Benji (1974)

The title character is a stray mixed breed who makes his home in a run down old house outside a small Texas town. He regularly makes trips into town, and is proven to be pretty popular. Among his human friends are a cop (Terry Carter), a cafe owner (Edgar Buchanan), and the Chapman kids (Cynthia Smith, Allen Fiuzat). Their loving but strict father (Peter Breck) won't let them take the dog in, as he has something of a prejudice against stray dogs. But little Benji endears himself to everybody when he works overtime (and I do mean overtime) to thwart the criminal gang (Mark Slade, Christopher Connelly, Tom Lester, Deborah Walley) who end up kidnapping the kids.This now legendary film can take its place as one of the all time great family films, with not much in it that could be seen as objectionable or traumatizing for the younger ones. A gun is pulled out, indicating some high stakes, but nobody ever gets shot. And the kids aren't treated all THAT badly by their kidnappers.You don't necessarily have to be a dog lover to be charmed by Benji, who's one of the most impressive canine actors one is ever likely to see. On occasion, the film does get perhaps too precious and manipulative, especially during montage sequences. One centers around Benjis' courtship of his new girlfriend, another mix who gets named Tiffany by the Chapman family maid (Patsy Garrett). The human cast (also including Frances "Aunt Bea" Bavier, in her final film) is all quite good, but our title character truly is the heart and soul of the piece.Made on location in Texas, this benefits from good local flavor and atmosphere by writer / producer / director Joe Camp, who created for himself a beloved franchise that has stood the test of time, with a Netflix reboot planned for this year.Looking back on it now, it's hard to believe that Camp was obliged to create his own distribution company since apparently no studio in Hollywood wanted to touch the script! Shows you how much they know.Nine out of 10.

One of my all time favorite dog movies,, and I have quite a few dog movies in my collection,, Benji doesn't have a home, and he has places that he goes everyday on his route, but most especially he always stops by this house that has a couple of kids,, they play with him,, feed him and all of that,, well later in the movie , the poor children get kidnapped, and now it's up to Benji to find out where these little children have gotten off to. Meanwhile the parents and the police conduct their own search, and canvas the neighborhood, this movie is very heartwarming and not to be missed, don't wanna say much more abuot the movie as not to give anything good away,, but there is one scene with some peanut butter cups, that is just hilarious and not to miss,, all animal lovers this is a must have in you're collection.

Big Budgets, High Tech Special FX and lot$ of Big Buck$ Ballyhoo in promotions and advertising are elements that we associate with Big Box Office $ucce$$! And it is to some extent that we would heartily concur. It never hurt to have all of these big guns firing full blast when a picture is going into general release. The thought prevailing thought here is that you gotta let'em know yer picher's out dere! Personal appearances or "special guest starring "promotional tours are an extension of all this. Thus, the Producer, Director, Star or other Actors involved are sent out on a tour; making the rounds of the old usual circuit of "Plugola". They get booked, along with a Clip from their film to be on Letterman, Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, Today Show, Good Morning America, Regis, The View, etc., etc..But investing all the above and then some, will not guarantee even a modest success. A good case in point is the Triple Strength and Elongated spot granted on ABC Television's GOOD MORNING America to plug the current Left Wing Propaganda film, LIONS FOR LAMBS.GMA Hostess, Diane Sawyer devoted an at least a double segment to its promotion. The piece featured Stars Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Star/Producer/Director Robert Redford. The usual questions and mandatory clips were strongly in evidence; but Miss Sawyer added in a heavy dose of syrupy small talk and giggles to season the whole thing. And even with this extended mutual admiration society and personally oriented "Gigglefest' , with plenty of voice-over laughter and schmoozy banter by Hostess Sawyer, this the greatest film since CITIZEN KANE, is bombing big time at the one place where all the B.S. in the World cannot help, at the Box-Office!* In direct contrast, we have some rather small, sort of non-descript films can barely get released; but somehow do. Then, because they do have something to offer the Public, they take off like a snowball rolling down a steep slope, getting more and more speed and power as it goes. All of this because of having a story that has something for Mr. & Mrs. John Q. Citizen. As for examples over the years we have examples such as: AIRPLANE!(1980), MY BIG FAT Greek WEDDING (2002) and even American GRAFFITI (1973).So this brings us to Today's Lucky subject, namely Independent Writer/Producer/Director Joe Camp's BENJI (1974). Mr. Camp took a good, veteran cast of players and building around it with some largely unknown players, like Cynthia Smith and Allen Fiuzat, the Kids in the story. The adults in the film are mostly well known to the public from their previously done work, mostly in front of TV Cameras. The cast included Peter Breck, Frances Bavier, Patsy Garrett and Edgan Buchanan.There was one more veteran player and he was "Higgins" the mongrel pup who had been featured on "PETTICOAT JUNCTION" (1963-70). He was one happily retired pooch when Owner/Trainer/Wrangler, Mr. Frank Inn brought him in for an audition. So here he was! Higgins was a bigger Star than ever before.Director Camp went through painstaking steps to tell so much of the story from the "Dog's Eye View." The methods applied were akin to that applied in the Days of Silent Pictures. The Story was very visual and would have suffered with too-much of a script, especially if poor little Benji had too many lines to memorize and deliver.It has been said that "……Children and Dogs bring People together." and a Movie like this sure stands as testimony to the veracity of this old proverb.When you watch it, have your Kids or Grand Kids with you. And try to see it as if though their eyes.

