Clash of the Wolves (1925) User Reviews

Contains some great Rin Tin Tin action and even "acting"!

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 23 April 2023]

This was recently on TCM as part of its tribute to the 100th anniversary of Warner Brothers, founded in 1923, although they were making films earlier than that. As such, this is one of the earliest of the films that were shown as part of that tribute, and in fact it is doubtful Warner Brothers would have survived its first ten years without Rin Tin Tin and the silent films in which he starred.

In this entry, Rin Tin Tin is Lobo, half dog- half wolf leader of a pack of wolves. The motto of the pack is "death to the wounded wolf!" This is written into the script as a plot device so that Lobo, after being wounded, has a reason to leave the pack and wander into the desert versus being torn apart by the other wolves. Lobo is characterized as half dog so his abrupt domestication by a human is at least theoretically possible.

The human centers of the story are the daughter of a rancher, May Barstowe, and a "tenderfoot" prospector, Dave Weston (Charles Farrell). There is a particularly sinister looking villain who wants to both jump Weston's claim AND his girl. Complications ensue.

This was a great vehicle for Rin Tin Tin in showing that the dog truly got how to "act". You can literally see the dog show anger, love, and confusion at appropriate times. The camera work is very good, and overall the script and production values are better in this Rin Tin Tin film versus some of the others I've seen although they all have their charms.

I do have to mention one area where the film does show its age - that being the so called "comedy" of Heinie Conklin, who plays May's father's most trusted ranch hand, Alkali Bill. So May's father, a self made ranch owner, thinks that Weston is not manly enough for his daughter, but THIS guy, who makes a mess of everything he touches, is his employee numero uno? Plus Conklin is just not funny. However he does give me a greater appreciation for the great silent comics such as Buster Keaton, since THIS was apparently their contemporary competition!

I'd recommend this one pretty highly if it comes your way, and it just might since it has been very recently restored.

Solid Rin Tin Tin silent feature, added to the National Film Registry

[jacobs-greenwood · 6/10 · 16 December 2016]

This silent adventure Western features the dark coated German Shepherd dog star Rin Tin Tin as a wolf pack leader known as Lobo; it was directed by Noel Mason Smith and written by Charles A. Logue. Rinty had to wear booties on his front paws and sported a beard (incognito as a dog) during some of the action which includes lots of running, a jump over chasm, climbing a fence, a jump off a building onto a man on horseback, and performing heroic acts like saving his mate Nanette and their puppies from some raging mountain fires, which had forced him and his pack down into the desert valley where cattle graze and people reside. The first persons Lobo and his pack encounter are prospector Dave Weston (Charles Farrell), his girlfriend May Barstowe (June Marlowe), and Alkali Bill (Charlie 'Heinie' Conklin, whose character provides slapstick comic relief), teamster on the Barstowe ranch. May's rancher father Sam (William Walling) doesn't approve of his daughter's attachment to a tenderfoot like Dave. Pat Hartigan plays the villain Wm. 'Borax' Horton, who poses as a chemist but is really a claim jumper; an uncredited actor plays Horton's assistant.

Because of Bill's frantic reports of wolves in the valley, a posse is formed to chase the pack back away. Lobo decoys these men on horseback so that his peers and family can escape, but he gets a cactus splinter in his paw for his trouble. Not wanting to appear weak in front of the pack, he goes off into the desert where he would probably have died if Dave hadn't found him. The tenderfoot removes the thorn from the wolf's paw and Lobo becomes his 'tame' pet (that has to wear the aforementioned disguise in town). After Dave learns from chemist Horton that his mining sample was nearly pure borax, he goes out in to the desert to mark his claim. But greedy Horton follows and nearly kills the tenderfoot before Lobo rescues Dave and drags him into cave. Lobo then takes a message, written by Dave on a canteen, into town where he has to battle Horton again before he's chased into the desert as a wolf, but he and his pack are able to subdue and eliminate the claim jumper, saving the day for a happy ending.

