Plot

A piece of writing with real danger and which focuses on a mysterious mafia of violent Viet Nam Vets living on freight trains who are akin to Hell's Angels without the Harley. The net is closing since they are being pursued by relentless railroad agents. They may be a repugnant set of people and the film will disturb and provoke the audience that sees it but it follows what John Steppling (also writer of '52 Pickup' directed by John Frankenheimer w/ Roy Sheider and Ann Margaret and 'Animal Factory' directed by Steve Buscemi w/ Willem Dafoe. Mickey Rourke. Ed Furlong) believes - 'Art is not your friend'. More than just a crime story he manages to inject ruminations on courage, death, existence, even love - the way Beckett does. One may want to wake up from this nightmare but you won't forget it. Official Selection of ten festivals. Winner of six awards and in The Bergenfield Film Festival won - Best Writer : John Steppling. Best Actor: Stephan Morrow. Best Producing: Rob Hunkele. "If you are looking for a film that's idiosyncratic, nihilistic, bursting with desperation, life and death, all made on a budget of under $10,000, head for Dogmouth from Stephan Morrow. He pulls out all the dramatic stops. The acting is terrific. This is a film that you will talk about, exactly what I'm looking for at a film festival where I want to be surprised. Dogmouth did not let me down. Its tough, gritty and terrific." Penelope Karageorge Film Critic The National Herald.—Anonymous

Dogmouth (Stephan Morrow) is in a remote wilderness hideout preaching to his nine month pregnant girlfriend Nyah (Alexandra Milne) about how he has become a changed man and is not the man that he used to be but is the victim of people's gossip. She wants to know if he has killed men and in particular, Denver Red - he insists he has not. The next day Nyah and Dogmouth are waiting to hop a freight which will take them somewhere up north. Dogmouth grows impatient with her endless questions and to shut her up, tells her a story about a mother and a child in a stroller. He resents having to get out of the way of the huge stroller - it forces him into the gutter - and he is not the kind of man who is gracious about such indignities so he makes a monstrous face at the child. He speculates on what the child's dreams thereafter will be like and wants to enter the haunted child's psyche but isn't able to. Back at the hidden campsite deep in the woods, Dogmouth and his new partner Becker (Ray Wasik) are discussing dogs and Dogmouth talks about the dog that he loved best, Crooked Dice who was a Registry of Merit dog and who won four matches. But in this conversation are a few words about getting something done - a job of some kind - is it murder? Becker has had doubts about doing the job but now only wants more information and is ready to take care of business. In the next scene Nyah is sitting at the bottom of a small cliff while Dogmouth is up above trying to read the dark woods and what they might reveal. She is declaring her undying love for him despite her friends and family's revulsion of Dogmouth and mentions a newspaper story about a young boy who has been killed by falling under a train. Dogmouth is incensed at the waste of a life and the stupidity of youthful arrogance. The newspaper also mentions hobos getting murdered in the Western states and Nyah admits that she looked to see if Dogmouth was mentioned and he reacts as if betrayed. Since nothing is, he relents - they are both relieved. It is 1 AM and three railroad cops (Lyle Kessler, Mark Ethan Toporek and Sam Charny) are searching along the tracks. After they leave Dogmouth and Becker emerge from the bushes where they've been hiding. They identify the cops, one of whom is a jailer who finds male prisoners attractive - igniting Dogmouth to go on a tear : He admits to Becker that he can no longer sleep - he is obsessed with his own mortality and what his death will be like. The railroad cops return manhandling Wilmer (Collin Blackard) who knows Dogmouth and Becker and who is likely to give them up. Becker suggests that they kill him and is reprimanded by Dogmouth for putting anything about murder into words - another lesson for the less experienced Becker. They continue their conversation about the death of Dogmouth's father who was a sailor and who died at sea and about his mother who received a large insurance sum and ran away with a half-black man from the islands off South America, then more about his father who had known John Wayne from the pleasure yacht his father had been chief mate on and finally about Mamie Van Doren who his father had claimed to have slept with. It is daylight now and we come upon a very upset Dogmouth who is talking to himself, stalking back and forth at another campsite set against big graffitied boulders. When Nyah asks him to feel the baby kick in her stomach he turns and without warning, smacks her. Announces that dog fighting has been outlawed and goes on a long rant about how nature is brutal and any other version of it is denial of truth. He comes out of the state he is in and approaches Nyah to apologize but she rebuffs him and he stalks off growling. Becker goes to Nyah to see if she's hurt and she accuses him of collaborating with Dogmouth in the murder of a man named Muehler - the arch enemy of Dogmouth and the group. Becker tells her a strange story about an old man who was caught and set on fire by a railroad cop who then went to have breakfast. Becker and Dogmouth are