My Dog the Thief-1969

My Dog the Thief-1969 DVD/TV √

Jack Crandall (Dwayne Hickman) is radio station KPAE’s traffic reporter. When he comes on the radio, no matter how much you might want to know how bad the traffic is, you will most likely want to turn the channel, because listening to Jack’s traffic reports is more boring then actually sitting in rush hour traffic. In real life, the traffic report is not supposed to be exciting but informative. But the plot would not continue on if this were the case. Jack is boring and is turning away listenership to KPAE. That is till one day Barabbas the kleptomaniac St. Bernard stows away in his traffic watch helicopter and livens up the show. There is an amusing sequence of various car drivers listening to the antics of Jack and Barabbas up in the chopper.

A simple enough premise without a simple ordinary life. Jack’s boss played by Disney Veteran Joe Flynn now wants Barabbas to be part of the show and a spokes-dog for a dog food company. Jack has to sneak Barabbas into his apartment each night and hide him from his landlady, (Elsa Lanchester) who has barred dogs from the apartment complex because of her cat’s allergic reaction to dogs. One can almost shed some tears for the poor cat. But not as many for Jack himself as his new roommate keeps stealing things from his beautiful new next door neighbor Kim (Mary Ann Mobley), making him look quite the fool.

Could the plot be any simpler for all out slapstick comedy? Well it could have, BUT added to the mix is a some whacky inept Disney criminals. After some pleading the big puppy dog whimpers to jack to  land the copter so Barabbas can take a whiz, he manages to steal a lunchbox containing a stolen diamond necklace from some crocks (McClure (Roger C. Carmel) and Foley (Mickey Shaughnessy) whose car parked on the side of the road.

They think the dog taking the necklace was a set up, after all it was Jack who told them to take a particular route when giving traffic reports, and when they pulled over, the kleptomaniac dog was there to take the necklace. They spend the rest of the picture trying to capture the dog and recover the necklace before their boss disciplines them harshly for a job not well done. Do they get the necklace? Does Jack and Kim fall in love? Does his landlady catch the dog in the building? Will the cat be all right? You can watch the film and find out.

MDTT is a pleasant quirky Disney made for TV 1969 movie, which you might not know was made for TV by looking at it. Disney tried to maintain a quality to his movies whether they were released in the theater or on the tube. Not many of the made for Disney TV movies have been released on DVD. This is a pleasant little film that was and is worth a Saturday night treat for you and your family. If you don’t have a St. Bernard, you might be persuaded to buy one afterwards, just for kicks.