Rusty Saves a Life

As Fred Gibson's car goes into the lake, it changes from a new Ford convertible to a much older Ford Model A.

The film opens with Frank Gibson having dinner with Danny and his friends at his mansion. He tells them that he plans to rewrite his will and leave his house, grounds, and pottery to the boys, and that the current heir is his nephew Fred Gibson.

**SPOILERS** Knowing that he doesn't have long to live Lewtownville's Counselor Gibson, Thorson Hall, sets himself down one evening to write, or rewrite, his last will and testament only to pass away just before he had time to sign it. The Counselor has become very friendly with Danny Mitchell, Ted Donaldson, and his friends as well as Danny's dog Rusty after he wrote out his first will leaving everything to his nephew Fred Gibson, Stephen Dunne.

It's the adults who have the best roles in this Rusty flick. JOHN LITEL is authoritative and dependable as the father who has to lecture his son (TED DONALDSON) on taking the law into his own hands.

RUSTY SAVES A LIFE (Columbia, 1949), directed by Seymour Friedman, number seven in the series, marks the return of Thurston Hall and Stephen Dunne, each having appeared in THE SON OF RUSTY (1947). While Hall reprises his original role as Lawtonville's counselor, Franklin P.

Rusty Saves a Life (1949) ** 1/2 (out of 4) The seventh and next to last in the series has the friendly counselor (Thurston Hall) who gave the local kids a clubhouse on his land dying and soon his nephew (Stephen Dunne) arrives in town as the will left everything to him. He soon gets into it with the kids who plan to take justice in their own hands and this gets both Danny (Ted Donaldson) and Rusty into trouble.

Small-town Lawtonville, Illinois teenager Ted Donaldson (as Daniel "Danny" Mitchell) is surprised to learn grandfatherly counselor Thurston Hall (as Franklyn "Frank" A. Gibson) plans altering his will to include young Donaldson and his club-house gang.