one of my absolute favorites!

Masterful Movie

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The first in a series of eight "Rusty" films about a German Shepherd dog and the boy who owns him, featuring Ted Donaldson as Danny Mitchell; Ace the Wonder Dog plays the title role in this one.It's a family drama, directed by Paul Burnford, with a screenplay from Aubrey Wisberg that was based on a story by Al Martin. The cast includes two Hollywood veterans well past their prime, Margaret Lindsay and Conrad Nagel; Gloria Holden plays Lindsay's friend Louise.Danny is upset because his widower father (Nagel) is remarrying, even though Ann (Lindsay) is someone the boy likes, having known her while his mother was alive. A stereotypical conflict ensues especially because Danny's other best friend, his pet dog, was killed on the wedding day, making the boy resent his stepmother even more for the loneliness caused by his father's lack of time for him. So Danny attempts to befriend his neighbor Will Nelson's (Robert Williams) mean and vicious German Shepherd, which had been trained by the Nazis during World War II; Rusty was brought home to the states by Nelson after his service in the army.When Danny learns that Mr. Nelson may have the dog put down, he begs his parents to allow him to adopt it. After her initial caution for Danny's safety, Ann believes that the boy should be allowed to keep the dog. In fact, even though Ann has been kind, unusually understanding, and more than patient with Danny's lack of acceptance of her, she seeks the help of a professional psychiatrist named Dr. Banning (Addison Richards) hoping that he may advise her about how to deal with the boy. Ironically, Danny had seen the doctor for advice about how to train Rusty to be less vicious and more appreciative of his efforts.Danny begins to treat Rusty with a combination of indifference and praise for good behavior at the same time that Ann attempts to do the same, hoping that the boy will come to him, but the tactic doesn't work for either of them. Instead, Rusty chews threw his rope leash and runs away where he happens upon two German spies (Arno Frey and Eddie Parker), who take charge of him to steal for them.When Danny and his friends go searching for Rusty, the dog helps the boys to miraculously capture the luger wielding Germans. Meanwhile to solve her problem, Ann decides to leave husband Hugh and his boy. After seeing how depressed this makes his father, Danny finds her at Louise's and begs her to come home by promising that he'll never upset her again. She returns home so that the three (four if you count Rusty) of them can live happily ever after (and all go fishing together).

...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.

TED DONALDSON (who was the child star in A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN as Neely, the little brother), appeared the same year in this programmer, THE ADVENTURES OF RUSTY, a rather routine little melodrama from Columbia. It's all about a period of adjustment for a boy who just lost his little dog in an accident and has to adjust to his father (CONRAD NAGEL) marrying a new mom (MARGARET LINDSAY).The boy befriends a German Shepherd with a nasty attitude toward others that has to be tamed before his parents allow him to adopt the dog for a pet. But relations between the boy and his step-mom are anything but smooth, with both of them seeking the help of a psychiatrist to help them amend their ways.The last twenty minutes of the story brings a sub-plot involving the arrival of two German men who interact with Rusty. Turns out they're German spies (it takes place before the end of WWII), and the plot has the dog saving the day by pinning the men down so they can be picked up by the Shore Patrol.It's an uneven film, obviously made on the cheap, a quickie that probably played the lower half of double bills in the days of double features at the movies. TED DONALDSON is nowhere as lovable here as he was in A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN. Most of the time he's a sullen little boy who's selfish and completely ill-mannered toward a kindly step-mom who only wants to help him. CONRAD NAGEL and MARGARET LINDSAY do professional jobs in less than convincing roles.Summing up: A trifle hardly worth the trouble to watch--but Ace the Wonder Dog can certainly snarl well on cue.

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.