Oh Heavenly Dog

One of my favorite dog films of all time and it still is to this day. None of those Kidd dog films, come close to this classic. It begins with an American Private Detective(Chevy Chase) who is living in London, is murdered while on a case. When he gets to purgatory, he is told that in order for him to get into heaven, he must go back on earth to solve his own murder. But becomes surprised he has to go back in the body of a cute dog(Benji). He does not like it, but makes the best out the rough situation. He gets help from a beautiful writer(Jane Seymour) who is writing a book on the case. Chevy Chase and Benji are perfect. Chases voice over and Benjis reactions are funny to watch. A fun comedy mystery to enjoy for a lifetime.

I first saw this movie when I was 8 years old. We had just gotten our cable, which was a big treat back in 1982. I use to get the program guide and mark all the times "Oh Heavenly Dog" was on. I became a bit obsessed with this movie. There was something about how goofy and sad Chevy Chase's character appealed to me. I was so intrigued by the beauty and elegance of Jane Seymour's presence. When you combine the two in the movie, everything seemed to fall into place. It was simple and honest. The movie isn't a dramatic masterpiece but its not crap either! As a child and as an adult I still feel the same way. This movie is a warm fuzzy. It is fun to watch, has a good plot and I really like the songs in the opening and ending. It's a classic. Somewhat an unknown among many, but a favorite of mine.

Around the time Chevy Chase had hit it big with Saturday night live, he started to get movie offers. So after sharing the screen with Goldie Hawn in "Foul Play", we who would see Chase voicing the thoughts of everyone's favourite show-time pooch at the time; the lovable Benji. "Oh Heavenly Dog" is a comedy murder mystery that sees Chase as a washed-up detective that's murdered and then is sent back down to earth in the form of a dog to uncover who killed him. So would you class it as a Chase vehicle? Not really. Would he go far for being in it. Probably not. However the dry humour and the presence of Benji (who's quite well-trained and steals nearly every scene)… just fitted snugly with Chase. Maybe minor, but passable. The story plays out like a lively comic strip, where it's all about investigating the clues from a dog's point of view and also getting into mishaps within a London / Paris backdrop. Quite foreseeable plotting, but nonetheless amusingly undemanding. Along the way the lovely Jane Seymour finds herself caught-up in the web and Omar Sharif is at his seedy best in trying to cover everything up. The cast kind of keeps a straight-face throughout. Also the buoyant sounding music soundtrack is an odd assortment of choices. Perhaps better remembered for nostalgic reasons, but "Oh Heavenly Dog" is an admirable little comedy fantasy.

A private detective is killed, then comes back to earth, as a dog, in order to solve his own murder. Yet, with the murder and all, it's not really a children's film despite starring Benji (and having the same director as the Benji movies). Apart from the fact he's now a dog, the rest is played curiously straight. Lots of time spent with Benji searching for clues and piecing it all together (Chevy Chase narrates his thoughts). So it's a comedy then? Not especially. There are comic moments, more silly than funny, but the scenes and pace are generally long and spacious. It's basically a rather pedestrian murder-mystery story that just happens to have a dog at the centre. So who is the movie aimed at? I don't really know. Too adult for most children, yet too childish for most adults. I guess Generation-X-ers like myself who like 80s nostalgia and are generally happy to watch Chevy Chase would enjoy it, but that's a small audience. Best thing about it is marvelling at the training, intelligence and capability of Benji the dog. The opening song is also quite cool in an off-beat yacht rock kind of way. Kind of guilty pleasure movie. I enjoyed it more than I probably should have.

Chevy Chase was pretty good in this as was Jane Seymour. Pretty good story, a fun watch (I've seen it over 20 times and still get a kick out of it). On a personal note a lot of the "London" scenes were filmed in Old Montreal, Quebec Canada and I was an extra for a week. That's me driving the little brown Triumph GT6 MkIII (my old car) in the opening scene as well as 2 other scenes...that's my 15 minutes of fame done ;-)