Topa Topa

"Topa Topa" (also called "Children of the Wild") is an obviously low-budget film. Its overuse of stock footage, production values and bad acting make this all too clear. Because of this, I questioned my sanity while I sat and watched this film.

A nice naturalist, Tom Turner, moves to the wilderness for his work. Soon, he falls for a lovely local lady, the Widow Weston. However, the evil fur trapper, Pete, has designs on her. But, in the meantime, he contents himself with murdering his partner and making it appears as if a local half dog/half wolf, Silver Wolf, is responsible and the authorities decide to put the dog to death! Can the murder be solved and the nice doggy be saved?

This film probably played a bit better back in the old days but even by 1938 this sort of dog film was already a bit old fashioned, as the Rin Tin Tin films were over a decade old. Additionally, the unrestrained use of stock footage really sank this one--making the film seem awkward and cheap compared to the other films of the genre. All too often, the stock footage was grainy and obvious...heck, that's being too generous--it ALWAYS looked grainy and obvious. In fact, if you removed this footage, the film would probably only be about 40 minutes in length! Overall, a very cheap and inconsequential film that isn't worth your time unless, like me, you are someone who will watch even the worst films from time to time!

"Topa Topa" (which was only trade-shown under that title) fell into the cracks when the intended distributor, Grand National, fell into bankruptcy, and had two name changes and different distributors in the space of two years. Filled with archive footage (the reason for two directors, Charles Hutchinson and Vin Moore, being credited and William Steiner credited as a Supervisor.) Tom Turner (James Bush), a naturalist, come to the "Topa Topa" district (named for the mountain the eagle swoops the little girl to in archive footage from a silent film), and falls in love with widow Margaret Weston (Joan Valerie as Helen Hughes). This irks fur-trapper Pete Taylor (LeRoy Mason) no little as he had designs on widder-Margaret himself.

Pete's partner, Joe Morton (Trevor Bardette), accuses him of stealing some pelts and this irks the already-irked Pete to the point where he kills Morton. (The squeamish types may want to skip to the next paragraph). Pete then uses the head of a dead wolf to bite Morton and make it appear that the top-billed Silver Wolf (played by a dog named Silver Wolf) killed Morton.

Silver Wolf is immediately placed on trial and a judge rules him guilty, based on the fact that Silver Wolf didn't say anything in his own defense, and orders him killed. But Goldie the Eagle (played by an eagle named Goldie) swoops down, snatches little Laura Morton and deposits her on top of Topa Topa. Silver Wolf goes in pursuit, rescues the girl and then, completely justifiable self-defense, kills blackguard Pete.

Tom then uses his naturalist skills to vindicate Silver Wolf of the Morton murder, and wins the hand of Margaret in the process.