Dogs 'n Ducks

Dogs 'n Ducks (1953)

*** (out of 4)

Pete Smith short has a young boy getting a Golden Retriever, which makes his mutt rather jealous. The boy is able to train the new dog to catch ducks without hurting them so he enters the dog in a contest, which again doesn't sit well with the untrained mutt. If you enjoy films with dogs then there's no doubt you'll enjoy this one as it remains cute from start to finish even though some might question a few of the scenes involved. There's one sequence where the mutt tries to catch a duck in the water but the duck keeps going under. It's quite clear that there's a string tied to the duck pulling it under so this might not sit well with some. Smith's narration is right on the mark as usual and the story itself is rather cute and funny.

A Smith called Pete narrates this short subject in which Wesley Morgan trains his purebred retriever for life as a hunting dog, while his pet mutt feels left out of things.

How Ford Beebe wound up directing this MGM short is a bit of a mystery; he was not a regular at the Tiffany of studios. I suspect it was a matter of friendships. Arthur Marx, Groucho's son, was co-credited as writer on this movie. Although his writing credits went back to 1946, I suspect this was written by Marx, directed by Beebe, and then Smith regular Don Barclay directed Smith in his narration.

It's a typically amusing short because of Pete Smith's corny, sarcastic delivery, and also gives a decent overview of training a retriever.