Believe It or Not #12: A Trip Through Old Morocco

Should you watch Believe It or Not #12? If you have a soft spot for grainy, old-school travel footage and don’t mind a narrator who sounds like he’s selling you a car, then sure. If you’re looking for a coherent story or anything resembling modern sensitivity, you’ll probably want to skip this one.

It’s essentially a list of "look at that" moments. We get whisked off to Morocco to see the so-called Meeting Place of the Dead, which sounds way more intense than it actually looks on screen. It mostly feels like a quick stop before the next oddity.

There is this bizarre bit about a jail for "nagging wives." It’s the kind of thing that makes you sit back and wonder what the hell they were thinking back then. The tone is so casual about it, too. It’s wild.

The village made of tin cans caught my eye. It’s visually striking in a way the rest of the film isn't. You can almost smell the rust and the heat just by looking at the frame. It makes me think of The Birth of a Man, where you get those little glimpses of people just trying to build a life in weird places.

Then there’s the sultan with all his wives and kids. The segment feels like it was put together in about ten minutes. It’s just a parade of faces and a voiceover telling you how many people are standing there. I kept waiting for someone to actually say something, but nope.

Honestly, the whole thing feels like a relic of a time when people just took a camera to a place they didn't really understand and started narrating over the top. It has that same weird, detached energy you get in The Blue Streak, where the environment matters more than the actual people living in it.

The editing is... jumpy. Sometimes it cuts away right when things are getting interesting. Other times, it lingers on a shot of a wall or a donkey for way too long. It’s got that imperfect, thrown-together charm. Or maybe it’s just lazy. Who knows? 🤷‍♂️

If you like these kinds of historical oddities, you might find it fun. Just don’t expect any depth. It’s a postcard, not a conversation.

Quick Notes:

• The narrator’s voice is extremely persistent.
• Some of these "facts" probably wouldn't hold up to a five-second Google search today.
• The tin can village sequence is definitely the highlight.
• It’s short enough that you don't really have time to get bored, even if you are a bit confused.