Les aventures de rex et Rinty

The more I see of movie serials I am becoming slowly convinced that the best actors in the world aren't Olivier or Brando, it's the people who acted in these cliffhangers who could make the most of the inane situations and dialog without totally breaking up. Keeping a straight face through some of this is worthy of an Oscar.

As it was with the cast of The Adventures Of Rex And Rinty. Chief villain Harry Woods is on some island in the Pacific or Indian ocean, it's never too clear where the folks there dress like Mongols and worship horses. One black stallion in particular is the God Horse of the island. Woods thinks he might make a great polo pony and be a real asset in beating hero to be Kane Richmond's team. They kidnap the horse and take him to America leaving a theological revolution on the island where Mischa Auer heads the horse worshipers.

Of course the horse is not broken at all to saddle and rather resents the whole notion. He escapes and makes friends with Kane Richmond, Norma Taylor, Smiley Burnette, and of course Rin Tin Tin. Rex and Rinty are quite the team and they save the human heroes as much as the humans save them. Smiley Burnette who had not developed the 'Frog' persona yet provides the comic relief and he's the best thing in the serial.

Just a brief outline of the plot of these things tells you in advance how incredibly ridiculous these serials were. But back in the day they were popular in a country that prided itself on its isolation which carried with it, a lack of knowledge of the outside world. Product like The Adventures of Rex and Rinty was the result.

Not the best of the four Rin-Tin-Tin serials. Weak and almost non existent cliff hangers just add to the tedium of watching the heroes and villains steal Rex the Wonder Horse back and forth for almost ten of the twelve chapters. Mascot's previous offering, 'The Law of the Wild' (1934) featured the same back and forth capturing of Rex. Couldn't they have come up with a different story line?

Given the title, 'The Adventures of Rex and Rinty', one might have expected it to be about the pairing of the two animal 'pals.' We do get that for the first couple of chapters, which focuses on how they meet and become friends. Rex, the God-horse of the island of Sujan, had been stolen and brought to California to be a polo horse. Rinty was a wandering homeless dog during the Great Depression searching and scrounging for food. These early scenes with Rinty are well done, as he shows off his acting chops (!) to a melancholy soundtrack. Rex escapes from the evil sportsmen, and while wandering through the woods rescues Rinty from a snap steel animal trap. Later, when they encounter a skunk, Rex chases it off and Rinty leaps into a creek to wash off the smell, as Rex laughs in a funny scene worthy of Smiley Burnette.

Unfortunately, that's about it for the 'Adventures' that Rex and Rinty have together. The rest of the serial has 'popular polo player' Kane Richmond fighting the opposing evil polo team owner Harry Woods for possession and ownership of the horse. A loyal cult member from Sujan, Pasha, shows up and tries throughout the latter part of the serial to recapture Rex to bring him back to Sujan. Only three chapters take place there, but there's no real sense of mystery or menace. For a weird cult on a mystery island the best one is the fantastic 'The Return of Chandu' (1934) with Bela Lugosi as the romantic hero!

We do get Kane Richmond here, although he's much better in his other serials, particularly the clunky 'The Lost City' (1934), and the better 'Spy Smasher' (1942) and 'Haunted Harbor' (1944). He also plays one of Ming's pilot captains (the one who decides to help Flash after his brother is returned to normal after being a Clay man) in 'Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars' (1938), which also immortalizes Wheeler Oakman, who had over 280 film and TV credits, as Tarnak. Oakman, who plays henchman 'Wheeler' here, was also a great villain in 'The Lost Jungle' (1934), 'The Phantom Empire' (1935), and 'Darkest Africa' (1936). Then we have Smiley Burnette before his 'Frog Millhouse' days in an almost subdued role, though he does a couple of physical hi-jinks. We also see Charles King, but he doesn't have enough to do, except show off his excellent horsemanship.

As for an animal pals movie, we're going to have to look elsewhere, such as to 'Koneko Monogatari' (1986), released in the U.S. as 'Milo and Otis', or the 'Homeward Bound' (1993, 1996) movies. This one, except for the first two chapters really isn't an animal pals one.

The weak and almost non existent cliff hangers seem more typical of serials from the teen years to 1930; even from Mascot we expect more. Too bad they couldn't have let this be the first all animal serial as it was in the first two chapters! As yet another serial with little more than back and forth horse and automobile chasing, it only gets a 3.

Rex, a magnificent black stallion, is kidnapped from Sujan where he is revered as a God horse. Crawford, crooked sportsman, is the man behind the kidnapping and plans to sell Rex to the highest bidder, but the horse escapes into the wild. Rex encounters Rinty, a homeless German shepard, and the two animals become inseparable pals with Rinty saving Rex from falling into the hands of Crawford and his men. Frank Bradley, polo player, also helps our two four legged friends out, while Wheeler, former henchman of Crawford left in Sujan to die, aids Pasha in returning Rex to his homeland, but Wheeler has other ideas as well. The serial is really basic in many aspects such as script, directing, and pacing. Woods is his usual mean self and does well in his performance, despite the script not letting him expand on the role. The script gets really repetitive after the fourth chapter with Rex getting kidnapped or obtained by someone, which also leads to some unimaginative cliffhangers, but the serial is fun at times and never boring. Rating, based on serials, 5.