Silent Adventure Classics: Return of Grey Wolf (1926) / Tangled Trails (1921) (DVD)

THE RETURN OF GREY WOLF (1926): Fur trapper Louis La Rue discovers a wild dog in the Canadian wilderness. Naming him Grey Wolf, the pair quickly become inseparable. When Louis is attacked by a rival trapper, Gaston Pacot, he is blinded by a shotgun. Stealing his furs, Pacot heads to town to sell them. The loyal Grey Wolf will not abandon his master, however, and helps nurse Louis back to health. With the faithful dog at his side, Louis braves the Canadian winter to get his revenge on Pacot...proving that justice is, indeed, blind...

After Rin Tin Tin saved Warner Brothers from bankruptcy, several independent studios found lookalike dogs and built movies around them, hoping audiences wouldn't know the difference. "Leader" the Dog is one such example. He makes his first -- and only -- film appearance in The Return of Grey Wolf. His co-star, James Pierce, was more successful. After marrying Edgar Rice Burroughs's daughter, Joan, he became the silver screen's fourth Tarzan (in 1927's Tarzan and the Golden Lion.) He later played Prince Thun of the Lion Men in 1936's classic serial Flash Gordon.

TANGLED TRAILS (1921): Jack Borden, of the Northwest Mounted Police, is assigned to capture Phil Lawson, a con man selling stakes in a fraudulent Canadian gold mine. Trailing him to Calgary, the Mountie is waylaid when Lawson wings him with a bullet. He recuperates under the care of Milly Kingston, a shy young woman who lives alone in a log cabin. The trail leads him next to New York, where the Mountie and Lawson have a battle among the skyscrapers. Jack also meets Blanche Hall, a secretary who is Milly's estranged identical twin! Jack heads back to Canada to reunite the long-lost siblings and smash Lawson's phony gold mine scheme once and for all.

Dubbed "America's Pal" by the movie magazines, Neal Hart (1879-1949) worked his way into the film industry by telling everyone he was William S. Hart's cousin (he wasn't.) After an apprenticeship with director George Marshall, he signed a contract with Universal in 1917 for his own Western series. The studio promptly dropped Hart the following year, citing his lack of acting ability. He then hooked up with William Steiner Productions, a low-budget company that specialized in pictures filmed in Canada (including The Return of Grey Wolf, also produced by Steiner.) Tangled Trails was the first of 21 features Hart made for Steiner, and has the distinction of having some scenes shot in New York City. By the time sound came along, Hart had taken to dying his sideburns and wearing a toupee to hide his advanced age. Despite this, he could only get one-day bit parts riding horses in "B" Westerns. Neal Hart died of lung cancer on April 2, 1949.

• silent