FILM: Big Jake

Tags

collies, dog movies, John Wayne, lassie, rough collie

Film: Big Jake
Director: George Sherman
Performers: John Wayne, Richard Boone, Patrick Wayne, Christopher Mitchum, Maureen O’Hara, Dog* (uncredited)
Breed featured: Rough Collie
Production information: Batjac / Cinema Center Films: 1971 (USA)

“Big Jake” McCandle (John Wayne) sets off to recover his kidnapped grandson with the help of two incompetent sons and a dog named… Dog.

A nice, shaggy Collie out of the Weatherwax (Lassie) kennel.

Does what it says on label.

Including dying to protect the precious kid that nobody else really has a reason to care about. But not before taking a big ol’ chomp out of one bad guy’s arm in a carefully choreographed sneak attack.

You know sometimes how movie dogs are so well-trained, their performance doesn’t even look natural? That applies to several of the human actors in this film as well.

Anyway, speaking of dy(e)ing, it appeared that there were actually a couple different collies used in this film, though it could just be a semi-permanent dye job fading and reappearing between shoots. You can see from my screencaps that sometimes Dog the collie looks significantly darker than others, initially appearing almost black.

I thought they might have switched them because the darker Collie appeared to be better around horses than the others. But that’s just my conjecture tossed out there to swirl about with other internet conjectures, all unverified because the dog was left off the cast, despite the significance of his character.

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The House of Two Bows keeps a running index of movies blurbed on the site, annotated by breed. If you’re interested in writing a guest blog for a dog film, contact for details.

Sightings: Headin’ for the Holes

Tags

basenji, collies, heelers, huskies, pit bulls, pointers

It’s a popular preoccupation at the dog park.

FILM: Turner and Hooch (guest post by Jan)

Tags

beasley the dog, collies, dog movies, dogue de bourdeaux, french mastiff, roger spottiswoode, rough collie, tom hanks

Today’s guest post comes from Jan of the Poodle (and Dog) Blog, an upbeat and sassy source for canine news. Originally published as Turner and Hooch — Unlikely Movie Buddies, the post has been reprinted here with screencaps and Jan’s gracious permission.

Film: Turner and Hooch
Director: Roger Spottiswoode
Performers: Tom Hanks, Mare Winningham, Craig T. Nelson, Beasley the Dog, of Curley’s TNT Kennels (Hooch)
Breeds featured: French Mastiff / Dogue de Bordeaux, Rough Collie
Production Information: Touchstone / Silver Screen Partners IV, 1989 (USA)

Turner and Hooch is an early Tom Hanks movie before he convinced everyone that he could act and win Academy Awards and be more selective about his choice of roles.

It may be a Tom Hanks movie, but Hooch, a smelly, slobbery Mastiff, was the runaway star of the film. It was an instant success when it came out.

Hanks plays Turner, an anal retentive detective in a small California town. When a local man is murdered by drug smugglers, the only witness is Hooch. Suspecting that Hooch might be able to identify the killer, Turner unwillingly takes Hooch into his meticulous home.

It doesn’t stay meticulous for long as Hooch goes on a drooling and demolition binge.

There really isn’t much of a plot. There are a series of funny sequences between the two unlikely roommates as Turner is intent on showing “Why man will prevail and your kind will never dominate the earth.”

Predictably Turner and Hooch develop a warm human-dog chemistry.

Then for reasons known only to the film makers, they decide to make an action-melodrama movie out of the ending. When Turner is hopelessly outmaneuvered by the bad guys, Hooch steps in and goes all kamikaze to save his life.

Turner and Hooch unfortunately has an Old Yeller ending which seems out of keeping with the rest of the movie.

Don’t be alarmed though, Hooch has left behind a bunch of adorable puppies [sired with a plush-looking Rough Collie! ~ ed.] that are supposed to make us all feel better at the end. It didn’t work with Old Yeller and it doesn’t work here.

Hooch is played by Beasley, a Dogue de Bordeaux or French Mastiff, in his only starring role.

