The Ugly Dachshund (1966)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Norman Tokar

Writers:

Albert Aley (screenplay)
G.B. Stern (book)

Release Date:

16 February 1966 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Family

Tagline:

A HAPPY HONEYMOON GOES TO THE DOGS!...When a Great Dane disguised as a Dachsie crashes the party!

Plot:

Fran Garrison's all in a tizzy because her prize Dachshund, Danke, is having pups, and she has hopes of one of the pups becoming a champion...

Plot Keywords:

Great Dane | Dachshund | Pregnant Animal | Suburban | Dog Actor

US TV Schedule:

Sat. July 11

10:00 AM

HALMRK

Cast

Dean Jones	...	Mark Garrison
Suzanne Pleshette	...	Fran Garrison
Charles Ruggles	...	Dr. Pruitt (as Charlie Ruggles)
Kelly Thordsen	...	Officer Carmody
Parley Baer	...	Mel Chadwick
Robert Kino	...	Mr. Toyama
Mako	...	Kenji
Charles Lane	...	Judge

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Walt Disney Studios, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Trivia:

In the movie, Suzanne Pleshette is obsessed with dachshunds, but in real life, she shared her home with a Yorkshire terrier named Missy. Because her pooch could smell Pleshette's "costars" on her when she got home at night -- and didn't like it -- the actress had to shower and change her clothes before leaving the studio.

Goofs:

Plot holes: When Brutus chases Sgt. Carmody he tries to open the door to his car but it is locked so he is forced to climb a tree. The next morning Mark Garrison sees the car and opens the driver's door and it is not locked.

Quotes:

Kenji: Rion! Rion!
Mark Garrison: Lion?
[Kenji points to Brutus, standing over Mr. Toyama, laying on the ground]
Fran Garrison: Brutus! Mark call him off. Mr. Toyama.
Mr. Toyama: Take away rion!
Fran Garrison: That's not a lion, that's a dog.
Mr. Toyama: [sits up] You call THAT, dog?

Movie Connections:

Edited into "Disneyland: The Ugly Dachshund: Part 1 (#15.6)" (1968)

Forget the dogs--give us Pleshette!

Here it is, forty years later, and I could talk about Disney's minor effort in The Ugly Dachshund, a bland little quickie of a family movie that features not a single fresh idea or character. It does have cute dachshunds (which I appreciate) and a great dane (two votes from my wife and daughter; no taste there!), Dean Jones, Suzanne Pleshette, and Charlie Ruggles.

The story is unimportant and, unfortunately, is not very well pieced together; usually live-action features from Disney in the 60's and 70's were pretty tightly plotted. The movie just has one opportunity after another for the dogs to destroy the best efforts of humans. It's all so dumb and gentle and uninvolved that you'll want to slap a blue ribbon for mediocrity on the side of your TV--Blandest in Show!

But who cares, anyway? It has Suzanne Pleshette. I watched the whole movie and griped about the dozen minutes or so lopped off by Hallmark for a two hour time slot. That meant there was footage of Pleshette missing! Throughout the movie, she appears in one lovely outfit after another, looking like a gift from Heaven (and she falls on a Japanese fellow at one point--he's laying on his back after collapsing from his fear of the great dane--and she's got these tight pants on and . . . ).

Wooeee . . . was I gone long?

Just leave it to me to smut up a review of a Disney movie!

By the way, when Pleshette falls on the Japanese guy, he has this little grin on his face that made me think he went to the director and told him to forget paying him for the day--it was all worth it.