Benji, o Cachorro Divino

Around the time Chevy Chase had hit it big with Saturday night live, he started to get movie offers. So after sharing the screen with Goldie Hawn in "Foul Play", we who would see Chase voicing the thoughts of everyone's favourite show-time pooch at the time; the lovable Benji. "Oh Heavenly Dog" is a comedy murder mystery that sees Chase as a washed-up detective that's murdered and then is sent back down to earth in the form of a dog to uncover who killed him. So would you class it as a Chase vehicle? Not really. Would he go far for being in it. Probably not. However the dry humour and the presence of Benji (who's quite well-trained and steals nearly every scene)… just fitted snugly with Chase. Maybe minor, but passable. The story plays out like a lively comic strip, where it's all about investigating the clues from a dog's point of view and also getting into mishaps within a London / Paris backdrop. Quite foreseeable plotting, but nonetheless amusingly undemanding. Along the way the lovely Jane Seymour finds herself caught-up in the web and Omar Sharif is at his seedy best in trying to cover everything up. The cast kind of keeps a straight-face throughout. Also the buoyant sounding music soundtrack is an odd assortment of choices. Perhaps better remembered for nostalgic reasons, but "Oh Heavenly Dog" is an admirable little comedy fantasy.

One of my favorite dog films of all time and it still is to this day. None of those Kidd dog films, come close to this classic. It begins with an American Private Detective(Chevy Chase) who is living in London, is murdered while on a case. When he gets to purgatory, he is told that in order for him to get into heaven, he must go back on earth to solve his own murder. But becomes surprised he has to go back in the body of a cute dog(Benji). He does not like it, but makes the best out the rough situation. He gets help from a beautiful writer(Jane Seymour) who is writing a book on the case. Chevy Chase and Benji are perfect. Chases voice over and Benjis reactions are funny to watch. A fun comedy mystery to enjoy for a lifetime.

Chevy Chase was pretty good in this as was Jane Seymour. Pretty good story, a fun watch (I've seen it over 20 times and still get a kick out of it). On a personal note a lot of the "London" scenes were filmed in Old Montreal, Quebec Canada and I was an extra for a week. That's me driving the little brown Triumph GT6 MkIII (my old car) in the opening scene as well as 2 other scenes...that's my 15 minutes of fame done ;-)

this movie was an absolute pile of gopher. when i say gopher, i mean that small brown burrowing creature from northern america, yes that thing. Possibly has higher IQ than Chevy Chase, who put in a dismal performance for this movie. In fact, the star of the film, Benji, did not need a vet, groomer, or trainer, while Chevy Chase needed all of these things, including a bowl of water, plate of biscuits and a deluxe sized "Kitty Litter" tray. Unfortunately, most of Chevy Chase's salary for this movie (about 12 million $Us) was spent on such items, an estimated Us$3.5 million was spent on "Kitty Litter" alone. Anyway, this movie was so incredibly horse that it should be banned in all countries over the world, except the USA, they made it, they can suffer with it.

I first saw this movie when I was 8 years old. We had just gotten our cable, which was a big treat back in 1982. I use to get the program guide and mark all the times "Oh Heavenly Dog" was on. I became a bit obsessed with this movie. There was something about how goofy and sad Chevy Chase's character appealed to me. I was so intrigued by the beauty and elegance of Jane Seymour's presence. When you combine the two in the movie, everything seemed to fall into place. It was simple and honest. The movie isn't a dramatic masterpiece but its not crap either! As a child and as an adult I still feel the same way. This movie is a warm fuzzy. It is fun to watch, has a good plot and I really like the songs in the opening and ending. It's a classic. Somewhat an unknown among many, but a favorite of mine.