Rusty Saves a Life

Rusty Saves a Life (1949)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The seventh and next to last in the series has the friendly counselor (Thurston Hall) who gave the local kids a clubhouse on his land dying and soon his nephew (Stephen Dunne) arrives in town as the will left everything to him. He soon gets into it with the kids who plan to take justice in their own hands and this gets both Danny (Ted Donaldson) and Rusty into trouble. RUSTY SAVES A LIFE is without question very routine and way too preachy but I thought it was a pleasant entry in the series as long as you don't take it overly serious. Once again the real benefit are the performances, all of which are pretty good. Donaldson, who was growing at a very rapid pace, is very good in the role of Danny and you can see how well his acting has grown in this part over just a couple years. Hall only appears in a few scenes but he's very touching and it was great seeing him again. John Litel and Ann Doran are back as Danny's father and mother and they too are in good form. The story itself really isn't anything overly special but the actors really bring the material to life and if you've enjoyed the series up to this point then I don't see any reason why you won't like this one. Sure, a better screenplay probably would have helped things but most series are DOA by the seventh picture.