Adventures of Rusty

...but set during the War as the first frame of the film reads "Spring of 1944" just so viewers wouldn't get confused about all the talk of Nazis five months after Germany surrendered.

The story is simple but well told - Danny Mitchell has been accustomed to living the bachelor life with his widower father Hugh Mitchell (Conrad Nagel), but the story opens on his Dad's wedding day. His bride to be, Ann (Margaret Lindsay), is anxious to win Danny over. In fact, she's a little too anxious as her bending over backwards just seems to have Danny acting out more. You see, he feels displaced after his Dad's marriage. At the same time Danny makes friends with and eventually gets to adopt a German Shepherd who actually is from Germany - Rusty. It's rather cute how the film parallels an eager Ann trying to win over a distrustful Danny with an eager Danny trying to win over a distrustful Rusty. They both go to the same local psychiatrist for help - separately of course - and both get the same advice.

In parallel with this story consisting of a slice of mid 40's Americana we have a couple of Nazi spies thrown into the mix who are hiding in the nearby woods. These guys are not portrayed as very bright considering they have been selected as spies since they don't seem to even get that discretion is the better part of valor. Translated that means that shooting at children will only rile the locals and probably means you'll be spotted and captured rather quickly. Remember, this was right after the war and feelings were still running high on the home front, thus the portrayal of the spies as violent buffoons and Rusty's initial vicious behavior being attributed to strict punishment which is described as part of standard dog training in Nazi Germany.

This is the only appearance of Margaret Lindsay or Conrad Nagel in the series, and they had seen more prominent days in the 30's over at Warner Brothers and MGM, respectively. But that is what Columbia seemed to do quite well in the 40's - find quality stars that had been passed over by their original studios and give them leading roles in their short B films to draw in audiences and give the productions polish.

I'd recommend this as a good example of a heart-warming family film that seems to hit all the right notes and talks about old-fashioned teamwork, friendship, parenting, and even child psychology without getting hammy.

Adventures of Rusty (1945)

*** (out of 4)

Surprisenly fun tale of a young boy (Ted Donaldson) trying to cope with life after his beloved dog is killed and his father (Conrad Nagel) marries a new woman (Margaret Lindsay). Soon he befriends a cruel and rather vicious German Shepherd named Rusty and plans on teaching him how to act right. ADVENTURES OF RUSTY was the first in a series of movies from Columbia and there are so many reasons why this thing shouldn't work but I was surprised to see how effective it actually was. This is more of a coming of age film because the main focus is on the boy and him being unable to accept his new mother and I thought the film made some interesting connections. The boy couldn't relate or get along with his new mother no matter how hard she tried and the dog wouldn't be good to the boy no matter how hard he tried. I thought it was rather interesting that they would be working on two different story lines and both of them were entertaining to the fullest. There are some pretty good moments scattered throughout the film but I think something that is really beneficial is the fact that you can believe all of the situations because this family really does come across as a real one and not just actors thrown together for a movie. Donaldson, Nagel and Lindsay are all extremely good in their roles and the chemistry is certainly there. The only weak thing with the film is a weird subplot about a couple escaped German men but where they escaped from and what their crime was is never explained so I'm really not sure what the point of adding it was. Still, ADVENTURES OF RUSTY should entertaining the young and old.

I wasn't born until 1963, but I have a great love of 1930s and 40s America. Until TCM began airing the "Rusty" series, I had no idea that the films even existed. I'm glad they do though. Considered corny and unrealistic by todays standards, I find them to be wonderful little time capsules of post-war USA. The reason they can't make something like this today is simply because today's world is too caught up in selfishness and lack of respect for others. It must have been nice to live in a time in which a Boy and His Dog series of films was what the public wanted to see. Unfortuanately for todays audiences, these 60 year old time pieces deal in such "boring" subjects as parents caring about their kids and the kids learning from their mistakes. If they were made today, they'd have to toss in drive by shootings, drugs, teen pregnancy and lots of profanity in order to attract an audience. And, of course, the kids would have to be smarter than the parents and all the other adults. Anyway, if you enjoy simple, predictable stories in which the kids don't hate their parents and even love them for caring about their proper upbringing, then certainly give these films a shot. All I know is these simple portraits of America in the 1940s leave me with a nice, nostalgic feeling for a time that we'll never see again. After all, the world of today is all about how the young being totally disrespectful to anyone over 30 and anything else would be seen as hopelessly corny and boring to watch. I was truly born about 50 years too late!

The Adventures of Rusty is about a boy struggling through the remarriage of his father. When he finds an aggressive and untrusting German Shepherd, Rusty, he starts training him to be his pet. The resentment and distrust that Danny Mitchell feels towards his new 'mother' parallels Rusty's distrust of Danny and the world.

Ace the Wonder Dog gives a great performance as 'Rusty.' There are no obvious places where they added noises to the dog (growls, yelps, barks, etc.) His performance is very believable. That dog is a good actor and very well trained.

At times this movie can be a little melodramatic, and has a fairly predictable ending, although it does add a few unexpected elements. The Germans aren't viewed in a terribly favorable light, but that is to be expected, as this film was made during World War II. Rusty was a German dog. Although it does exactly say why he was so aggressive, it implies that the German methods create a fearsome, untrusting dog. This, of course, would be a generalization, but German dog training methods as a general rule are stricter (although it doesn't create aggressive dogs).

Nothing incredible about this movie, but it is fun to watch with a solid script, good values, fair acting and great dogs.