Adventures of Rusty (1945)

So much average

Excellent adaptation.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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)

(Some Spoilers) Unusual dog movie about a former German police dog who was brought back to the states by a GI who ends up capturing two German saboteurs. The movie "Rusty" is also about a young boy Danny,Ted Donaldson, who after his mother tragically died has his dad Hugh Mitchell, Conrad Nagel, marry his new love Ann, Margaret Lindsay, which cause friction between him and his step-mother for his father affection and attention. After Danny's dog Skipper gets killed in a traffic accident the boy is left without his best friend as well as losing his dad who now has no time for his after he married Ann. Later Danny spots this vicious German Shepherd, that he later names Rusty, at his neighbors Will Nelson, Robert Williams,home and offer to take the unruly dog off his hands.At the Mitchell home Rusty is both wild and unapproachable and every time Danny goes near him, and tries to pet the dog, he takes a snap at him and once almost tears his hand off. It's obvious that the dog being trained by the German Army during WWII, the movie takes place in 1944, is anything but a Lassie or Rin-Tin-Tin. The only way to treat the poor dog is to be as unfeeling to him as he is to Danny and thus not show him any love or affection since he's unable to respond to it.Rusty felling unwanted and at the same time unable to show any friendliness toward Danny, because of his brutal training back in Germany,breaks away from his lease at the Mitchell's home doghouse and runs off into the nearby woods. It just happens that these two German saboteurs are landed by a U-Boat and they both start to do their work to blow up US military installations. All the Germans seem to do in their attempts to "Blow up America" is just go camping and then steal a number of kitchen utensils as they later run into the lost and confused Rusty. Rusty immediately responds and obeys the two Gremans, like he was trained to back in Germany, whom they use to catch rabbits and chickens from the locals hen houses and chicken coops for food for the saboteurs and Rusty to eat.Danny looking for Rusty with his friends run into him and his new masters, the Germans. Rusty after hesitating to attack Danny and friends, as he was ordered by the Germans, turns on them when one of the Nazis pulls out a gun and is about to shoot his real friend Danny. After almost getting his arm ripped off by the courageous Rusty the other German saboteur is caught by the boys and Rusty after he's hit in the head with a sling-shot by Hurbie (Gary Gray) who's the smallest of the boys looking for Rusty. The two outer Germans are finally saved from the rampaging Rusty, a former comrade of theirs, by the US Navy MP's who just happened to come on the scene. Besides the obvious boy and his dog-type story "Rusty" also showed how difficult it is for a young boy to get along with someone replacing his mom, Ann. In the end both Danny and Ann overcame those difficulties and came together, with Danny's dad Hugh, as a happy and loving family. But that wouldn't have happened if it was not for the brave and selfless Rusty who brought them all together.

The Adventures of Rusty is about a boy struggling through the remarriage of his father. When he finds an aggressive and untrusting German Shepherd, Rusty, he starts training him to be his pet. The resentment and distrust that Danny Mitchell feels towards his new 'mother' parallels Rusty's distrust of Danny and the world.Ace the Wonder Dog gives a great performance as 'Rusty.' There are no obvious places where they added noises to the dog (growls, yelps, barks, etc.) His performance is very believable. That dog is a good actor and very well trained.At times this movie can be a little melodramatic, and has a fairly predictable ending, although it does add a few unexpected elements. The Germans aren't viewed in a terribly favorable light, but that is to be expected, as this film was made during World War II. Rusty was a German dog. Although it does exactly say why he was so aggressive, it implies that the German methods create a fearsome, untrusting dog. This, of course, would be a generalization, but German dog training methods as a general rule are stricter (although it doesn't create aggressive dogs).Nothing incredible about this movie, but it is fun to watch with a solid script, good values, fair acting and great dogs.