Customer Reviews

Rusty's Birthday [VHS]

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This is the last of Columbia's eight boy-and-his-dog stories of the 1940s. By this time the boy, Ted Donaldson, is now a tall high-school junior and has just about outgrown the series. Good cast (Ann Doran, John Litel, and several Columbia contract players), good direction, good camerawork, but... the misguided screenplay is by the person who generally wrote for The Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys, and you can tell. Donaldson is awkwardly cast against type, getting into a fistfight and becoming angry, introspective, and suspicious of the new kids in town. Not very much footage of Rusty, the handsome German shepherd, either. Diehard fans of "B" pictures may be curious to see Donaldson grown up, but others should try one of Rusty's earlier adventures. Print quality is superb but the tape is recorded at the extended-play speed, which may not track properly on all machines.