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The films of Rin-Tin-Tin ought to be available from Warner Archive because without him that studio would have gone to the dogs. They are not.

Here are the sources for the best DVDs and Blu-rays:

Rin Tin Tin (grapevinevideo.com)

https://kinolorber.com/product/clash-of-the-wolves-and-where-the-north-begins

I grew up with RIN-TIN-TIN comics and the TV show. It was years before I learned RIN-TIN-TIN on TV was not the original RIN-TIN-TIN.

The Kino Lorber Blu-ray of CLASH OF THE WOLVES is superb. The copy offered here of WHERE THE NORTH BEGINS (1925), the film that introduced Rin-Tin-Tin to the public, is not so good.

For the best version of that go to Grapevine Video. Their pre-print materials are in much better shape. Plus, their version  has the added benefit of the original soundtrack created by Warners which I much prefer to the later scores. I get to see and hear the film as audiences of the day experienced it. It is superb.

Anthony Slide’s commentary on CLASH OF THE WOLVES, while informed, is one I could do without. It may well sour you on the performances of everyone in the picture except its canine star and its villain as he culls from a number of reviews from trade papers of the time. I found the performances fine. Best thing I can say is skip it. At least wait until you have seen the films for yourself. Remember, from the start RIN-TIN-TIN was a major star. Had the non-canine performances in his pictures not been fine that would not have happened. Slid3e, here, is like the guest you invited to dinner having heard good things about but whom, when he begins to speak, sours the dinner. And we find, we can’t stop him.

Slide informs us that hero Charles Farrell did not succeed in early sound films because his voice was effeminate. Here’s the trailer from 1934’s THE BIG SHAKEDOWN in which Farrell is leading man to Bette Davis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-t833u30ZY . Judge with your own ears.  https://ok.ru/video/990120643252

I never cared for dogs as a kid. The ones I met scared the yell out of me. However, in the 1970s, Providence brought a wonderful dog into my life. I learned first had what a wonderful partner and friend a dog can be. From Slide’s commentary I gather he never learned that. A picture like this naturally brings out the bitch in many reviewers. Consider the critical reaction to the first Hammer Films THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE HORROR OF DRACULA and the rest. Almost to a person reviewers slammed them. The public? Worldwide the public wanted to see them. That had never before happened with British films. It had never before happened with canine stars. Rin-Tin-Tin was one of a very special breed.

RIN-TIN-TIN deserves better from Warner Archive.

He’s done real justice by GRAPEVINE VIDEO. They don’t offer CLASH OF THE WOLVES. Get that from Kino Lorber.

Here’s a  true dog story that starts in Toronto, ends in Hay-on-Wye in Wales and which taught me that dogs share a cosmic consciousness and we do too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkL8RSDkIMo&t=8s 

I learned a lot from my dogs.–Reg Hartt 2023–07–07.

 

 

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