by Moe Zilla

Created on: February 22, 2008

"The Return of Rin Tin Tin" is a shameless melodrama. Released in 1947, it tells the story of a young orphan boy adopted after World War II, and the many heart-tugging problems that he faces. Besides the orphan boy, the movie also offers a caring foster mother, a kindly minister - and a dog.

The orphan boy may have to leave his foster mother if he's not able to learn to trust. ("I don't dare love nobody. Something happens every time...") He wanders the fields at a nearby monastery, where he's watched over by a kindly minister - but even there he has emotional problems. ("I can't love god. I can't love nobody...") Then a miracle arrives in the shape of a runaway dog, and the movie's score turns happy and playful. But - wouldn't you know it - the dog is soon reclaimed and taken away by his original owner, a cruel man who whips him. Poor orphan boy... Poor Rin Tin Tin.

This movie is more interesting for the story behind it. The real-life Rin Tin Tin was an orphan dog, discovered in an abandoned French kennel at the end of World War I. An American soldier rescued the dog and brought him home to Los Angeles, where he eventually became a movie star. That dog eventually died - in Jean Harlow's arms - but he sired a line of puppies which continued appearing in films. It's possible that the film's writers were trying to allude to that history in this story about a wartime orphan. Unfortunately, "The Return of Rin Tin Tin" doesn't even use one of these puppies. In fact, the dog in the movie isn't even a German shepherd!

It's still an effective dog melodrama, since Rin Tin Tin actually behaves like a real dog. (What dog wouldn't try to escape from a cruel owner who whips him?) Much of the problems are created by the grownups in the movie, and they ultimately resolve their difficulties with only minimal assistance from the dog. (In the movie's climax, the dog rescues a man who's in real danger from a wolf attack - and the humans come to an understanding about the dog and the little orphan boy.) Everything works out perfectly - and at the end of the movie, the orphan boy is even going back to church.

But there's another piece of notoriety lurking in this movie: it stars young Robert Blake. He'd been in 23 movies by the time he was 14 (including an appearance in the first scene of the "Treasure of Sierra Madre,") and he also played Mickey in "The Little Rascals" shorts. He turns in a good performance in this movie. (In one scene, the young boy remembers struggling to survive during the war, fighting with other abandoned children over a scrap of bread.) But nearly 60 years later, Robert Blake was on trial for the murder of his wife (at the age of 72). The film's producers rushed to re-release a DVD of this film, and their haste shows in the washed-out print and bad sound quality.

That's the morbid secret message that's hidden in this movie. A Hollywood movie career that started out sentimentally...would end with an infamous murder trial.

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