The film was added to the National Film Registry in 2004.

Rin-tin-tin

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 2 April 2023]

In the High Sierras, Lobo (Rin-tin-tin) rescues his family from a forest fire and escapes with them to the desert. Dave Weston is prospecting for borax. May Barstowe likes the lonely prospector but his wealthy ranch owner father does not. Wolves are attacking and the alarm is sounded. Lobo is injured by the ranchers and Dave takes in the wolf outlaw.

I didn't know much about Rin-tin-tin other than he was one of the first Hollywood dog stars. I didn't know that he was a real dog from WWI who later got work in Hollywood. I actually would like to follow the dog than the humans. The humans are fine, but I kept waiting for Rin-tin-tin on the screen. It's a little sad that he gets domesticated. I didn't get the beard premise until the bad guy recognizes him without it. It's silly and hilarious. It's just so dumb of an idea that it works as comedy. Rin-tin-tin projects smarts and is a real character on his own. I really wish to have more of him.

Good Action, Technically Solid & Often Impressive

[Snow Leopard · 5 May 2005]

With good action, a likable animal star, and well-chosen outdoor settings, this is an enjoyable movie to watch. The story is made up of some familiar elements, but it moves at a good pace, and the technique is solid and often impressive.

The plot has Rin Tin Tin as the leader of a pack of wolves trying to survive near a populated area, and it combines his story with that of a prospector (played by Charles Russell) who's trying to win the daughter of a wealthy rancher at the same time as he has to outwit a crafty claim jumper. It's the resulting action scenes that make the movie so entertaining, and that also display some resourceful filming technique. Rin Tin Tin really is the biggest star, and all of the scenes with him and his stand-ins look very realistic, and work quite well. He even has believable reactions to the rather goofy ideas that the prospector and his comic-relief buddy (Charles Conklin) concoct in trying to domesticate him.

There are also lots of other scenes involving groups of animals, and it must have taken a lot of careful planning to make them look so good. At times they capture large-scale action, and at other times the camera is able to capture the speed of its star in motion. Almost all of the story takes place outdoors, and the settings help create the right atmosphere for the story. Overall, this is an entertaining movie with several strengths to it.

National Film Registry title, and - to tell the truth - quite boring.

[daviuquintultimate · 4/10 · 25 August 2023]

We all know it: dogs (or half-breed wolves, as is Lobo - Rin Tin Tin - in the present film), are highly intelligent persons.

Perfectly fit for the hard and sometimes merciless life of the wild, Lobo suddenly changes the rough instinctual habits instilled in him by mother nature when Dave Weston, a young prospector, relieves the dog's pain by removing from his paw a large thorne, like Androcles and the lion. It (I'd rather say: he, the dog) is now tame, and deserts the pack, his mate and the puppies, to become, all in a jiff, the loving pet in Dave's log cabin near the village.

The village's people have always known Lobo and are very aware of the dangers the dog/wolf has ever represented for their cattle and for themselves. It is therefore important to make Lobo unrecognizable, otherwise he will be immediately shot to death. And the device Dave and friends devise for that purpose has something magical, inexplicable and at the same time devoid of all sense: they put on Lobo's snout a fake beard! You heard me: a fake human beard. And it works!

Lobo then, in the course of the movie, performs all and every number that are requested from a canine or wolfish film-star, and something more: understands or even prevents every wish - spoken or unspoken - of his owner, talks with him by body language, takes spectacular leaps of any sort, attacks villains (though never killing them, it will be unproper), and so on, on a series of events none of which appears to be less predictable. Except when Dave, that is left alone, wounded, with no help or horse, in the middle of the desert, is found in the next scene in perfect health in the jolly company of his girlfriend and Lobo.

