Oh Heavenly Dog

This movie was a favorite of mine as a child, however looking back on it you can see certain flaws in it. The murder mystery is not much of a mystery and the jokes just are not quite as funny in some areas for me as an adult as they were when I was a kid. Though the one where the dog leaps into the bathtub is still rather funny. The movie has a private eye (at least I think he was a private eye) murdered. During a trip to heaven he is given the opportunity to come back to Earth and try to find the person responsible for his death. Of coarse, he comes back as Benji one of those dogs from the old days on the same page as Lassie and other famous canines. Funny thing is that Benji in this one is supposed to be a male dog, but is actually a female, while Lassie is always supposed to be a female, but is always a male dog. Well the dog soon ends up in the care of an attractive woman who takes the dog in, but may be another target for the killer. Like I said it worked for me as a kid and some of the stuff probably would still be somewhat humorous today. However, the film is most certainly dated as it looks older than a lot of other movies from this era of film and the murder scene is a tad gruesome for a PG rated film that is a bit marketed for families.

This is one of the best things that Chevy was ever involved in. Although ninety five percent of his participation was only his voice, as he was killed off early in the movie, I thought that the movie was good, solid entertainment. Almost without exception, I've always seen the film badly panned by most critics and movie reviews, but I was really pleased to see that most folks who took the time to comment on IMDb were highly complimentary and reaffirmed that I was not wrong on this one. Maybe you just need to have a bit of imagination and a real love of animals, particularly dogs, to get all there is out of the movie. See it, enjoy it and then comment. Don't let poor reviewers keep you from the fun!

this movie was an absolute pile of gopher. when i say gopher, i mean that small brown burrowing creature from northern america, yes that thing. Possibly has higher IQ than Chevy Chase, who put in a dismal performance for this movie. In fact, the star of the film, Benji, did not need a vet, groomer, or trainer, while Chevy Chase needed all of these things, including a bowl of water, plate of biscuits and a deluxe sized "Kitty Litter" tray. Unfortunately, most of Chevy Chase's salary for this movie (about 12 million $Us) was spent on such items, an estimated Us$3.5 million was spent on "Kitty Litter" alone. Anyway, this movie was so incredibly horse that it should be banned in all countries over the world, except the USA, they made it, they can suffer with it.

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 ;-)

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.