Like so many of the wonderful released from Turner Entertainment, the MGM classic "Treasure Island" is accompanied by several short films from MGM from the same year--1934. Many old MGM and Warner Brothers films are packaged this way on DVD--making them great values for the money.
While you'd think that a short film from the 1930s about bowling sounds pretty awful, amazingly "Strikes and Spares" is pretty watchable--mostly because of the terrific bowling demonstration by Andy Varipapa. The is one of a very long series of shorts narrated by Pete Smith--though this one is a lot less comedic than many of his later films. It consists of an explanation of how to improve your bowling and what techniques to avoid (by watching a dorky guy doing it all wrong)--as well as trick bowling by Varipapa. As for Varipapa, I'd never heard of him before but still cannot believe the crazy things he was able to do in this film without trick cinematography! You just have to see him in action to know what I mean--trust me, he was incredible! I particularly liked the crazy stunt involving two lanes during the same roll of the ball!
While you'd think that a short film from the 1930s about bowling sounds pretty awful, amazingly "Strikes and Spares" is pretty watchable--mostly because of the terrific bowling demonstration by Andy Varipapa. The is one of a very long series of shorts narrated by Pete Smith--though this one is a lot less comedic than many of his later films. It consists of an explanation of how to improve your bowling and what techniques to avoid (by watching a dorky guy doing it all wrong)--as well as trick bowling by Varipapa. As for Varipapa, I'd never heard of him before but still cannot believe the crazy things he was able to do in this film without trick cinematography! You just have to see him in action to know what I mean--trust me, he was incredible! I particularly liked the crazy stunt involving two lanes during the same roll of the ball!