Benji

Every decade, or so it seems, Hollywood likes to build films around a cute dog. The early seventies was the era for "Benji", whose real name was Higgins, an attractive and photogenic dog that had already had a recurring role in "Petticoat Junction", the successful sitcom of the sixties. Edgar Buchanan, one of the stars from that show is on hand to act with an old pal again.

Joe Camp, the director and screen writer, targeted this film toward a young audience of children under ten. Higgins and his trainer, Frank Inn, do wonders for the film. "Benji" shows a dog that has a natural intelligence and responds well to whatever it was asked to do. The film will delight young children.

Some other faces in the movie are Frances Bavier, Deborah Walley, Patsy Garrett and others. Although the movie is predictable, let's not forget it was targeted for a young audience that will probably appreciate it more than the grown ups.

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.

I first saw "Benji" when I was eight years old; during its original release, and after nearly 25 years it is still one of the finest, independently-produced family films ever made. Told entirely from the eyes of a dog, it mixes humor, suspense, and heart-tugging emotion. The dog, Benji, is still one of the finest animal actors ever to appear on screen. He conveys emotion, like no other animal on film ever had before, or has since. Although this is mainly a film for families to enjoy, it would surprise me if any adult couldn't be moved by its sentiment.

They certainly don't make 'em anymore like BENJI. This sweet little film certainly deserves to be remembered for several reasons, not the least of which is Benji himself, one of the most talented animal actors ever to romp across the screen. Benji, a stray, delights in his freedom and loves to roam the town every day, chasing the cat of an elderly lady(Frances Bavier), visiting with an elderly shopkeeper(the actor that played Uncle Joe on GREEN ACRES), and visiting the home of two children who, with the help of their housekeeper(Patsy Garrett), feed him every day. Benji even finds love in Tiffany, a tiny white female terrier. Things take a serious turn when some dishonest crooks take the children hostage for a ransom and hid out in Benji's house! The sequence in which Benji frantically tries to get help for his friends is harrowing, especially when he bravely enters the children's house and is throw out by the housekeeper. But Benji saves the day.

Unlike some recent so-called children's films that offer mixed messages or questionable content, BENJI tows the line. There's a positive vibe in this movie, one that is almost extinct in current movies. And another note: several familiar faces from classic TV are here: Aunt Bea from THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, Uncle Joe from PETTICOAT JUNCTION, and Zeke from GREEN ACRES as one of the kidnappers! Definitely worth adding to your home library, especially if you have kids.

Joe Camp probably had no idea this family film about an independent mutt turning neighborhood hero was going to touch off such a reaction at the box-office. "Benji" doesn't have the earmarks of an ambitious movie, nor did its initial publicity suggest it was going to be anything more than a matinée flash-in-the-pan, but positive word-of-mouth amongst kids was incredibly high, and "Benji" became the fifth highest grossing film of 1974 (no small feat; it's just behind "The Godfather Part II"). Although the slim plot pilfers heavily from Disney's "That Darn Cat!", the canine star Higgins (from TV's "Petticoat Junction") is an amazing find: his expressions and reactions are priceless, and the film's narrative--Benji's escapades, his human friends, his romance with a little white pooch--proved to be immediate and bracing with the target audience. Charlie Rich's song "I Feel Love" was Oscar-nominated (!), underlining the doggy romance with uplifting sentiment, the kind that makes a crowd-pleaser. Followed in 1977 by "For the Love of Benji"; but, with a different, look-alike dog and a hoked-up story, the sequel didn't crossover to older children. **1/2 from ****