movingpicturegal
Story of the one who never proves unfaithful to a man - his dog. Thunder "the Marvel Dog" understands the qualities essential to good dogs - courage, love, and loyalty - and brings these qualities to his relationship with his master, Bob Barry (played by George Hackathorne), a young architect student who, to his own secret shame, is a "coward". Bob and his girl (who he "worships") go on a picnic in a pretty woodland setting where a creep/bully bribes a tough to pick a fight with poor Bob and give him a good scare, then steps into the fight to make Bob look a coward in front of this girl. Later this same bully steals Bob's entry in a scholarship competition to design a new town library - um, what a jerk. Well, suddenly, War is declared - Bob gets called, but is afraid to go. He nearly deserts, but luckily Thunder has enlisted in the Red Cross, encounters his old master and gets him back in the trenches, then helps out as his master performs an act of great courage and attempts to overcome his cowardice!This is a cute film - Thunder is a neat dog, he looks so cute in his "close-up" in the opening credits - aw. Flash the pup, seen briefly in this as Thunder's son, is darling here, by the way. Now, maybe I'm just an unusual sort of gal, but I think the Bob character is kind of attractive - I guess I just sort of like the gentle, artistic "weakling" (as one character calls him) type of guy, and hey, he DOES love dogs. George Hackathorne seems to specialize is this sort of character, I think he gives an excellent performance here. The relationship between man and his girlfriend is pretty passed over in this film in favor of the "man and his dog" relationship, so the girl is just sort of there for show, I suppose. The DVD of this, put out by Grapevine, features a decent looking black and white print with pretty good contrast, a bit of light scratching in places. I quite like the stereo music score that accompanies this - suitably dreamlike in the picnic/woodland scenes, very dramatic in the scenes in the trenches. Enjoyable film - especially for those who love dogs.
boblipton
Thunder the Dog was one of the numerous Dog Stars that sprang up in the wake of Rin-Tin-Tin. He starred in a half dozen movies in the mid-twenties and then disappeared from the screen.In this one, he is the loyal pet of George Hackathorne, a thoroughgoing coward. George behaves like the 98-pound weakling in a Charles Atlas advertisement, but Thunder loves him anyway and when George is drafted in the army for World War I, Thunder decides to join the Red Cross.We then advance several months. Thunder appears to be the relief driver in a Red Cross ambulance and George is sitting by the side of the road, shaking in terror. Eventually things settle out and George overcomes his cowardice because of Thunder's love for him.The movie never quite seems to make up its mind whether it's about George or Thunder. While there is much to be said for that balance in scripting, the quality of the script can't quite maintain that balance as Thunder comes off as smarter than the people he is around. Production values are excellent and the battle scenes look convincing. But don't pass up a chance to see Rin-Tin-Tin, with very good actors and great behind the camera talent, for this one.
