Rusty Leads the Way (1948)
** (out of 4)
Bland and forgettable sixth entry in the series has Danny (Ted Donaldson) becoming friends with a 13-year-old blind girl (Sharyn Moffett) but she and her mother soon find themselves in trouble because she's not in school. The public school refuses to allow her in so Danny comes up with the idea of a guide dog and of course Rusty is the subject. RUSTY LEADS THE WAY is a pretty bland entry and I'd say it's the worst film in the series so far. There were several reasons for this but the biggest is the screenplay, which seemed to have been written so fast that they didn't bother trying to come up with anything original or interesting. At just 57-minutes, this is certainly the shortest film in the series and not much ever really happens. We're introduced to the blind girl and then we get back and forth dialogue sequences where the debate on what type of school happens over and over again. None of this dialogue is very interesting and it certainly doesn't help that none of the characters are written to where you really care about them. Once again Donaldson is good in his role as is John Litel as his father. Ann Doran is pretty much wasted in her role of the mother. Moffett isn't too bad as the blind girl but her character is probably the worst written in the film. With such a short running time everything seems rushed and it's clear that no one bothered coming up with a better story. The forced ending really comes out of nowhere and is rather embarrassing.