This is another one I saw when I was ten years old and thought was purely wonderful. Obviously my taste for fantasy was already well developed.King, a German shepherd, is heir to a fortune, and Ellen (Peggy Dow) administers his inheritance. Then King is murdered (poison). Ellen is judged to be responsible.
Then things get fantastic. The scene is Beastatory, an animal heaven, where King asks an animal jury to allow him to return to earth, investigate the crime, and expose the real killer. He gets what he asks for, and he's reincarnated as Rex Shepard, private-eye (Dick Powell). Rex is accompanied by Goldie (Joyce Holden), formerly a palomino and now Rex's secretary. If you think Rex solves the mystery, you're right, but that's all I have to say. The rest you should discover for yourself, assuming you can ever find a copy or catch it on TV.
Well, I can't resist a remark about the costuming. It's just great, particularly Goldie's hat and shoes. I'd love to see this one again, but I don't think it's available on DVD.
Okay, one more thing. That last scene. Gets me every time, even thinking about it.
7 comments:
AMC used to show this one quite a bit, and now it seems to have just vanished into thin air. It's definitely a movie that more people should see -- I love Holden's performance as the woman who used to be a horse.
There were a whole lot of B movies that AMC used to show (before they added commercials) and gave up when they moved forward in time. And TCM tends to show a different sort of film. Too bad.
Haven't seen this is years but I loved it too. It's probably the first movie of Powell's I remember.
Jeff
And, so far, Universal hasn't done too much, like Warner, to get into the DVD-R market for films they don't want to give a full push to. But soon, I'm sure. Netflix streaming or somesuch will provide. It certainly sounds amusing.
I remember seeing this once on TV, 50 years ago. I'd love to see it again.
Another one I haven't seen! You're a cornucopia of forgotten film gems. Thanx!
I saw this on TV back in the late 50s or early 60s. A lot of the 50s and 60s films still are not available.
Stan
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