Cinematic Canines: Dogs and Their Work in the Fiction Film

Published by Rutgers University Press 2014

Cinematic Canines

Dogs and Their Work in the Fiction Film

Edited by: Adrienne L. McLean
With contributions by: Adrienne L. McLean , Joanna E. Rapf , Kathryn Fuller-Seeley , Jeremy Groskopf , Sara Ross , James Castonguay , Kelly Wolf , Aaron Skabelund , Jane O'Sullivan , Giuliana Lund , Elizabeth Leane , Guinevere Narraway , Murray Pomerance and Alexandra Horowitz

https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813563572

Overview
Contents

About this book

Dogs have been part of motion pictures since the movies began. They have been featured onscreen in various capacities, from any number of “man’s best friends” (Rin Tin Tin, Asta, Toto, Lassie, Benji, Uggie, and many, many more) to the psychotic Cujo. The contributors to Cinematic Canines take a close look at Hollywood films and beyond in order to show that the popularity of dogs on the screen cannot be separated from their increasing presence in our lives over the past century.

The representation and visualization of dogs in cinema, as of other animals, has influenced our understanding of what dogs “should” do and be, for us and with us. Adrienne L. McLean expertly shepherds these original essays into a coherent look at “real” dogs in live-action narrative films, from the stars and featured players to the character and supporting actors to those pooches that assumed bit parts or performed as extras. Who were those dogs, how were they trained, what were they made to do, how did they participate as characters in a fictional universe? These are a just a few of the many questions that she and the outstanding group of scholars in this book have addressed.

Often dogs are anthropomorphized in movies in ways that enable them to reason, sympathize, understand and even talk; and our shaping of dogs into furry humans has had profound effects on the lives of dogs off the screen. Certain breeds of dog have risen in popularity following their appearance in commercial film, often to the detriment of the dogs themselves, who rarely correspond to their idealized screen versions. In essence, the contributors in Cinematic Canines help us think about and understand the meanings of the many canines that appear in the movies and, in turn, we want to know more about those dogs due in no small part to the power of the movies themselves.

Author / Editor information

ADRIENNE L. MCLEAN is a professor of film studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is the author or editor of many books, including Glamour in a Golden Age: Movie Stars of the 1930s (Rutgers University Press 2010), Dying Swans and Madmen: Ballet, the Body and Narrative Cinema (Rutgers University Press, 2008), and Being Rita Hayworth: Labor, Identity, and Hollywood Stardom (Rutgers University Press, 2004).

Reviews

"A book for Fido’s film fans and scholars of animals in motion pictures alike, Cinematic Canines gathers case studies that together make a lively case for considering nonhuman life as essential to media history."

— Susan McHugh, author of Animal Stories

"With obvious affection for their subjects, the authors of the fascinating essays in Cinematic Canines provide a trove of information on famous dogs in the movies and how they have been handled and mishandled by the humans behind the camera."

— Stephen Prince, author of Digital Visual Effects in Cinema: The Seduction of Reality

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction: Wonder Dogs Adrienne L. McLean Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part One: Stars and Featured Players
1. Answering a Growl: Roscoe Arbuckle’s Talented Canine Co-star, Luke Joanna E. Rapf Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
2. The Dogs Who Saved Hollywood: Strongheart and Rin Tin Tin Kathryn Fuller-Seeley and Jeremy Groskopf Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
3. Asta the Screwball Dog: Hollywood’s Canine Sidekick Sara Ross and James Castonguay Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
4. Promoting Lassie: The Animal Star and Constructions of “Ideal” American Heroism Kelly Wolf Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	104
Part Two. Character and Supporting Actors
5. Dogs at War: Military Dogs in Film Aaron Skabelund Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
6. Loaded Dogs: Dogs, Domesticity, and “the Wild” in Australian Cinema Jane O’Sullivan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
7. Bullies and Curs: Overlords and Underdogs in South African Cinema Giuliana Lund Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	158
8. Things from Another World: Dogs, Aliens, and Antarctic Cinema Elizabeth Leane and Guinevere Narraway Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Part Three. Stock, Bits, and Extras
9. Hitchcock’s Canine Uncanny Murray Pomerance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
10. The Dog at the Side of the Shot: Incongruous Dog (Canis familiaris) Behavior in Film Alexandra Horowitz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
Afterword: Dogs at the Digital Divide Adrienne L. McLean Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
Notes on Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265

Language: English
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 264
Illustrations
- Other: 56 photographs
Keywords: Dogs in the movies

eBook

Published: March 27, 2014
ISBN: 9780813563572