Call of the Forest

Beautifully photographed by Karl Struss and capably directed by film editor John F. Link (the second of only two movies as a director), this is one of these movies in which the humans are often forced to play second fiddle to the animals—in this case mostly a black stallion named "King". Indeed, although Ken Curtis gets to sing a song (appropriately "Git Along Little Dogies") and spends a lot of time talking about his search for a lost gold mine, we never actually see the mine because the camera is so busy with the "King" and Charlie Hughes sub-plot. Indeed, Curtis could complain that once the wrangling and the singing is out of the way, he has little to do in the picture but play second fiddle to personable villain, Robert Lowery (who has a great henchman in our old friend, Jack Ingram). All the same, Curtis is far better treated than Martha Sherrill, who is prominently featured in all the film's advertising blocks but can be spotted in the actual movie itself for all of about thirty seconds. On the other hand, Chief Thundercloud has a comparatively sizable role with close-ups yet! But then, "Black Diamond", the horse, "Fuzzy", the bear, and company get lots of close-ups too!