Ceticultsot
Beautiful, moving film.
Ariella Broughton
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
Lela
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
Cheryl
A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
calvinnme
This was kind of silly fun made worthwhile by the performances of both Calleia, in familiar gangster role and the young Cooper - who gets to cry about his dog, whom his father does not like. Cooper runs away in the first place to save his dog from dad's ire.One has to suspend all belief in the plot. At the start Calleia is intent on rubbing out young runaway Cooper because he is a witness to a crime he has just committed. But then a common love bond develops for Cooper's dog, who happens to be Rin Tin Tin, Jr. and Calleia does a miraculous if somewhat unbelievable 180. He soon becomes a big brother to Cooper and even does battle with the other baddies to protect him.I found myself wishing that I could be Jackie Cooper, romping around with a tender hearted gangster and my loyal Rin Tin Tin, swimming in a forest lagoon, frolicking amongst the berry bushes while singing an old Italian tune, and eating roasted rabbit and marshmallows. That being said, I'd have preferred a different ending, but only in regards to the gangster.
tommorg
The back and forth between Jackie Cooper and Joe C. is at times hilarious. I love the touching scene with them at the camp fire toasting marshmallows while on the lam. "Hey, these ain't bad", quips Joe and then laughs to himself. "what's funny", says Jackie. "Oh...I was just thinking about what it be like to shove one of these in a guy's ear...". And in classic gangster lingo: "I got no use for dames; I had one once and she give me the air. What would you do if a dame did that to you?" "Why, I'd knock her block off!", says Jackie. "That's exactly what I did", chuckles Joe, "and they ain't found her YET" (both laugh). Yeah the dog's great too....
whpratt1
In 1936 there was no special films about 'Lassie', Rin Tin Tin Sr. and Jr. entertained the movie goers. In this film they even had Rin Tin Tin ride on top of a station wagon and at times you could see a stuffed animal being a stunt dog for the dangerous twists and turns around a deserted road! Jackie Cooper(Freddie), "Chosen Survivors",'74 was the great child star and was the pretty boy of MGM studios. In this film Freddie goes through a rough time being kidnapped by a mean bunch of gangsters. Joseph Callera,(Joe Calerno),"Cry Tough",'59, came to Freddie's rescue, however, Rin Tin Tin Jr.,"Fangs of the Wild",'39, went through plenty of trouble trying to track down his faithful friend Freddie through thick and thin! Jean Hersholt,(Doctor Mulback, Veterinarian), Dancing in the Dark",'49, gave a great supporting role, who was a great veteran actor for many years. This is a great Classic Rin Tin Tin film along with Jackie Cooper, which was shown along with another feature film, newsreel and some cartoons on Saturday night at the local movie houses in the USA!
boblipton
A nice little second feature, the last directed by silent perennial Chester Franklin -- brother of Sidney Franklin, with whom he co-directed a lot of children's movies in the teens.We needn't go too much into the details of the plot, which are pretty harmless as you might expect of anything with Rin-Tin-Tin Jr. and Jackie Cooper. However, it is a pleasure to watch Joseph Calleia, who was all too frequently cast as a gangster in evening clothes as a tough guy, being reformed by Coop's innocence and, of course, Rinty. He does very well with the role. MGM was trying to promote him as a leading man in this period. It's a pity it did not take.
