This 1929 Biltomore Productions Inc. film has the same plot as James Oliver Curwood's "Caryl of the Mountains", except the hero is an airmail pilot instead of a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman, so it appears that that small difference gave Jack Natteford no qualms about claiming an original story.
Louise Hill (Virginia Brown Faire)has the combination to the safe and is the bookkeeper for George Morrow (David Torrence) at his investment firm. She goes to lunch, is hit upon by Herbert Winslow (Philo McCullough), gives him a brush-off and goes back to work. But she drops her purse containing the combination to the safe.
That night, Winslow and his henchman Jim (Tom London)show up to rob the safe, but Louise is working late on the books. She discovers them, but Jim tells her that Morrow is one hard customer and when he finds his safe has been emptied, he will most likely have her jailed for theft, since she and Morrow are the only ones who know the safe combination. They leave with the loot, and Louise thinks maybe she might be better off gone herself, since she has no way to prove she wasn't involved.
She calls her brother and heads for his mountain retreat and, via a telegram left on his desk, learns that he has gone to Chicago to sign a contract with his publisher. But his faithful dog Muro is there to greet her. Finding the cupboard bare she voices out loud---in a title since this is a silent film---that she wishes she had a horse to ride into town. Muro then proceeds to prove that he is as billed, the Marvel Dog, by reading this title, jumps up to a kitchen shelf and gets a cannister of salt. He takes this out to the corral, where Arab (Arab), a wild stallion roaming the hills, and his unnamed mare discover this improvised "salt lick." Muro runs Arab off, and Muro has now provided Louise an unnamed mare to ride to town and go grocery shopping. It is entirely possible, since Louise isn't shown breaking this wild mare, that Muro may have saddled her up and broke her himself. Muro is one handy dog. But the big city detectives have traced Louise as far as Pine Points, Nevada, where they lose her trail.
To relieve her monotony Louise makes a long-distance acquaintanceship with Norman Bard (Gaston Glass), an airmail pilot whose ship flies over the house each day. This is not a real close relationship since all she can do is wave as he flies over, and Muro wags his tail and possibly barks, but it is only a guess as to whether or not he barks since there is no card shown that reads "Bark!" But Muro is a friendly dog and would certainly be giving some bark-barks if the film had been shot in sound. Bard, hoping the waves he gets each day may turn into something he can tell the other pilots about, sweetens the pot by dropping Lousie copies of the Nevada News or bags of candy each day. This isn't "The Right Stuff" and he isn't Chuck Yeager and he isn't flying that high or that fast, so he has scoped her out.
Meanwhile, in an amazing coincidence, Winslow and Jim have also trekked westward and, in fact, have just robbed the bank in the town where Louise goes grocery shopping. They make an escape and end up at Louise's hideout. She gets away long enough to climb up on the roof and write the message "Help." Bard sees the message and lands his plane and heads for the house. There, he administers a sound thrashing to both villains and, in general kicks butt all around, although this is only shown and there is no card reading "Bard Kicks Butt."
Up to this point, Muro has done little since the opening reel to justify his 8th-billed credit, although fetching a hoss with salt can not be sluffed off and does not imply that Muro the Dog was just a one-trick-pony; and Arab, has contributed nothing at all since he was chased off into the hills and left his mare behind. But Winslow jumps on Arab's unnamed mare and attempts to escape, but Arab comes galloping out of the hills and kills Winslow for mistreating his beloved equine mare, and Winslow dies thinking that a butt-kickin' might not have been that bad of a deal. Jim also tries to escape but he can't get far since Muro has a good grasp with his teeth on Jim's throat.
The bonds and money stolen from Morrow are found in the late-Winslow's pockets, or what is left of Winslow and his pockets, so Louise is cleared of any wrong doing and is now free to marry Norman, whom she has only seen close-up in the last few minutes of the film. It is a swell ending.
Oh, golly, is that a ****Spoiler****? If so, please disregard the last sentence.
Louise Hill (Virginia Brown Faire)has the combination to the safe and is the bookkeeper for George Morrow (David Torrence) at his investment firm. She goes to lunch, is hit upon by Herbert Winslow (Philo McCullough), gives him a brush-off and goes back to work. But she drops her purse containing the combination to the safe.
That night, Winslow and his henchman Jim (Tom London)show up to rob the safe, but Louise is working late on the books. She discovers them, but Jim tells her that Morrow is one hard customer and when he finds his safe has been emptied, he will most likely have her jailed for theft, since she and Morrow are the only ones who know the safe combination. They leave with the loot, and Louise thinks maybe she might be better off gone herself, since she has no way to prove she wasn't involved.
She calls her brother and heads for his mountain retreat and, via a telegram left on his desk, learns that he has gone to Chicago to sign a contract with his publisher. But his faithful dog Muro is there to greet her. Finding the cupboard bare she voices out loud---in a title since this is a silent film---that she wishes she had a horse to ride into town. Muro then proceeds to prove that he is as billed, the Marvel Dog, by reading this title, jumps up to a kitchen shelf and gets a cannister of salt. He takes this out to the corral, where Arab (Arab), a wild stallion roaming the hills, and his unnamed mare discover this improvised "salt lick." Muro runs Arab off, and Muro has now provided Louise an unnamed mare to ride to town and go grocery shopping. It is entirely possible, since Louise isn't shown breaking this wild mare, that Muro may have saddled her up and broke her himself. Muro is one handy dog. But the big city detectives have traced Louise as far as Pine Points, Nevada, where they lose her trail.
To relieve her monotony Louise makes a long-distance acquaintanceship with Norman Bard (Gaston Glass), an airmail pilot whose ship flies over the house each day. This is not a real close relationship since all she can do is wave as he flies over, and Muro wags his tail and possibly barks, but it is only a guess as to whether or not he barks since there is no card shown that reads "Bark!" But Muro is a friendly dog and would certainly be giving some bark-barks if the film had been shot in sound. Bard, hoping the waves he gets each day may turn into something he can tell the other pilots about, sweetens the pot by dropping Lousie copies of the Nevada News or bags of candy each day. This isn't "The Right Stuff" and he isn't Chuck Yeager and he isn't flying that high or that fast, so he has scoped her out.
Meanwhile, in an amazing coincidence, Winslow and Jim have also trekked westward and, in fact, have just robbed the bank in the town where Louise goes grocery shopping. They make an escape and end up at Louise's hideout. She gets away long enough to climb up on the roof and write the message "Help." Bard sees the message and lands his plane and heads for the house. There, he administers a sound thrashing to both villains and, in general kicks butt all around, although this is only shown and there is no card reading "Bard Kicks Butt."
Up to this point, Muro has done little since the opening reel to justify his 8th-billed credit, although fetching a hoss with salt can not be sluffed off and does not imply that Muro the Dog was just a one-trick-pony; and Arab, has contributed nothing at all since he was chased off into the hills and left his mare behind. But Winslow jumps on Arab's unnamed mare and attempts to escape, but Arab comes galloping out of the hills and kills Winslow for mistreating his beloved equine mare, and Winslow dies thinking that a butt-kickin' might not have been that bad of a deal. Jim also tries to escape but he can't get far since Muro has a good grasp with his teeth on Jim's throat.
The bonds and money stolen from Morrow are found in the late-Winslow's pockets, or what is left of Winslow and his pockets, so Louise is cleared of any wrong doing and is now free to marry Norman, whom she has only seen close-up in the last few minutes of the film. It is a swell ending.
Oh, golly, is that a ****Spoiler****? If so, please disregard the last sentence.
