Above, from left to right: Hale Hamilton, Frankie Darro, an unidentified player, and Henry B. Walthall on a poster for THE WOLF DOG (Mascot, 1933). That’s the Wolf Dog himself, Rin Tin Tin Jr., in the upper left-hand corner.

THE WOLF DOG

Mascot, 12 Chapters, 1933. Starring George J. Lewis, Frankie Darro, “Boots” Mallory, Hale Hamilton, Henry B. Walthall, Niles Welch, Stanley Blystone, Tom London, Gordon DeMain, Donald Reed, Fred Kohler Sr., George Magrill, and Rin Tin Tin Jr. as The Wolf Dog (Rin Tin Tin Jr. was trained by Lee Duncan).

THE WOLF DOG is one of the least-seen Mascot cliffhangers, principally because it doesn’t feature a popular leading man (such as John Wayne or Tom Mix) or a colorful mystery villain (such as El Shaitan or the Wrecker). Lacking any such “selling point,” WOLF DOG tends to be overlooked, but it’s just as fast-paced as any of Mascot’s more popular cliffhangers and a good deal less confusing than many of them. It features good action and exuberant, if somewhat “over-the-top” performances, and a classically outlandish serial plot. To put it simply, it’s a very fun serial.

THE WOLF DOG begins with flyer Jerry Patton (Cornelius Keefe) and his dog friend Pal (Rin Tin Tin Jr.) setting out on a round-the-world flight. Unfortunately, Patton’s plane crashes in Alaska and he is killed, leaving Pal on his own. The dog joins a wolf pack, and after some tough fighting with the wolves, becomes the pack leader. We then are introduced to a second protagonist, young Frank Stevens (Frankie Darro), who lives in the Alaskan wilds with his brutal trapper stepfather (Fred Kohler Sr.) and his kindly but ailing mother (Sarah Padden). Mrs. Stevens confides to Frank that he is not really her son, but the son of an old friend of hers, a Mrs. Courtney, who fled to the Alaskan wilds with her after a falling-out with her husband. Mr. Courtney, recently deceased, had been the owner of the Courtney Steamship Line, and Frank, as his heir, is now the owner. Frank sets out for a port, intending to make his way to the Courtney Lines headquarters in Los Angeles. He is followed by Stevens and his crony Harmon (Max Wagner), who are intent on cashing in on Frank’s newfound fortune in one way or other. En route, Frank meets Pal, who has been wounded by ranchers who were pursuing his wolf pack. Frank nurses the dog back to health, and the two become fast friends. When Frank and Pal reach a seaport, Stevens and Harmon catch up with them. They are trying to make Frank give up the proof of his identity (so they can “manage” his affairs) when Bob Whitlock (George J. Lewis) enters the picture. Bob bests the two bullies in a fight, and ultimately agrees to take Frank to America on finding out who he is; it just so happens that Bob works as radio officer on a Courtney steamship. Unfortunately, Norman Bryan (Hale Hamilton), the chairman of the Courtney Line, is less than thrilled at the idea of a Courtney heir showing up to run the company, especially since he’s already gone to the trouble of framing Frank’s uncle Jim (Henry B. Walthall) for embezzlement in order to get him out of the way. Bryan stops at nothing to remove Frank from his path, and to make off with a valuable new invention of Bob’s, a ray that can explode gasoline tanks over long distances. But the combined efforts of Bob, Frank, the heroic Pal, the fugitive Jim Courtney, and his daughter Irene, who’s working as Bryan’s secretary under an assumed name, are successful in thwarting Bryan’s evil schemes.

As you can see, THE WOLF DOG’s plot is simple, if somewhat outlandish. But writers Colbert Clark, Wyndham Gittens, Sherman Lowe, Al Martin, and Barney Sarecky manage to make it last twelve whole chapters, although they do have to resort to no less than three “recap” sequences to help fill out the serial, as in THE FIGHTING MARINES. One could also argue that Pal’s “origin story” which takes up half of Chapter One, is unnecessary, since the dog’s “past life” has no bearing on the rest of the serial, but it’s clear that Mascot had to give a star like Rin Tin Tin Jr. a proper introduction (they also probably hoped to make young audiences think that the wolf pack would pop up to aid the good guys in later chapters). The writers manage to maintain reasonable cohesion of plot throughout the serial, although we never do learn just what was the cause of the rift between Frank’s parents. Also, the nasty Stevens is never dealt with definitively—he simply drops out of sight after his part in the plot is finished. Aside from these issues, though, the writers keep all the characters in character and never get us hopelessly muddled in mysterious shenanigans or just plain confusion.

