CLASH OF THE WOLVES (1925)

Rin Tin Tin was a canine superstar for much of the first half of the twentieth century, as big a star as Lassie became in the second half of the century. The original dog was a German shepherd who was rescued in World War I by an American soldier who brought him to the States where he became an unlikely silent movie star. He was featured in nearly thirty movies, mostly westerns and adventures, between 1922 and 1931, and is often considered something of a savior for Warner Bros. studios when they hit bad times. I remember seeing Rin Tin Tin adventures on television when I was young (in the early 1960s), but that was a different dog than the first one, who died in 1932. In fact, there were at least four dogs by that name who were featured in films, TV and publicity campaigns. This was Rinty's tenth outing so he was an old hand at acting by then. The title of this movie is a bit misleading as there is no clash whatsoever between wolves, though there is some culture clash, so to speak, between wolves and humans, and even the wolves are actually half-wolf, half-dog. 

A forest fire in the High Sierras forces a band of wolves down into the desert valley where they begin killing ranch animals, and their brave leader, Lobo (Rin Tin Tin), is targeted by the ranchers. New to town is self-described "lonely tenderfoot" Dave (Charles Farrell) who is prospecting for borax. May (June Marlowe), the daughter of a ranch owner, falls for Dave to the dismay of her father. Alkali Bill (Mack Sennett comic Charlie Conkln, credited here as Heinie Conklin) becomes a good buddy to Dave, but William Horton (Pat Hartigan), a borax appraiser, is actually a claim jumper, and when Dave brings a borax sample to Horton, he's determined to go out and find Dave's strike and take credit for it. Meanwhile, poor Lobo is injured and gets a thorn in his paw that hobbles him, and afraid of being a drag on the pack, goes off to die. Dave finds him and manages to extract the thorn, and Lobo instantly becomes domesticated. Alkali Bill uses a rubber band to put a fake bit of beard fuzz on Lobo's face so the ranchers won't get wise to his real identity, and Dave can take Lobo with him into town. The real clash in the movie is between Dave and Horton, who eventually does steal Dave's claim, and tries to steal May. But when Horton does his worst, loyal Lobo shows up and, in an effective climax, gets the wolf pack to hunt Horton down.

I'm not an expert on wolves (or dogs, for that matter), but I couldn’t believe that Lobo’s fake 'beard' could fool anyone, though it does here. But aside from that bit of silliness, the rest of the movie is enjoyable enough. The actors are all fine—Farrell does a nice job of coming off as sweet and a bit naïve but still manly and smart—but let's face it, this is Rinty’s movie all the way, and he's a damn fine animal actor (and you can plainly tell he's a he). When he's injured, he limps; when he's pissed off, he attacks; when he reunites with his mate, he's happy. His most impressive stunt occurs when he tries to climb up a slippery incline to save Dave from a sneak attack. Dave had put little lace-up boots on his paws so he wouldn't get any more thorns (see the above picture of Rinty with Farrell), but the boots make him slide down the incline, so he unlaces and shakes off his boots to effect the rescue. The story is nothing special, which I assume is the case for most of the Rin Tin Tin movies, but animal fans who don’t mind watching silent films will like this. [TCM]