Synopsis
Studies in streamlining from Horatio Phillips's day to the present, and the evolution of the automobile to the streamlined shape of the 1941 Chevrolet.
Synopsis, reviewed
Details
- Running time
- 8 minutes
- Collection
- Prelinger Archives
Reviews on the Internet Archive
★★★ · go with the flow · Spuzz · 2013-10-21
A history of how streamlining was discovered and utilized in this short. Not a particularily interesting subject for me, but it's short and there's some educational fodder, so it's not all that bad.
★★★ · Good Jam Handy · barticle · 2013-10-21
Typical Jam Handy film from 1941, more interesting as history than for scientific information. Today most high school kids understand streamlining (I hope)but it was still new in the 1940's. A lot of today's cars ignore the principle altogether. Who needs to save gas, anyway?
★★★ · Avoiding Flaccid Ribbons · Dodsworth the Cat · 2025-10-27
Streamlining was invented by a guy sucking on a pipe, and putting a potato in a box, if the narrative here in correct. That ties into making faster planes, and faster boats, and faster cars--which happen to be Chevrolets. No Chrysler Airflows here. Speed = Safety, according to the General Motors propagandists. "Here's something you'll never see," says the narrator, but we get footage of a Chevy with ribbons tied to it, doors wide open. If this will never happen, there's no point to it. At the end, the "girls" get together for a laugh. The Jam Handy films are well put together. This one keeps…