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Hooch’s drool made this film difficult for me to stay focused (sorry, I gotta admit SOME biases!), so I thank Jan for her contribution. Perhaps I have more in common with Tom Hanks’ “anal retentive” character than I care to admit. There’s a reason I stick to breeds known for their fastidiousness…

One thing that impressed me was the age of Beasley the dog at the time of filming. Born in 1978, he was apparently eleven years old when this film was made. This is significant, given the short lifespan of the breed (averages are recorded to be as short as 4 years in some surveys, or 6 years in more “generous” assessments). Though a few other (uncredited) dogs play his stunt doubles, he was looking pretty good through most of the film — minus the yards of stringy, flying drool of course.

The House of Two Bows keeps a running index of movies blurbed on the site, annotated by breed. If you’re interested in writing a guest blog for a dog film, contact for details.

Two early silent films featuring the Thanhouser Collie

Tags

collies, dog movies, pets and children, scotch collie, silent film, thanhouser film corporation, twins

Film: Shep’s Race with Death
Director: John Harvey
Performers: Mrs. Whitcove, J.S. Murray, Marie Rainford, Marion and Madeline Fairbanks, Shep (the Thanhouser Collie)
Breed featured: Old-Time Scotch Collie
Production information: Thanhouser Film Corporation, 1914 (USA)

Mother-in-law has come for a visit. She clearly favors one of the two Stearns twins over the other, and doesn’t care for Shep the family dog at all. Resenting the attentions lavished upon her sister, one twin pulls a prank on grandmother, with Shep’s help. Unfortunately, this gets the dog in trouble, much to the embarrassment of both young girls. Unable to let their innocent pet take the blame, the guilty twin has no choice but to confess.

Refusing to suffer further abuse, mother-in-law takes the favored twin away, leaving the other home alone with the father. The twins and Shep pine for each other.

Interestingly, the strength of their emotional bond is such that Shep seems to immediately know something is amiss when a horse gets spooked and sends one sister careening through town in a runaway buggy. Shep leaps into action, outruns a car, intercepts the buggy and pulls it off the path of an oncoming train. Crisis is averted and household favor reclaimed, just like that! What a good dog, after all!

In her study of Pets in America at the turn of the 20th century, author Katherine Grier devotes one of the best chapters to the emergent “domestic ethic of kindness” that was increasingly conveyed through entwined representations of pets and children. Pets, as argued, would naturally instill a sense of benevolence in children by developing emotional bonds with soft creatures who needed human protection and would reward that love with their useful companionship. Accompanying this shift in public discourse from dominion over animals to benevolent stewardship, animals were increasingly imagined as emotional and “moral” actors in their own right. While dogs and other whimsical critters abound in early film, I find that these clips featuring the Thanhouser Collie are some of the best visual narrations of this philosophical ethic.

The opportunity to live with and love pets seemed to have been denied to mother-in-law’s generation, though social progress has allowed the parents to consciously grant this luxury to their daughters. In the end, after brave Shep has saved the girl, mother-in-law is pushed out of the frame and the story as the nuclear family celebrates their reunion. This is one aspect that makes Shep’s role decidedly “modern” (for its time), even as this type of Collie is now considered old-time, vintage stock in comparison to the rise of the Rough Collie after Lassie.

The twins themselves are the very picture of good upbringing, doubled figures of grace and civility befitting their social class; their elegant dog just completes the picture. There is no “evil twin.” Shep’s presence amplifies the fact that both are good at heart, and thus they thoroughly defend their dog’s status as the third “sibling” in their family. It is significant, after all, that the large Collie sleeps (and plays) in bed with the girls. The closeness of this relationship is explicitly condoned. The cold and unfeeling mother-in-law is the one who fails to understand, and cruelly separates the family.

Lesson learned: Ditch the mother-in-law, and never doubt the dog.

“Shep’s Race with Death” can be viewed here on the Thanhouser collection’s online library. As a bonus, here’s the first video that I saw starring the Thanhouser Collie, a macabre tale that similarly riffs on the theme of an enduring relationship between a child and her dog… even beyond the grave. Pertinent information listed below the embedded clip.

Film: A Dog’s Love
Director: John Harvey
Performers: Helen Badgley, Arthur Bauer, Ethyle Cooke Benham, Fan Bourke, Shep the Dog
Breed featured: Scotch Collie
Production Information: Thanhouser Film Corporation, 1914 (USA)

Shep also stars in a couple other titles that may be reviewed at a later date.