sitting across some railroad tracks having a conversation and it comes out that Nyah has found out about their plans to murder Muehler. Dogmouth cautions Becker that now that it is known about, they can't proceed with their plans right away. The group that Dogmouth has started with mostly Viet Nam veterans has brought some advantage to all of them and they shouldn't let Muehler disrupt it - even if it means eliminating him. In the end, Becker agrees to take care of the problem - Muehler. Nyah and Becker are waiting beside some railroad tracks somewhere on the way to Arizona. Dogmouth wants to get a new dog from a black man named Weeks who is supposed to be somewhere around Phoenix and who has the best dogs around right now. It comes up that Becker will join them later and Dogmouth confronts Nyah about what she knows about Becker going to kill someone. She answers that these are people she doesn't know so it doesn't mean anything. Luckily for her, she has given the right answer. Dogmouth nods in agreement. Weeks and Nyah are looking at the mountains outside Phoenix and discuss the city. She is nervous and seems to be waiting for Dogmouth to show up. Weeks tells her about the greatest dog fight he has ever witnessed. Also, a story about the predicament humans find themselves - wanting to get back to the warmth of the womb but can only find that comfort in death. Dogmouth does finally show up and discusses Weeks' dogs and tries to dissuade him that he is not there to hurt him. Weeks is unconvinced. Several hours pass while sharing a bottle and Dogmouth admits that he is not going to settle down and become a father and that he is indeed here to see Muehler. Weeks tries to explain that his relationship to Muehler is in the past. Dogmouth dismisses his story as rationalizing but as the conversation continues Weeks notices that Dogmouth is in some pain. Dogmouth decides to go along with Weeks' insight and first tells him that the group he leads is not as large and powerful as the media portrays it and is as much a creation of journalists' craving for the sensational as anything else. Then he admits that he is dying of anal cancer. Dogmouth ends their session by saying he wants to think about the dogs overnight. It is the tenderest moment he will have with anyone in the saga. Nyah is bathing her legs in a stream while Dogmouth is throwing Runes: he sees his doom in the stones. Nyah sits on a log and calls to him saying that she loves him. He goes behind her looking down at her. The moment could turn either way - a loving one or a dangerous one. She is relieved and swoons in his hands moving down her shoulders in an amorous embrace but the spell is broken when she asks about the murder. He stalks off, threatens her and then relents and says he will take her to the hospital when she's ready to deliver. He leaves. Becker is very upset, staggering back and forth. He has gone to Provo and stabbed Muehler but didn't kill him. Dogmouth listens to Becker as he gives him a blow by blow account of the stabbing but the upshot is that Muehler is still alive and will help the police track them all down. He tells Becker to go to Mexico, and Becker resists citing a dislike for Mexicans. In the end, Becker gives in and everything seems under control if Becker follows Dogmouth's instructions. Weeks and Nyah are wandering along the railroad tracks discussing her pregnancy. She tells him about a boyfriend she once had who was so jealous she had to leave him because of it. She also tells Weeks about Dogmouth not doing anything with black people and that she is worried about his well being around Dogmouth. When Weeks asks if she knew about a friend of Dogmouth coming to visit him that day and she admits that she did, Weeks realizes that she is powerless to help him and gets angry. He curses her and leaves. Later that night, Dogmouth has a post traumatic stress dream and is shaking uncontrollably in the nightmare, cringing and groaning when Nyah shakes him to wake him up and tells him that she may be about to have her baby. Then she mentions that she saw Becker at the truck stop in town. He hadn't left for Mexico. Dogmouth takes this in and then quietly announces that Becker will be leaving tomorrow and that they will too - after Becker leaves. Nyah is with Weeks again by the railroad tracks and she is very close to giving birth. To fight the pain of birth pangs she goes on a rant about having a dream about Lee Marvin and her father loving Lee Marvin and hating her father for his brutality to her mother. Weeks urges her to come with him so that he can drive her to the hospital where he will leave her. The next night the railroad cops again go past Dogmouth and Becker hiding in the bushes besides the tracks. When they are alone Dogmouth talks about dogs' dreams in an almost hypnotic way to Becker. He slowly slips off the dog chain that he has had around his neck the whole time and strangles Becker. He checks to see that no one is around and pulls Becker a few feet off the tracks. Nyah is addressing the audience from a hospital room where she is being kept - either for observation or for the authorities to keep an eye on her. She admits that she named her baby after her father and not Dogmouth. Sometimes things work the way they work and there's very little you can do to change it is her summation of the journey. We hear the railroad cops discovering a body alongside the tracks and one asks for the chain - but the face is so mangled they can't be sure who it is.