The original Rin Tin Tin at the height of his powers

[bobtoomey · 8/10 · 21 March 2012]

A tremendous showcase for the greatest of canine performers. The movie only falls short in the idiotic slapstick by Heinie Conklin. A young Charles Farrell does a decent job as the human lead, and June Marlowe is excellent and very natural as his girl. But it's Rin Tin Tin who steals the show and the hearts of the audience as a half breed wolf dog who learns the ways of civilization.

I have to dispel a couple of misstatements by other reviewers here. According to Susan Orlean's outstanding biography of Rinty, he performed all of his own stunts in this movie, and he was not injured in any way during the production. It was all acting. His master, Lee Duncan, traveled with the dog and gave live presentations in which he had Rinty demonstrate all of the pain takes and other complex actions from the movie on stage, with Duncan standing ten feet away and controlling the dog through hand gestures. He did this to prove that the dog was never in any real pain on screen. Contemporary accounts describe Rinty's performances as uncanny.

In the first Academy Awards presentation, Rinty received the most votes of any actor for best performance, but the Academy decided it would demean the award if it was given to a mere dog, so they gave it to Emil Jannings instead. Bad mistake. There was nothing mere about Rin Tin Tin.

Action-packed vehicle for Warner Brothers' canine hero

[DeborahPainter855 · 27 October 2004]

Rin-Tin-Tin was one of more than a dozen dog heroes who thrilled audiences during the Twenties, but he was definitely the most famous. Warner Brothers showcased his talents with fast paced and cinematic ally competent films like this one. Rin did not do all the work himself, as he had a large number of stand-ins and stunt doubles who are hard to distinguish from him at times.

Rin's co-stars provide good support for him in this tale of a handsome young borax prospector named Dave Weston who must defend not only his claim but his very life from a claim assessor gone bad. Rin is the wolf hybrid everyone wants to shoot... until one day when Dave finds him incapacitated by a cactus thorn and dying slowly of thirst in the desert. His compassion overcomes his desire to kill him for the bounty on his head, and he takes him to his cabin and treats his wound. "Lobo" becomes his constant companion. From there the story sweeps the viewer in and never lets up until the climax.

As of September 2004, Image Entertainment now has CLASH OF THE WOLVES available on DVD as part of a fascinating boxed set of rarities from the first thirty years of cinema, "More Treasures".

Exciting!

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 11 January 2018]

CAST: Charles Farrell (Dave Weston), June Marlowe (May Barstowe), Heinie Conklin (Alkali Bill), William Walling (Barstowe), Pat Hartigan (Horton), "Rin Tin Tin" (Lobo), "Nanette" (Lobo's mate).

COMMENT: Excitingly directed by Noel M. Smith (of all people!), this is an action-packed western which not only shows off Rinty's amazing expertise but has an interesting story (concocted by Charles A. Logue) to boot.

Not only has Logue contrived some spectacular action sequences, but he has managed to work in a nice romance and even some canine humor as well.

All the players except Heinie Conklin (and even he comes good in a kissing scene) acquit them-selves most creditably.

The movie is superbly photographed by E.B. DuPar and Allen Thompson, mostly on actual locations. Sharp film editing by Clarence Kolster and attractive art titles by Victor Vance add to the picture's appeal. Electrical effects: F.N. Murphy. Art directors: Lewis Geib, Esdras Hartley.

Copyright 26 October 1925 by Warner Brothers. U.S. release: 28 November 1925. 74 minutes.

What an Action Star

[Michael_Elliott · 26 February 2008]

Clash of the Wolves (1925)

*** (out of 4)

A fire breaks out in the forest so Lobo (Rin Tin Tin), the leader of his wolf pack, must take his wife, pups and other wolves down into the desert. Once there the wolves are constantly attacked by some villagers who think that the wolves are going to eat their cattle. Lobo is eventually injured and near death but one of the villagers ends up saving his life and of course Lobo will be there if the man ever needs help. I really wasn't expecting much out of this film but I was curious to see my first Rin Tin Tin film and it's funny I watched this after the Brando documentary because this dog has got to be the greatest actor next to ol' Brando. Why do I say that? There's a long scene in the movie where Rin Tin Tin is near death and for the life of me I can't figure out how they got the dog to do what they did. I'd like to think this dog was just that talented but in my brain I'm thinking they had to have actually injured the dog to get the reactions because there's certainly a look of pain in his eyes. Outside of that, this film is pretty entertaining on all levels as it has a nice love story, some funny moments as well as some great action with Rin Tin Tin jumping into harms way constantly to be the hero.

