Screening room

Looking back on the career of a four-legged legend

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The subject of Susan Orlean’s latestbook is a Hollywood legend who was, in the author’s words, "envied forhis enormous wealth and feared for his enormous teeth."

That would be Rin Tin Tin, the superstarGerman Shepherd who was (literally) top dog in the movie world of the1920s. Almost everyone has heard the name, but far fewer have actuallyseen one of the silent films that made him an international sensation.

During a visit to Ann Arbor last monthto promote "Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend," Orlean (a vivaciousand witty woman who is not at all like the crazed Susan Orleancharacter Meryl Streep played in "Adaptation," based on Orlean’s book,"The Orchid Thief") explained that’s not surprising: Although the first"Rinty," as he was known to fans, made 27 features, at one point allbut four were considered "lost films."

Prints of two of Rinty’s blockbusters,"Jaws of Steel" and "Clash of the Wolves," were discovered a few yearsago in the cabinet of a movie theater in South Africa. Orlean broughtthe 1925 "Clash" (released at the peak of the star’s career) on tourwith her to give contemporary audiences an idea of what ourgrandparents and great-grandparents eagerly lined up to see more than75 years ago: The giggles, gasps and cheers it elicited from theaudience when she screened it at the Michigan Theatre were validationthat, decades after his heyday, Rin Tin Tin can still enthrall a crowd.

The film also demonstrated that theamazingly spry animal could actually act, too. Although the screenplayof "Clash" is as corny as they come — Rinty plays a half-breed wolfnamed Lobo who gives up his position as leader of the pack for thedomestic life, only to be forced to face the wild once more whenprejudice rears its ugly head — the film is irresistibly fascinatingbecause of the complex stuntwork involving the star. When he racesthrough a stampede, that’s not some feat of digital magic, and when asupposedly injured Rinty limps across the desert sand and tumbles downa hillside, the star goes all out, like some sort of canine "Camille."

No wonder, as Orlean pointed out, RinTin Tin was on track to be voted best actor at the very first AcademyAwards before the rules were amended to prevent any non-humanperformers from winning. Warner Brothers, which had Rinty undercontract, called him "the mortage lifter" because of his box officedrawing power, which, Orlean mentioned, led to him being paid as eighttimes as much as most of  his two-legged co-stars.

The only thing more astonishing than hisscreen presence was his backstory: Rinty was rescued from the rubble ofa World War I battlefield in the French countryside and brought toAmerica by serviceman Lee Duncan, who trained his pet to perform. Whenthe dog became an overnight success, Duncan was called upon to performone feat that even Rinty couldn’t master: signing autographs.

Orlean said she’s been asked why shechose to write about Rin Tin Tin instead of the more high-profileLassie. "Lassie was a character in a book that became a character infilm and on TV," she said. "Rin Tin Tin was a real dog."

Orlean joked that "when I started thebook, I had no children, and now my son can read the book." But herwork has paid off splendidly. "Rin Tin Tin" shines a spotlight on atrue talent worthy of rediscovery.

‘Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend’ by Susan Orlean

Available at bookstores nationwide. Visit susanorlean.com for more information.

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