Oh! Heavenly Dog

1980 "An adult tail of murder, mystery, and forbidden love."
5.4| 1h43m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 11 July 1980 Released
Producted By: 20th Century Fox
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Browning is a PI with a bad cold, who's sent to investigate a case by a mysterious client. He stumbles across the body of a young woman and is stabbed to death, and when he wakes up in heaven, they tell him he's "marginal material," and they can only decide on his final destination through one last assignment: to go back and solve his own murder. As a dog. A cute fluffy little dog (Benji). Undaunted, Browning begins to investigate the case as best he can around his canine disabilities (dialing the phone presents a special challenge) to solve the murders, save the girl, and see justice done.

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Reviews

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable
ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre
Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
DarkVulcan29 One of my favorite dog films of all time and it still is to this day. None of those Kidd dog films, come close to this classic. It begins with an American Private Detective(Chevy Chase) who is living in London, is murdered while on a case. When he gets to purgatory, he is told that in order for him to get into heaven, he must go back on earth to solve his own murder. But becomes surprised he has to go back in the body of a cute dog(Benji). He does not like it, but makes the best out the rough situation. He gets help from a beautiful writer(Jane Seymour) who is writing a book on the case. Chevy Chase and Benji are perfect. Chases voice over and Benjis reactions are funny to watch. A fun comedy mystery to enjoy for a lifetime.
Brandt Sponseller For the third Benji feature film, director Joe Camp decided to head far out into left field. After two films told from a dog's perspective and that consisted mostly of Benji running, it was a good move to do something drastically different, and it produced a film that matches the first one in quality.The first unusual thing that Camp did was to hire three stars who were big box office attractions in 1980--Chevy Chase, Jane Seymour and Omar Sharif. The previous two films featured unknowns.Next, he made Oh Heavenly Dog essentially a human story. The film really hinges on Chase's character, Benjamin Browning, who becomes a pawn in a relatively complex plot of deceit. Camp displayed an affection for conspiracy-like action/thriller subplots in the two previous films, but here that becomes the primary focus, and because of this, the script is better written and paced.The criminal aspects of the first two films had something of an odd fit within films that were essentially geared towards young children (as did the plethora of untranslated Greek in the second film), but in Oh Heavenly Dog, Camp aims for a combination of an older, tween and teen crowd as well as adults. This is made quickly apparent in another unusual feature--a strong sense of humor, Chevy Chase-style. There are implicit gay jokes and lots of sexual innuendo jokes here. There is also very natural sounding, light profanity. And less humorously, but also more adult, there is a bit more violence.Even more left field for a Benji movie in 1980, Oh Heavenly Dog quickly heads for the fantasy genre, and through this, Benji becomes and remains something of a fantasy character. It's a move that's completely unexpected, plotwise, but it works remarkably well. Camp's purely fantasy settings and characters are very entertaining and even a bit charming.Because of the plot and Chase, and maybe somewhat as an intentional move directorially, most of Oh Heavenly Dog plays like a typical Chase detective film, like Foul Play (1978), or like the Fletch films (1985 & 1989) that came later. I hadn't paid much attention to Chase for awhile--I was one of the people a bit turned off by his off-screen behavior, as evidenced in his interactions with the Howard Stern Show, for example--but Oh Heavenly Dog has reawakened my interest in him, because he's excellent here. It's reminded me of how great he was in so many other films, even including later ones like Man of the House (1995).And what a coup Camp managed in getting the music he did for Oh Heavenly Dog. Paul McCartney's "Arrow Through Me", one of my favorite solo songs of his, fits the film perfectly. Euel Box even gives us orchestral variations on it throughout the film. Camp also managed to get a couple Elton John songs, and used Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition for an art gallery scene. The music helps support an already fantastic film.
Karianne McDaniel I first saw this movie when I was 8 years old. We had just gotten our cable, which was a big treat back in 1982. I use to get the program guide and mark all the times "Oh Heavenly Dog" was on. I became a bit obsessed with this movie. There was something about how goofy and sad Chevy Chase's character appealed to me. I was so intrigued by the beauty and elegance of Jane Seymour's presence. When you combine the two in the movie, everything seemed to fall into place. It was simple and honest. The movie isn't a dramatic masterpiece but its not crap either! As a child and as an adult I still feel the same way. This movie is a warm fuzzy. It is fun to watch, has a good plot and I really like the songs in the opening and ending. It's a classic. Somewhat an unknown among many, but a favorite of mine.
heshootshescores Chevy Chase was pretty good in this as was Jane Seymour. Pretty good story, a fun watch (I've seen it over 20 times and still get a kick out of it). On a personal note a lot of the "London" scenes were filmed in Old Montreal, Quebec Canada and I was an extra for a week. That's me driving the little brown Triumph GT6 MkIII (my old car) in the opening scene as well as 2 other scenes...that's my 15 minutes of fame done ;-)