Toto (1933) Review: A Silly Dog-Snatching Comedy That somehow Works

If you love old-school, silly French comedies with scruffy dogs and questionable morals, you will have a blast with Toto. But if you can't stand early sound-era films where the plot relies entirely on someone being a dirty liar, you will probably hate it. 🐶

So, Albert Préjean plays this guy named Toto. He is not a bad guy, really, he just has this incredibly stupid but lucrative hustle: he steals people's fancy dogs, waits for the owners to post a reward, and then "finds" them.

Honestly, the dogs look like they are having the absolute time of their lives being "kidnapped." There is this one little terrier who keeps wagging its tail so hard during a "dramatic" escape that it almost ruins the tension. I love him.

Naturally, things get messy when Toto falls head over heels for a girl played by Renée Saint-Cyr. She is lovely, but her character is basically just there to make Toto realize that stealing pets is, you know, bad.

It reminds me a bit of the silly, lighthearted deception you see in The Cheerful Fraud. Except here, there are way more leashes involved and the stakes feel oddly domestic.

There is a scene in a public park where Toto tries to look innocent while hiding three different dog treats behind his back. The camera stays on his face for a solid ten seconds while you just hear chaotic barking off-screen. It is so dumb, but I laughed out loud.

The movie kind of drags in the middle when they try to make Toto's moral dilemma feel serious. We do not need a deep psychological study of a dog thief, guys! Just show us more puppies!

Préjean has these incredibly expressive eyes that make you forgive him for being a total crook. He looks like the kind of guy who would accidentally buy the wrong size shoes and just wear them anyway without complaining.

The sound quality on the print I watched was pretty scratchy, which is expected for 1933, but sometimes the background music swells so loud it drowns out the dialogue. Not that the dialogue is super deep anyway, so you won't miss much.

If you want something cozy and do not mind a bit of early sound-era clunkiness, it is a sweet little time capsule. Just... do not get any ideas about your neighbor's poodle. 🐾