L'ora di uccidere

This film begins with Jayne Mansfield rolling about in bed with money all over her. This seems to go on and on and on, as the only reason for the scene is to see this starlet in various states of undress. The film doesn't even pretend to be anything other than an exploitation film at the beginning--and it's obvious they only two things going for the film are hidden under Ms. Mansfield's towel.

This is the story, believe it or not, of "Mr. and Mrs. Smithopolous" staying in a resort in the Mediterranean. Of course these are aliases, as it's Mansfield and her boyfriend. While she rolls in the dough, her man is busy laughing like a hyena while he's killing off his partner in crime. It seems that they have just robbed a shipment of old US dollars that are being returned to the States to be burned and Mansfield's beau doesn't want to split it with his partner. Eventually, the three end up on a supposedly deserted island--which turns out to have several people waiting. There, they wait until the coast clears...and one by one, people in this group start dying off mysteriously.

The plot and action is VERY claustrophobic, as they spend almost all the film on this tiny island and this is bad because the actors are left trying to support the weight of the film. And, considering how bad the actors are, this is a chore they simply aren't up to. Cameron Mitchell basically spends the movie threatening and screaming while Ms. Mansfield does a great imitation of a brain-damaged bimbo (inexplicably, she claimed in real life to be a genius--this film will surely erase all doubts as to her intelligence or lack thereof).

A skimpy plot and lousy acting--it's pretty obvious that this is a grade-C project from start to finish. Why some of the reviewers here on IMDb scored this one so high is beyond me. Stupid and dull.

This 1960's oddity is a rare blend of pulp noir dialogue at it's worst, crisp B&W cinematography, snappy jazz score, Jayne Mansfield's round, doughy sex cat routine, Cameron Mitchell sweating and slugging people and every heist gone wrong cliché in the book (plus a little Agatha Christie thrown in for a good measure.) My friends and I were howling at the verbal "jousting" throughout the film and it is just loaded with one strange character after another. If you are expecting a well made taut heist film, rent Kubrick's The Killing - but for a fun, cheesy sixties crime crap in a blender - then this one is a hoot. Released in England with the much more subdued title When Strangers Meet, they slapped the Dog Eat Dog title on it in America and Mansfield died tragically in the now legendarily gruesome car accident. In fact Maynsfield is four months pregnant with future actress Law & Order:SVU's Mariska Haggerty (sp?) while filming this crime romp. There are cat fights, pistol whipping, Yugoslovian bartenders endlessly cleaning glasses, washed up madams, bald pimps and Cameron Mitchell bleeds more than any male lead in history (and Tim Roth was in an ENSEMBLE when he did all his marvelous bleeding in Resorvoir Dogs). Jayne Mansfield says a lot of unintentionally bad dialogue but her exclamation of "Crackers!" takes the cake...or the crackers...whatever.

It is a pity that with badly edited bootleg copies, you no longer can enjoy to the full with the witty social criticism, and the psychological analysis of the characters as the original movie was intended to. Even a poor version (I got mine from the WWW as "Dog Eat Dog") you should not miss Jayne's great performance. She was not under the best directors, the richest producers, with the best casts Hollywood could afford - but she was a major personality, and she shows it everywhere: namely here, in this little, wonderful film - dark, so dark, as Jayne's life was going to be. Notable also for Jayne's only fight scene on a boat, and on the seashore, trying to escape a no-escape island.

What we have here, if you can believe it, is a chimera of film noir, early Russ Meyer, and a Ten Little Indians adaptation.

The plot is verging on parody in its simplicity. Two crooks and a floozy (Jayne Mansfield), somewhere in the eastern Med, steal a million dollars (yes a million dollars exactly!) from a navy vessel transporting used $1000(?!) bills to be destroyed. The robbery isn't shown, which is all to the good really, as I don't really think there was a Peckinpah type amongst the four guys apparently at the helm. In point of fact though it's never the robbery that's interesting is it? That's why I hate heist movies that concentrate on the plan and the safe-cracking, the interesting bit is always the squabbling over the loot.

The crooks end up on a sailing boat on the way to a deserted island which houses a disused palatial brothel. They pick up a couple of greedy stragglers on the way (the eavesdropping hotelier Livio and his incest-fixated yet frigid sister). On the island a motor boat has been stashed somewhere for the getaway, but Corbett (the crook who has the gun) doesn't know where it is, nor where the petrol is hidden.

Anyway the brothel has a woman and her manservant in residence, these two they broke the mould after making. The manservant is a cod-philosopher gypsy-talking henchman type, whilst the woman is an elderly ex-madame who has returned to the island "in order to die". She thinks she is the Empress of the island and is always talking about the Emperor, whoever that might be, she is mentally fragile to say the least.

It becomes a Ten Little Indians style mêlée after the cash goes missing. People are dropping like flies, and we don't know why. Corbett sums up the mood perfectly: "Where da party at? No dough, enough stiffs for a graveyard, no way out, nobody knows who's next and nobody knows who's doin' it" It's a nice movie to look at because it's set on an Aegean island, with a pretty mansion, fluted columns, palm trees, flora, sunshine. There's a lot of luridness here too. Jayne Mansfield's nymphomaniac character Darlene can't seem to stop mentioning that she wants a fresh pair of panties, that she is on her last pair. There's jazz music all the way through, just so we know we're at a party.

One user described this movie as unintentionally avant-garde, well I'd go along with that. This is the stuff that cults are made of. You wont believe the ending by and by.

"Dog Eat Dog" follows the backstabbing adventures of a group of thieves. This black and white, foreign production, is probably most notable for the presence of Jayne Mansfield. Her character, "Darlene" is a member of a three member criminal gang. She is both fond of money, clean underwear, and using the expression "crackers".

Cameron Mitchell is the second member of the group, who is nearly dealt out of the game by the third (Ivor Salter). Mistrustful, but still bound by the money, the group takes to the sea to make their getaway, trailed by an opportunistic hotel manger (Aldo Carmada). Stopping at an island, they encounter a strange group in residency there. Greed and madness lead to murder. And the money becomes a ridiculous fashion accessory.

Not a great deal of depth, to this B movie, but OK for some late evening intrigue and suspense.