{"id":41134,"date":"2018-10-10T22:26:29","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T05:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=41134"},"modified":"2020-11-27T23:07:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-28T06:07:00","slug":"benji-1974","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=41134","title":{"rendered":"Benji (1974)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;We don&#8217;t <em>want<\/em> any kind of dog &#8212; we want BENJI!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Benji-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Benji-Poster-193x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"193\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-41138\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Benji-Poster-193x300.jpg 193w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Benji-Poster-82x128.jpg 82w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Benji-Poster.jpg 644w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 193px) 100vw, 193px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nTwo motherless siblings named Paul (Allen Fluzat) and Cindy (Cynthia Smith) try unsuccessfully to convince their father (Peter Breck) and housekeeper (Patsy Garrett) to let them adopt a stray dog named Benji, who makes daily visits to a local policeman (Terry Carter), a cafe proprietor (Edgar Buchanan), and the owner (Frances Bavier) of a prissy cat. Soon, however, Benji proves invaluable in uncovering a plot by four young hoodlums (Deborah Walley, Christopher Connelly, Tom Lester, and Mark Slade) to kidnap Paul and Cindy for ransom.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kidnapping<\/li>\n<li>Pets<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nThis self-described &#8220;family film&#8221; by writer-director Joe Camp &#8212; the first in a franchise of five flicks about an intrepid mutt named Benji &#8212; may have some nostalgic fans who recall it from their childhood, but it&#8217;s terribly acted, notably dubbed, and melodramatically conceived; I would be proud if my 10 year old pulled this off as a student film-making project, but big-screen material it simply ain&#8217;t. Just when you think things couldn&#8217;t get any campier or more shoddily made about the production, the ante is upped in the final third with ever more slow-motion sequences and dizziness-inducing rapid-fire flashbacks designed to tug at hearts. Special &#8220;amusement awards&#8221; go to the &#8217;70s soundtrack, which revs up at all the key anticipated moments and will (annoyingly) stick in your head. <em>Benji<\/em> is presumably listed in Peary&#8217;s book because of its box office success as the little-film-that-could (it rated #3 in 1974), or perhaps because he actually found it an enjoyable G-rated family film &#8212; but it hasn&#8217;t held up well. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Many unintentionally hilarious sequences, especially the doggie romance montage<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Benji-SloMo-Romance.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Benji-SloMo-Romance.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"474\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-41137\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Benji-SloMo-Romance.png 474w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Benji-SloMo-Romance-128x97.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Benji-SloMo-Romance-300x228.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo; definitely skip this one unless you&#8217;re morbidly curious. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0071206\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/68466\/benji#articles-reviews?articleId=115826\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=10389&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t want any kind of dog &#8212; we want BENJI!&#8221; Synopsis: Two motherless siblings named Paul (Allen Fluzat) and Cindy (Cynthia Smith) try unsuccessfully to convince their father (Peter Breck) and housekeeper (Patsy Garrett) to let them adopt a stray dog named Benji, who makes daily visits to a local policeman (Terry Carter), a cafe proprietor (Edgar Buchanan), and the owner (Frances Bavier) of a prissy cat. Soon, however, Benji proves invaluable in uncovering a plot by four young&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=41134\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41134"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55409,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41134\/revisions\/55409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}