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Castle FilmsRomance of a Lemon (ca. 1927)

Elegy to the sour fruit: how it's farmed and how it's used, with some unusual applications.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Castle Films
Sponsor: N/A
Audio/Visual: Si, B&W
Keywords: Agriculture: Citrus; California: History and culture

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: GE_Pretzel - - June 30, 2006
Subject: A fast-paced, scenic romp through the lemon orchards
This informative and entertaining silent film showcases California's lemon farming industry and the special processes used to grow and harvest the valuable fruit for sale. Each of the intertitles feature attractive illustrations that endow the film's narrative with a unique storybook feel. A short segment of the film is dedicated to contrasting the use of the lemon in earlier times with its broader array of applications in the present day. The Romance of a Lemon is one of my favorite silent productions.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - June 20, 2004
Subject: oooh lemon...
A pretty cleverly titled but somewhat standard doc about Lemon harvesting. From the looks of things, people sure took pride in their lemons if the title cards are to believed. From the looks of things, I thought it was going to have the Riefenstahlian ending like the amazing About Bananas had, but nah, the film ends (somewhat suddenly) with two ugly people, a boy and a woman, joyously rubbing their faces with the fruit. I guess that's lemon loving for ya. :)

Reviewer: Christopher - - June 30, 2003
Subject: hard work, not romance
Not much that's romantic here, except what's happened to Southern California since the 1920's makes lemon growing look romantic by comparison. Actually, this film's mostly about all the hard work that went into growing lemons. Wonderful scenes of early agriculture in the San Gabriel Valley, but you'd have to be a local to appreciate them.

You'd expect to see scenes of kids selling lemonade, wouldn't you? No, it seems that the lemon producers felt that lemons were, most importantly, a good substitute for soap.

Shotlist

Food Lemons Citrus industry Agriculture Children Women Cosmetics Health and hygiene Food processing Workers (agricultural) Workers (food industry) Humor