Water Trix (1949) User Reviews

Daring stunts on water skis...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 19 February 2009]

Enjoyable and fast moving Peter Smith specialty from MGM about water skiing photographed from a helicopter.

The stunts would be dangerous even on land but are twice as bold on water as expert water skiers demonstrate their balance, agility and strength. The man is particularly impressive as he does all kinds of stunts while being towed by a boat at a fast clip and then balances a trim female on his shoulders and even on his head! When another female joins the act, three of them share the man's ski board.

The narration is humorous and nicely done. Very enjoyable short from the Pete Smith series.

Charlie Trego

[boblipton · 6/10 · 28 February 2020]

A Smith called Pete offers a few... well, a lot of words, as cinematographer Charlie Trego gets on a helicopter to shoot a short movie about water skiing from the air.

There's Preston Petersen, who seems to have been a celebrity skier of the period. There are a couple of great stunts, including one where a woman stands of Petersen's head while he's skiing, and another in which a woman leaps from a boat into his arms. It's quite a sight.

Although some of the shots are clearly from the air, others seem to have been shot from a boat. It's a nice sports short, and if you enjoy Smith's motormouthed snarkiest - as I do - you'll enjoy this short subject.

Superb filming of highly skillful water skiing

[SimonJack · 7/10 · 27 December 2022]

This documentary short film is a cut above the normal from two perspectives. "Water Trix" involves a top camera man shooting moving action film from a helicopter. And, that action is water skiing on open water, with wave action and all. The principal skier is a world renowned waterski performer, Preston Petersen, and the photographer is Charles Trego. The documentary is one of the MGM shorts under the Pete Smith Specialty banner, with Smith narrating.

The film opens with the helicopter hanging very low beside a small sailboat in a calm. The chopper whips up enough wind to partially fill the sail enough to move the boat out of the channel. Once in open water, it picks up the wind which fills its sail. From there, the helicopter starts shooting water skiers. After a couple of individuals show a little dexterity on the skis, the chopper spots Petersen. It stays with him as he performs real daring stunts and nearly impossible tricks with a couple of women participants.

This is quite different from the marine park skiing routines in California or Florida. They have choreographed group routines with skiers in formations and building pyramids, and skiers going over ski jumps. Petersen is a one-man show with more hair-raising stunts. And, some very complex maneuvers with a female participant or two. It's very good stuff for a nine-minute short. It comes as a bonus item on a DVD I bought..

Nice Cinematography

[Michael_Elliott · 24 February 2009]

Water Trix (1949)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Oscar-nominated short from Pete Smith has cinematographer (and director) Charles T. Trego shooting water skiing champ Preston Peterson as he performs various dangerous stunts. This short didn't keep me overly entertained even though there's no doubt that the stunts being done are impressive. Even though the stunts are obviously very dangerous I thought the most interesting aspect here was the actual cinematography, which was very impressive. I looked up Trego's credits on the IMDb and noticed that he didn't have too much work as a director and even fewer jobs as a cinematographer, which surprised me. As for Peterson, I had never heard of him but seeing his work here makes it easy to understand why he was a champion.

The balding, grandfatherly figure starring in WATER TRIX . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 9 February 2014]

. . . Preston "Pete" Peterson (1913 - 1983) was only 36 when this "Pete Smith Specialty" came out in 1949. At the time these Hijinks were shot, with a passel of young female co-stars looking young enough to be Pete's granddaughters, Pete already was famous world-wide as the four-time West Coast Surfing champ. Therefore, when this 9-minute short closes with a young chick astraddle a body-surfing Pete, it's not that much of a stretch for a guy whom narrator Pete Smith introduces merely as a champion water skier. Peterson was the first person of European descent to paddle from the California mainland to Catalina Island. He was a long-time Hollywood stunt man (though you would never know it by clicking on his name at this page, which brings up ONLY this one short). Pete's homepage at the Legendarysurfers.com site shows him performing one of his female-on-top stunts (called "tandem skiing" back in the day) which is also filmed for WATER TRIX. Pete was a pioneer of Hawaiian surfing for folks of European descent as well, popularizing the switch from heavy redwood to lighter balsa boards. Pete's pier-top shop and archives were washed away by a Pacific Storm in 1983, and he died of a broken heart shortly afterward.