Rusty's Birthday is a black-and-white American juvenile drama, released by Columbia Pictures in November 1949. Structured as an hour-long second feature, it is the final entry in the eight-film low-budget series which centers on the bond between the German Shepherd dog Rusty and the boy Danny Mitchell, portrayed by Ted Donaldson. Rusty's Birthday was directed by Seymour Friedman, and also stars John Litel (who played Danny's father in five of the eight films) and Ann Doran (who played Danny's mother in six films) as his parents, Hugh and Ethel Mitchell. Plot Rusty is lost and injured after performing a good deed Rusty pulls the mailbox string, clamps his jaws around the letter inside and brings it into the kitchen where city legal official Hugh Mitchell is instructing his teenage son Danny on baking four rainbow trout. The burned fish wind up being offered to Rusty who also turns away from such a meal. Mrs. Mitchell returns from a trip to Chicago with a present for Rusty's upcoming birthday — a new collar. She also brings a pipe for Hugh and a briefcase for Danny who is about to start his junior year in high school. She also gives him a brochure for "Rowan - Lee Military Academy / a College Preparatory School for Young Men". Meanwhile, Rusty takes his other present, a small ball and exits into the backyard where he confronts a vagrant who then throws a wrench at him and runs to a gas station, just as a middle-aged woman drops her purse before getting into a car with her husband. As she realizes that the purse which, she tells him, contains her rings and nearly 200 dollars, is missing, Rusty is spotted running after the car to return it. As the grateful woman kisses Rusty, the vagrant who was following Rusty and the purse, steps out to claim that Rusty is his dog but, due to circumstances, would be willing to sell him. The woman gives him 25 dollars and asks the dog's name. The vagrant, already some distance away, shouts over his shoulder, "Jackpot". Attorney Mitchell telephones to place a newspaper ad regarding Rusty's disappearance, while Danny and his four friends from the neighborhood return after an unsuccessful search. Meanwhile, as the couple who "bought" Rusty stop their car, which is pulling a trailer, Rusty runs out of the trailer and starts for home. While searching