The Lone Defender (1930) User Reviews

The Mysterious Mexican with the great dog

[bkoganbing · 2/10 · 14 March 2011]

The Lone Defender finds Rin Tin Tin the canine hero of another serial where he unmasks the murderer of his blind prospector master and saves the mine for his daughter. In normal cases the dog would have been shot as well.

But villain Lee Shumway is a craftier villain than that. He realizes that the dog just might be the only one who can lead the bad guys to the mine and stake a proper claim before the daughter June Marlowe can do it. So a good deal of the elaborate schemes are into capturing Rin Tin Tin. Shumway's cause isn't help by the necessary presence of henchman Bob Kortman who did the actual killing of Marlowe's father. Rinty has a natural positive dislike for this man and the feeling is mutual.

Aiding and abetting Marlowe in her pursuit of justice is the mysterious Mexican Walter Miller who has let it get around that he's the notorious outlaw, the Cactus Kid. Also helping is young Buzz Barton who in real life was a trick rider and starred in a number of westerns for the younger folks at this time.

The Lone Defender is yet another of these serials which take the plot of what could be a decent B film and stretch it into excruciating lengths. That's why they only showed them one chapter at a time.

There's Not Much To This One (Except For The Dog and Miss Crabtree)

[Chance2000esl · 3/10 · 27 August 2008]

Here we get to see a 1930 Mascot sound serial. Mascot made better ones before and after this one. It's the story of the mysterious 'Ramon,' (played by Walter Miller) suspected of being 'The Cactus Kid,' who helps and protects the heroine, Dolores Valdez (June Marlowe) from having her gold mine being taken over by the evil Amos Harkey (Lee Shumway).

Oh, by the way, the real star of the film is Rin-Tin-Tin, who gets top billing and was the most popular film star of 1926. The story goes that a string quartet would play while he ate so that he'd enjoy a stress free meal. This was his next to last serial. He died in 1932. He does better 'acting' in 'The Lightning Warrior' (1931) where he sympathetically gets to play off a very young Frankie Darro. Here, he is mostly all action, jumping, running at high speed, pulling at ropes and digging. He is clearly the focus of many of the chapters, with the humans in the background.

The story is too back and forth, and little really happens. We do get to see lots of mysterious hands, shadows, and eyes popping out at various times to add the scent of mystery that they gave to so many silent and early sound films and serials. Only a couple of the cliff hangers are exciting, such as when Rinty rescues Ramon from a cliff bound runaway wagon. The gold mine is in the Bronson Caves, which we see briefly in two chapters.

Although Lee Shumway appeared in bit parts in 431 movies, he is little remembered. Walter Miller, veteran of 251 films, mostly as a guard, a henchman or a gangster, can be seen in one of the major roles in Mascot's much better 'The Last of the Mohicans' (1932), noteworthy for the fact that many of the chapters end with up to four different leads in separate cliff hanger endings.

Finally, what really keeps us watching each chapter is to see June Marlowe (with her natural hair color) who played Miss June Crabtree in six 'Our Gang' Little Rascal shorts. Here we never get any tight close ups, but even in the poor TV print (mine was from Mill Creek Video), we can glimpse some of the characteristic visual and vocal expressions she displayed with Chubby, Jackie Cooper and Stymie and the rest of her 'class.' As I've said, 'The Lightining Warrior'(1931) is a better Rin-Tin-Tin serial, as are any of the others written by Wyndham Gittens, who wrote so many Mascot, Republic, and Universal good ones.

For Rinty and Miss Crabtree, 'The Lone Defender,' unfortunately, merits only a 3.

clunky but fun early-sound Mascot serial featuring Rin-Tin-Tin

[django-1 · 7/10 · 25 March 2005]

I've shown my daughter a few silent Rin-Tin-Tin films recently, so we were both taken aback somewhat at how clunky and awkward this film often is compared to Rinty's silent work, but then early-sound films are often this way. Still, like most any Mascot serial, this is a fun film with a lot of action. Walter Miller, featured in a number of silent and sound serials, is a charismatic leading man (although at first he certainly does not seem to be the protagonist!!), even if his attempt at a Mexican accent sounds more like the bad pseudo-French accents one hears in pirate and Mountie films. Fortunately, June Marlowe (best-known for playing Miss Crabtree in the classic early 30's Our Gang shorts--by the way, I'd LOVE to see the two films Ms. Marlowe made in Germany in the late silent era. Are they around today??) doesn't even attempt a Hispanic accent, as Dolores Valdez, female lead in the serial, but she is attractive and charming and wears those "jungle pants" well. The cliffhangers are often impressive (although the resolutions of them aren't!), and in one chapter ending there are actually FOUR cliffhangers delivered at once, which is a wonderful touch! Rinty made one more serial for Mascot, THE LIGHTNING WARRIOR with Frankie Darro, which is also recommended. Like a number of 1930-31 serials that come to mind, there's a lot of mysterious eyes looking through secret panels and from behind corners, and lots of shadowy presences in the corners of the frame, which no doubt looked eerie up on the big screen at the theaters of the day. The Grapevine print is good quality, but is taken from a 1950's TV copy which has new credits. Also, I'm guessing that the first chapter was cut by a few minutes to fit into a thirty-minute TV slot, because there are a few continuity gaps (and scenes shown at the beginning of chapter 2 as recaps that WERE NOT seen in chapter 1!) that we didn't see in any of the later chapters. Every Mascot serial is worth watching, and this is no exception. Although hampered by the awkward early-sound technology, THE LONE DEFENDER should appeal to any Mascot serial fan...and any Rin Tin Tin fan or dog lover.