... and even then it is a bit much, since many of these Dogville shorts were banned at the time of release, mainly because of the methods employed to get the dogs to do what they do - walking on their hind feet and moving their mouths to the narrated dialogue.
If you don't know already, the Dogville shorts were a series of one reelers made by MGM in the early 30s that show dogs acting out a shortened version of some melodrama. In most cases, these shorts were spoofs of actual MGM films of the time. There was "Dogway Melody", "Big Dog House", "Trader Hound", and "So Quiet on the Canine Front". This one is different in that it spoofs an entire genre of films of that time - the foreign legion films.
In this case the dogs are members of the French Foreign Legion, a place where people (dogs?) once joined up to avoid arrest and conviction in their home countries and often to swear off women. At the time, much of the foreign land under French control was in North Africa, thus the desert locale.
The film starts out with the legionnaires enjoying a newsreel that has lots of females in it. A few of the recruits walk out in disgust, sit around a table, and each has a tale of female betrayal that ended in them either committing a crime or just deciding to swear off women. There is one exception though. One dog ended up shooting his wife and her three friends while playing cards with them because of their incessant gossip and chattiness that drove him nuts. The end is predictable but cute.
This is not the best of the Dogville films, but overall they were successful and got Jules White and Zion Myers promoted to direct "human" films, starting with Buster Keaton's next film, and probably contributing to his increasing alcoholism with their autocratic ways.
If you don't know already, the Dogville shorts were a series of one reelers made by MGM in the early 30s that show dogs acting out a shortened version of some melodrama. In most cases, these shorts were spoofs of actual MGM films of the time. There was "Dogway Melody", "Big Dog House", "Trader Hound", and "So Quiet on the Canine Front". This one is different in that it spoofs an entire genre of films of that time - the foreign legion films.
In this case the dogs are members of the French Foreign Legion, a place where people (dogs?) once joined up to avoid arrest and conviction in their home countries and often to swear off women. At the time, much of the foreign land under French control was in North Africa, thus the desert locale.
The film starts out with the legionnaires enjoying a newsreel that has lots of females in it. A few of the recruits walk out in disgust, sit around a table, and each has a tale of female betrayal that ended in them either committing a crime or just deciding to swear off women. There is one exception though. One dog ended up shooting his wife and her three friends while playing cards with them because of their incessant gossip and chattiness that drove him nuts. The end is predictable but cute.
This is not the best of the Dogville films, but overall they were successful and got Jules White and Zion Myers promoted to direct "human" films, starting with Buster Keaton's next film, and probably contributing to his increasing alcoholism with their autocratic ways.
