RIN TIN TIN: HIS SILENT FILMS

RIN TIN TIN (1918-1932) – Here at Balladeer’s Blog, I’m even fonder of dogs than I am of silent movies, so this post will combine the two topics. Sadly, most silent films have become so little remembered that few people even realize that there actually WAS a real Rin Tin Tin, adopted by American soldiers during World War One.

Amid battles in September of 1918, Corporal Lee Duncan of the 135th Aero Squadron was doing recon work on a bombed-out area near Flirey, France. One of the buildings had been a breeding kennel for German Shepherds trained for Kaiser Wilhelm’s troops. The only animals still alive were a starving mother with five nursing puppies who were so young their eyes had not even opened yet.   

Duncan adopted the six German Shepherds and took them back to his unit. His superiors permitted the mother to be given to an officer, one each of the puppies to three enlisted men and the final two – a boy and a girl – were adopted by Lee Duncan himself and named Rin Tin Tin and Nanette.

Duncan snuck Rinty and Nanette home with him in July 1919, but Nanette died of pneumonia shortly after arrival in the U.S. Lee took Rin Tin Tin with him to his home in Los Angeles. Duncan trained the dog, who proved to be incredibly bright. Eventually, Lee convinced a movie studio to sign Rin Tin Tin as a potential movie star in the mold of dogs like Teddy and Strongheart. 

The dog starred in silent movies and moved on to early talkies. After his death his son Rin Tin Tin Jr. appeared in films. Rin Tin Tin the Third was the original dog’s grandson but after that the name Rin Tin Tin was just a stage name for assorted other German Shepherds on television and in a rare movie.

MAN FROM HELL’S RIVER (1922) – Rin Tin Tin was cast as a wolf hybrid in this roughly 50-minute Wallace Beery film, a nature adventure set in the forests of Canada. Rinty replaced a pure wolf who had proven too ornery to cooperate, and so a star was born! (The pooch still couldn’t sell his screenplay, though.) 

Rin Tin Tin’s biggest moment came in the finale, as he fought the villain of the film and knocked him over a cliff to his death, thus saving the film’s heroine, beautiful Eva Novak.

Already, Rinty was mature enough not to throw a fit over the misspelling of his name on the movie poster. 

MY DAD (1922) – Our canine thespian played a house pet in this Clifford Smith movie, which is one of the many, many silent films which has not survived.

WHERE THE NORTH BEGINS (1923) – Rin Tin Tin’s easy to work with nature and brilliant following of directions earned him his first starring role in this 73-minute film for Warner Brothers. Rinty portrayed an orphaned German Shepherd who had been raised by a pack of wolves and rose to distinction.

Our hero eventually became the beloved dog of a northern Canada fur-trapper named Gabriel Dupre. Rin Tin Tin’s heroics this time around involved clearing himself of suspicion of having attacked a baby. In the end, he once again got to kill the movie’s villain in battle and save his leading lady, Claire Adams.   

Rinty’s gritty performance helped make Where the North Begins a huge hit and the flick was credited with saving Warner Brothers studios. I’m not joking. Decades later, the film Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood was partially based on Rin Tin Tin’s box office magic.

SHADOWS OF THE NORTH (1923) – Rinty brought his massive talent to bear on the role of a dog named King in this 50-minute movie.

This film has not survived, but we do know that Rin Tin Tin was the dog of the main character Ben Darby, who struggled to win back his hijacked gold claim in the Yukon from a trio of claim-jumpers.

Though set in Canada, this film, too, was made in the United States. 

FIND YOUR MAN (1924) – Rin Tin Tin and the formula that would work best for him and other canine movie stars hit their stride in this film. Hell, he even got an above-the-title credit!

Rinty starred with June Marlowe, who would go on to play Miss Crabtree in the Our Gang shorts. In this semi-autobiographical movie, our hero played Buddy, the dog of Paul, a combat veteran from World War One.

