Trader Hound

During the 1930s, MGM made a string of god-awful shorts where they dressed dogs up like people and used voice-overs to make the audience laugh at the silly things the creatures said. Unfortunately, these films were about as funny as brain cancer and I honestly can't imagine audiences enjoying them.

For some strange reason, I actually sat through all of "Trader Hound"...among the worst of these films. The name is a take off on the title of the MGM picture "Trader Horn" (starring Harry Carey) and is set in Africa....or at least the Hollywood version of Africa. It's filled with dogs but also humans in animal costumes with no real attempt to make any of it seem real or funny. The worst part is that several of the 'natives' talked in drawls like Steppin Fetchit...and I can only see this short as offensive as would any sane person today.

Overall, a horrid, unfunny and tedious film...representing about the worst a major studio could have produced. By comparisons, the Three Stooges shorts at Columbia seem like great works of art by master thespians!

A fifteen minute spoof of "Trader Horn" (1931), this Dogville short creates some fascinating B&W visuals, thanks to inspired costumes and creative editing. The jungle plot focuses on the attempt to rescue the white goddess, Nina T-Bone, at the hands (or paws) of wild Africans. The film is full of dubious stereotypes.

But the main point here is the amusing human costumes the dogs wear, and the editing which allows the dogs to walk around on two legs and animate, as if they were human. I could have done without the lion and gorilla fight segment, where two men dress up in animal costumes. It's hokey, and seems inserted to extend the film's runtime.

Overall, the film is totally politically incorrect by today's standards. But we can overlook the stereotypes given the era. Enjoy the film for the entertaining costumes and silly plot. Not to be taken seriously, "Trader Hound" offers some comic relief.

This is one of a series of Dogville shorts released by M-G-M in the '30s that spoofed one of the hit features of the studio, in this case Trader Horn. With one of the directors being Jules White who would later be associated with The Three Stooges, Trader Hound has various breed of dogs playing the characters of the jungle picture walking on hind legs among other human-like things. There was one funny scene of a mosquito causing a sleeping dog to say "ouch!" while draining some of his blood before the dog pulls a gun and shoots him while the insect's flying! Another funny-if a bit lame-one is where a "gorilla" and a "lion" (named Leo though not for the M-G-M trademark) are fighting, neither one being very effective (they're actually guys in suits as is an earlier "giraffe" scene). Then there's a partially confusing scene with actual dogs chasing the one in suits away. With Pete Smith providing the narration and Billy Blecher the voices, Trader Hound provides enough amusement for the 15-minute running time.