Dondi

I have looked for this movie for years. Seeing it as a youth was a special experience. I have never seen it in video stores. It is a warm and tender movie with some laughs about a war orphan and an army unit. I strongly recommend the movie to anyone with kids.

WWII is ending and now the Americans have occupied Italy. Dondi is an orphan, his home destroyed; little hope for the future. Dealy is a hard-boiled GI with no interest in kids, but for some reason, Dondi takes a liking to him and just won't go away, no matter what Dealy does. When Dealy is rotated Stateside, Dondi stows away.

This film is very sentimental, with the little boy, Dondi, reminiscent of Hamchunk, Jim Hutton's tag-along, in The Green Berets (David Janssen is in that film, too), or Mitsuo, the little boy who follows after Jerry Lewis, in The Geisha Boy.

As a kid, this movie was one of my favorites. I would love to view it, now, with my own children. While it is not one of the "Great Ones", it is well worth a watch.

Saw this picture ages ago. Leonard Maltin hit the nail on the head when he said "Watch this film and you'll know why Janssen became a fugitive"! The comic strip was never very good and this film is ten times worse. If it had even a shred of Sci-Fi in it MST3K could swoop down on it for some laughs but it doesn't. David Janssen did fine work in his career but this is certainly the worst he was ever in.

Undoubtedly one of the worst little films ever made. The well-known "shlock" movies have no pretensions, don't take themselves too seriously and at least give the viewer a few laughs. "Dondi" is a true BOMB with no redeeming features which, when originally released, probably went long way to undermine US/Korean relations. As Leonard Maltin suggests, "Watch this film and you will understand why David Janssen became a fugitive!"

After ruining the long-running comic strip "The Gumps," Gus Edson launched the gooey dreck known as "Dondi" to dozens of newspapers. He or his syndicate persuaded Al Zugsmith, best known for his potboilers with the pneumatic Mamie van Doren, to make this bucket of cinematic treacle.

One wishes Mamie could have appeared, but she had the good sense to stay out of this one - the closest we get is an appearance by a Jayne Mansfield hot water bottle, which displayed much more personality than Patti Page. The "singing rage" warbles several nauseous tunes that make "The Doggie in the Window" sound like "Highway to Hell." And I thought her theme to "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte" was bland! And let's not forget David Kory in the title role...but I certainly want to! He yells his lines in the tone of a kid who didn't get sprinkles on his sundae. After watching this overly sentimental excuse for a film, you'll be praying to the porcelain gods! Show this to your kids and they'll ask what they did wrong!

If you want a kids' movie from this era that's actually good, and sweet without being gooey, get a Philip Leacock film like "Hand in Hand" or "The Little Kidnappers."

Incidentally, I met Irwin Hasen, artist of the Dondi comic, at a convention 12 years ago. He was such a nice guy, I hadn't the heart to tell him how much this movie sucked...though I wonder if I DID tell him, he might have agreed?