Oh Heavenly Dog

Around the time Chevy Chase had hit it big with Saturday night live, he started to get movie offers. So after sharing the screen with Goldie Hawn in "Foul Play", we who would see Chase voicing the thoughts of everyone's favourite show-time pooch at the time; the lovable Benji. "Oh Heavenly Dog" is a comedy murder mystery that sees Chase as a washed-up detective that's murdered and then is sent back down to earth in the form of a dog to uncover who killed him. So would you class it as a Chase vehicle? Not really. Would he go far for being in it. Probably not. However the dry humour and the presence of Benji (who's quite well-trained and steals nearly every scene)… just fitted snugly with Chase. Maybe minor, but passable. The story plays out like a lively comic strip, where it's all about investigating the clues from a dog's point of view and also getting into mishaps within a London / Paris backdrop. Quite foreseeable plotting, but nonetheless amusingly undemanding. Along the way the lovely Jane Seymour finds herself caught-up in the web and Omar Sharif is at his seedy best in trying to cover everything up. The cast kind of keeps a straight-face throughout. Also the buoyant sounding music soundtrack is an odd assortment of choices. Perhaps better remembered for nostalgic reasons, but "Oh Heavenly Dog" is an admirable little comedy fantasy.

For the third Benji feature film, director Joe Camp decided to head far out into left field. After two films told from a dog's perspective and that consisted mostly of Benji running, it was a good move to do something drastically different, and it produced a film that matches the first one in quality.

The first unusual thing that Camp did was to hire three stars who were big box office attractions in 1980--Chevy Chase, Jane Seymour and Omar Sharif. The previous two films featured unknowns.

Next, he made Oh Heavenly Dog essentially a human story. The film really hinges on Chase's character, Benjamin Browning, who becomes a pawn in a relatively complex plot of deceit. Camp displayed an affection for conspiracy-like action/thriller subplots in the two previous films, but here that becomes the primary focus, and because of this, the script is better written and paced.

The criminal aspects of the first two films had something of an odd fit within films that were essentially geared towards young children (as did the plethora of untranslated Greek in the second film), but in Oh Heavenly Dog, Camp aims for a combination of an older, tween and teen crowd as well as adults. This is made quickly apparent in another unusual feature--a strong sense of humor, Chevy Chase-style. There are implicit gay jokes and lots of sexual innuendo jokes here. There is also very natural sounding, light profanity. And less humorously, but also more adult, there is a bit more violence.

Even more left field for a Benji movie in 1980, Oh Heavenly Dog quickly heads for the fantasy genre, and through this, Benji becomes and remains something of a fantasy character. It's a move that's completely unexpected, plotwise, but it works remarkably well. Camp's purely fantasy settings and characters are very entertaining and even a bit charming.

Because of the plot and Chase, and maybe somewhat as an intentional move directorially, most of Oh Heavenly Dog plays like a typical Chase detective film, like Foul Play (1978), or like the Fletch films (1985 & 1989) that came later. I hadn't paid much attention to Chase for awhile--I was one of the people a bit turned off by his off-screen behavior, as evidenced in his interactions with the Howard Stern Show, for example--but Oh Heavenly Dog has reawakened my interest in him, because he's excellent here. It's reminded me of how great he was in so many other films, even including later ones like Man of the House (1995).

And what a coup Camp managed in getting the music he did for Oh Heavenly Dog. Paul McCartney's "Arrow Through Me", one of my favorite solo songs of his, fits the film perfectly. Euel Box even gives us orchestral variations on it throughout the film. Camp also managed to get a couple Elton John songs, and used Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition for an art gallery scene. The music helps support an already fantastic film.

this movie was an absolute pile of gopher. when i say gopher, i mean that small brown burrowing creature from northern america, yes that thing. Possibly has higher IQ than Chevy Chase, who put in a dismal performance for this movie. In fact, the star of the film, Benji, did not need a vet, groomer, or trainer, while Chevy Chase needed all of these things, including a bowl of water, plate of biscuits and a deluxe sized "Kitty Litter" tray. Unfortunately, most of Chevy Chase's salary for this movie (about 12 million $Us) was spent on such items, an estimated Us$3.5 million was spent on "Kitty Litter" alone. Anyway, this movie was so incredibly horse that it should be banned in all countries over the world, except the USA, they made it, they can suffer with it.

I first saw this movie when I was 8 years old. We had just gotten our cable, which was a big treat back in 1982. I use to get the program guide and mark all the times "Oh Heavenly Dog" was on. I became a bit obsessed with this movie. There was something about how goofy and sad Chevy Chase's character appealed to me. I was so intrigued by the beauty and elegance of Jane Seymour's presence. When you combine the two in the movie, everything seemed to fall into place. It was simple and honest. The movie isn't a dramatic masterpiece but its not crap either! As a child and as an adult I still feel the same way. This movie is a warm fuzzy. It is fun to watch, has a good plot and I really like the songs in the opening and ending. It's a classic. Somewhat an unknown among many, but a favorite of mine.

Chevy Chase was pretty good in this as was Jane Seymour. Pretty good story, a fun watch (I've seen it over 20 times and still get a kick out of it). On a personal note a lot of the "London" scenes were filmed in Old Montreal, Quebec Canada and I was an extra for a week. That's me driving the little brown Triumph GT6 MkIII (my old car) in the opening scene as well as 2 other scenes...that's my 15 minutes of fame done ;-)