Trailing the Killer
Directed by Herman C. RaymakerWhile the original title, "Trailing the Killer" isn't a misnomer, it was a bit misleading since the "trailer" is a dog named Caesar (Caesar the Dog) and the killer is a mountain lion, aka a cougar or puma, as the narrator quickly clarifies. But the makers also pointed out that Caesar "is the most intelligent dog actor since Rin-Tin-Tin" which probably lured a few Rin-Tin-Tin fans with a show-me attitude. Caesar prowls around the Northwest woods, dispatches a rattlesnake, visits his she-wolf mate and their pups, pauses to watch a raccoon personally washing every morsel of food before eating it--and that raccoon had enough food to use up several minutes of running time--then saves sheepherder Pierre (Francis McDonald) from getting eaten up by one mean mountain lion. Rin-Tin-Tin he ain't, but then who was? Commonwealth changed the title to "Call of the Wilderness" when they acquired it for 16mm rental to the school market.
