The Gay Dog (1954) User Reviews

Have A Go

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 15 September 2008]

This film stars Wilfred Pickles who was famous on the radio for his programme "Have A Go".This film about greyhound racing is only of marginal interest.However of more interest are the many familiar faces who pepper the cast list.There is Petula Clarke,still a Rank starlet.Peter Butterworth in this early association with Peter Rogers before the days of the Carry Ons and Jon Pertwee before the days of Wurzel Gummidge.Many of the rest of the cast such as Megs Jenkins and Harold Goodwin are familiar from TV and small parts in films.The best thing that can be said about this film is don't expect too much and you wont be disappointed.

A Real Charmer...a Greyhound Question

[bmccarthy-41135 · 7/10 · 18 October 2020]

A real charmer. Petula was lovely..still is. It was great to here her sing! You knew how the film would end as far as the love interests long before the end, but I had no problem with that. I do have about a question about the greyhounds in the film. I found it odd that the two dogs, never wagged their tails. Greyhounds do have tail issues. They get, "Happy tail syndrome"...apparently their wag is so frisky it can knock things over and they can possibly injure their tails causing skin tears or fractured tail tips...OUCH! I wonder in the film if they bound their tails somehow or were their 'all the time tail between the legs' just a sign of nervous pups. Anyone? Fun film.

Warm-Hearted Comedy

[boblipton · 6/10 · 10 December 2020]

Wilfred Pickles owns a racing greyhound. Sometimes, it seems to his wife, Megs Jenkins, it's the other other way around. When hes called in to take a look at another greyhound, he decides that this animal is a better bet for the rae they will both be running in. Meanwhile, daughter Petula Clark is having boyfriend problems.

It's a very pleasant Lancashire comedy based on a stage show starring Pickles and Jenkins, opened up very nicely for the screen by director Maurice Elvey. Pickles entered entertainment by way of amateur dramatics, and appeared in numerous venues, including occasionally being a news announcer on the BBC, speaking in his Northern accents. He died in 1978 at the age of 73.

The 37 Year Old Noel Dyson

[richardchatten · 2/10 · 23 October 2019]

Roedean-educated but authentically Mancunian Noel Dyson was in the original cast of 'Coronation Street' in 1960 as Ida Barlow, run over by a bus on 11 September 1961 but who herself continued to remain a familiar and welcome face on TV until her own death in 1995.

Rarely seen in films (her most prominent cinema appearance was probably recreating her role as Nanny in the big screen spin-off of 'Father, Dear Father'), she always seemed the same age, as she does here over forty years earlier in uniform at the bottom of the cast list of this antidiluvian stage farce by Joseph Colton filmed in Hammersmith as a vehicle for Wilfred Pickles with a few token exteriors authentically shot up North in Durham.

Dated comedy

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 26 January 2019]

THE GAY DOG is a low budget British comedy conceived as a vehicle for forgotten personality Wilfred Pickles. He plays the patriarch of a small family who finds himself enmeshed in a slight but lively plot involving greyhound racing and the usual shenanigans surrounding the bettiny community. It's a bit like the Huggetts films starring Jack Warner but smaller in scope and scale. Too much of the screen time is made up of a dull love triangle featuring a youthful Petula Clark and John Blythe. Others such as Harold Goodwin and Megs Jenkins are instantly familiar from the era. The most fun comes from small roles for Peter Butterworth and Jon Pertwee as a comedic duo.

Warm,funny and true.Life ooop north in the 1950s.............

[ianlouisiana · 8/10 · 10 March 2009]

Miss Petula Clark - known as "Radio's Merry Mimic" - was talented enough to have followed a similar career path to the infinitely more famous Miss Julie Andrews,but fate was to steer her to the Variety Stage rather than the Movie Studios where for years she made a good living as a singer accompanied by Mr Joe Henderson who plays her pianist in this movie.She was attractive,intelligent and sparky,had a number of Top Ten Hits and is still performing to much acclaim today. In "The Gay Dog" she plays an attractive,intelligent and sparky young Northern girl,daughter of Mr Wilfred Pickles and Miss Megs Jenkins (Mr and Mrs Gay). Mr Pickles,gifted and versatile, was a great star in his day but is virtually forgotten now.If you want to be reminded of how good an actor he was,seek out a copy of "Billy Liar",where,for me,he gives the most honest and "real" performance in the movie as Billy Fisher's father. "The Gay Dog" pre-dates the "Whippet and Woodbine"era of British films where Northern Working Class life was shown to be pretty brutish and it was all the fault of us Southern Softies.Mr Pickles doesn't spend his time throwing up behind the sofa or spitting his lungs up at 't' match. He has a perfectly comfortable home life with a loving family - a man to be envied.In those times perhaps not such an exceptional occurrence. He owns a greyhound - the Gay dog of the title - and keeps him at home - a source of concern to his wife.With food and vet's bills to be paid he needs the dog to be winning races........... Shot in peerless black and white on the proudly maintained Council Estates of the early 1950s,"The Gay Dog" is not the work of some guilt-ridden Oxbridge director,rather it is a lovingly - made low budget film made by pros without chips on their shoulders,not showing solidarity with some mythical oppressed working class waiting patiently to be patronised over the claret in a nice house in Kensington. This was how people were in the North of England in 1954,not violent embittered wasters but ordinary,honest hard - working,humorous and friendly.Just like us Southern Softies,really,but Northern.....if you know what I mean. It is a lovely movie,warm,funny and true.It's currently viewable online at "Movies 4 Men" along with a lot of other unregarded stuff from the golden years of British Cinema.

Great fun

[Huff30 · 9/10 · 17 July 2019]

This is a charming film; innocent and fun with lovely familiar faces, Wilfred Pickles, Megs Jenkins and a very young Petula Clarke. Watch it to see how all our kitchens were with the tin bath outside and a simpler way of life before television and the internet and too many cars! A walk into charming recent history with some laughs along the way.

Enjoyable, lighthearted film

[geoffm60295 · 8/10 · 3 December 2020]

I enjoyed the film immensely as it presented an genuine snapshot of working class life in a Yorkshire mining town in the early 1950's. The terraced houses, back yards, humble kitchens, and of course the inevitable local pub, where folk gathered before the advent of wall to wall TV, to gossip and of course provide a social hub for the community. The historical authenticity of northern, urban working class life of the 50's is captured by the convincing regional dialects, the social manners and graces as well as the cloth caps, greyhound racing and where mother cooked wholesome English breakfasts and dinners, and where there was no sign of a fridge or a washing machine. The film emphasises the gender divisions prevalent at the time, where mother did all the cooking, while father was in the shed or in the garden. It was a joy to see the young Petula Clark, who went on to become a major singing star, as well as a host of well known British supporting actors such as Megs Jenkins, Peter Butterworth, Jon Pertwee, John Blythe and William Russell, who all went on to have long film careers. However, the star of the film is Wilfred Pickles, who plays, Jim Gay, a passionate greyhound race owner, who is given excellent support by the delightful Megs Jenkins , who plays his loving and adoring wife Maggie. The dialogue between husband and wife is something to behold, as it sums their gentle and warm relationship. The storyline is uncomplicated, a bit like the characters.