They Only Kill Their Masters

This is a cute little movie that is of"B" quality but better than most and certainly better than most TV Movies. In the story there is a beautiful Doberman named Murphy who is believed killed someone. I won't disclose the ending. There is a chemistry among all the actors that keep the movie together. I read lately that this was the last movie that this particular movie company made before the backlot was bulldozed for another use. I had a Doberman after this movie and I called him Murphy in memory of him. Absolutely worth watching at least once. Not to be confused with the other James Garner movie called "Murphy's Romance".

I saw this movie when I was ten-years-old with my cousin Johnny. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I remember liking it. It seems that Dobermans were capturing the imaginations of Americans from Los Angeles to New York, and this film reflects that craze. Does anyone remember that crazy movie about a group of Dobermans that were trained to commit crime. It's odd how certain dogs become really popular, then aren't very popular at all. That said, I decided to watch this film again...and you know what, it's a really good movie filled with veteran actors who know how to act. Not fast-paced, but a darn good whodunit that will leave you guessing until it is all revealed. A must for James Garner fans. Quite possibly his best, if you don't include the "Great Escape" or "Support Your Local Gunfighter."

The film opens up with a view of the ocean and their is a woman floating in the water and a Doberman is biting her and trying to pull her on shore. Abel Marsh, (James Garner) is the Chief of Police and at first accepts the fact that this dog did the killing, until the CSI staff determine she was drowned in a bathtub and then placed in the ocean because she had fresh water in her lungs. There are cameo appearances by some veteran actors like: June Allyson, (Mrs. Watkins), Tom Ewell, (Cop), Peter Lawford, (Mr. Campbell). and Edmond O'Brien, (Liquor Store Owner) Abel Marsh and Kate Bingham, (Katherine Ross) meet and they both burn up the screen with some torrid love making. If you like James Garner, you will enjoy his great acting in this film. Enjoy

One of the first vehicles of the 1970's catering to the 1970's Doberman craze; although this particular pooch is more a McGuffin than pet: A friendly yet sometimes growling, possibly deadly red-herring that could provide California small town sheriff James Garner some clues...

He plays writer Lane Slate's rural lawman, Abel Marsh, in the first of three movies (Andy Griffith took over the rest); and while this is the only one made for the big screen, with a lightweight, glossy main score it both sounds and plays like a Movie Of The Week...

Even the town itself, the last chance audiences got see the Universal lot, is pure television, as is Garner's affable manner despite throwing around a few glib curse words and references to homosexuality...

The latter concerns the woman who dies in the beginning, seeming killed by the dog, Murphy... And, adding to the sporadic attempts to fit into the progressive, post counter-culture era, the beach-drowned victim is the bisexual wife of classy Peter Lawford, hanging around a young, full-chested and very straight Jenifer Shaw...

But it's natural-beauty's natural-beauty Katharine Ross who provides Garner both an ingenue and a possible twist... One of several moments where THEY ONLY KILL THEIR MASTERS wakes up from its episodic daze and becomes the Old School Detective/Neo Noir Mystery it strives for (but not quite often enough).

One has to wonder if David Lynch was inspired by this film when developing his cult-favorite TV series "Twin Peaks". Similarities abound (dead female washes ashore, sleepy town with ugly sexual underbelly, inept police force, quirky citizens, references to pie, to name a few....) Garner plays the police chief of a small coastal town called Eden Landing (mostly represented by the MGM backlot!) When a divorcée is found along the shore with her Doberman at attendance and bite marks all over her, it is presumed that the dog killed her. However, he soon realizes that someone else is involved. Through his investigation, he interacts with quirky locals who are portrayed by a plethora of old time movie stars (some of whom hadn't worked on screen in years.) O'Brien looks really unhealthy and only worked another year or two after this. Ewell (who once flirted on screen with Marilyn Monroe) is also looking really rough. (Trivia: Evelyn Keyes played his wife in "The Seven Year Itch" and Anne Rutherford does so here, so he played husband to both of Scarlett O'Hara's sisters from GWTW.) Lawford is rail thin and knee-deep in the "mod" look he would later take even further. The worst injustice is saved for Allyson. Her character is completely, totally unbelievable and underdeveloped. Things had definitely changed since she and Lawford filmed "Good News" on the same backlot! Garner is aided somewhat by veterinarian Ross (whose lab coat is longer than her mini-skirts) and to a lesser degree by bumbling Connelly and Guardino as a trigger happy state police captain. Holbrook gives another one of his wonderful performances in which it's impossible to tell if he's good or bad. The script is trashy and occasionally meandering. If anyone wants to hear Garner and Ross toss around words like "faggot" and "dyke", here's the chance. Or try a drinking game. Every time someone says "neat", do a shot. Most folks will be under the table by half time. Nearly everyone who doesn't live in Eden Landing is presented as either a troublemaker or a sex fiend. This gives the film a certain oddity value. Not only do the characters think of outsiders as freaks, but the filmmakers seem to feel that way too! (Witness Lawford's girlfriend and the bizarre barroom brawl started by two out of town punks, one of whom actually wears a huge measure of chain around his neck!) The film also serves as a time capsule for horrible '70's decor. Check out the beach house's kitchen and its foil wallpapered bathroom!