Summerdog (1977)

The low-budget family flick Summerdog is so noxious that it manages to reflect poorly on independent filmmaking, comedy, children’s movies, and animal-centric cinema. Featuring a no-name cast, with future character actress/voice artist Estelle Harris the only notable participant, the movie suffers from dumb scripting, heinously bad acting, and shameless attempts at emotional manipulation. The pathos works about as well as the jokes, which are played so broadly as to make the viewer feel embarrassed for everyone involved in making Summerdog. (Picture lots of eye-rolling and head-tilts to sell every punch line, as well as ghastly music underscoring every would-be emotional climax) One summer, New York City history teacher Peter Norman (James Congdon) takes his family to a remote part of New England for a few months in nature. While there, Peter’s son, Adam (Oliver Zabriskie), rescues a stray dog from a raccoon trap, naming the dog “Hobo.” Naturally, the whole family falls for the dog, even skeptical matriarch Carol (Elizabeth Eisenman). As Peter says to her at one point, “Don’t tell me Hobo is worming his way into your little heart, too!” The family spends an eventful summer, including many clashes with a psychotic neighbor, before returning home to a cramped apartment, where their landlords insist no animals are allowed. Conveniently, Hobo helps the Normans reveal that the landlords are crooks, so . . . whatever. It’s all so predictable and saccharine and vapid that Summerdog quickly becomes intolerable. So who cares whether this was a sincere endeavor on the part of the filmmakers or, just as likely, a cynical effort to chase the success of Benji (1974)? Rotten is rotten, no matter the particulars.

Summerdog: LAME