Rin-Tin-Tin: The Dog Who Made Warner Brothers Possible..

[TheCapsuleCritic · 8/10 · 9 May 2024]

2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of Watner Brothers which today is one of the largest multimedia conglomerates with the ownership of an incredible back catalog of movies from companies that they have outlived (RKO, MGM, United Artists, Allied Artists to name a few of the better known ones). But it was a noble animal that first paid their bills and became the world's first canine superstar. There were dog stars before Rin-Tin-Tin such as Jean the Vitagraph dog, Shep the Thanhouser collie, and another German shepard named Strongheart but none became the worldwide phenomenon that Rinty did.

This Kino Lorber Blu-Ray continues their ongoing partnership with the Library of Congress in restoring and releasing silent movies to home video. It features the first Rin-Tin-Tin vehicle WHERE THE NORTH BEGINS from 1923 and then his very successful later feature CLASH OF THE WOLVES from 1925. It makes for an interesting contrast to see just how much success changed the style of the Rinty movies. Most people prefer the later, flashier CLASH OF THE WOLVES but I found WHERE THE NORTH BEGINS far more engaging. With its smaller budget and no name stars (not to mention the former's irritating comedy relief), NORTH tells its story simply and effectively.

NORTH opens with an introductory title card that gives the back story of Rin-Tin-Tin. He is one of a group of puppies found on a World War I battlefield. A soldier named Lee Duncan kept two puppies, one male the other female, and named them Rin-Tin-Tin and Ninette after two French children's dolls. Nimette died on the way over to America but Rinty thrived and was trained by Duncan for dog shows. His remarkable ability to carry out a wide variety of commands got him noticed by a Hollywood agent who thought that he would compete well against other dog stars. He was signed to a contract and the rest is history.

The plot of NORTH is one that would be recycled many times in later Rin-Tin-Tin movies. It is inspired by Jack London's CALL OF THE WILD. A crate containing a puppy falls off a sled and is found by a pack of wolves. They raise it as one of them and once he grows up, he becomes their leader. We then meet the human characters: a Canadian trapper, his fiance', and the villainous trading post boss. He sends the trapper out to sell furs then has him ambushed and left for dead. He is found by Rinty and they form a bond as they make it back to the trading post. Rinty exposes the villains and he and the couple live happily ever after.

In CLASH OF THE WOLVES, Rinty is once again the leader of a wolfpack. Unlike NORTH which uses real wolves, this pack is mostly German shepherds. A fire forces the wolves into a Western town to find food. Rinty is injured on the way and is nursed back to health by a young Charles Farrell (2 years before 7th HEAVEN) who has discovered large deposits of borax. The town surveyor wants it for himself so he ambushes Farrell who is then rescued by Rinty. Together they expose the surveyor and all ends well. Farrell's girlfriend is played by June Marlowe (Miss Crabtree from the OUR GANG series) and the extremely unfunny comic relief is provided by "Heine" Conklin (no kidding).

Like other releases in this Kino Classics / Library of Congress series, it's pretty much a bare bones affair with only a commentary by film historian Anthony Slide on CLASH OF THE WOLVES, the only bonus feature. Nevertheless the transfers are excellent with the prints looking quite remarkable considering their age. I'm a little surprised that Warner Brothers didn't issue a special 100th anniversary commemorative edition to honor the canine star that made Al Jolson, Jimmy Cagney, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, 3D, and now BARBIE possible but then, most success stories don't want to acknowledge their humble origins...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.