THE SHAGGY DOG (1959)

"That's ridiculous. My son is not a werewolf! He's nothing more than just a big, baggy, stupid-looking shaggy dog!"

Retired mailman Fred MacMurray's teenage son Tommy Kirk is always getting into shit.  Last week, he mistakenly reported a new school employee to the cops because the fellow looked like a wanted poster Tommy saw at the post office.  Just this morning, he blasted a rocket through the roof of their house, but that's nothing compared to what happened when he read aloud the inscription on a cursed ring: he turned into the neighbor's dog!  What the fuck?  That doesn't even make sense, but who cares, I just want to be entertained.  And for an old Disney movie from 1959, THE SHAGGY DOG is pretty good.  I mean, you're not going to hurt yourself laughing, but it's still an entertaining film.

The whole switching-into-a-dog thing is never fully explained and throughout the film, Tommy randomly switches back and forth to be a dog without any rhyme or reason.  At first, it's kinda funny and he gets into all kinds of different hijinks, like turning into a dog during a dance or having his little brother trying to put a dog collar on him, but then things take a darker turn towards the end when Tommy (in dog form) discovers that his neighbor is a foreign spy!

Overall, the story is completely nuts, but the acting is good, the special effects are nice and the pace moves along quickly.  Recommended for fans of older family movies. I was especially delighted by the unexpected appearance of Strother Martin.

Part 2 - The Shaggy D.A. (1976)

Part 3 - The Return of the Shaggy Dog (1987)

Remake 1 - The Shaggy Dog (1994)

Remake 2 - The Shaggy Dog (2006)

SSSSSSS (1973)

A college student (pre-"Battlestar Galactica" Dirk Benedick) is hired to be the new assistant to a local ophiologist (Strother Martin).  Unfortunately, the doctor is crazier than Dr. Frankenstein on poisonous toad puss and dreams of turning humans into snakes...literally.  Starting with his new assistant! Yikesssssss!

At first, Dirk is happy with his job and even enamored with the doctor's nerdy daughter, but then things take a dark turn when the doctor starts giving him injections (under the false pretense that they will help build up his immunity to snake poison), but in fact, he's pumping poor Dirk up with some experimental bullshit that slowly turns him into a sssssssnake! The slow behavioral transformation and eventual physical transformation was fun to watch, but I had a hard time believing that Dirk's character was so oblivious to what was happening.

The story sounds ssssssstupid and it kinda is, but Strother Martin's performance is truly disturbing and he easily carries the film into Worth Watching territory. I do wish the movie had been just a little more risque though. Example: the leaves covering up the skinny dipper's nudity. This is a horror movie, if you're too goddamn chicken to show a sexy naked butt cheek then the audience knows there's not going to be any violence worth a damn on the horizon. Oh well, that's my main gripe.

Overall, the movie was better than I expected and I'd watch it again, but just remember this is an early 70's studio-backed "horror" movie, so don't expect anything too outrageousssssss.

Somebody should make a sequel to this film and give it 14 s' instead of 7. SSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

I like how in the description section of this ad, they misspell the title of the film.

THE ISLAND (1980)