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.

Not a bad flick...I regret that I saw sequels before having seen the original. Benji is a lovable character who hustles everyone in the neighborhood with charm and charisma. Two kids , children of a doctor, want to give him a home there with them, but the doctor has all kinds of phobias against canines and will not hear of it. Benji finds a girlfriend ( no kidding) and shares food and his secret hide-away--a deserted house--with his new acquaintance...until fate steps in and dictates the direction of the action. The kids are victims of a plot and Benji--and his girlfriend--come to the rescue using what measures they can muster. It's really cute, though it gets a little ugly when the bad guys appear...and there seems to be an un-explained flashback of sorts that Benji has regarding an incident with firearms. This, to my thinking, should have been developed a little better to convey to the audience that this was a motivating factor for Benji's actions...and why. But, one can suspend sensibilities if a dog is intelligent enough to convince you that he knows what is going on and has the best interest of people at heart , and that applies in this instance. Besides, since he was a homeless dog, there may have been myriad instances that were unpleasant remembrances...still it is nice when the writers and the directors let us in on what happening by way of full disclosure. But, it's a nice flick, the kids will love it, and adults will too. It's early seventies so that pacing of the film is not quite as frantic as it would become some seven or eight years down the road. See the movie.

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 ****

Full marks to Joe Camp for making such a beautiful film!.... Its all too easy for the dog lovers to absolutely fall in love with the movie, and Benji.....but this movie will always have the ability to change people from dog haters to dog lovers .... Benji is absolutely fabulous in this rendition of a street dog who has a certain way of living with with the people in the city.

What changes things is the kidnapping of Benji's human friends. But what is beautiful about the movie is that without using the crutches of special effects (read - talking animals), the expressiveness of Benji in various stages of the movie with just the barking to help is fabulous..... he falls in love (with another beauty of a pooch)...questions using his eyes, flaps his ear to express doubt, rolls on the grass to impress Tiffany (the pooch!)... the works!!! ...

Benji impresses!... and how...!... It doesn't take too much to know that the acting abilities of the humans in the movie aren't too much to talk about. But maybe that just enhances Benji's talent....

You would fall in love with BEnji and have tears flowing down your cheeks when they do the close-up on his sad eyes....

Yes, I am a dog lover.... but Benji .. he is the love of my life!