Peter Gunn (TV Series) The Vicious Dog (1958) User Reviews

Bad Dog!

[gordonl56 · 8/10 · 18 April 2013]

PETER GUNN – 'The Vicious Dog – 1958 Newspaper reporter Tyler McVey gets home from the office and parking his car in his garage. . After he exits the car, he is attacked by a massive German Shepard. The dog badly chews him up before taking off. Walker staggers inside and calls P.I. Peter Gunn.

Gunn, played by Craig Stevens, is soon on the scene. McVey figure a local crime boss, Paul Dubov, who McVey is doing an expose on is behind the attack. Stevens agrees to have a look into the matter.

Mobster Dubov does not take kindly to Stevens' interest in the case. He tries to buy him off, using a blonde Virginia Christie, as a go between. When that does not take, he arranges for Stevens to become dog food.

Stevens however has let his buddy, Police Detective Herschel Bernardi in on the case. Bernardi shows in the nick of time and shoots the nasty dog dead before it can make a meal out of our man Stevens.

The mobster and his henchmen are soon slapped in irons for their troubles.

A quick and to the point P.I. tale.

Also in the cast are Hope Emerson, Lola Albright and J. Pat O'Malley. O"Malley plays the trainer of the nasty attack dog. (B/W)

Revenge Bites but is Conquered

[biorngm · 7/10 · 28 September 2017]

Newspaper columnist George Walker is convinced corrupt Carl Kane is seeking revenge because of the truth George is having printed and he wants Pete's help now with the latest canine attack on him. Get me the owner of that German Shepard thus the criminal is found and columns can continue bringing Kane to justice, Walker tells Gunn. Pete goes about looking for a big dog and he finds a secretary with motive. Lead astray by Walker's secretary full of greed, Pete finds himself running from the same attack dog. The intrigue is sufficient to keep us guessing what is to come and I refuse to give it away. Jacobi finds himself in this thankfully and I'm certain Pete is happy the Lieutenant continues his investigation of the earlier dog attack. Casted well, played well and the smoke-filled rooms are not as noticeable, it is outside, but at night, as usual, but there is gunfire. Watch, the music with the car chases and the ultimate close is worth it.

Another great episode

[grantss · 8/10 · 1 August 2022]

Another great episode of Peter Gunn. Quite original in that the weapon here is a well-trained attack dog. Some intrigue and a good action sequence towards the end.

Decent series entry. Ignore the nay-sayers!

[demodokos · 7/10 · 25 March 2022]

I've seen the negative reviews that many have given for this episode and frankly they don't make sense to me this is a series that consists of pretty short episodes and you have to use a fair amount of skill to work out a plot in that time and they do a decent job with this episode. Everything hangs together. It has the usual jazz club atmosphere and scene, the repartee between Peter and his girlfriend. The new bad guy isn't well fleshed out, but the people he hires to do his dirty work are given adequate motivations. One is a bit of a surprise, but perfectly plausible.

There's a good sequence where the lieutenant runs some mobile surveillance.

In This Case, The Bite Was Worse Than The Bark

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 22 December 2009]

A very scary opening scene highlights this particular episode. It was a bit shocking 50 years ago, and it still is such. A man comes home from work, opens his garage door and then shuts it. Suddenly, while he's still next to his car, the door re-opens quickly and a big German Shepherd comes racing into the garage and savagely attacks the man.

Another man, controlling all this with a whistle, has the door open back up and the dog come back to him. They disappear while the victim staggers down his driveway and collapses. Wow......pretty dramatic stuff for TV back then.

It turns out the victim is a newspaper writer "George Walker," who has been writing things that a mobster "Carl Kane" isn't happy about, and Kane warned the write to back off....or face the consequences.

He just did.

Now lying in the hospital in serious condition, the newsman puts a friend of his, Peter Gunn, on the case. Actually, Pete volunteers to do it for free......but almost lives to regret that.

This is a tense episode involving numerous threats and the dog, who comes back, of course, at the end. In the middle, we get a respite with a classic tune from the beautiful Lola Albright ("Edie Hart").

Lesser Entry

[dougdoepke · 13 July 2017]

Lesser episode. This is only episode 3 in the series so I guess we can cut some slack. However the script appears to have been assembled in the dark. Seems a big dog has attacked a friend of Pete, and so the good-hearted PI agrees to track him down for no fee. What I couldn't figure out are the various character connections, but then maybe that's just me. Frankly, I thought the vicious dog wagged too much tail to be scary. The high point may well be Edie's close-ups that had my lips glued to the screen. Anyway, the little hobo jungle with the poetry spouting Homer was an inspiration, and helped set the precedent for the series' parade of colorful characters. So maybe the idea is to cash in on the visuals and minimize the storyline.

Just shoot the thing!

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 28 November 2013]

I felt that "The Vicious Dog" was a rather weak episode of "Peter Gunn". This is because there is a huge plot problem--which I'll be explaining in a bit.

The show begins with a guy being attacked back a well-trained German Shepard. It tears him to pieces and runs away--not killing the guy but certainly making him have a bad day. The mauling victim is a friend of Peter Gunn's and asks Peter (Craig Stevens) to investigate who did this and why.

This seemed like a weak episode because at any time, any of the mobsters in the show could have easily just shot the dog. Sure, it's an attack dog, but Peter Gunn (with an emphasis on GUNn) and his friends surely would have a weapon and dispatch this beast very quickly. Because of this, using the creature is novel but doesn't exactly make sense. Now I am a dog owner and lover but still--just shoot the beastie!!

The Vicious Dog

[Prismark10 · 3/10 · 25 January 2021]

The episode opens with George Walker, a newspaper columnist being attacked by a dog.

At the hospital. Walker tells Peter Gunn that the attack was deliberate. His apartment was broken into and his shoe was stolen. Walker had been attacking a local crime boss through his newspaper column and had even been warned off.

Gunn agrees to investigate and outside the hospital, the crime boss is already waiting to talk to Gunn who plans to track down a man with a vicious dog.

There is not much story here even though the episode length is less than 30 minutes. It meanders to the club where Gunn listens to music and talks to some patrons that has little to do with the main plot.

The only interesting bit was when Gunn goes looking for the dog and talks to some theatrical vagrant types.