Movie Review: The Adventures of Rex and Rinty (1935) directed by Ford Beebe
On the island of Sujan in the Indian Ocean, the natives worship the horse god. They venerate all horses, but only one is the incarnation of the horse god, the God-Horse Rex, King of the Wild Horses (Rex). Wealthy and unscrupulous polo player Crawford (Harry Woods) has come to buy some of the island’s fine horses, but high priest Tanaga (Mischa Auer) would never part with one of the sacred animals for mere money, and especially not Rex! Crawford contrives to steal the God-Horse, and succeeds but abandons one of his henchmen for dead.
No sooner has Crawford gotten Rex to his ranch in the hill country of California than the wily horse escapes. He soon makes friends with Rinty (Rin-Tin-Tin Jr.), a homeless German Shepherd. The two intelligent animals find some refuge at the Bruce Riding Academy, run by Mr. Bruce (Allan Cavan) and his daughter Dorothy (Norma Taylor). The riding academy employs bumbling stable hand Jensen (Smiley Burnette) and also stable the horses of popular and goodhearted polo player Frank Bradley (Kane Richmond).
Frank and Dorothy win over the animals with their kindness and good hearts. But Crawford is determined to have Rex back and break him into a proper polo horse by any means necessary.
To make things more complicated, the abandoned henchman shows up; he’s been promised his life with be spared if he helps Sujan native Pasha (Pedro Regas) rescue Rex and restore the God-Horse to the island.
This sets the stage for multiple chases, abductions, fistfights, fires and general excitement before Rex is returned to Sujan, only to face one last test of his godhood.
This 12-episode black and white serial was the next to last produced by the Mascot studio, and the second teaming up the two animal stars. Rin Tin Tin Jr. was of course the son of the great movie star who’d passed in 1932.
While Rex and Rinty are depicted as being smart for their respective species, to the point of uncanniness for Rinty, their stunts are still within the plausible limits of animals. On the other hand, there is a fantasy element. Sujan is depicted as being in the same spot Seychelles is in the real world, but its culture is nothing like the real-world country. Also, Pasha has a mental link to Tanaga, able to report back to the high priest from across the globe. In general, the treatment of the Sujanese isn’t bad by 1930s standards.
This is middling stuff as serials go, with okay action but dull characters. Crawford just never makes “evil polo player” come across as over the top as that phrase would indicate. There’s at least one blantant cliffhanger copout at the end of Episode 11/beginning of Episode 12.
Content note: Loads of violence, some lethal (first corpse in Episode 6) but no animals die. Be aware though that animals are frequently in peril, and there’s what amounts to animal abuse. One child in peril, he’s fine though. Sexism only in that Dorothy is the only plot-relevant female character.
This is not the best Rin Tin Tin serial, so you may want to wait until you need it to complete a checklist (Ralph Byrd has a cameo as a forest ranger!)
