The Test (1935) User Reviews (5)

I keel You!

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 6 November 2008]

**SPOILERS** Outdoors adventure flick in the Yukon/Klondike territory involving Rin Tin Tin Jr, Rinnie, getting a second chance in redeeming himself after he fell down on the job in letting the thieving French Canadian trapper Pepite La Jolie steal his master's, the ruggedly handsome Brule Conway, furs.

Using a female dog Annette to distract Rinnie form doing his job and thus letting his guard down Pepite & Co, Black Wolf and Donovan, grabbed Brule furs leaving him high and dry. Brule having his dog Rinnie track down the fur thieves later ends up trapping Pepite in the very traps that he set for him.

It wasn't that easy for Rinnie to finally track down Pepite in that he not only was constantly shot at by the fleeing fur thieve but was almost drowned in his attacking Peite on his boat as he tried to batter the courageous German Shepard with one of the boat ores. The dangerous cat and mouse, or dog and human, game ended with Pepite after trying to trap Rinnie ended up getting mauled and bear trapped as Rinnie, literally coming back from the dead, ambushed him in the cold and snowy north woods.

In the end Brule with the help of Rinnie got his furs back together with the very valuable and rare blue fox pelt that his girl Beth McVey wanted so badly. The same fur which Pepite heisted from Brule and wanted to use to get Beth romantically involved with him. Rinnie also ended up getting the girl, Annette, but only after he turned the tables on those, Peptie & Co, who used her for their own greedy and selfish purposes.

Fun little formula action film with plenty of thrills.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 25 January 2016]

Rin Tin Tin Jr. is one savvy wolf hound, capturing the bad guys and tracking down others. It's all way up north where fur trappers try to capture those stealing their catch. Grant Withers is the handsome hero who at least prevents his captured critters from suffering by putting a fast acting poison on the teeth of the traps so the animals don't suffer. I can hear animal rights activists getting upset by the thought of this happening even more than 80 years ago, but in the wild snowy north, human beings needed animal furs to survive, so this wasn't about trapping fur for profit in Withers' case but to do mankind a service.

The villains are obviously not as concerned about a quick death for the animals, and the main villain would certainly like to see Rin Jr. suffer for aggressive tracking him. This villain (Monte Blue) is practically driven mad by Rin's determination, and he is the type of scoundrel that movie goers used to like to hiss. At just under an hour, "The Test" is a definite crowd-pleaser of its time, dated only today by the unfortunate laws of political correctness that would seemingly like to see films like this destroyed. But this is the type of film where the hero gets both the girl and his best friend, the villains get what's coming to them, and the faithful dog proves that he is the biggest hero of them all.

A dog's life

[russjones-80887 · 4/10 · 25 October 2020]

Fur trapper Brule Conway gets his German Shepherd dog Rin Tin Tin Jr. to guard his furs. A rival trapper and his sidekicks use a female dog to lure Rinnie away in order to steal the furs. Rinnie needs to track the thieves in order to recover the furs.

One of the series of films about the famous dog. Acting and script are not of the highest standard but it's a way of passing time. Stars Grant Withers, Grace Ford, Monte Blue and, of course, Rin Tin Tin.

Questionable scenes involving animals.

[jemkat · 1/10 · 21 August 2005]

In an impartial assessment of this picture I would consider it as a below average low-budget actioner, and probably give it about four stars out of ten. It features flaccid direction and poor acting - Grant Withers demonstrates his usual lack of charisma as the hero, and Monte Blue overacts as the villain. Although the locations are scenic and photographed adequately, any virtue in this was probably lost on me due to the poor quality of the print I viewed.

However, knowing that this film was made before regulations regarding the treatment of animals were incorporated into the production code, it is impossible for me to be impartial about it. Now I don't know how this picture was made, and it is possible that the depictions of animal cruelty it contains were a carefully orchestrated illusion, but in the knowledge of what went on at the time in the absence of production code regulations, and the fact that we are looking at a low-budget feature from a company I never heard of, I cannot view this film without great unease. In any event, these scenes are very unpleasant and I rate this film accordingly.

Good

[jewelch · 6/10 · 7 October 2021]

Really enjoyed this 1935 movie about RIN Tin Tin. James Welch Henderson Arkansas 10/07/21.