Oh, Heavenly Dog!
(1980, U.S.) color 103 minutes
With: Chevy Chase (Browning), Jane Seymour (Jackie), Omar Sharif (Bart), Robert Morley (Bernie), Alan Sues (Freddie)
Plot Summary: A detective is killed, and comes back as a dog to solve his murder.
***
To call OH, HEAVENLY DOG! a "dog" would be a cheap shot, yet that is exactly what it is, an odd case of "neither/nor," a film that is neither a children's fantasy, with it's bloody murders and liberal profanity, nor a general-audience comedy-thriller, due to its extreme lack of teeth.
It seems evident from this example that Hollywood never knows who to use for non-human character voices, and who not. As everyone knows, Chevy Chase's comedy is purely visual, his handsome preppy face twisted like rubber by dire circumstance, and his deadpan voice contrasts that face perfectly, creating his singular genius. Remove the face, and the voice comes across as a lackluster, mumbly thing, without import or levity.
The same inability to differentiate between verbal and visual comedic strength applied to misusing Robin Williams' affected monotone as the voice in Disney's excrutiating ALADDIN, when it is Williams' traumatic facial gestures and distraught body language which gives his voice, thus his comedy, life.
Jane Seymour is of course cute as hell; Omar Shariff, Robert Morley and a very scruffy Benji much less so. In fact, all the male leads look visibly uncomfortable. And definitely not cute is Alan "Uncle Al" Sues as a gay feline.
Scenes which take place in a sterile, mismanaged corporate "Heaven" are just so-so, but may have inspired bits of Albert Brooks'
fantastic comedy DEFENDING YOUR LIFE.
In contrast, OH HEAVENLY DOG! is truly a film for no-one; the addition of the ! to the title in advertising must have been a pathetic last-ditch effort to impart life to what was diagnosed as a very
sick puppy.
Video/DVD availability: VHS, DVD (Fox Video)
20th Century Fox / Mulberry Square Productions
Screenplay: Rod Browning
Music: Euel Box, Frank Denson
Songs: Elton John, Paul McCartney
Cinematography: Don Reddy
Dog Trainers: Frank Inn, Juanita Inn
Produced by Joe Camp, Dan Witt
Directed by Joe Camp