As in the early Universal serials, the simplicity of THE WOLF DOG’S plot doesn’t matter in view of its fast rate of action. Directors Harry Fraser and Colbert Clark, with a lot of help from uncredited stunt coordinator Yakima Canutt, turn in some great action sequences throughout the cliffhanger. The scene in the first chapter, where Frankie Darro dangles from some crates that are being lifted aboard the ship and George Lewis swings out on a rope to save him, is just one of the action highlights. There’s a great motorboat chase early on in the serial, and a truly striking scene in one of the later chapters in which Lewis, Darro, and Rin Tin Tin escape from the bad guys by riding a motorcycle down a steep hillside. The extended fight at the docks in Chapter Four is another highlight, with Lewis, Darro, and Rinty taking on Fred Kohler and Max Wagner; the penultimate action scene of the serial, with the henchmen making an all-out attack on Henry B. Walthall’s house and breaking in from all sides as our three heroes try to stop them, is also very well-staged. The fistfights in the serial are somewhat on the primitive side, but are energetically executed by Canutt, fellow stuntman Kermit Maynard, and the principal actors themselves, who seem to be doing a good deal of their own stunts. George J. Lewis later recalled that he “never worked harder in his life” than when he did THE WOLF DOG. The serial’s cliffhangers are all exciting, but the one in which Rinty battles the villainous Niles Welch in an out-of-control car that goes over a cliff particularly tickled me. Seeing a canine hero in a predicament that has befallen practically every human serial hero was interesting and amusing. Another good cliffhanger has Lewis being knocked down a hill into the path of a speeding locomotive, but some of the most impressive perils in the serial occur midway through chapters, such as the above-mentioned “crate” sequence aboard the ship and a spectacular scene where the villains crash a car on to the top of a car containing Lewis and Darro, causing both vehicles to burst into flames.

The actors of the chapterplay handle their roles with an enthusiastic gusto that fits the rough and swift-paced action. George J. Lewis is energetic to an almost insane extent; my brother commented that Lewis seemed to have been drinking too much coffee. At this early point in his career, Lewis doesn’t convey anything—anger, concern, or good-nature—by half measures, and his facial expressions are very much in the silent-film mold. His performance is completely likable, however, since it’s obviously sincere, unlike some of the deliberately bad performances in PERILS OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED or THE GREEN ARCHER. Frankie Darro is just as enthusiastic, but his performance is a bit more subtle in terms of facial expressions and line delivery. He’s natural, sympathetic, and believable right from the start, and handles an unusually large serial “kid” role with thorough professionalism. Rin Tin Tin Jr. rounds out our heroic trio, and acquits himself well, always ready to lend a helping hand—er, paw—to Lewis and Darro and frequently tackling the bad guys on his own.

Hale Hamilton is incredibly entertaining as the villainous Norman Bryan, pompous and jovial when pretending to be a good guy and overbearing and tyrannical when ordering his henchmen about. He snarls, chortles, gloats, admonishes, and blusters with relish, chews up the scenery like crazy, and steals the serial whenever he’s on-screen. Niles Welch is his villainous associate Mason, and seems to be continually registering “menace” by a series of exaggeratedly sinister facial expressions. The great Henry B. Walthall is restrained by comparison, but his performance is very good nonetheless. He gives his character an air of put-upon dignity and honesty that is even touching at times. Heroine Boots Mallory, while quite attractive, apparently hasn’t mastered line delivery or facial acting very well (understandable, since she wasn’t quite twenty when the serial was made) and her flat performance lacks both the theatricality of Lewis’s and the more natural underplaying of Walthall’s.

Old pros Stanley Blystone and Tom London are Hamilton’s lead henchmen, the one loud-mouthed and swaggering and the other furtive and cautious. Gordon DeMain and Donald Reed also do fine as a pair of phony “detectives” hired by Hamilton to “protect” Darro, and George Magrill is memorable in a small part as Hamilton’s plausible and resourceful chauffeur/henchman. Fred Kohler Sr. is his usual snarling and unpleasant self as Darro’s “stepfather,” while Sarah Padden is sympathetic as Darro’s foster-mother. Lafe McKee pops up as a veterinarian, Lane Chandler as a ship’s officer (and later as a police radio dispatcher), and Dickie Moore (star of Columbia’s CODY OF THE PONY EXPRESS nearly twenty years later) appears as a young boy watching the take-off of Pal and his master Jerry Patton in the first chapter.

Yep, THE WOLF DOG is another of Mascot’s “diamonds in the rough,” and even if you prefer the more polished gems of the Republic era, there’s much to enjoy in it. It may be a rough diamond, but it’s definitely a diamond.