CLASH OF THE WOVES - Racism Index
Harlett O'Dowd
Like most of you, I had read of what an unapologetic racist director
Noel M. Smith was, but nothing could prepare me for the horror that
was his allegorical hate crime of a film, CLASH OF THE WOLVES.
Rin Tin Tin, as Lobo, plays a beast of mixed blood, and typical of the
miscegenational rattrap of the time, he is seen as the most dangerous
of all - possessing the brawn and killer instinct of a wolf (read,
black man) coupled with the intellect and cunning of a dog (read,
whitey.)
To make matters worse, he has gone and started a family with a white
dog (Nannette.)
Things were all well and good until the wolves move into the
neighborhood and adversely affect the livelihood of the cattlemen in
the area.
Well, rest assure, Rinty/Lobo gets his comeuppance.
I suppose we should be grateful that Smith only flirts with the notion
of black-on-black crime when Rinty/Lobo is injured, but what follows
is even MORE horrific: In a disturbing scene all to reminiscent of the
capturing of African slaves, Charles Farrell throws a shirt over
Rinty's head and carries him off into captivity. He even outfits poor
Lobo in a set of leather booties - clearly a sadistic homage to the
shackles used to transport a race to America in bondage.
In a vain attempt to make Rinty/Lobo *pass* as a dog in the
neighborhood, clown Heinie Conklin outfits poor Lobo with a fake
beard. Make no mistake about it. Smith is not making any sort of
comment on the horrors of slavery. Rinty's bondage and domestication
is depicted as the best possible thing that could happen to him.
And when Lobo/Rinty abandons his master for his common law (white)
wife, well all hell breaks loose. In a savage finale, the wolves take
the law into their own hands, and the outcome is as tragic as can be.
Smith has succeeded in making his ultimate "point" - only when
obedient to a large white man can these creatures be of service to
society. Left to their own devices, carnage will ensue. There is no
other option.
Bob Lipton
Even worse, the whole thing is filmed in BLACK and WHITE!
Bob
StormChaser
Lloyd is correct.
TBOAN is a racist piece of garbage and no amount of weak satire
will change that fact!!!!!!
THE STORMCHASER
(cue thunder sound effects)
kino eye
> Like most of you, I had read of what an unapologetic racist director
> Noel M. Smith was, but nothing could prepare me for the horror that
> was his allegorical hate crime of a film, CLASH OF THE WOLVES.
For those of you who don't have TCM, Clash was screened tonight.
Thanks for your review, Harlett. In trying to keep with the spirit of
your review, I'm posting my review of the film originally done for
Pordenone. Every year I go to the festival, I give an 'award' to the
best animal actor, and this was the 2003 award winner:
The winner of the Rin-Tin-Tin award for 2003 is . . . (do I smell a
ringer?) . . . Rin-Tin-Tin, in Clash of the Wolves (1925). Rinty plays
Lobo, a half-wolf, half-dog who leads a pack of wolves in the
wilderness. Fearing for their cattle, local ranchers lead a hunt for
the wolves. Lobo makes a mighty leap to evade capture, but lands on a
cactus, injuring his foot. A friendly prospector Dave Wheaton (Charles
Farrell) and his fiancee May Barstowe (June Marlowe) treat Lobo, and
win his trust. Later, Dave is hurt and Lobo must run to town to fetch
help, at the same time safeguarding May from desperate outlaws.
In one of the many strange components of this story, Rin-Tin-Tin is
supposed to be a half-wolf, half-dog mix. Now Rin-Tin-Tin was a great
animal actor, but to paraphrase James Thurber, Rin-Tin-Tin looks no
more like a wolf than Calvin Coolidge looks like the MGM lion. Even
so, friendly prospectors feel impelled to disguise him so his
'wolfness' won't bother the other animals. With a logic that only
exists in the canine movie world, where dogs have IQs one hundred
points higher than any of the humans, they glue a false beard to his
muzzle and put gloves on his feet, so that no one will recognize him.
Despite suffering through these indignities, in Clash of the Wolves,
Rin-Tin-Tin constantly shows why he deserves the award for the most
amazing animal performance of the festival. For example, in one scene
Rinty finds Dave after he has been shot and left to die. Dave writes a
message on a canteen asking for help, and puts it around Rinty's neck.
The dog obligingly runs to the nearby town, but when he can't rouse
any interest for a rescue mission, he begins to look for a full
canteen to take back to his injured buddy!
But even the greatest can make mistakes. That's what I thought at
first watching the scene when Rin-Tin-Tin jumps and lands on the
cactus. At first Rinty is favoring his left foot, but in the next
scene he is favoring his right. Which foot was injured? Could Rinty be
guilty of a major continuity error? Then I realized that this "faux
paw" was done intentionally to see if the audience was paying
attention. As usual, Rin-Tin-Tin is way ahead of all of us.
Lloyd Fonvielle
> Lloyd is correct.
>
> TBOAN is a racist piece of garbage and no amount of weak satire
> will change that fact!!!!!!
The extreme racism of the film is garbage, but on some levels it's a
great work of art. That's the problem!
(cue violins . . .)
Mar de Cortes Baja
www.mardecortesbaja.com <http://www.mardecortesbaja.com/blog>