My Dog Rusty (1948)

Director:

Lew Landers

Writers:

Al Martin (characters)
William Sackheim (story)

Release Date:

8 April 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Dog | Dog Actor | Based On Children's Book | Character Name In Title

Cast

Ted Donaldson	...	Danny Mitchell
John Litel	...	Hugh Mitchell
Ann Doran	...	Mrs. Ethel Mitchell
Mona Barrie	...	Dr. Antonia 'Toni' Cordell
Whitford Kane	...	Mr. Joshua Michael Tucker
Jimmy Lloyd	...	Rodney Pyle
Lewis L. Russell	...	Mayor Fulderwilder
Flame	...	Rusty, Danny's Dog

Runtime:

67 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Goofs:

Continuity: In the opening scene, Hugh Mitchell states that it would be nice to surprise his wife by getting home as early as 7:15 and excuses himself from the card game at the fire department. The next moment he's catching his son climb up a ladder to his bedroom with Rusty at a quarter to midnight.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Rusty's Birthday (1949)

It's not if you win or lose it's if you tell the truth

(There are Spoilers) Not only Danny Mitchell but his dad Hugh, Ted Donaldson & John Litel, learn a very important lesson in "My Dog Rusty" which has to do with both not telling a fib, on Danny's part, and not overreacting to that fib, on Mr. Mitchells part. Where you end up creating far more damage and hurt to the person fibbing to the point where he can very well turn out to be an emotional cripple for the rest of his life.

Danny together with his dog Rusty are out late at night campaigning for his dad to be elected the next mayor of Lawtonville and is caught in a lie when Mr. Mitchell catches him sneaking into his room. Asked by an outraged Mr. Mitchell where he was that evening Danny meekly tells his father that he was fast asleep, with all his clothes on?, and is then giving a couple whacks in the behind by his dad.

Trying to make up for his lying Danny tries to go straight in getting involved with the towns new veterinarian Dr. Toni Cardell, Mona Barrie, in helping out in the towns sick and injured dogs and cats with Moveover a cute and cuddly little mutt, who belong to the towns knife and scissor grinder the blind Josh Tucker (Whitford Kane), being one of them.

With both Mr. Mitchell and Lawtonville Mayor Fulderweilder, Lewis R. Russell, locked in a tight race for mayor a suspected outbreak of cholera hits the town with a number of young boys hospitalized. Dr. Cardell taking samples of tap water as well as water from the rivers and streams around town to find out just was is causing these strange and serious illnesses. Josh Tucker, the towns man of the year, goes around town with his grinder and dog Moreover urging people to please boil their water before drinking or cooking with it. Soon rumors start to spread around town that Mayor Fulderwilder is covering up his own responsibility in the dirty water scandal that's now engulfing the entire town of Lawtonville.

It turns out that what's causing all these illnesses is the water from Old Stinky Rooney's duck pound outside of town where the boys who fell ill were swimming in not too long ago. Danny is working late one afternoon in Dr. Cardell's lab when he, or really his dog Rusty, accidentally knocks over a number of sealed bottles of samples of water taken by Dr. Cardell to test for germs. Desperate to cover up what happened Danny replaces the broken and empty bottles with new ones filled with water, the only sample that wasn't knocked down and broken, from Stinky Rooney's dirty and filthy water hole.

The truth slowly starts to come out to what Danny did and his old man Mr. Mitchell is mad as hell not only in Danny lying about what happened but him jeopardizing his campaign for mayor as well as making a complete fool and liar of sweet old and blind Josh Tucker who went around town telling everyone to boil their water not knowing that the water was all right and fit to drink!

Things get so out of hand that at a campaign speech in the towns square both Mitchell and Fuldenwilder together with his nephew and campaign manager Rodney ,Jimmy Lloyd, almost come to blows. In the chaos and confusion Tucker's little dog Moreover in trying to get his blind masters walking stick back to him ends up getting hit over the head by a flower pot that Tucker, not being able to see what he's doing, knocked over that ended up killing him.

Danny now completely destroyed in feeling that he screwed everyone in Lawtonville, including his friend and boss Dr. Cardell, runs away from home and sends Rusty to Josh Tucker to replace he best friend in the world the tragically and accidentally killed Moreover. Rusty has his own ideas and those are to bring Danny back home to face the music and at the same time reunite him with his mom Ethel, Ann Doran, and dad Hugh Mitchell but at a price that will almost cost him his life.

Both Danny and his dad Hugh Mitchell learned in the end that telling the truth, even when your a politician running for office, is both honest and rewarding at the same time not that it makes thing better for you in the near future but it will make a much better person out of you for the rest of your life. Mr. Mitchell, who lost the election by a hair, also learned that he can get much better results by having a heart to heart talk with his son Danny about the values of being honest and truthful then in trying to beat those very same values into him.