Benji, o Filme

Not a bad flick...I regret that I saw sequels before having seen the original. Benji is a lovable character who hustles everyone in the neighborhood with charm and charisma. Two kids , children of a doctor, want to give him a home there with them, but the doctor has all kinds of phobias against canines and will not hear of it. Benji finds a girlfriend ( no kidding) and shares food and his secret hide-away--a deserted house--with his new acquaintance...until fate steps in and dictates the direction of the action. The kids are victims of a plot and Benji--and his girlfriend--come to the rescue using what measures they can muster. It's really cute, though it gets a little ugly when the bad guys appear...and there seems to be an un-explained flashback of sorts that Benji has regarding an incident with firearms. This, to my thinking, should have been developed a little better to convey to the audience that this was a motivating factor for Benji's actions...and why. But, one can suspend sensibilities if a dog is intelligent enough to convince you that he knows what is going on and has the best interest of people at heart , and that applies in this instance. Besides, since he was a homeless dog, there may have been myriad instances that were unpleasant remembrances...still it is nice when the writers and the directors let us in on what happening by way of full disclosure. But, it's a nice flick, the kids will love it, and adults will too. It's early seventies so that pacing of the film is not quite as frantic as it would become some seven or eight years down the road. See the movie.

The title character is a stray mixed breed who makes his home in a run down old house outside a small Texas town. He regularly makes trips into town, and is proven to be pretty popular. Among his human friends are a cop (Terry Carter), a cafe owner (Edgar Buchanan), and the Chapman kids (Cynthia Smith, Allen Fiuzat). Their loving but strict father (Peter Breck) won't let them take the dog in, as he has something of a prejudice against stray dogs. But little Benji endears himself to everybody when he works overtime (and I do mean overtime) to thwart the criminal gang (Mark Slade, Christopher Connelly, Tom Lester, Deborah Walley) who end up kidnapping the kids.

This now legendary film can take its place as one of the all time great family films, with not much in it that could be seen as objectionable or traumatizing for the younger ones. A gun is pulled out, indicating some high stakes, but nobody ever gets shot. And the kids aren't treated all THAT badly by their kidnappers.

You don't necessarily have to be a dog lover to be charmed by Benji, who's one of the most impressive canine actors one is ever likely to see. On occasion, the film does get perhaps too precious and manipulative, especially during montage sequences. One centers around Benjis' courtship of his new girlfriend, another mix who gets named Tiffany by the Chapman family maid (Patsy Garrett). The human cast (also including Frances "Aunt Bea" Bavier, in her final film) is all quite good, but our title character truly is the heart and soul of the piece.

Made on location in Texas, this benefits from good local flavor and atmosphere by writer / producer / director Joe Camp, who created for himself a beloved franchise that has stood the test of time, with a Netflix reboot planned for this year.

Looking back on it now, it's hard to believe that Camp was obliged to create his own distribution company since apparently no studio in Hollywood wanted to touch the script! Shows you how much they know.

Nine out of 10.

Benji's real name was Higgins and got his start as a regular cast member of sixties TV sitcom Petticoat Junction. Though he was retired shortly after the end of Petticoat Junction, Higgins later came out of retirement to launch a career in movies as Benji, starring in the first two films of the series (his offspring have carried on the legacy in subsequent films). Frank Inn was his trainer throughout his lifetime and began as an assistant trainer for Lassie.

I first saw "Benji" when I was eight years old; during its original release, and after nearly 25 years it is still one of the finest, independently-produced family films ever made. Told entirely from the eyes of a dog, it mixes humor, suspense, and heart-tugging emotion. The dog, Benji, is still one of the finest animal actors ever to appear on screen. He conveys emotion, like no other animal on film ever had before, or has since. Although this is mainly a film for families to enjoy, it would surprise me if any adult couldn't be moved by its sentiment.

Joe Camp probably had no idea this family film about an independent mutt turning neighborhood hero was going to touch off such a reaction at the box-office. "Benji" doesn't have the earmarks of an ambitious movie, nor did its initial publicity suggest it was going to be anything more than a matinée flash-in-the-pan, but positive word-of-mouth amongst kids was incredibly high, and "Benji" became the fifth highest grossing film of 1974 (no small feat; it's just behind "The Godfather Part II"). Although the slim plot pilfers heavily from Disney's "That Darn Cat!", the canine star Higgins (from TV's "Petticoat Junction") is an amazing find: his expressions and reactions are priceless, and the film's narrative--Benji's escapades, his human friends, his romance with a little white pooch--proved to be immediate and bracing with the target audience. Charlie Rich's song "I Feel Love" was Oscar-nominated (!), underlining the doggy romance with uplifting sentiment, the kind that makes a crowd-pleaser. Followed in 1977 by "For the Love of Benji"; but, with a different, look-alike dog and a hoked-up story, the sequel didn't crossover to older children. **1/2 from ****