Todd’s Serial Blog

A lot of serials Have Adventures of…. in their title, The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickock (1938),  Adventures of Red Ryder (1940) and Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941) to name a few, but most of them are mis-titled and should be called The Adventure of…. because the whole serial is one adventure instead of a series of adventures.  There are a few other serials like The Adventures of Rex and Rinty (1935), where although there is an over all story arc to the twelve chapters, there are unconnected vignettes with the title characters occuring that have nothing to do with the rest of the serial, which in my opinion are more acurrately titled.

The story opens on the fictional island of Sujan, where two American businessmen Wheeler (Wheeler Oakman) and Mitchell (Al Bridge) are attempting to buy horses, considered to be the finest in the world.  But horses are sacred on the island, especially Rex (Rex, the Wonder Horse) who is worshiped by the natives as a God.

Being totally unscrupulous, the two men steal Rex,  Mitchell manages to get Rex on a ship back to America, abandoning a wounded Wheeler behind.  Wheeler is caught and sentenced to death for his sacrilage. Begging for his life, Wheeler is allowed to live in exchange for returning Rex to Sujan.  Wheeler agrees and heads for America with Sujan hatchetman Pasha (Pedro Regas), who is to make sure Wheeler holds up his end or else.

Mitchell gets back to the States and sells Rex to super rich rancher Crawford (Harry Woods), who wants to train him to be a polo horse. The ruthlessly cruel Crawford tries to beat Rex into submission with a whip.  Rex isn’t having any of that and after attempting to stomp Crawford to death, he jumps the corral and runs off into the countryside.

Meanwhile, homeless dog Rinty (Rin Tin Tin, Jr.)  sees a bank robber knock over a child while running to his getaway car.  Such actions being unaceptable to the “dog with a human intelligence” (as he is described in the recap cards), Rinty chases him down and chews him up a little before the police arrive to arrest the man.  Later  he wanders into the stables of a local country club, where he is befriended by stable hand  Jensen (Smiley Burnette), and charms club memebers Frank Bradley (Kane Richmond) and his sweetheart Dorothy Bruce (Norma Taylor).

Things seem to be going well for Rinty in his new home until the next big polo match at the club.  Crawford can’t stand that he constantly loses to Frank, just because the man is a better athlete and player than the rancher, so he cheats horrendously, knocking Frank off is horse where he is about to be trampled by the other players.  Rinty runs onto the field to protect Frank and disrupts the match.  Demonstrating that he is the ultimate douche, Crawford uses his money and society position to pressure the country club into forcing Jensen to either give up his new friend, or else the dog will be  shot.  Tearfully Jensen sends Rinty away.

On his own again the resourceful dog explores the nearby countryside, and has some fun dealing with some of the local squirrels and such.  Rinty steps into one of the traps set by Crawford’s men in the hopes of catching Rex.  His leg caught, Rinty calls out plaintively for help.  Rex hears him and comes to his aid, freeing him from the trap.  Now BFF’s, the two find an abandoned mine and decide to live there.

Once again Rinty’s new found home is to be short lived due to Crawford.  One of his henchmen, Jones (Edmund Cobb) has managed to track Rex to the mine.  He returns to the ranch and gets fellow henchmen Martin (Charles King), Anderson (George Chesebro) and Mac Donald (Jack Rockwell) to help him recover the wild horse.

Meanwhile back at the mine, Rex blunders into a bunch of ropes left hanging in the back of the mine, becomes tangled up in them and is trapped.  Rinty tries to chew through the ropes but they are too tough.  Though it means the possibility of being shot, Rinty races to the country club where he manages to get Dorothy’s attention and leads her back to the mine.

While Rinty is getting help, Crawford’s men arrive at the mine.  Not wanting to get trapped in an enclosed place with the killer horse, the decide to smoke him out and lasso him when he runs out.  Throwing a bunch of brush into the front of the mine they set it on fire and wait.

Rinty, running ahead of Dorothy,  sees what the henchmen are doing and attacks them. Jones clubs Rinty unconscious with his hand gun, much to the just arriving Dorothy’s horror.  Hearing Dorothy’s  scream, and knowing they’ve been spotted, the cowardly henchmen run off.  Inside the mine, Rex smells the smoke from the fire and frantically tries to free himself.  Inadvertantly kicking a support beam, it snaps in half and drops the roof of the mine on top of the trapped horse……

More than any other serial, this is a real kid’s movie, a family oriented adventure film that doesn’t have the usual murders and fights popping up every five minutes.  Instead it is just what the title promises, a horse and dog pal around in a series of adventures that center around the nominal hero trying to protect the horse from the villain, while the dog does most of the heroics.  In between this you have you have two guys trying to return the animal to it’s real home with a few sojourns of the title characters exploring the woods, playing with forest animals and helping a lost boy who gets abducted by a mountain man.  And of course the heroes will team up with the islanders and return the horse to Sujan, with the villain in pursuit, because he isn’t going to give up a million dollar polo playing horse.

The serial is a good follow up to the previous year’s Rex and Rinty team up, Law of the Wild (1934), with a better cast and plot.  The polo playing country club setting gives the serial some depression era class to the proceedings, and there is an interesting subplot in which Sujan islanders share a pyschic bond with Rex, which allows them to follow Rex and lead him back to the island.  It is a nice bit of unexplained supernatural business that’s a adds a pinch of spice to the production.

Acting wise the humans play second fiddle to the top billed animal stars.  Rex and Rinty are the main draw for kids and they are front and center for most of the action, with Rinty having the lion’s share of screen time, due to his constantly either saving the heroes, or going to get the heroes to help him rescue Rex.  Rex mostly is either captured or runs away from his pursuers, and he runs a lot.  The animals have good chemistry together, with Rinty being the more expressive of the two, easily conveying a wide aray of emotion; concern, happiness, anger; Rinty was a great animal actor, almost as good as his namesake.

Kane Richmond as the nominal hero is handsome, suave and tough.  He projects the perfect nice guy wealthy hero.  Surprisingly after Chapter One, he disappears for almost half the serial before popping up again after the halfway mark.  This allows more screen time for Taylor and Burnette to be more involved.  Taylor plays a smart and tough heroine, who is a good rider, spending a lot of screen time jumping on Rex and riding with him to safety.  Burnette is his usual clever and funny sidekick.  A standout scene is in Chapter Ten with Burnette immitating Rex in a stall to delay the villains and give the heroes time to get Rex to a ship for Sujan.

Woods plays a more sadistic villain than usual, whipping horses and taking a perverse delight in causing people hardship, such as his threatening to shoot Rinty in Chapter One just to intimidate Burnette.  He also affects a snobbish entitlement attitude around others, if he wants something, it should be given to him because of who he is.  It is one of the more interesting villain performances of the thirties.  Of the rest of the gang, most of whom have black hair and a mustache just like their boss (think of how confusing that is for the audience), the only real stand out is Wheeler Oakman who gives one of his best performances in serials, playing a bad guy who changes sides to help the good guys before reverting back  to his old villainous ways in the final chapters.

As I’ve said in other reviews, Mascot serials just kept getting better and better as the thirties progressed.  The Adventures of Rex and Rinty is one of their best, even with two recap chapters.

Tags: Reviews //