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5.4/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.4/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. The Big Dog House remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
You should probably watch The Big Dog House if you have twenty minutes to kill and a high tolerance for absolute weirdness.
If you find the idea of dogs dressed as people "disturbing" or "unnatural," you are going to hate every single second of this.
It is one of those MGM "Dogville" shorts from 1930 where they used actual dogs for every role.
The dogs wear tiny hats and suits and they are dubbed with human voices that don't match their faces at all.
It is deeply bizarre to see a bulldog in a tuxedo talking like a tough guy from a noir film.
The story is basically a standard crime melodrama, just with paws.
Fido and Trixie work at a department store, which is actually a pretty impressive set for a short like this.
The boss is a total jerk who has his eye on Trixie, so he decides to frame Fido for murder.
Yes, a dog murder. 🐕
I found myself staring at the background more than the actual plot most of the time.
There is a scene where a dog is "typing" on a typewriter at a desk.
He is just slapping his paws on the keys and looking totally confused while a voiceover pretends he’s writing a letter.
It’s funny but it also makes you wonder how long they had to film to get the dogs to just sit there.
The trial scene is where things get really dark and kind of uncomfortable.
Fido is sentenced to the electric chair.
I am not making that up; they actually built a tiny dog-sized electric chair for the climax.
The props are surprisingly detailed, which makes the whole thing feel even more like a fever dream.
They have little prison cells with real metal bars and everything.
One dog in the cell next to Fido is even "playing" a harmonica.
It is very dramatic for something featuring a bunch of poodles in trousers.
I noticed that the dogs often look like they want to be literally anywhere else on earth.
Their tails aren't wagging, and they mostly just sit there with this blank stare while the voice actors yell at each other in the recording booth.
It reminds me a bit of the stiff pacing you see in West of Broadway, but obviously way more ridiculous because of the fur.
There is a sequence where Trixie has to find evidence to save her man (dog).
She runs around a miniature city that looks like it was built for a toy train set.
The scale is all wrong—the dogs look like giants next to the buildings—but it adds to the weird charm.
Some of the "jokes" are very dated and rely on puns about biting or barking.
But the visual of a dog in a tuxedo never really gets old, even if the script is thin.
It’s definitely more memorable than something dry like Let Us Be Gay which came out the same year.
At least with this, you get to see a dog wearing a wig.
The ending feels very rushed, like they ran out of film or the dogs got tired of wearing clothes.
Suddenly everything is fixed and they are happy, but you’re still left thinking about that electric chair.
The directors, Zion Myers and Jules White, made a whole series of these things back then.
It’s a strange relic of Hollywood history that probably couldn't be made today.
I think people would get really mad about animal rights if they saw this now.
Even back then, it feels a little bit mean-spirited in a way I can't quite put my finger on.
But as a historical curiosity, it is fascinating to watch once.
If you've seen Mickey's Wild West, you know how these early 1930s shorts can be a bit rough around the edges.
This one is much rougher, and much weirder.
I liked the part where the dog "cops" burst through the door at the end.
They just sort of stumble into the room and bark while the human voice actors do all the heavy lifting.
It’s not a good movie by any normal standard, but I'm glad I watched it just to know it exists.
Anyway, if you want to see a dog jailbreak, this is your movie.
Just don't expect it to make much sense.
IMDb 6.6
1929
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