Hat tip to Dave of Prick-Eared for bringing these clips to my attention.

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The House of Two Bows keeps a running index of movies blurbed on the site, annotated by breed. If you’re interested in writing a guest blog for a dog film, contact for details.

The chaser gets chased

Tags

collies, corgis

You know how there are some dogs at the park who delight in running after other dogs, just because they can?

26 December 2011

That’s Bowpi. Of course, it’s even better if they turn around and chase her. But when the dog in question can’t be distracted from their singularly important task (Ball!!!), she’s happy to run alongside.

There was some amazing fog at the park that day.

At one point, we found ourselves knee-deep in a stream of Corgis. The woman with the Chuck-It had just one, Ruby, whom we’d been watching and listening to during her obsessive game of fetch. Another woman had all the others. It was pretty intense.

There were two or three more that didn’t even make it into this frame. And every single one of them was more interested in cheerleading for Ruby, rather than chasing Bowpi!

WAYTOGO! YOU GOTTHEBALL! ATTAGIRL RUBEEEEEE! Yup, these little guys sure do know how to make a fuss.

FILM: Call of the Yukon (1938)

Tags

alaska, collies, dog movies, saint bernard, wolf dog, wolf hybrid

Film: Call of the Yukon
Director: B. Reeves Easton, John T. Coyle
Performers: Richard Arlen, Beverly Roberts, Lyle Talbot, Firefly (Collie), Swift Lightning (wolf dog), Buck (St. Bernard)
Production Info: Republic Pictures (USA), 1938
Breeds featured: Collie, wolf hybrid, Saint Bernard, various sled dogs

From the vaults of yesteryear, we have a story of a glamorous writer, Jean, camped out in the Yukon wilderness armed with her Fifth Avenue furs, her typewriter, and a ridiculous talking raven. At the peak of winter, a crew of new arrivals passes through, bringing along the corpse of the would-be game warden who unfortunately died en route. The warden’s loyal Collie, Firefly, is among the crew sent by the American government to quell the packs of wild dogs whom are said to go on killing sprees in times of famine. When they start to overrun the village, a rogue trapper Gaston takes it upon himself to guide Jean to safer quarters.

Jean Williams, intrepid female writer

Wild dogs invade the village

Meanwhile, Firefly is convinced to break her vigil at her dead master’s grave by a handsome wolf-dog, Swift Lightning. Hedging their bets with the humans, Firefly and Swift Lightning follow and eventually gain the acceptance of Jean and Gaston, despite the latter’s prejudices against Swift Lightning’s wild blood.

Firefly the Collie

Firefly snarls when Swift Lightning comes on too strong

Call of the Yukon delivers pretty standard action adventure fare with a cast that’s (barely) a notch above mediocre, a few impressive on-location sequences that are otherwise bogged down by the usual dull studio fakery, and generous amounts of highly anthropomorphized canine screen time. One notable early scene has Gaston teaming up with the locals to frantically cordon off a bunch of reindeer from a large pack of attacking wolf-dogs; some dogs actually appear to be shot in the process, leading me to wonder how much of this fictional production was riding alongside real government programs to eradicate wolves.

Cordoning off a pack of reindeer from a maelstorm of wild dogs

He's just saying hi

Is it notable for its time that Swift Lightning, the wolf hybrid who is more or less the “star” of the film, comes to a favorable conclusion? Probably not, since his symbolic value as a rather unsubtle stand-in for race and class issues plays to standard discourses that abound in early melodrama. At one point, a hotshot fur trader and rival for Jean’s attentions flies in with his Saint Bernard to help the stranded travelers. The trader, Hugo, seems intent on pairing his dog Buck with Firefly. Gaston, however, is suddenly ready to stand up for the wolf-dog whom he’s been pelting with objects for half the film. “Y’know, it’d be pretty raw if the Collie were to quit Swift Lightning now,” he says. “If he want her, why should he give her up?”

“Because he’s not her kind,” rebuts Hugo. “And the lady knows it. He’s a wolf dog, and she’s a thoroughbred.”

