Inside Information

You've got to marvel at a film that has the chutzpah to reveal it's ending at the beginning of the film. But there it is, Tarzan the dog, his handler, and the handler's girlfriend at the police station telling the policeman about their latest adventure and how they captured the bad guys. Knowing this of course, reveals that all the good guys win.

A banker gets robbed by a scheming underworld type and his partners. As a matter of fact, the two main bad guys look so much Alike, I was wondering why the banker didn't recognize his attacker right away when he came back to check on how he was doing. I then realized, OH, it was the OTHER bad guy who did it. Fortunately for us, Tarzan The Wonder Dog smells a crook from a mile away! He even backs away from the bad guy, even before they do anything! He can fight them tooth and nail! Especially when they provide a handy arm to chew on! Worth noting is the totally unnecessary steeple chases between bathing suit women riding on men's backs.

Oh, and there's fight scenes! All I can say is.. Poor Tarzan!

"Inside Information" is a low budget short B-movie from Consolidated Pictures, one of many so-called 'Poverty Row' production companies. Some film companies were dubbed 'Poverty Row' because of their terribly small budgets and lack of studio space...which they had to rent from larger studios and often were able to do this only at night! And, in the case of this film, it's obvious Consolidated was one of the poorest of these studios. This is because the best actor in the movie, by far, is Tarzan the Police Dog and none of the human actors!

When the story begins, you see that Tarzan has won some sort of public service award and what follows is a 45 minute flashback to see how he earned this. The film then shows the dog's owner, some time earlier, picking up $200,000 in bonds from the bank. On the way out, the man's girlfriend introduces him to Mr. Durand...a man that Tarzan immediately hates because he seems to have doggy ESP! Not surprisingly, Durand is a crook and soon arranges for some of his goons to beat up the guy and steal the bonds. Tarzan tries to help but a dopey policeman foils him in catching the criminals. After the incident, the dog's owner is assumed by many to be responsible for the theft...a sort of inside job. But he's determined to find the crooks and, naturally, Tarzan ends up being the hero. Getting in his way are a couple really dim-witted detectives who are following him everywhere.

Tarzan is only a moderately intelligent and trained German Shepherd...which still makes him more talented than the actors in the film. Some of his trick seemed as if they were faked but he did do a few really nice stunts a well..such as climbing a fire escape, rescuing a really stupid suicidal toddler as well as biting folks in a convincing looking way. But he was no Rin-Tin-Tin (the very famous German Shepherd who made a ton of blockbuster films in the silent and very early sound era). In fact, Tarzan only ended up making three films...possibly because the public had their fill of these sorts of doggy pictures...or at least bad ones.

So is it worth seeing? Well, if you have low standards like me, yes. But the acting is very wooden and the action less than thrilling. But I give it a point for the cute doggy...a plus for any film.

When Philo McCullough makes a big deposit in Henry Hall's bank at daughter Marion Shilling's urging, everyone is pleased. However, when Rex Lease's police dog, Tarzan, refuses to shake hands with McCullough, no one takes the obvious implication that he's a bad 'un. When McCullough steals $200,000 in bearer bonds from the bank, idiot detectives Victor Potel and Robert McKenzie keep Lease pinned down, even though he begins to suspect McCullough about two-thirds of the way through. So it's up to Tarzan to invade the hideout and snaffle the evidence.

No problem! I'm mildly surprised that Tarzan didn't drive the police to the hide-out -- Hepworth's Rover had done that almost thirty years earlier. Tarzan is a handsome dog with a nice variety of tricks, but the insipid stupidity of everyone else in this movie is not a plus. It's the first of three movies that Tarzan appeared in. I can only imagine that after the third he insisted on better scripts, and producers Albert Herman and Bert Sternbach couldn't hire anyone who could write them.

"Inside Information" has some very mixed directing, with some excellent shots and angles, especially one in a car, but some poor fight scenes, except those with the dog, played by Tarzan.

It has some very mixed acting, except by Marion Shilling and Robert F. Hill.

And with some rather lousy editing, "Inside Information" is ultimately a very mixed motion picture.

Start with a good story: Tarzan, played by Tarzan, is the real hero, and he gets a lot of chances to be heroic. It's been a long time since I saw a dog get to lead the good guys to the bad guys and then himself take down the leader of the bad guys.

Tarzan, the character, really is very smart: He can open doors, despite lacking opposable thumbs, and he can figure out how to get into his partner's office (we dog lovers don't say "owner") even if the door is locked.

Being a discerning sort, he is also quick to detect a shifty character who has fooled all the naive people. (And I have had just such an experience myself, when a carnival barker type was trying, at the motel where I worked, to rent a room to store his clients for a non-surgical face-lift procedure. The owner's dog growled at him! She had never, never growled at anyone. So we knew: No room for that guy.)

Rex Lease is the nominal human hero, but he is out-performed by most of the other cast members, including Robert McKenzie and Victor Potel, as two bumbling private detectives. Potel, co-writer of the story, really stood out even with a clichéd character.

Tarzan got to play two tricks on other characters, one on the detective was hilarious, but one on another dog wasn't. Although, to be honest, it was kind of funny, even if mean.

Charles King actually played a character named "Blackie," and he was a city-slicker bad guy, even wearing a suit and vest. He was really a good-looking guy, and quite athletic. Again he looked as if he should have been hurt in at least one of his fight scenes.

"Inside Information" is fun, and I recommend it, despite its flaws. It's available for free at YouTube.

Some nasty people with INSIDE INFORMATION have stolen bonds entrusted to the care of our stalwart hero. Will the famous Rin Tin Tin rip-off dog Tarzan capture the crooks before a couple of dunderheaded private investigators have our poor firm-jawed hero arrested?

OK. This is just a B movie from long forgotten early 30s production company. But, instead of the usual outdoorsy plot these "wonder dog" movies tend to have, this one takes place in LA, using actual locations (and showing a lot of beautiful cars). You can watch this movie for the decent enough "smart dog" action scenes, and b-western style fisticuffs. Or you can sit back and get an awfully good look on how the streets of 1934 LA looked.

I preferred the streetscapes, showing an LA that is no more. But I will admit that this dog had more personalty than most of the breed, and that the "funny dog tricks" scattered through the picture, were actually pretty amusing.

So, not a total wast of time.