Adventures of Rusty (1945)

...but set during the War as the first frame of the film reads "Spring of 1944" just so viewers wouldn't get confused about all the talk of Nazis five months after Germany surrendered.The story is simple but well told - Danny Mitchell has been accustomed to living the bachelor life with his widower father Hugh Mitchell (Conrad Nagel), but the story opens on his Dad's wedding day. His bride to be, Ann (Margaret Lindsay), is anxious to win Danny over. In fact, she's a little too anxious as her bending over backwards just seems to have Danny acting out more. You see, he feels displaced after his Dad's marriage. At the same time Danny makes friends with and eventually gets to adopt a German Shepherd who actually is from Germany - Rusty. It's rather cute how the film parallels an eager Ann trying to win over a distrustful Danny with an eager Danny trying to win over a distrustful Rusty. They both go to the same local psychiatrist for help - separately of course - and both get the same advice.In parallel with this story consisting of a slice of mid 40's Americana we have a couple of Nazi spies thrown into the mix who are hiding in the nearby woods. These guys are not portrayed as very bright considering they have been selected as spies since they don't seem to even get that discretion is the better part of valor. Translated that means that shooting at children will only rile the locals and probably means you'll be spotted and captured rather quickly. Remember, this was right after the war and feelings were still running high on the home front, thus the portrayal of the spies as violent buffoons and Rusty's initial vicious behavior being attributed to strict punishment which is described as part of standard dog training in Nazi Germany. This is the only appearance of Margaret Lindsay or Conrad Nagel in the series, and they had seen more prominent days in the 30's over at Warner Brothers and MGM, respectively. But that is what Columbia seemed to do quite well in the 40's - find quality stars that had been passed over by their original studios and give them leading roles in their short B films to draw in audiences and give the productions polish.I'd recommend this as a good example of a heart-warming family film that seems to hit all the right notes and talks about old-fashioned teamwork, friendship, parenting, and even child psychology without getting hammy.

I always try to catch this movie when it's on TCM. During World War II, a boy named Danny tames a dog and in the process learns to control his own anger at his new step-mother Ann and fight off German spies along the way. Looking at the film today, it's striking how all the men wear suits and ties--even the German spies wear suits, ties and hats when they land in their lifeboat.Danny's parents are kind-hearted and progressive for their time (Ann even goes to a psychiatrist). But eventually, Danny's anger wears her out, and she moves in with her best friend, Louise. Danny comes over and pleads with her to come back home; he misses having her around to do "women's work." At Louise's, Ann isn't shown wearing an apron or doing housework (as she is when she was living with Danny and his dad). She and Louise spend their time hooking rugs, smoking cigarettes and wearing great clothes. In the end, Danny wins her over and by the end of film she's back on duty taking care of the menfolk. The postwar urge to push women out of the workforce to make way for the returning war vets was already beginning.

THE ADVENTURES OF RUSTY (Columbia, 1945), directed by Paul Burnford, stars child actor Ted Donaldson, best known for his supporting role as Neely Nolan in A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (20th Century-Fox, 1945), in the lead performance not as Rusty, who happens to be a dog, but as a youngster named Danny Mitchell.In what has developed into a programmer film series from 1945 to 1949, this initial entry starts off in the spring of 1944 where a little boy named Danny (Ted Donaldson)is seen fishing with his dog Skipper on the very day his widowed father, Hugh Mitchell (Conrad Nagel) is to remarry a woman named Ann (Margaret Lindsay), a close friend of his deceased wife, Laura. Ann loves Danny like a son, but because she is now a member of the family, doing things for his father he used to do, he starts to resent her. On a car bound for their honeymoon where Danny is left under the care of Ann's friend, Louise (Gloria Holden), Skipper runs after them only to be killed by a passing truck, causing Danny to place the blame on Ann. And where does Rusty come in? Well, while one afternoon in the country hunting for rabbits with his friends, Danny, who had earlier encountered a vicious German shepherd called Rusty (Ace, the Wonder Dog), owned by Will Nelson (Robert Williams) of Fisherman's Creek, meets up with the animal again with an injured paw. Hoping to win the dog's affection, Danny takes Rusty home, and with the permission of his father, gets to adopt Rusty from Mr. Nelson. Since Rusty was an Army war dog in Germany, and understands only German, Danny decides to take up the German language in order to communicate with the animal. Because the dog continues to growl and bark at Danny, he goes to Doctor Banning (Addison Richards) a psychiatrist, to learn the reason why. Regardless of Ann's good intentions towards both Danny and Rusty, Danny continues to resent Ann, especially after Rusty disappears, causing Ann to walk out on her marriage, leaving Hugh alone and depressed.Regardless of its title, there's little adventure for Rusty and more family problems for the Mitchell family. ADVENTURES OF RUSTY, however, could very much be labeled as a predecessor to family television shows of the 1950s, resembling episodes of the more popular boy and his dog series, "Timmie and Lassie." As with "Lassie," Rusty is there for moral support for the family, particularly the boy, creating circumstances to allow the dog to come to the rescue. One scene midway finds Danny encountering a couple of Germans (Arno Frey and Eddie Parker) who had drifted ashore on a raft in the middle of the night, who take and use the drifting Rusty to supply them with food by stealing farm animals for them. As Danny, who has located Rusty, threatens to take back his dog, who had been missing for a week, the Nazis attempt to shoot Danny for his interference.Also in the supporting cast are Douglas Madore (Billy); Bobby Larson (Henry); Gary Gray (Berbie); Ruth Warren (Floredce Nelson); Lloyd Ingraham (The Minister); and Billy Gray (Harry).A quickly paced but sometimes uneven 67 minutes, THE ADVENTURES OF RUSTY, which turned up on cable television's Turner Classic Movies April 16, 2007, as part of its "No Animals Were Harmed" theme, was successful enough for Columbia to come up with seven more sequels. Veteran actors Conrad Nagel and Margaret Lindsay, who were by now reduced to enacting in "B" products such as this, would be substituted by other actors, namely John Litel and Ann Doran, in future installments. Next in the series: THE RETURN OF RUSTY (1946).(** Barks)

I wasn't born until 1963, but I have a great love of 1930s and 40s America. Until TCM began airing the "Rusty" series, I had no idea that the films even existed. I'm glad they do though. Considered corny and unrealistic by todays standards, I find them to be wonderful little time capsules of post-war USA. The reason they can't make something like this today is simply because today's world is too caught up in selfishness and lack of respect for others. It must have been nice to live in a time in which a Boy and His Dog series of films was what the public wanted to see. Unfortuanately for todays audiences, these 60 year old time pieces deal in such "boring" subjects as parents caring about their kids and the kids learning from their mistakes. If they were made today, they'd have to toss in drive by shootings, drugs, teen pregnancy and lots of profanity in order to attract an audience. And, of course, the kids would have to be smarter than the parents and all the other adults. Anyway, if you enjoy simple, predictable stories in which the kids don't hate their parents and even love them for caring about their proper upbringing, then certainly give these films a shot. All I know is these simple portraits of America in the 1940s leave me with a nice, nostalgic feeling for a time that we'll never see again. After all, the world of today is all about how the young being totally disrespectful to anyone over 30 and anything else would be seen as hopelessly corny and boring to watch. I was truly born about 50 years too late!