Trader Hound (1931) User Reviews

Not exactly Lancelot Link

[highclark · 6/10 · 20 April 2005]

This short will amuse three specific groups of people: the very young, those who love to see animals dressed up as humans, and those who smoke weed in order to laugh at goofy, weird sh*t. 'Trader Hound' is not a terribly sophisticated or well made film, most of the effects made to make the dogs appear to be talking are basically made through very crude edits. The film seems to jump up and down as well as side to side whenever the dogs speak to one another. All is forgiven however, as this is not a film to be taken seriously at all.

The narrator for the film is Pete Smith, a man who made a living for himself narrating little oddities such as this one for many years. If you can get beyond the lame jokes he inserts every 30 to 40 seconds, then you can be amused at the video spectacle of dogs wearing safari hats and khaki pants.

Don't worry about the story concerning the rescue of 'T-bone' from the African natives (played by dogs in afro wigs). What matters is seeing the dogs beating the drums, shooting the guns, and looking incredibly bored and disinterested while standing on their hind legs for hours upon hours.

Interestingly enough, there is a real monkey playing a monkey and an alligator playing an alligator. There are even real dogs playing wild dogs for the climactic chase at the end of the film.

The worst part of 'Trader Hound' occurs when a lion and gorilla do battle. This fight is staged with humans inside of lion and gorilla costumes. I must say that the dogs as humans are way more convincing than that of their human counterparts in lion and gorilla costumes.

The best part of this short occurs when a dog is bitten by a pesky mosquito. The dog angles himself while inside his sleeping bag and shoots the mosquito with his gun. For reasons unknown to me, it is sort of amusing to see dogs shooting guns.

I liked it, I didn't love it, but you see I'm not that young, I don't really enjoy animals dressed up as humans and I ain't stoned. This is not exactly on par with 'Lancelot Link'.

Four legs good, two legs bad….this is three legs.

6/10. Clark Richards

Trader Hound is a pretty amusing M-G-M Dogville short

[tavm · 6/10 · 14 July 2008]

This is one of a series of Dogville shorts released by M-G-M in the '30s that spoofed one of the hit features of the studio, in this case Trader Horn. With one of the directors being Jules White who would later be associated with The Three Stooges, Trader Hound has various breed of dogs playing the characters of the jungle picture walking on hind legs among other human-like things. There was one funny scene of a mosquito causing a sleeping dog to say "ouch!" while draining some of his blood before the dog pulls a gun and shoots him while the insect's flying! Another funny-if a bit lame-one is where a "gorilla" and a "lion" (named Leo though not for the M-G-M trademark) are fighting, neither one being very effective (they're actually guys in suits as is an earlier "giraffe" scene). Then there's a partially confusing scene with actual dogs chasing the one in suits away. With Pete Smith providing the narration and Billy Blecher the voices, Trader Hound provides enough amusement for the 15-minute running time.

Those Amusing Costumes

[Lechuguilla · 12 January 2010]

A fifteen minute spoof of "Trader Horn" (1931), this Dogville short creates some fascinating B&W visuals, thanks to inspired costumes and creative editing. The jungle plot focuses on the attempt to rescue the white goddess, Nina T-Bone, at the hands (or paws) of wild Africans. The film is full of dubious stereotypes.

But the main point here is the amusing human costumes the dogs wear, and the editing which allows the dogs to walk around on two legs and animate, as if they were human. I could have done without the lion and gorilla fight segment, where two men dress up in animal costumes. It's hokey, and seems inserted to extend the film's runtime.

Overall, the film is totally politically incorrect by today's standards. But we can overlook the stereotypes given the era. Enjoy the film for the entertaining costumes and silly plot. Not to be taken seriously, "Trader Hound" offers some comic relief.

This MGM short makes a Three Stooges short look like the work of great thespians!

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 14 March 2018]

During the 1930s, MGM made a string of god-awful shorts where they dressed dogs up like people and used voice-overs to make the audience laugh at the silly things the creatures said. Unfortunately, these films were about as funny as brain cancer and I honestly can't imagine audiences enjoying them.

For some strange reason, I actually sat through all of "Trader Hound"...among the worst of these films. The name is a take off on the title of the MGM picture "Trader Horn" (starring Harry Carey) and is set in Africa....or at least the Hollywood version of Africa. It's filled with dogs but also humans in animal costumes with no real attempt to make any of it seem real or funny. The worst part is that several of the 'natives' talked in drawls like Steppin Fetchit...and I can only see this short as offensive as would any sane person today.

Overall, a horrid, unfunny and tedious film...representing about the worst a major studio could have produced. By comparisons, the Three Stooges shorts at Columbia seem like great works of art by master thespians!

I just don't get it, and neither does this short

[spirit11 · 1/10 · 19 November 2008]

I'll say up front, I don't get what was so funny about the Dogville shorts. But having watched all nine of them now, just for the historical film perspective, I have to say that "Trader Hound" is by far the worst. While some of the others provide a chuckle or two, this one wasn't funny in the least, and didn't seem to know what to do with itself. This short begins with narration (something the other eight never did), then goes to the dog characters for a bit before switching to a second narrated section about a wrestling match between a gorilla and a lion, played by two men dressed in ridiculously bad costumes. Where did the dogs of Dogville go? Oh wait, now they're back, and being chased now by a real alligator--which doesn't fit at all with the previous animals all being men in costume. Except of course, for the real monkeys thrown in for good measure during the jungle scenes. Does my review seem disjointed? Not a surprise, since the short is disjointed as well. The mix of narrated, non-narrated, dog, human costumed animals, and real animals keeps the short off balance and off story. So, can you tell I didn't like it???