). A railroad station. Stacks of logs at a paper mill. Men stripping bark for lumber (18:20). Plaster dwellings. A woodworking studio. A lathe, a jigsaw, a plane. Women apply varnish to figurines. Men carve sculptures (19:16). An elderly man carves a design into a fujara, a large, pipe-shaped musical instrument (20:42). A shepherd and flock seen from afar. A bicyclist and a truck. A factory’s smokestacks cloud the air (21:35). End credits: “Produced and Directed by Erik Cripps; Written and Edited by Emily Taylor” for Biofilms Inc., Easton Maryland (21:49).
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