O Crime Caminha a Meu Lado

"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.

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.

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.

I've just seen this! It was oddly compelling. My partner gave up on it in the first half hour, but I just HAD to see it all of the way through! As others have said, it's about three thieves on the run after stealing money that was to be sent back to the USA for destruction. What a strange yet wonderful film. It was obviously made towards the end of Jayne's career, as her star was falling...but she acts as if she was still on the A-List! But it's bottom of the barrel-ness makes it (and her performance) all the more interesting!

The movie starts off slowly, but once the thieves make an open sea break for it (with hostage in tow) and end up on a kooky island estate run by a demented older woman, things really shift gears and it becomes very (unintentionally) avant garde!

In this movie you get a way-past-her-prime Jayne doing her own thing (she truly seems to be in her own world while chaos reigns around her), an older woman with a few screws loose, a mysterious killer offing everyone one by one, Cameron Mitchell who never takes the time to wash off the blood and grime that is all over his face, a balding, monocled butler who looks like he's from a 2nd rate (3rd rate?) touring company of "SUNSET BOULEVARD", and did I mention Jayne? See Jayne dance! See Jayne in a cat fight! See Jayne roll around in her undies on a bed full of money! See Jayne in constant heat! See a hefty Jayne run wild on a strange island in nothing but a feather trimmed negligee, a black eye, and extremely bad hair! Just so strange! WOW!

I got this movie on a cheapy double bill (the mind-numbingly awful "SHE DEMONS" is the second feature) DVD. I sought it out just for "DOG EAT DOG", and I was NOT let down (the DVD was ultra cheap anyway...). I just wish someone out there would RESTORE this movie. It's wild and I think it could develop a cult following! NOT for everyone--but take a chance!

Am I the only one more excited about the presence of Dodie Heath than Jayne Mansfield?