L'ora di uccidere

"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.

All of the critical scorn directed at Dog Eat Dog is rather perplexing, since it's a tense, starkly photographed, bleak and sleazy shot of cool 60s crime melodrama.

Dog Eat Dog is similar in its strange look and feel to Roman Polanski's Cul-de-Sac (there's even a bald creep who resembles Donald Pleasence), but with a more straightforward hard boiled edge and noirish dialogue, with Cameron Mitchell cynically dubbing Jayne Mansfield's breasts her "double indemnity".

Shot in beautiful locations and full of interesting, unusual faces, this is a crazy winner that ought to please fans of Mitchell, Mansfield, or offbeat genre films and black comedies generally. Mitchell even gets to go nuts and tear apart a whorehouse, yelling incoherently about money and gasoline. Really, what could be better?

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.

This film had all the elements of a film gone wrong:an international cast,standard heist plot,Euro pop/jazz soundtrack,ham handed action and Jayne Mansfield. Could any film project have been more predestined to be awful?

I was expecting so much worse. Imagine the surprise of discovering how much fun this movie was with all of it's sorry bits working together in some sort of obtuse harmony.

The dialog is over the top outrageous. Check these three prizes just from the trailer:

"Crackers, it's just mad money"....

"You are rude dirty and ugly. We do not cater to rude,dirty,ugly men. Get out."

Or better yet: Madame Benoit:"Where did you get this stuff? It's dishwater." Bartender: "It's the prunes, Madame.Since Socialism they don't let the peasants crush them with their feet any more. It impairs the flavor." Madame Benoit: "It's still dishwater."

And those are just a few of a beginning to end feast of howlers. How could one not love dialog like this ? It's so absurd it's almost genius.

To think Arthur Miller worked so hard on "The Misfits".I will have to watch the film again just to catch all the gems.

And yet: Jayne Mansfield was never again more natural, seeming to have dispensed with the "Divoon" Marilyn parody and almost playing it straight.

It could be the dubbing that made her seem more part of an ensemble rather than a running gag. Someone else dubbed her voice.It works and the dubbing is very well done for a 60s Euro film, everything is in harmony.

It's an awful film on so many levels, but consistently awful from plot to soundtrack, to dialog. It's a package deal that works on all those levels because of it's awfulness. It's what makes "Dog Eat Dog" fun.

The cast is interesting and watchable, the heavy breathing dialog worthy of John Waters, the euro artiness of it gives it an air of sophistication, even legitimacy that was probably never intended.

An accident of a film: accidentally entertaining. One of those "so bad it's good" films. Perfect for a double bill with Elizabeth Taylor's "The Driver's Seat".

Such a surprise to find it so entertaining as I was definitely expecting to feel depressed after watching Jayne Mansfield in it,as I did with "Las Vegas Hillbillies", "The Fat Spy" and "Single Room Furnished".

Maybe this one was Jayne's last great film. Like Marilyn's "The Misfits".

Would definitely watch it again.

Not a waste of time at all. Definitely worth seeing.

This movie was okay. I saw it about a year ago real late at night. I only watched it because "THE JAYNE MANSFIELD" was in it. She is so beautiful. The kind of person you just want to have sit in front of you and stare at all day to study each feature. The movie lacked interest though. If you are a Jayne fan, see it. If you are looking for a good movie to watch, don't see it. 1-10 (4) Jayne 1-10 (10) Z.