Movie Type: Animal Picture, Family-Oriented Comedy
Themes: Man's Best Friend, Foibles of Marriage
Main Cast: Dean Jones, Suzanne Pleshette, Charlie Ruggles, Kelly Thordsen, Parley Baer
Release Year: 1965
Country: US
Run Time: 93 minutes
Plot
Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette star in this Walt Disney family comedy as Mark and Fran Garrison, a dog-loving couple with different tastes in canines. When their dachshund gives birth to puppies, kindly veterinarian Dr. Pruitt (Charlie Ruggles) convinces Mark to take a Great Dane puppy home with him. The Great Dane, named Brutus, grows up with the tiny pups convinced that he's also a dachshund. Brutus's confused identity sets the stage for a number of mildly comic bits -- he chases policemen up trees, destroys Mark's studio, and ruins a garden party. Fran finally tells Mark that Brutus has to go, but changes her tune when Brutus saves Fran's favorite dachshund puppy, Chloe, from a scrap heap. When Fran announces that she is entering Chloe in a dog show, Mark secretly enters Brutus in the same contest in an effort to convince Brutus to think like a Great Dane. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
An agreeable, if decidedly minor, little film, The Ugly Dachshund is good family viewing, especially for those families with a marked fondness for dogs. Although Dachshund is rather typical of Disney's live action comedies of the 1960s, it doesn't stand up quite as well as most of them. This is primarily due to weaknesses in the script. Most of the other Disney live action films from this period have plenty of script flaws as well, but their plotting tends to be tighter than Dachshund's. Here, the incidents really seem to be just strung together, rather than being logically placed and paced in the service of a bigger story; it just doesn't come together the way it's intended to. That said, the many set pieces work very well on their own, most notably a memorably chaotic garden party sequence that is genuinely funny. Norman Tokar directs with an eye on the obvious, but it works with this material. Dean Jones does his usual frustrated, flummoxed good guy put into a difficult situation and does it well. Even better is Suzanne Pleshette, giving far more than is required of her and looking quite sensational into the bargain. Dachshund sags occasionally, but it's an agreeable enough little film. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Carroll Clark - Art Director, Marvin Aubrey Davis - Art Director, Glenn H. Randall, Jr. - Consultant/advisor, William R. Koehler - Consultant/advisor, Winston Hibler - Co-producer, Gertrude Casey - Costume Designer, Chuck Keehne - Costume Designer, Tom Leetch - First Assistant Director, Norman Tokar - Director, Robert Stafford - Editor, George Bruns - Composer (Music Score), Pat McNalley - Makeup, Edward Colman - Cinematographer, Walt Disney - Producer, Emile Kuri - Set Designer, Frank R. McKelvey - Set Designer, Eustace Lycett - Special Effects, Gladys Bronwyn Stern - Book Author
Fran Garrison (Suzanne Pleshette) loves her dachshund Danke and the dog's three puppies. One day, her husband Mark (Dean Jones) brings home a Great Dane puppy—the gift of veterinarian Dr. Pruitt (Charlie Ruggles)—and Mark names the dog Brutus. The dog grows up with Fran's dachshund puppies believing he is one of them. The dachshunds are mischievous creatures and lead Brutus through a series of comic misadventures with a policeman being chased up a tree, Mark's studio being splattered with paint, and a garden party being turned topsy-turvy. Fran wants Mark to remove Brutus from the house once-and-for-all but when Brutus saves her favorite puppy Chloe she changes her mind. Mark and Fran enter their dogs in a dog show with Brutus meeting others of his breed. He finally learns to be a Great Dane. Cast includes Kelly Thordsen as Officer Carmody, Parley Baer as Mel Chadwick, Robert Kino as Mr. Toyama, Mako as Kenji, and Charles Lane as a Judge.
