| The Lighthouse by the Sea | |
|---|---|
 Lobby card | |
| Directed by | Malcolm St. Clair Clarence Kolster (assistant) |
| Written by | Darryl F. Zanuck (credited as Gregory Rogers) |
| Based on | The Lighthouse by the Sea byOwen Davis |
| Starring | William Collier Jr. Rin Tin Tin |
| Cinematography | H. Lyman Broening Lee Garmes |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 7reels |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (Englishintertitles) |
| Budget | $91,000[1] |
| Box office | $330,000[1] |
The Lighthouse by the Sea is a 1924 American silentadventure film produced by and distributed byWarner Bros. The film's star is canine sensationRin Tin Tin, the most famous animal actor of the 1920s. The film was directed byMalcolm St. Clair.[2][3]
As described in a review in a film magazine,[4] shipwrecked off the coast of Maine, young Belgian Albert Dorn would have perished from exposure and the difficulties he encountered were it not for his dog Rin Tin Tin. When their little boat finally drifts to the shore, Flora Gale, daughter of the lighthouse keeper Caleb, rescues Albert. She has the job of keeping the light as the old man has gone blind and is worried that he will lose his job if this becomes known.Bootleggers operating in the vicinity scheme to extinguish the light on a certain night when they will discharge their cargo. They kidnap Albert, tying him up, and put a net around Rin Tin Tin, taking them out to the ship, and then attack the old man and put out the light. Rin Tin Tin chews his way out of the net, and then gnaws the ropes that bind Albert. After battling the crew, they make their way to shore. Edward Cavanna, leader of the bootleggers, and his pal Joe Dagget chain Albert, but he succeeds in setting fire to some waste so Rin Tin Tin can dash up the lighthouse with the burning waste, drop it into the light, and starting it again. Flora has been kidnapped and taken to the boat. The old man frees Albert, and he and Rin Tin Tin get aboard the boat. They are battling to rescue Flora when arevenue cutter captures the ship. Albert finds happiness in Flora's love.[5][6]
St. Clair had demonstrated skill in handling animals in two-reeler comedies forMack Sennett Studios before directing Rin-Tin-Tin for Warner Bros. His 1919Rip & Stitch Tailors andThe Little Widow featuredTeddy the Dog, a clever canine who engages in domestic duties and misadventures.[7]
The Lighthouse by the Sea, “a melodramatic action-adventure,” is the second of back-to-back features starring Rin-Tin-Tin, firstFind Your Man (1926) directed by St. Clair directed for Warner Bros. The movie was delivered ahead of schedule, in compliance with producerJack L. Warner’s dictum, “I don’t want it good, I want it Tuesday.”[8]
Film critic Charles S. Sewell in aMoving Picture World review of the film provided fulsome praise forThe Lighthouse by the Sea, based on the “thrilling stage melodrama” byOwen Davis. Conceding that some of canine hero Rin-Tin-Tin's “stunts” are “rather implausible,” Sewell declares that the picture “remains a melodrama of unbridled and primitive emotions…played up to the utmost.”[9]
The battle between uncooperative inanimate objects and humans featured inBuster Keaton’sThe Blacksmith (1922), and co-directed by St. Clair, is revisited inLighthouse By the Sea. Here the contest pits Rin-Tin-Tin against the temperamental mechanisms of the lighthouse, which the insightful canine masters and in turn serves to advance plot development. Film historian Ruth Anny Dwyer describes the picture as “an amalgam of a Keaton-like obstreperous machines and one of St. Clair’s intelligent dogs.”[10]
As a melodramatic action-adventure, the scenario is reduced to amanichean formula: Good vs. evil, weak vs. strong, oppressed vs. oppressor.[11]
According to Warner Bros records the film earned $284,000 domestically and $46,000 in foreign markets.[1]
The Lighthouse by the Sea survives today, with a print in theLibrary of Congress and several film archives around the world.[12] It was transferred onto 16mm film byAssociated Artists Productions[2][13] in the 1950s and shown on television. It has also been issued on DVD.
For her thirteenth birthday, the Jewish diaristAnne Frank watched this film from a rented reel with an early projection machine along with her friends who thoroughly enjoyed it. Frank was a fan of Rin Tin Tin and mentioned this film in her diary in her second entry, on June 14, 1942.[14]