His owner has just returned from Europe, and alongside his faithful German Shepherd he sets off throughout Oregon in search of his true love Caroline (Marlowe). Rin Tin Tin does everything except show his human costars how to kiss, as he saves Caroline from her abusive boss Martin, clears Paul of not one, but TWO murders committed by the evil Martin, survives that villain’s attempts to kill him, and is, seriously, the star witness against Martin in court.   

THE LIGHTHOUSE BY THE SEA (1924) – By now Rinty was becoming an industry. Soon, he (and Lee Duncan, his owner) would rake in money from endorsement deals with Ken-L-Biskit, Ken-L-Rations, and Pup-E-Crumbles. He received a deluge of fan mail from all over the world and his fans were sent photos with Rin Tin Tin’s paw print and the words “Most faithfully, Rin Tin Tin.” His appeal to adults and children alike made him beloved in every country with cinemas.

This particular hour-long movie was a remake of 1911’s The Lighthouse by the Sea but altered to serve as a vehicle for Rin Tin Tin’s stunts. Rinty and his owner (William Collier Jr.) come to the assistance of a young lady named Flora Gale (Louise Fazenda) and her father Caleb, who runs a lighthouse.

Bootleggers take over the lighthouse one night in hopes of landing their booze under cover of darkness. Rin Tin Tin goes John McClane on their asses, repeatedly outfighting the villains, saving his human co-stars from danger and, in a tour de force, managing to relight the lighthouse beacon and keep the light shining until the authorities arrive. 

HELLO, ‘FRISCO (1924) – Hello, ‘Frisco was a 10-minute comedy short which was one of those “jam in as many celebrity cameos as you can” bits of business. Slim Summervile starred and directed, with appearances by Rin Tin Tin as well as William S. Hart, BeBe Daniels, William Desmond, Hoot Gibson, Barbara La Marr, Sydney Chaplin, Jackie Coogan, and Bobby Dunn (one of the original Keystone Cops).

As a nod to the San Francisco filming location, ‘Frisco Mayor James Rolph Jr. also appeared. This short has not survived.

TRACKED IN THE SNOW COUNTRY (1925) – This 55-minute movie partially worked the plot of Where the North Begins in reverse. Rinty starts out living with his owner, who gets killed and circumstances make people think our canine star was responsible.

He flees human territory and becomes leader of a wolf pack in the wilderness, even settling on a mate. Circumstances cause him to cross paths with his late owner’s murderer, so Rin Tin Tin corrals the killer and clears his name. His mate gives birth to a litter of puppies.   

BELOW THE LINE (1925) – Rinty portrays a police dog in this 70-minute venture. He is being shipped by train to a sheriff in the American south but, ever adventurous, the German Shepherd escapes the locomotive during the journey.

The first human that Rin Tin Tin falls in with is a criminal who sells him to a more honest man. The criminal breaks into the home of the honest man to commit a robbery. Rinty kills the vicious criminal in battle.

The brother of the dead man is another criminal, and soon he and his bloodhounds chase down our hero, his honest owner and the owner’s romantic interest. When the bloodhounds and the late crook’s brother catch up with our romantic leads, Rin Tin Tin saves them from the bloodhounds and the villain.

THE CLASH OF THE WOLVES (1925) – Ever versatile, Rinty portrays a wolf named Lobo in this 68-minute western. Once again proving himself the Humphrey Bogart of canine actors, the German Shepherd plays the wolfdog leader of a wolf pack and is so feared that a price has been put on his head.

Eventually, Lobo gets a thorn in his paw and, like Androcles with the lion, a borax prospector named Dave Weston pulls it out and becomes the dog’s beloved human companion. Rival prospectors want to jump Weston’s lucrative borax claim and nearly kill him.

Rinty shrewdly lures his own human pursuers to where Dave Weston lies dying, causing help to be summoned for Dave and recognition of Lobo’s new heroic nature, thus earning him a stay of execution.

THE NIGHT CRY (1926) – Rin Tin Tin portrays the faithful family dog of the Martin Family – two spouses and their newborn baby. In a story element that Rinty told Variety he was beginning to find played out, the canine is mistakenly believed to be responsible for an attack on a neighboring ranch’s lambs.

