Oh Heavenly Dog | | Cast : | Chevy Chase, Jane Seymour | | Director : | Joe Camp | | Studio : | Fox Home Entertainme | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | July 11, 1980 | | DVD Released Date : | August 09, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 14, 2005 | | Summary | Doggone Bad Movie | Content
 | "Oh! Heavenly Dog" was a dog at the box office back in 1980. The movie literally lasted one week. As funny a comic actor Chevy Chase was in the 1970's and 1980's, he has had more than his fair share of flops. In the early 1980's, his worst flops were "Modern Problems," "Under the Rainbow," and this woofer of a movie.
The movie had such a convoluted plot and the language and themes were too risque for a kiddie movie, and Benji the Dog is considered kiddie entertainment. Chevy starred as Benjamin Browing (or BJ or Benji, as people may call him), an American Private Detective stationed in London, who gets awakened from his secretary from his bed with a bad cold to crack an important case involving politics, sex and scandal. Before he does that, he is walking in the torrential rain on the streetsn drenched all over and has trouble opening and closing his umbrella. There he bumps into yuppie magazine and book writer Jackie Howard (Jane Seymour) and they are instantly smitten with each other. In his office, he meets Malcolm Bart (Omar Sharif, oily as ever), a corrupt Parliament official who gives every lie he could to get Browning to protect a wealthy but sexually promiscious socialite named Patricia Elliot, whom Bart says is in great danger. And not too soon, Browning impulsively goes to Elliott's fancy apartment to find her dead on the floor with blood oozing from her dress and then Browning meets his deathly fate.
Now Browing is in heaven, but his counselor Mr. Higgins and the other soul collectors feel his fate is too premature, so now he must go back, finish duty, and is reincarnated as the one and only Benji, with Chevy Chase voicing all of Benji's thoughts and feelings, even cramming in swear words from time to time. It's hard to imagine Benji with Chevy's rolling deep voice, but director Joe Camp thought this gimmick could work is Chevy and Benji were one and the same, but just like the movie, this idea flopped.
Meanwhile, back on earth, Benji returns to Jackie Howard, who reluctantly takes him in and says she's "sort of a dog owner." Benji is ready to solve the murder of his human past life. He does all the typical dog tricks, dialing a phone with a pencil, running, jumping, getting a package of the dead woman's necklace which was a meant as a means of blackmail for Elliot's main lover, the Prime Minister candidate most likely to get elected, therefore, Elliot loved both opponents) and finding time to jump into Jackie's bubblebath. Benji shows more lascivious feelings to his owner, who gets involved with the case by wanting to write a book about the lives and deaths of Browing and Elliot and her lover, the Prime Minister Candidate likely to lose the election.
There really is not much suspense in "Oh! Heavenly Dog" either because the movie sets up for mainly one suspect, and although there is another suspect there (Miss Elliot's lover), one could easily guess the prime suspect. If I'm spoiling the suspense, I'm doing a favor to save everyone time and money from this dog.
It is typical of Chevy Chase to act lackadasical in his numerous flops, as opposed to when he shows more interest in playing characters in the original versions of "Vacation" and "Fletch," both done very well by him and he was well-received there by audiences. The reliable international actors Jane Seymour, Omar Sharif, and the late Robert Morley, who has a small role as Jackie's editor, all act as they would rather act elsewhere. Comic relief from "Laugh-In" alumnus, Alan Sues, doesn't help. He gets to play Chevy's driver earlier in the movie and later gets reincarnated as a cat after dying in a traffic miscalculation. The ending of the movie is more sad than happy when Seymour's character gets shot and then is brought back to earth as a cat to keep the bereft Benji company and they feel each other amorously. A total mess, Chevy, Benji and the rest of the unfortunate cast went to the dogs.
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