Dondi

As children, my brother and I watched this film on television and we both enjoyed it. The story really tugged at our hearts because it was funny and sad at the same time. We both talked about this film for days after watching it.

I liked "Dondi" because I liked the handsome lead actor, David Janssen, who was then at the height of his popularity for starring in the television show "The Fugitive". The lead actress was Patti Page, who happened to look like my mother, so I liked watching her.

The film also included character actor, Robert Strauss. I had never liked him because he always played tough characters. However, in "Dondi" he played a tough guy with a soft heart and won me over. He played well against goofy Arnold Stang's character. Strauss and Stang were fun to watch together.

If I were to see this film again today, I'm sure my opinion of it would change. It's not one of the better films I saw as a child but it is one of the films I remember with affection.

After ruining the long-running comic strip "The Gumps," Gus Edson launched the gooey dreck known as "Dondi" to dozens of newspapers. He or his syndicate persuaded Al Zugsmith, best known for his potboilers with the pneumatic Mamie van Doren, to make this bucket of cinematic treacle.

One wishes Mamie could have appeared, but she had the good sense to stay out of this one - the closest we get is an appearance by a Jayne Mansfield hot water bottle, which displayed much more personality than Patti Page. The "singing rage" warbles several nauseous tunes that make "The Doggie in the Window" sound like "Highway to Hell." And I thought her theme to "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte" was bland! And let's not forget David Kory in the title role...but I certainly want to! He yells his lines in the tone of a kid who didn't get sprinkles on his sundae. After watching this overly sentimental excuse for a film, you'll be praying to the porcelain gods! Show this to your kids and they'll ask what they did wrong!

If you want a kids' movie from this era that's actually good, and sweet without being gooey, get a Philip Leacock film like "Hand in Hand" or "The Little Kidnappers."

Incidentally, I met Irwin Hasen, artist of the Dondi comic, at a convention 12 years ago. He was such a nice guy, I hadn't the heart to tell him how much this movie sucked...though I wonder if I DID tell him, he might have agreed?

I was about about 9 years old when the movie Dondi came to the Fernrock Theater in North Philly, the neighborhood I grew up in. I had been an avid reader of the comic strip (published in the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer) since it was first introduced and I suppose because of my age at the time, I related to the title character. All I remember today is that I loved it as a kid and cried like a baby at all the sappy parts.

I am sure if I were to revisit this movie today as a jaded 50-something year old guy, I too might rain harsh words about this movie which has accumulated a whopping 3.3 stars by the reviewers. But I choose to rate it based on the way it made me feel when I was nine, and too naive to know old folks in the year 2004 would consider it a piece of crap. Today our kids grow up much too fast. A movie like Dondi might be just what the doctor ordered for your kids as opposed to say - a prescription for Ritalin.

Dondi gets a 7.5 from me.

The summary line is, of course, intended to parody David Kory's very strange use of language in this film, but I can't shake myself of the idea that the pinhead who first proposed this as a project spoke of it in like glowing words.

The comic strip was okay for what it was. But trying to make a movie out of it? Watching this is a stomach-turner to be sure. The whole syrupy lovableness bit is nauseating, and I've heard stories of kids who watched this when it first came out having squirmed with embarrassment at it, which is pretty painful when you consider how undemanding kids usually are when it comes to kid-friendly movies. Even worse are the stale, unfunny jokes.

A sequel was planned, but thankfully it went nowhere. David Kory couldn't act, but even worse is the fact that his director couldn't, evidently, do his own job either.

The audio on this film was terrible and/or the producers simply just picked the wrong child actor in the seven (7) year old David Kory to play Dondi. We the audience are expected to have sympathy for the war orphan seven (7) year old Dondi as the sailors led by David Janssen are suckers for his sad face and really poor language but sadly, the little Dondi just irritated me every time he opened his mouth and mumbled something incoherent.

Dondi stows away on the ship that is taking the sailors back to the USA and what is supposed to be a comedy of errors as little Dondi wanders the streets of New York city alone I for one failed to see nay entertainment value in this farce.

I gave it a rather higher 4 out of 10 IMDB rating simply for the fact the female leads of Susan Kelly, Joan Staley and Patti Page were easy on the eyes and were the only thing that helped me get through the entire film only to see a disappointing and commonly written happy ending.