THE LIGHTHOUSE BY THE SEA (1924)

One of the few surviving silent features from the Warner Brothers heyday of RIN TIN TIN, the ‘Wonder Dog’ who saved the studio from early bankruptcy.  That it exists is no thanks to Warners, the source element comes from KodaScope Libraries, a non-theatrical operation for home & school rentals, slightly cut/16mm.  And while not in great physical shape (all Public Domain editions seem to come with crap generic scores), the handsome look and ocean locations still register well enough on this big hit.  Rin Tin Tin's FIND YOUR MAN earlier this year had the same director & writer in Mal St. Clair (who’d go on to become a sort of second-tier Ernst Lubitstch) and rising scenarist Darryl F. Zanuck (who’d go on to become a top-tier Darryl F. Zanuck*).  Fright-faced comedian Louise Fazenda (a Lily Tomlin lookalike who’d soon retire to marry producer Hal B. Wallis) has a rare ingenue part as the spunky daughter of a secretly blind lighthouse keeper.*  Lucky for her, she lands a pair of helpmates when a capsized boat deposits plucky William Collier Jr. and loyal pooch Rin Tin Tin on her ocean front doorstep.  Unlucky for her, a cutthroat gang of rum-runners plan to switch off the lighthouse beam so they can unload a boatload of illegal hooch.  Neatly put together, this fun charmer still comes across with that WWI pup now grown into a great movie dog.  Multiple German Shepards expand trick possibilities (one fella actually relights the lighthouse lamp!), but the secret to Rinty’s popularity was less athleticism & stunts than acting.  Six years old at the time, Rinty was a phenomenal dog actor whose every thought & emotion registered right thru the camera lens.   The loss of over a score of features a mystery and a shame.

ATTENTIONB MUST BE PAID: *Braille had become standard for the blind by 1924, but the girl’s father uses an earlier system of raised letters on the page.

READ ALL ABOUT IT: Fine, slightly eccentric bio from Susan Orlean: RIN TIN TIN: The Life and the Legend.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *These RIN TIN TIN pics made Zanuck, which didn’t stop him from writing a memo in early Talkie days suggesting no future for Rin Tin Tin ‘since the dog can’t talk.’