A Boy and His Dog

A country boy (Billy Sheffield, brother of Johnny of the Tarzan movies), who has recently lost his father, befriends a mistreated coon hound which is owned by an ornery cuss(a character actor you will recognize if you have seen many westerns from the 30s and 40s). The hound follows the boy home after being extricated from an entanglement. After tracking the dog to the boy's house and being run off by the boy, the owner files a complaint, and a short trial ensues. The judge, played by venerable actor Harry Davenport, actually presides at two short trials involving the dog. According to Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies, this was from the golden age of film shorts, and made by Warner Bros.

A barefoot orphan and his faithful basset hound meet up with a folksy Harry Davenport in this manipulative short from Leroy Prinz, who should have stuck to dance numbers. Not recommended to anyone who doesn't have a good supply of insulin on hand.

"Davy" (Billy Sheffield) returns home to his recently widowed mum (Dorothy Adams) with a new best four-legged friend. He claims that he found the hound, and asks to keep it. She agrees and that turns out be a shrewd decision as it's not bad at helping him catch rabbits. Then their curmudgeonly neighbour "Thorneycroft" (Russell Simpson) shows up claiming the dog was stolen. "Davy" refuses to hand him over, so they are summoned to court. It would seem like a bit of a no-brainer, but the kindly judge (Harry Davenport) is quite a wily old gent as he wants the spirit of the law to be adhered to as well as it's letter. This is one of those gentle stories, a parable of sorts, that seems designed to encourage that "the law is right and we must do what is right" - regardless of our own feelings. This decently produced film picks a pet as I reckon many people care more about their animals than they do about other people - but it makes it's point clearly. Sentimentally and in soft-focus, but clearly. You will never remember it, but it is a watchable little feature.

Young Davy Allen rescues a dog brutally chained to a fence. He releases the collar and brings the dog home. Mean Mr. Thornycroft comes looking for the dog but Davy refuses to hand him over. Thornycroft sends the sheriff to force the issue. The judge holds court in the local general store. It turns out that the magistrate is also a local director of the SPCA.

He did steal the dog. I mean to say that Davy did steal the dog. It's not like the dog was being beaten. Thornycroft is the classic mean old man. I also don't know about treating the dog as an individual. That's a bit too progressive. Again it would help if Thornycroft would give the dog a few wacks. Otherwise, there is no real evidence against him. Being a mean old man is not enough to steal his dog. This won the Oscar for best short subject.

Boy and His Dog, A (1946)

*** (out of 4)

Oscar winning short about a young boy (Billy Sheffield) who rescues an abused dog only to have its evil owner (Harry Davenport) take him to court to try and get it back. If you're a diabetic then you might fall into a coma due to all the sugar sprinkled on this thing but the film succeeds at doing what it tries. The film certainly just wants to be sweet and on that level it works as director Prinz does a very good job at telling the story and doing so in a loving nature. He also manges to make a great villain with Davenport, a well-known character actor, doing a great job at just being plain mean. The story doesn't really offer us anything new or original but it's all handled in a good fashion. The biggest problem with the movie is the performance by Sheffield who comes off very weak especially in any scene where he's suppose to show emotion.