Rin Tin Tin: Clash of the Wolves / Where the North Begins [Blu-ray]

I am stunned at the low reviews that the movies got. Several reasons:What quality do folks expect from a movie that is almost 100 years old and that was created back when they were just developing motion pictures. The film quality may not compete with today's world of CGI, but it is not that bad. It is different and fun to experience what are grandparents watched at the movies back when they were growing up!If you enjoy or love animals, you can only appreciate what an incredible dog Rin Tin Tin was. Yes, there are some impressive dog movies with some talented dogs (e.g., Air Bud where Bud actually had made over 20,000 hoop shots), but no dog that I know of (and I have had a gaggle of dogs for over 30 years and photographed them professionally for ten), can do the stunts that Rin Tin Tin did. I don't know how they trained a dog to do some of the tricks that stunt people would hesitate doing! There had to be a lot of treats involved...I watch a movie a night and I didn't think that this movie was the makings for a bad evening! There is a lot of action in the first movie and the plot is better than most of the junk that is cranked out today!

I enjoyed watching Rin Tin Tin in the "Rockies" I did not realize it is a silent movie.

Rin-Tin-Tin was a German shepherd rescued from a World War I battlefield by an American soldier, Lee Duncan, who trained and secured work for him in silent movies. The dog appealed to audiences and his films were so successful that he was cast as a pivotal character in several feature films. Two of them, Clash of the Wolves and Where the North Begins are double-billed in a new Blu-ray release.In Clash of the Wolves, a forest fire in the mountains drives a wolf pack into the desert, where they prey on cattle and terrorize local residents. The leader of the pack is Lobo (Rin-Tin-Tin), a dog/wolf halfbreed. When the wolves are discovered hunting a steer, a posse tries to shoot them. To protect the pack, Lobo lures the pursuers to chase him instead, and is badly injured in a fall from a cliff into a cactus. A kindly young prospector, Dave Weston (Charles Farrell, 7th Heaven), happens upon the half-dead animal and manages to get it back to his cabin to relieve its suffering. Weston removes the cactus needles, applies antiseptic, and nurses the canine back to health. The dog instincts of the wolf-dog kick in and he and his savior bond.Weston has discovered borax in the area. His girlfriend, May Barstow (June Marlowe), daughter of a wealthy rancher, is pleased. But the local chemist at the assay office, “Borax” Horton (Pat Hartigan), also has eyes on May and on Weston’s rich claim. He decides to get rid of Weston, jump his claim, and win May in the bargain.Lobo also has a mate. Nanette is back at the den, caring for their pups and waiting for Lobo to return. Lobo eventually is torn between his attachment to Weston and his natural instincts.If this were a traditional drama, it wouldn’t be special. What distinguishes it is the canine star of the film. Performing complex stunts integral to the plot and endearing himself to us with his expressive face, he is truly astonishing. Rin-Tin-Tin was the first dog star — pre-dating Lassie by two decades — so such canine exploits had never before been seen by a mass audience. Whether jumping onto bad guys from a high rock, racing away from a posse through treacherous terrain, rolling down a hill, filling a canteen with water from a stream, trying to extricate cactus needles from his paw, crawling when he’s unable to walk, tapping at a window, or jumping over a gap from one mesa to another, he is a truly extraordinary performer.The human stars, by comparison, are there to move the narrative along, so Rin-Tin-Tin dominates. The photography takes advantage of the picturesque locations, and some compositions are reminiscent of Ansel Adams photographs. The dog has the uncanny ability to elicit empathy from the viewer with a look that suggests he knows what’s going on. We understand exactly what he’s thinking, thanks to his exceptional performance and helpful editing. One visual gag that doesn’t work is a beard placed on Lobo as a disguise. It looks dopey and couldn’t fool a fool. The bit that does work is how skittishly horses behave when Lobo is near, since — beard or no beard — they know he’s part wolf.In the second film, Where the North Begins, a German shepherd puppy in a crate falls off a sled and is adopted by a pack of wolves in the frozen Great North. A few years later in a fur-trading settlement, we meet Felice McTavish (Claire Adams) and her boyfriend, trapper Gabrielle Dupree (Walter McGrail). Shady settlement boss Shad Galloway (Pat Hartigan) also has his eyes on Felice. He offers Gabrielle the rich sum of $500 to bring furs through the dangerous Caribou Pass. Gabrielle tells Felice they can marry and start a comfortable life together with that money, but Galloway has other plans. He orders his servant known as The Fox (Charles Stevens) to ambush Gabrielle in the wilderness.The Fox obeys and leaves Gabrielle for dead, but the hardy trapper is unconscious. Badly wounded and likely to freeze to death in the snow, Gabrielle is instead discovered by the dog taken in years earlier by the wolves. The dog manages to get Gabrielle to a cabin, where he recovers, the two bond, and the dog accompanies the man as he heads home. Learning that Gabrielle is still alive, Galloway orders The Fox to finish the job. Only now, the hunter has a fearsome protector by his side.Not as satisfying as Clash of the Wolves, Where the North Begins is pure melodrama. The dog is largely absent from the screen for far too long and the stunts are not at all as impressive as in the first movie. Driven more by sentiment than by a gripping script, the picture spends too much time with its human actors and not enough with its canine star. A chase at the end perks things up, but there are too many dull stretches. At a mere 73 minutes, the film seems longer.Both films are silent with English intertitles. Musical scores in stereo accompany each film. Clash of the Wolves has an organ score composed and conducted by Ben Model. Where the North Begins has music composed and performed by Jon C. Marsalis.The only bonus material on the unrated Blu-ray release from Kino-Lorber is a commentary by film historian Anthony Slide for Clash of the Wolves. Picture quality is not up to Blu-ray standards, likely because of the age of the films. Scratches, dirt specks, and other visual imperfections run through both films.Rin-Tin-Tin ushered in a new kind of film — a drama focusing on an animal star rather than a human being. The formula proved successful and led to the M-G-M series of Lassie films and countless animated pictures. CGI has even made the impossible possible in such films as Life of Pi. Direct descendants of Rin-Tin-Tin, along with several unrelated dogs, were featured in the TV series The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin (1954-1959), about the dog and a young boy living on a U.S, cavalry post in frontier times.