The Big Dog House

One of nine rare "Dogville" comedies, this hysterical short features a cast entirely made up of dogs! This concept may seem overdone now, but it was brand-new when this was first done in 1930. And the way it's executed is uproariously funny. The dogs are dressed up, and manipulated with fishing lines. It looks so campy and ridiculous, you'll laugh at loud for hours! Sometimes you'll even see these dogs smoking pipes, wearing hats, and drawing guns. This short and the other 8 are extremely rare (although I was lucky enough to tape them during a "shorts" festival), and if you can see one, do it. You'll love 'em!

Turner Classic Movies showed all 9 of the Dogville Comedy Shorts recently. I have NEVER laughed so hard in my life!!! These are hilarious spoofs of Hollywood movies. This is the story of a simple worker who was framed for a crime he didn't commit.

If you have a chance, see all these shorts!!!!!

After airing the Saturday morning Bowery Boys picture, TCM dropped this little gem into the lineup, which I was fortunate enough to catch. Contrary to some of the opinions posted, I didn't find it irksome or tedious myself, and the short running time didn't require a big investment in my day.

I found it completely hysterical, and I laughed continually throughout the picture. It was quite clever and inventive in creating all the various activities going on in each scene, which were staged elaborately with costumes, props, dialogue, and a lot more. I saw Jules White's name as one of the directors, and we all know what he was about be involved with a couple years later.

I couldn't help it, watching the evil boss's nefarious machinations to steal Trixie just cracked me up. The nail in Fido's tire...hahaha! A lot of other scenes were equally funny, such as the ladies pawing through the clothes on sale, dogs at the table eating, in prison breaking rocks, or the guard with the machine gun.

I liked it, but I can see from the other reviews it's not for everyone. Oh well, I admitted freely I'm a big fan of the Bowery Boys, so lowbrow is OK by me if it makes me laugh. I'll also point out that I'm a first time viewer of any Dogville picture, so I have no idea if I would enjoy watching any others. But this one was definitely entertaining.

To quote Lord Flasheart from Blackadder: "Woof!"

Big Dog House, The (1930)

** (out of 4)

One of nine "Dogville" shorts from MGM with this one spoofing their prison drama The Big House. A department store working gets accused of murder and is sent to prison even though in truth it was his boss who did the killing. In case you don't know, these Dogville shorts were basically spoofs of various MGM films with the only catch being that dogs act everything out. This movie really isn't funny but I found it interesting as to what must have happened in order to get the dogs to act all of this stuff out. It's very clear that there's a ton of editing being done in each scene just to pull off the talking or walking but at other times, like when a dog changes another dog's diaper, you can see their hands moving and I'm going to guess strings or something was attached to them. Either way, the movie isn't a total success but it's certainly not bad but I'm sure kids would get more of a kick out of it today.

Some may find these shorts hilarious, but after the first few minutes it's clear that the dogs are being manipulated to assume the poses of animals talking to each other like humans, walking around on their hind legs and wearing costumes appropriate for the "characters" they're supposed to be playing. It's funny and amusing but hardly what I would call hilarious. The word "stilted" is more like it--because it's all so obviously staged that the dogs seem more like puppets being led about by invisible strings.

Having said that, if FRANCIS, THE TALKING MULE is your style of entertainment, you may fall over laughing at this nonsense.

The dogs say grace at the table, fix a flat tire, go wild at a department store remnant sale, model clothes, cope with a crooked boss, and our hero and his girlfriend are separated when the boss pins a crime on the boy dog so that he can win the affection of the girl.

After spending some time at the penitentiary, where some dogs are seen doing hard labor in jail clothes, the girl dog comes to the rescue and gets her boyfriend saved in time to avoid going to the chair for his crime.

Says one dog to another when sampling jail food: "It ain't fit for a dog!" Hilarius? It depends.