SunnyHello Nice effects though.

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Jason Kleeberg "The doggonist gang that the world had ever seen..."At dinner one night, my father-in-law saw a Doberman on TV and asked if I had ever seen the movie where Dobermans rob a bank. I hadn't...but knew from that description alone that I had to track it down.It was released in 1972, directed by Byron Chudnow. Chudnow only directed four movies in his career...The Doberman Gang, The Daring Dobermans, The Amazing Dobermans, and Alex and the Doberman Gang. Pretty safe to say that this guy had an unhealthy obsession with these dogs. It stars TV journeyman actor Byron Mabe, Hal Reed and Julie Parrish, none of whom you've ever heard of.The story revolves around an ex-con named Eddie and his desire to rob a bank without the element of 'human error' once a bank job goes wrong. To do this, he and a dog trainer snag a pack of Dobermans and train them to rob a bank using whistles. Sound crazy? It is. It really is.The premise of this movie sounds a bit better than it actually is. What we actually get is about 10 minutes of set up, an hour of dog training, and a ten minute heist. A bunch of character decisions make no sense, none more than the fact that Eddie is about the least careful criminal one could be. He pulls a waitress that he's known for one night into the job because...well...sex, and when the dog trainer threatens to bolt, he basically lets him. He flat out deserves to get caught. At least the 70's music is 'groovy', featuring a song about the dogs that just classic(ly bad).I cannot recommend seeing The Doberman Gang. The only thing redeeming about this thing is the music and watching a bulldog try to run the doberman course.My final grade: D

MisterWhiplash I had to make sure not to lose it too much during the Doberman Gang, because simply put it's got the goofiest premise one could ever think to not imagine: dogs that rob banks. You got it, simply put, and trained by bank robbers who'd rather let the mutts get it done then do it themselves, in an elaborate scheme involving whistles made for each dog, OVER-elaborate training montages teaching the dogs how to, well, jump and bite the crap out of people, and throwing in a really inane romantic triangle between three main characters- the mastermind behind the caper, a waitress, and the dogs' trainer- leading up to an ending that had me laughing my head off not even caring what the hell had just happened. If I tried to explain it all it would make even less sense and one would wonder how in Heaven's name something like this could get funding. Well, it was the 70s, and movies like this filled a niche for kids wanting a quick fix of delirious hijinks and adults wanting a good nap. As an adult myself, however, the delirious part had me from start to finish.It's not just the dogs and getting trained, or how the robbery is planned and the dogs meant to be dispatched (and the wretched ways the filmmakers get around making it violent, but not quite violent enough for an R at the time), or the extraordinarily cheesy songs (by Alan Silvestri no less!), or that the filmmakers decided to throw in an unbelievably underdeveloped sub-plot involving the three main characters- scuse me, caricatures- or even that one of the bank robbers looks very oddly like Kurt Vonnegut. Actually, it's a sum of this and more, and it's got enough to laugh about for days. There's not a slice of logic to the proceedings, and one can figure on director Bryon Chudnow, who with one obscure exception directed nothing BUT Doberman movies for the rest of his career afterwords (yes, more than one; they even got Fred Astaire for the third movie), likes it that way. Bank robbery, of course, is never an easy thing, but the central joy of the Doberman Gang is that it's meant to look like it's nothing when planned to a T. In the midst of all this, dramatic tension or suspense is at zero, and the line between what may be meant as sick jokes or just so-serious-it's-funny bits (like the dog that, sad to say, get's run over, and the dog that comes by and just snatched up the leftover money).In truth, some of it is almost too goofy to really get into, and for kids that could in some weird chance come across it today some jokes will fly over heads (Bonnie and Clyde as names of the Dobermans, J. Edgar Hoover as the bulldog, who is maybe the most convincing and well-rounded character in the picture if that says anything). But for a certain section of fans of B-movies of the 1970s looking for something not as trashy or rough as an AIP picture may want to take a glance at this crazy turkey that, unfortunately in this day and age, could conceivably get a remake someday if it has not yet.

Woodyanders This really choice and pleasingly idiosyncratic early 70's low-budget canine crime caper winner delivers the quirky low-key nickel'n'dime junk movie goods with mucho gusto and a welcome dearth of pretense. Irascible criminal mastermind Eddie, fed up with the gross constant ineptitude of his hopelessly fallible human cohorts, kidnaps and trains a sextet of non-error prone super-sharp Doberman pinchers to pull off an intricate bank heist. This funky little number hits all the necessary bases: we've got a speedy steady pace, competent, assured direction by Bryon Ross Chudnow, nifty gritty lowlife characters, solid pro acting, a crankin' soulful heavy on the brass score by Bradford Craig and Alan Silvestri, exquisite crystal clear cinematography by Robert Caramico, a terrifically tense heist set piece, cheesy montages set to marvelously mawkish light FM tunes, and even a slight mild sprinkling of good old fashioned gratuitous sex and violence. Bonus points are in order for both the fabulously corny country-and-western theme song ("They were the dog gonest gang that man did ever see") and the fact that each dobie is named after a notorious 30's Depression era criminal (Ma Parker, Dillinger, Bonnie, Clyde, etc.). In short, this fun flick overall rates as the totally authentic gnarly article.

hausrathman A group of clever criminals train a six Doberman Pinchers to rob a bank for them in this low-budget crime caper film. Director Byron Chudnow doesn't display a great deal of finesse, nor does the cast of unknowns for that matter, but he manages to get the job done. One of the better B-caper films of its time. This is a guilty pleasure I return to time and time again.