Fangs of the Wild

Rin Tin Tin licks bunnies while his love interest is slaughtering valuable foxes from a nearby fox farm in this dirt cheap entry. Human Dennis Moore investigates, but looks almost as bored as we feel. Features possibly cinema's least-menacing pair of villains.

FANGS OF THE WILD ventures off the well-beaten path to tell of thieves who prey on fox-breeders, in the day when owning and wearing a fox stole was quite a luxurious status symbol for many ladies around the world. The screenplay tells of an inspector (Frank LaRue) sending his best agent (Dennis Moore) into the woods, to determine the identity of the fox thief, with the help of his highly intelligent dog, billed as the grandson of Rin Tin Tin.

Beautiful Luana Walters runs one of the fox farms suffering losses, and devotees of vintage westerns will be pleased to find Tom London overseeing the operation with her, and Bud Osborne as the guard who patrols the fox pens by day and night. To add to the delight of series western enthusiasts, the thieves are enacted by the quintessential heavy, George Chesebro, and prolific English-born Jimmy Aubrey, who sell their ill-gotten goods to a nefarious fur dealer, expertly played by Ted Adams. Add to the mix Mae Busch as an undercover agent purchasing a stolen fox piece to gain evidence to convict the gang and we have a cast which can do no wrong in the eyes of "B" action movie fans of the Depression years.

Rin Tin Tin is unjustly accused of fox-snatching at one point, but it's the delightful cast of favorites from the unpretentious low-budget features of the day who make FANGS OF THE WILD fun to view. North Dakota-born Raymond K. Johnson directs satisfactorily, although the Hawaiian-tinged incidental music used in early sequences seems strangely out of place for a story set entirely in the woods. Dennis Moore, a more versatile and skilled actor than his role as the stoic agent permits him to display, is fine as the protagonist who, with his dog, saves the day for the fox breeders.