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When wanting to make a visit to his goldmine in the desert,
Juan Valdez (Joseph Swickard) is shot by a person unknown, & legally the
mine should be inherited by his daughter Dolores (June Marlowe) ... but then
there are only 2 slues to the mine, a map engraved in Juan's watch, and Juan's
seeing-eye dog Rinty (Rin Tin Tin). But while the watch is repeatedly stolen by
everyone from everyone else, Rinty is soon condemned to death for killing
cattle (actually it was a pack of wolves who did the killing) - of course Rinty
escapes. Dolores' only helpers are young Buzz (Buzz Barton)
& mysterious Ramon (Walter Miller) who is believed to be the notorious
bandit Cactus Kid, & until the end Dolores doesn't know if she can trust
him (by now you might have guessed so I'll give it away: Yes, he turns out to
be a gouvernment agent in the end). Dolores' fiercest adversary on the other
hand is Amos Harkey (Lee Shumway), on the outside a respectable businessman who
offers Dolores allt he help she wants, but behind his facade a ruthless
gangleader who desperately wants to get his hands on Dolores' gold at any cost. In
the ensuing story everybody's looking everywhere for the mine, which is for
some time believed not to be in the desert at all but beneath Dolores' house,
& the identity of the killer of Dolores' father, Jenkins (Bob Kortman) is
eventually given away, then even Dolores' father's crazed partner Burke (Frank
Lanning) shows up & leads everyone to the real goldmine in the desert but
then tries to trap them inside by an avalanche ... but in the end, Harkey is
unmasked to be the real Cactus Kid, Dolores gets her mine & who would have
thought, Ramon turns out to be a gouvernment agent. One of the very
earliest talking serials, & it does show: much of the acting is still
reminiscent of the silent area, as is the pacing, sound is not really used to
any significant effect, some of the actors seem rather at unease with suddenly
having to speak, & Walter Miller's incredibly fake Mexican accent,
... well, it would have worked better in a silent picture. As a piece of
nostalgia, as a cheap Western with a dog in the lead role, it has some
entertainment value, if one takes into account the typical early-sound
deficiencies. Richard Thorpe, by the way, would soon adapt to the sound
medium & become a prolific director whose career spanned well into the
50's, among his most succesful films being many of MGM's
Tarzan movies or Ivanhoe (1952), among many others. Rin Tin
Tin on the other hand would soon reach the end of his career, & his son,
Rin Tin Tin jr, is generally considered a poor replacement (as Rinty jr's films
were generally done on the very cheap).
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