The Shaggy Dog *** (1959, Fred MacMurray, Jean Hagen, Tommy Kirk) – Classic Movie Review 8471

Director Charles Barton’s 1959 black and white family fantasy The Shaggy Dog is a daft slapstick comedy tale from the far-off days when the Walt Disney studio had previously not yet so far made a slapstick comedy.

Tommy Kirk stars as the teenage boy Wilby Daniels, who can turn into a talking sheepdog through the power of an ancient spell, and capture spies who plot to steal state missile plans, in this mildly amusing children’s farce with sprightly chases. Wilby transforms himself into a dog with the Latin words recited from the ring: ‘In canis corpore transmuto.’

It also stars Fred MacMurray as Wilson Daniels, Jean Hagen as Freeda Daniels, Cecil Kellaway, Annette Funicello, Tim Considine and Kevin Corcoran.

The Shaggy Dog was originally planned as a pilot for a TV series. It was a welcome big hit for the studio after its costly 1957 cartoon Sleeping Beauty had initially flopped.

The screenplay by the producer Bill Walsh and Lillie Hayward is based on Felix Salten’s novel The Hound of Florence.

Also in the cast are Alexander Scourby, Robert Shore, James Westerfield, Jacques Aubochon, Strother Martin and Gordon Jones.

It is the first live-action feature comedy produced by Walt Disney and the first of six Walt Disney films starring Fred MacMurray, who along with a TV series in 1960, as regarded as the highest paid actor in Hollywood at the time. It is the film debut of Annette Funicello.

It is remade as The Shaggy Dog (1994) (TV Movie) and The Shaggy Dog (2006) with Tim Allen, Kristin Davis and Craig Kilborn.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8471

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