As I write this review, some of these 'Believe It or Not' stories are making the rounds on Turner Classic Movies. I thought they would be more interesting than what this one proved to be, but you have to keep in mind they were made in the early 1930's and documentary film making was in its infancy. This one started out with a young boy named Billy whose mom made him study instead of reading about Ripley's adventures, but after she left the room, he ran right back to a bookshelf to pick up where he left off. Falling asleep, he meets Ripley and they take off on a review of oddities like a German baby, a child prodigy who could speak at eight weeks, and knew German, French and Latin at three. The story also looked at a few weird fish and dancing mice from Japan that lost their sense of direction and simply ran around in circles. A two headed snapping turtle and a cat who smoked rounded out the offerings, but that cat was only shown with a cigarette in its mouth and not puffing away, so that could have been staged. I don't know how to take any of these stories credibility wise. Of course, being so old, some may not even be verifiable.
