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5.7/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.7/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Love-Tails of Morocco remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have any interest in the oddball history of animal performers, you’ll probably get a kick out of Love-Tails of Morocco. It’s a Dogville short, so you know exactly what you’re getting: dogs dressed in little uniforms doing things dogs definitely shouldn't be doing.
If you hate the idea of dogs being forced into human costumes, stay far away. Everyone else, just lean into the weirdness.
The whole premise is that these dogs are in the Foreign Legion. They’re sitting around a mess hall feeling sorry for themselves because they miss the 'dames' back home. It sounds like a joke, but the movie plays it with this bizarre, straight-faced sincerity.
We get four different stories. Each dog recounts a tale of how a lady dog (or maybe a human, it’s all a bit hazy in the staging) caused them to end up in the legion. It’s basically a campfire story session, but with more tail-wagging and uncomfortable staring.
There is a specific moment where one of the dogs is supposed to look 'heartbroken' and he just kind of stares off into the middle distance while someone off-camera is clearly holding a piece of sausage. It’s distractingly funny.
You can tell the handlers are working overtime to get these shots. Sometimes a dog will just wander off-frame mid-scene, and they just leave it in. It gives the whole thing a rough, unpolished energy that I actually kind of like.
It’s not as polished as something like Mickey's Champs, but it has more personality than most of the stuff from that era.
It makes me wonder if they had a script or if they were just making it up as the dogs moved around. The pacing is frantic, then suddenly slow, then weirdly dramatic.
It doesn't try to be profound. It just wants to show you a pug in a fez, and honestly? That’s enough for me. 🐕