AllMovie

Produced by Samuel S. Krellberg's parsimonious Regal Distributing Corp., this Northwest melodrama was made for the kiddie market, where slipshod production methods and subpar acting made little or no difference. Jim Caldwell (Murdock MacQuarrie) and his son Matt (Francis X. Bushman, Jr.) have secured the timber rights from a tribe of friendly Indians, but a villainous lumber king (J.P. McGowan desires the land for himself. The Caldwell dog, (Lightning the Wonder Dog), manages to hide the lease from the villains, but Jim is shot and left for dead during the ensuing melee. The dog nurses his master back to health but is himself wounded by the lumber baron's henchmen. The animal finds a caring nurse in pretty Helen Stevens (Alice Dahl) and, like his master, is nursed back to health, ready to take on the entire McGowan gang. Krellman promised the small fry a series of Lightning the Wonder Dog adventures, but only one subsequent film, Man's Best Friend, was actually produced.