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Released by: Warner Archive
Released on: 3/16/2010
Director: Various
Cast: Robert L. Ripley
Year: Various
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The Features:
When Robert L. Ripley's Believe It Or Not syndicated newspaper panels made him famous the world over, it made perfect sense that the entrepreneurial illustrator and would-be anthropologist would branch out into filmmaking. His venture into radio had been a success and film was the next logical step. Warner Brother's Vitaphone was keen to get on board with Ripley to produce twenty-four theatrical shorts that included not only background music but live sound as well. These shorts, which averaged about eight to ten minutes in length, played before a lengthier feature attraction and were generally based on some of Ripley's previously published newspaper bits.
Hosted by Robert Ripley himself, an awkward looking man with a receding hairline and a bit of an overbite, the early shorts tend to focus on Ripley himself. Rather than show us footage of whatever amazing fact or oddity Ripley may decide to elaborate on, he'll instead say 'Here, let me draw it for you' after which he'll move over to a large and conveniently placed sketch pad and do just that. Ripley's a decent artist and his tendency to talk about what he's drawing while he's drawing it can be interesting, but let's face it, as charming and antiquated as this may be, we all want to see the real thing, right?
Ripley seemed to have figured that out about a third of the way into the series, though an episode in which he's dragged into court for telling falsehoods only to prove his innocence by drawing things for a scowling judge is notable for how goofy it is. Once Ripley and his crew decided to actually get footage rather than just draw things, the series definitely improves and we wind up with what are essentially a bunch of neat little mini-Mondo movies. Of course, none of this material goes anywhere near as far as Jacopetti and Prosperi's infamous shockers or the countless knock offs they'd inspire in the sixties and seventies, there's still some great footage here.
Believe It Or Not as a whole, however, is unusually erratic in its focus. One episode may concentrate on rather pedestrian feats such as a woman who simply talks really fast or an old lady who collected a big ball of yarn (not particularly remarkable, that one) but it'll just as often show us bizarre sites such as a cat who enjoys smoking cigarettes (check out that choice screen capture!), chickens who have learned to swim from a kindly duck teacher, or a two headed turtle. One episode introduces us to a man who seemingly had nothing better to do than to sew himself a full suit out of old Confederate currency while another episode thrills us with…. a really tiny book. Gee that book is small.
Obviously much of this material is a product of its time. What may have seemed amazing to audiences of the day now seems tame in our world of reality TV, decapitation videos hosted on the internet and twenty-four hours news shows but as you watch this stuff it's not hard to see how the audiences of its day would have been intrigued by the content. Ripley delivers all of the material very matter-of-factly and has a quirky sort of screen presence that, despite his awkwardness, makes him quite watchable and entertaining enough. It's not uncommon for Ripley to spout off odd, completely unrelated facts as he goes about his business. In the first episode, for example, as he's getting ready to make a hole in a piece of cigarette paper large enough to walk through he lets us in on some secrets - the Biblical Abraham wasn't Jewish but Babylonian and Albert Einstein failed math in school. Again, these facts are often just dropped at random, but they make for interesting filler between the visual displays that he brings in front of the camera, be they of the illustrated or live action variety.
It's also amusing how Ripley plays up to his own celebrity status. Often times he'll show off the massive amounts of reader mail that he gets from all over the world and it's not at all uncommon to see an episode where he's recognized on the street or while out and about. A prime example is an early episode where he's on a cruise ship and three of his fellow travelers start asking him question. Only too happy to oblige, Ripley answers them all and even manages to find a handy-dandy giant sketch pad to doodle on for them.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The 1.33.1 fullframe black and white image looks about as good as could reasonably be expected given that the shorts here haven't been given a full restoration and, like the rest of the Warner Archive titles, were simply mastered from the best materials that the studio had on hand. Contrast fluctuates here and there and it doesn't take make effort to spot the scratches and mild print damage that appears throughout the presentation, but otherwise the progressive scan image looks okay considering that some of this material is eight decades old.
The same comments apply to the Dolby Digital Mono audio track. You can understand things without having to strain your ears and the levels are well balanced, but these shorts do show their age. Background Hiss and pops are fairly common and there's a bit of waver and some audible distortion noticeable mostly in the higher end of the mix. The audio is serviceable, however. No alternate language dubs or subtitle options are supplied.
There are standard menu screens and episode selection, but aside from that, no extras to speak of.
The Final Word:
Ripley's Believe It Or Not is interesting not just for what it presents, but just as often for how it presents it. Very much a product of their time, the short films included here are a fairly fascinating time capsule of sorts, a look back to a time where you couldn't find any oddity you wanted by running a query through a search engine and where it took a man like Robert Ripley to get out there and find this stuff. The material is dated and primitive but generally always quite interesting and fans of early Mondo style entertainment and those with an interest in the bizarre ought to give this one a look.