“Buck isn’t her breed either.”

Gaston and Jean

And that’s about as zippy as it gets. For diehard dog movie lovers, the film’s worth seeing for some cute and totally staged moments of Collie-Wolfdog bonding. Otherwise, it’s pretty forgettable. Luckily you don’t have to go out of your way to catch it on archive.org. Otherwise, you can find it on DVD as part of the Canine Collection.

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FILM: War Dogs (1942)

Tags

ace the wonder dog, airedale terriers, army dogs, collies, german shepherds, great danes, monogram pictures, police dogs, training, war dogs

War Dogs (1942)

Film: War Dogs
Director: S. Roy Luby
Performers: Billy Lee, Addison Richards, Bradley Page, Kay Linaker, Ace the Wonder Dog
Production Info: Monogram Pictures (USA), 1942
Breeds featured: German Shepherd, Airedale Terrier, Great Dane, Collie, Doberman Pinscher

The war “dogs” in this film are both human and canine. Captain William “Wild Bill” Freeman is a World War I vet who has fallen amongst the legions of forgotten men in the aftermath of the war. Despite his patriotic fervor, he’s now considered too old and not specialized enough to join the fight in World War II. On the other hand, his son Billy is too young. The fact that there is no Freeman in the fight, on top of his unemployment, leaves him distraught and feeling helpless until circumstances bring a child welfare agent, Ms. Allen, to his home.

“Say, have you ever heard of the Army Patrol Dogs?” she asks, trying to help them brainstorm a solution. “Those dogs have to enlist in the army, just like people do.” And thus begins the mission to transform the family pet, Pal, into a true soldier worthy of the Freeman legacy.

Two trainees in War Dogs

I’m not giving a blow-by-blow of this film, because it’s pretty awful. There are no real characters to speak of. The bobble-headed kid reeks of so much gosh-darned earnestness, you just want to smack him. The “plot” takes so long to develop that it may as well not be there — though it comes complete with overwrought romantic intrigue, industrial saboteurs, anthropomorphized patriotism, and a tragic, heroic death (hint: no dogs die in this story). Indeed, the acrobatic army dogs-in-training show more talent than the hacks that jerryrigged this stinker.

Even Pal the dog must learn to overcome his attachments and personal weaknesses

And the Freemans must sacrifice they pet they love for the good of the nation.

However, as a piece of po(o)p propaganda that is roughly contemporaneous with Frank Capra’s masterful Why We Fight series, this film is somewhat interesting as an emblem of its time. Its messy overlay of fiction and documentary re-enactment is very symptomatic of that moment in Hollywood productions, as lesser filmmakers were mobilizing to incorporate the excess of wartime rhetoric into the folds of everyday entertainment. The entire production feels forced because on some level, everyone in Hollywood was forced to take part in rallying the nation towards the patriotic cause.

War Dog trainees at ease

Great Dane climbs a ladder

The most interesting parts were the newsreel-style footage of the training process. However, I couldn’t help but feel awful for the poor African American soldier who was forced to play “the enemy” during the drills. He was the one hiding in the bushes, beating the dogs, firing guns at the dogs, inciting them to violence — and thus, repeatedly taken down as “proof” of the dog’s successful training. Not always a comfortable image to witness, especially when you think about black soldiers fighting alongside white soldiers (and ostensibly relying on the protection of the same dogs), and also when filtered retrospectively through similar images of Civil Rights Movement era violence.

War Dog in training with hapless African American man

Sadly, these training and other pseudo-documentary sequences only amounted to about 10 minutes of the total 64 minute run time. So you do the math to figure out just how much chaff you’ve got to sort through and see if it’s worth it…

PTSD "Wild Dog" Freeman

In my opinion, you’re better off watching some of the War Dog documentary training reels housed at the British Pathe online archives, like these: War Dogs 1 and War Dogs Reel 2 (1961); Dogs of War (1939); Canine Warriors (1941). But if you insist on checking out this title, it’s available as part of the Canine Collection 3-disc DVD set, or as a standalone title on a remastered DVD.

EDIT 6 May 2011: Or you should check out this photo essay on war dogs by Rebecca Frankel for Foreign Policy.