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Fairbanks (Jerry) Inc.Inside Story of Modern Gasoline, The (ca. 1946)

Combination animation/live-action film showing how gasoline is refined and used. With striking images of gas stations, auto travel, and automobiles.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Fairbanks (Jerry) Inc.
Sponsor: Standard Oil Company of Indiana
Audio/Visual: Sd, C
Keywords: Oil industry; Automobiles; Occupations: Petroleum industry

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: slugs and urchins - - May 28, 2008
Subject: inside story
ah, the good old days when pollution and war were noble and patriotic, if only we had taken everybody else's oil and horded our own we wouldn't have had to kill Saddam Hussien for his oil, and those pesky Iranians. They're next!

But don't even think about it, just keep driving like there's no tomorrow!

Reviewer: AWAmember - - December 17, 2003
Subject: Great start, but disapointing second half.
I am the type of person who always wants to know how things work, so the first part, on refining, was very interesting. However, since I already knew a little about how a gasolene engine works, the rest seemed much too simplified to be useful and probably misleading too.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - August 20, 2003
Subject: It's a gas man, a boring gas...
Another try at the 'what happens to the gas when it goes into the gas tank' story, using much more fluid animation, but sadly totally overstays it's welcome by just going ON and ON. We see very cute droplets representing the different parts of an oil drop eg gas droplets, gasoline droplets etc (the Gas Oil droplet looks kind of obscene). From there the film gets a little too complicated to maintain the cutesy attitude in the beginning, and just maintains it for the 20 + minute running time. Far more effective was 'Down The Gasoline Trail'.

Shotlist

Describes (in partly animated form: you know, "talking gasoline drops," etc!) the refining of gasoline, it's chemical breakdown, etc; excellent shots of gasoline stations (with the "Royal Crown" glass globes atop the gas pumps; striking images), and oil refineries. Good shots fo stop light changing from red to green; driver's POC on Western highway; CU speedometer accelerating to 50 MPH; CU gas jet stovetop; beautiful Chrysler "Town and Country" ("Woody") on rural highway. Deserves a shotlist...