Although I did initially see Benji as a kid in 1974, I want to talk about some interesting facets of the film for adults instead.Just a brief comment on showing the film to kids, though. It's probably going to be more of a gamble at this point in time for kids to watch Benji. There's a chance that older kids will be bored by the pacing, content, and general lack of humor. They'll probably hate the music, too. For younger kids (say, maybe 8 or younger), there's a better chance that they'll be entertained merely by seeing cute dogs do unusual things and also that they'll identify with the two child stars, who are about their age. But during the climax of the film, there is some more intense material (at least the ideas involved--the actual images are relatively tame) that may disturb some children.I think that Benji is probably a safer gamble for adults at this point in time, but you have to approach it in a particular way, not necessarily approaching it either nostalgically or as a kid's film. Viewing Benji at this point in time, it played as a dog's film, told from a dog's perspective. While this is not the only film to tell a story from an animal's perspective, producer/writer/director Joe Camp does something unusual in that he plays things mostly seriously and realistically. There is a bit of tongue in cheek-ness to the whole affair--and one section that is a very funny outright spoof of late 1960s/early 1970s romance films, and the events are idealized slightly in a way that we might imagine a dog to idealize them, but overall, Benji is played straight, not for laughs or melodrama.That fact is the cause of some unusual structural properties. Dogs' lives tend to be far more routine than humans' lives. Benji, as extraordinary as his life happens to be, is no exception. He's a stray who has a long daily routine that involves visiting various friendly people to obtain food. So the first half hour of the film sees Benji, from his perspective with a few third person omniscient intrusions, cycle through his daily routine two times.On the third run-through, things begin to get more dramatic as his routine is broken up slightly--both in a positive way when he finds a girlfriend by the way of a Maltese and in a negative way when some shady characters intrude into his otherwise abandoned home. Although I agree that an interesting, entertaining film could have been made out of just showing Benji go through his routine, that would have been relatively avant-garde, and Camp maybe decided that his dog-perspective film was unusual enough already, so the principal story turns out to be these intrusions which set up more classical dramatic conflicts.And Camp did a fine job of designing the film in the way he did. The climax works as well as it does only because he has taken us through Benji's lengthy daily routine a couple times. The climax and the build-up to the climax hinge on Benji hurriedly traveling his circuitous daily route a couple more times, and what pushes the events over the edge to success is that Benji has to strain to think more like a human.I wouldn't have picked up on any of these things seeing the film as a preteen in 1974. But they are there, and for adults, this is an entertaining film as much for its unusualness as for any other reason--you just have to watch it with this in mind. This is what films might be like if dogs made them. And if you decide to show Benji to your children and explain these unusual qualities to them, you might just find it a more enjoyable experience for both of you.