Believe It or Not #2

This episode is interesting at the moment because of our current President making such a fuss over sports figures not standing during the national anthem. Believe It or Not #2 came out in 1930, a year before The Star-Spangled Banner officially became our anthem.

This is pointed out by Ripley, in a faux courtroom setting. He notes that it is just one quarter of a Francis Scott Key poem, paired with the music of a British drinking song. Not really much of a reason to stand up, unless you are going for another drink.

These early Ripley shorts are OK little trivia diversions, but Ripley himself is completely devoid of charisma and should have avoided getting in front of the camera.

Don't get me wrong. I believe in the walking fish of Java. Its more formal name is the mudskipper or walking catfish and its Linnean name is Clarias batrachus. But I don't believe that a Japanese politician lived to be 300, even if he appeared on the one-yen note.

The rest of the oddities are more standard, encompassing the largest typewriter and rubber tree, as well as some topiary and a fellow tearing a deck of cards into eighths. Also odd is Ripley's delivery, which is pitched to carry in a large room, despite the other people who appear speaking in more normal tones.

Ripley's newspaper series is still running, although he is no longer in charge, having died many years ago. Were he still producing it, that would make him the world's oldest newspaper cartoonist, and a fit subject for consideration.

Ripley takes the stand in a make-believe courtroom to testify that his tall tales are all true, under grilling of a persistent prosecutor.

Among them: The Star Bangled Banner is not America's National Anthem but instead is based on a British drinking song with the exact same melody.

The Statue of Liberty was built atop a military prison, which is the ground it stands on.

He explains how 62 people flew over the Atlantic before Charles Lindberg--most of them in a dirigible.

And how a boy stricken with a strange disease aged very suddenly and died in the form of an old man at seven years of age. (Brings to mind the current film, THE STRANGE CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON in which the reverse was true).

And finally, how a man held his arm over his head for a period of ten years (which has got to be some kind of record) -- so long, he says, that birds built a nest in his hand! Another odd entry in the Ripley series--but what did you expect?

Summing up: Not done with much style and clearly an oddity from the past.

Believe It or Not #2 (1930)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Robert L. Ripley gets pulled into court to testify that what he says is actually true. Inside the fake courtroom we hear Ripley questioned about various stories including a man in India who held his hands over his head for ten years and the story of a man eating plant. This second short doesn't work as well as the first since we're not shown too much but instead we're just hearing the stories.

Believe It or Not #1 (1930)

*** (out of 4)

Robert L. Ripley shows off various strange items from a man with eight inch horns coming out of his head to a woman who can read eight words a second. This is the first I've seen from this Warner series and it was pretty interesting, although Ripley's not the best host a film could have.