Basketball Headliners (1956) User Reviews

Highlights

[boblipton · 5/10 · 7 May 2023]

This RKO sports short shows selections from post-season college games, leading to various championships, and a chance to compete in the Olympics. It's interesting to see the old Madison Square Garden set up for basketball.

RKO had a long tradition of sports shorts, with a yearly round-up of college football. They had plenty of footage to choose from, since they were pulled from the RKO-Pathe newsreel division, so they turned out all sort of sports shorts, including the occasional gymnastics extravaganza.

The copy that plays on Turner Classic Movies cearly shows the sort of lighting newsreels were prone to: some of the action is obscured because the games were lit for the players and the audience, rather than the camera.

Good For Basketball Buffs

[Michael_Elliott · 23 October 2011]

Basketball Headliners (1956)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Harry Wismer narrates this short from RKO's Sportscope series. This takes a look at the NCAA basketball season and starts off with the final three rounds of the NIT championship. In the third round action we see Niagra vs. St. Francis, Louisville vs. Duquesne, St. Joseph vs. Seton Hall and Xavier vs. Dayton. We see the teams play down to the champion ship and then we head to the NCAA tournament where we start with the third round game (SMU vs. Temple) and then see Bill Russell in the final (San Francisco vs. Iowa). Finally, we see the East vs. West All-Star game. I think the main people who are going to find this thing entertaining are basketball buffs who will enjoy hearing some of these old-time names that are now mostly forgotten. I think there's some entertainment to be had here because it's just rather funny seeing what Madison Square Garden looked like back in the day and I think most basketball fans will enjoy seeing the old style. On a personal note, as a Louisville fan I had an extra good time seeing some of the players that I had only heard about so this being my first chance at seeing them kept my interest a bit higher than some people might have. With that said, like most of the Sportscope series, the technical level really isn't anything to write home about and there's no question that another studio probably would have one better.