A Dog of Flanders

.There are three movie versions of this story. I like this one the most because it is nostalgic. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a DVD or VHS of it and I really want to see it again.

I remember back in 1961 seeing David Ladd and Donald Crisp as young Nello and his grandfather in that version of A Dog Of Flanders and liking it very much. So I'm glad I finally got to see this most famous version of the story. Being from RKO Studio it hardly had the money put in it like the other one did which was I believe shot in the story's location of Belgium. In fact looking at the sets it kind of reminded me of sets from RKO's Anne Of Green Gables or Little Women. RKO like every other studio never built sets for one film. They got charming use out of them for this film.

Nello is played here by Frankie Thomas who would go on to play all American boy types like Ted Nickerson in the Nancy Drew series, or the minister's son in One Foot In Heaven or the intrepid Tim Tyler in the Tim Tyler's Luck serial. A little younger here Thomas is both winning and refreshing. His scenes with the rich girl Helen Parrish are most appealing.

Thomas has two passions, drawing and a German Shepherd dog he and Heggie took in after his cruel master left him for dead. He wants to enter an art contest with his sketches, but might not be able to afford the entry fee and they're so poor.

This version of A Dog Of Flanders is now 80 years old, but it still pulls the heartstrings. There is a silent version of this story and a more recent one that 1961. Still Frankie Thomas's will moisten your eyes unless you're a statue.

The acting in this version of Ouida's sentimental story of a poor young boy who wants to be an artist definitely has its issues in terms of speaking lines; even O.P. Heggie, usually a very reliable talent, is poorly modulated. This I lay solely at the feet of the director, Edward Sloman, who had been directing for twenty years.

However, even though a dialog director might have aided some of the performances, the visuals in this are outstanding -- a hallmark of Sloman's work and veteran cinematographer J. Roy Hunt. The voice direction may be poor, but the physical acting is just fine. Given the story -- and the dialog -- references to Rubens, it should come as no surprise that the images refer to the artist, and make the point of the story thereby: that beauty is everywhere for those who can see it, and that faith hope and charity will be rewarded.

This may seem a naive sentiment in this day and age, but when was there a day and age where these virtues were not threatened? Surely a simple story is the place to begin to tell a simple tale.

Unimaginative filming of an already sentiment-steeped story. The actors are poorly directed indeed--they use exaggerated, cliched expressions and gestures that would have been out of place in the worst silent melodrama--and the production values are strictly Poverty Row (tho this film was in fact made by a major studio, RKO). The 1959 version with David Ladd is the version of choice.