A new wrinkle this time is the fact that, rather than have to go on the run, Rin Tin Tin is hidden by the Martins, who just know the noble German Shepherd would never harm lambs. Eventually, it is proven that a huge condor is really responsible for killing the lambs. 

In a nightmarish twist, the large condor grabs and flies off with little Baby Martin, prompting Rinty to chase down the bird and free the infant from its clutches before the predator can eat the child. 70 minutes long.

A HERO OF THE BIG SNOWS (1926) – A young trapper named Ed Nolan saves Rin Tin Tin from an abusive owner, and shared affection for the German Shepherd draws Nolan and his lady friend Mary Mallory together as a romantic couple.

Rinty threatened to walk, but eventually played along with yet ANOTHER storyline in which he is mistakenly accused. This time he saves Mary’s younger sister from a wolf, only for Mary to erroneously conclude he was really the attacker. (Yawn.)

Mary tries to get her sister to a doctor through a blizzard, but their sled overturns, stranding them. Luckily, faithful Rin Tin Tin has been following them at a distance. He gets help for Mary from Ed Nolan, and once again battles and defeats the wolf which wounded Mary’s sister, thus proving his innocence to all. 67 minutes.   

WHILE LONDON SLEEPS (1926) – There was an unrelated 1922 silent film called While London Sleeps, a gangster flick about the cocaine trade in London. That film was originally titled Cocaine. This 1926 version ran 63 minutes and starred Rin Tin Tin. 

While London Sleeps sports a story that is part Rinty vehicle, part crime thriller and part Penny Dreadful. The German Shepherd starts out as the dog of a Limehouse criminal gang called the Mediterranean Brotherhood, but after being injured and discovered by heroine Dale Burke, he is nursed back to health and becomes a police dog.

Like a four-legged William S. Hart, Rin Tin Tin gets to redeem himself against his former criminal associates, their chief “London” Letter, and Letter’s half-man, half-monster underling, the Monk. The man-monster was played by wrestler George Kotsonaros, and had his throat torn out by Rinty in the finale. 

HILLS OF KENTUCKY (1927) – Rin Tin Tin stars as the Grey Ghost, the former dog of a country family in Kentucky. When a famine struck the area, the residents were all forced to set free their dogs, and the Grey Ghost became the leader of the resulting gang of feral canines in the area. 

With a sigh, our star played along with the new trope in his films – he gets injured in a fight, then aided by a handicapped little boy named Davey. Rinty/ Grey Ghost becomes loyal to the boy and saves him from (among other dangers) the feral pack he used to lead.

In addition, the German Shepherd plays matchmaker to the romantic leads and defeats the villain. He also saves the leading lady Dorothy Dwan (who played Dorothy in 1925’s Wizard of Oz) after she gets tied to a canoe and sent downriver toward deadly rapids. 70 minutes.

TRACKED BY THE POLICE (1927) – Despite the title, Rin Tin Tin is NOT tracked by anyone for once, and any police would be after the bad guys. Throwing his weight around by this point in his career, Rinty got his mate Nanette 2 (Lee Duncan’s successor to the original Nanette) a role as his romantic lead in Tracked by the Police. She went by just plain “Nanette” however.   

In Arizona, the Laguna Dam Project is set to bring prosperity to the region via a regular water supply. Rival companies want to build the dam, with violence resulting when the bad guys refuse to play fair. “Satan” (Rin Tin Tin) protects his owner Bob Owen and Bob’s girlfriend Marcella Bradley from the villains multiple times. 

In the enjoyable finale, the bad guys try to sabotage the dam and cause a deadly, destructive flood, but our canine star thwarts them and – in his greatest display of humanlike intelligence since The Lighthouse by the Sea – he even manipulates the dam’s controls to prevent the flood.

*** And that was the last of Rin Tin Tin’s purely silent movies. After starring in talkies through 1931, he passed away in 1932 and his successors – related to him or not – took over from there.