This 1940s silent travelogue-style provides a tour of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, featuring natural landmarks and scenes of urban life (TRT 0:08). The company that produced it, probably from newsreel type footage, was originally known as Excel Projector Corp. and based in Chicago, Illinois. Excel is remembered primarily as a manufacturer of economical, consumer-grade home movie projectors and cameras. In the 1940’s, they marketed silent 8mm and 16mm edited prints of “News of the World” newsreel footage and licensed comedy shorts.

Opening titles over a map of South America. “Excel Movie Products presents Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)” (0:08). Title card: “One of the World’s most beautiful harbours” (0:22). Young pedestrians walk along a sidewalk beneath a tree near Guanabara Bay. A slow pan reveals Sugarloaf Mountain in the distance (0:37). Title: “Sugar Loaf Rock at the harbor entrance is reached by Alpine trolley” (1:01). The mountain in a closer view. A cable car ascends the peak via an aerial tramway. Views from inside the cable car, through metal grating, windows (1:18). Sugarloaf Mountain in closeup. A panoramic view from the summit shows Guanabara Bay and Tijuca Forest in the distance (2:07). Title: “Cocorvado rising above Botafoga Bay and surmounted by the gigantic stone figure of The Christ.” Spelling note: Botafogo beach (2:47). The Art Deco statue of Christ the Redeemer created by sculptor Paul Landowski and engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, from a long distance. A panorama of the bay (2:58). An urban skyline shows high-rise architecture (3:34). Title: “Its piers and warehouses stretch along a harbor whose 30 square miles can accommodate any ship that floats” (3:44). Shipyards and steamships at harbor. Warehouses and distant ocean liners. A panorama reveals Sacre Coeur Cathedral in the distance (3:54). “Paris Park bordering the Bay.” Manicured hedges and a small, landscaped pond (4:56). “Mangua Canal, lined with four rows of Royal Palms…” Spelling note: Managua. Shots of palm trees reflected in the man-made pool of standing water (5:27). Late 1930s or early 1940s automobiles parked across the canal. Drivers pose in front of their cars (5:53). “Avenida rio Branco, main thoroughfare of the city.” Cyclists, buses, and cars head away from the camera, through a corridor of palms (6:03). From a rooftop, the architecture of the neighborhood is revealed. A slow tilt up shows a unique Art Deco style building (6:45). Back at street level, pedestrians walk along city streets. Streetlights, trees, sidewalk vendors, men in suits and hats, women in fashionable dresses. A closeup shows several men looking directly into the camera at a busy intersection (7:15). “The famous Rua du Uvidor, less than a half mile long and ten feet wide…” Spelling note: Rua do Ouvidor. More well-dressed citizens of Rio with thin mustaches, fedoras, cigarettes. A sign for an insurance company: “A Fortaleza Seguros” (7:50). Cars and buses travel a busy residential boulevard lined with blooming trees (8:33). Views from a streetside, open-air cafe. A man reads a newspaper (8:43). A trolley-style cable car filled with passengers (9:08). “Municipal Theatre and Grand Opera House” aka Theatro Municipal in a steady pan, showing eclectic, ornate architecture and doric columns. The surrounding neighborhood of Central Avenue, now Rio Branco Avenue (9:23). “Monroe Palace, named in honor of James Monroe…” and a man in a mosaic pavement crosswalk (10:04). Details of the stonework (10:44). A statue of a woman outside Iglesia Candelaria (10:52). “Statue of Dom Pedro, Proclaimer of Independence, and the first Emperor of Brazil.” The equestrian statue in closeup (11:00). Footage taken from a car in motion (11:32). “Avenida Diadamur, a beautiful waterfront boulevard (11:41). “Curving Cocacabana Beach” aka Copacabana Beach and bathers with beach umbrellas. People in swimsuits and fully dressed observers. The beachfront from afar (11:58). A game of beach volleyball. Bathing beauties. Children jump into breaking waves (13:16). Christ the Redeemer reappears in closeup, with people gathered at the statue’s feet. Their POV (13:49). End titles (15:21)

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