Born to Fight
Cast & Crew
Walter Mayo
El Brendel
Janet Chandler
Onslow Stevens
Mitchell Harris
Russell Simpson
Film Details
Synopsis
Ashe Brent and his henchman Jackson poach a dead fox from a trap when they hear Clark Moran, who identifies himself as a surveyor, and his friend Swiebach approach. After Brent shoots a she-wolf, she drops her pup in a lake, and Clark saves it from drowning. Brent tells him that the pup belongs to him and is worth a $50 bounty. Clark pays Brent for the pup, guessing that the pup's father was probably a range dog, and names it "Boy." By summer, Boy is full grown. One day, as Clark rides the trails, Jackson's daughter Ginny begins to shoot at him and says that mountain folk don't like strangers. When Clark tries to soothe her, she slaps him in the face. Ginny returns to her ranch, where she tells Jackson that she has seen Clark snooping around. When Jackson tells Brent that he wants to quit poaching, Brent threatens him. Later that day, Boy gets his leg stuck in a fox trap. Ginny discovers him and takes him back to the ranch to dress the wound, but Brent enters and demands that she get rid of Boy. When Brent makes sexual advances toward Ginny, Boy bites him. Before Brent can get his pistol out, Ginny lets Boy go, and he returns to Clark, who redresses the wound. Swiebach and Clark ride out on the trail and leave Boy tied up outside the cabin. When Brent begins to whip Boy, Clark hears him barking and returns. The two men fight with guns, and Clark is hit in the abdomen, while Moran is hit in the hand. Boy races to Ginny, who follows him back to the cabin and helps Clark inside. She tells Boy to go to the Bar T Ranch for help while she tends to Moran's wounds. Later that night, Boy returns with some men from the ranch, who decide that Clark must be moved until his wounds heal. When Boy sees Clark leaving, he tries to chase after him, but gets lost. Boy mates with a she-wolf, and together they have a litter of pups. Boy kills a moose and a cow for food, but a rancher spots him and offers a $500 reward for his capture. Brent stalks Boy, who runs to the Bar T Ranch for safety. Brent enters and a man named Kinney is selected to decide Boy's fate. Boy realizes that they plan to kill him and escapes out the window, but Brent fires at him as he runs away, wounding him severely. Months pass and Boy recovers. One day, as Brent makes violent advances toward Ginny, Jackson enters. The men fight and Brent kills Jackson. Ginny escapes on her horse, but falls off and Boy comes to the rescue. They make it to Clark's cabin, where Brent and his men see smoke coming from the chimney and guess that Ginny is there. Clark returns and Brent ties him to a chair, while locking Boy out of the cabin. Boy calls the wolf pack, and when Brent and his men go out to their horses, the pack attacks. Ginny frees Clark, with whom she has fallen in love, and Boy returns to the pack.
Director
Walter Mayo
Cast
El Brendel
Janet Chandler
Onslow Stevens
Mitchell Harris
Russell Simpson
Willard Robertson
Son O' Dawn, The Miracle Dog
Harry Tenbrook
Harry Wilson
George Magrill
Ethan Laidlaw
Scoop Martin
Bob Clark
Cy Clegg
Vodi, A Female Dog
Crew
Roland Asher
E. W. Butcher
George P. Costello
David Cox
William Darling
Duke Goux
Marion Jackson
Earl Johnson
Bradley King
Lesley Selander
Sidney Wagner
Paul Weatherwax
Film Details
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Cross Pull. The plot summary was based on a dialogue continuity in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection, and the onscreen credits were taken from a screen credit billing sheet in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department, both of which are at the UCLA Theater Arts Library. The novel originally appeared in serial form in The Saturday Evening Post (22 November-13 December 1919). According to information in the legal records, this film was never released, although production was completed in late 1932. No information has been located to indicate the reason the film was, in the words of an inter-office correspondence of February 17, 1933, "written off."
Born to Fight appears to have been the only film directed by Walter Mayo, who otherwise worked as an assistant director. While the female lead character is called "Ginny" in the dialogue of the continuity, she is listed as "Jennie" in a cast list on the first page of the continuity and in a Fox trade paper advertising billing sheet. In 1921, H. O. Davis produced The Silent Call, an Associated First National release based on the same source, directed by Lawrence Trimble and starring Strongheart, John Bowers and Kathryn McGuire (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30; F2.5047).
