Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)

A Disappointing Continuation

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

If you're a stargazer and like those films with all those names of yesteryear coming on for a brief walk on, then Won Ton Ton is your kind of film. It was nice to see a lot of those old familiar character actors and a few leads from days gone by do a brief appearance. Some of them might have needed a paycheck, I can think of one who probably did, but I won't say.Told in flashback by tour guide Dennis Morgan, one of those names of the past it's the story of that great silent film star who spoke not a word, but barked on cue, Won Ton Ton. He starts out as a poor, but honest stray dog escaped from the pound and hooks up with hopeful Madeline Kahn who just wants a break in the film business. They in turn hook up with Bruce Dern a man who drives a tour bus, but when the bus makes a studio stop, Dern always rushes in to see producer Art Carney with yet another story idea. He has some good ones like a giant shark terrorizing a New England beach or a young adolescent girl possessed by the devil, just a bit ahead of the times.The rest of the film is simply boy and girl meet dog, boy and girl make dog a star, boy and girl lose dog. But for the rest you have to see the film.Dern, Kahn, Carney, and Won Ton Ton are wonderful and the Hollywood satire is funny. One thing however has lost its humor for me over the years. That's Ron Leibman playing the cross dressing Rudolph Valentino star of the silent screen. Knowing what I know now about transgender people and the struggles they face that whole character has lost the humor for me. Not ten years earlier Albert Dekker was found in women's clothes having hung himself and Jeff Chandler may or may not have been a cross dresser depending whether you believe Esther Williams's memoir. These people were in a lot of pain in their lives, so a cross dressing star isn't all that funny any more for me.Overlooking Leibman's character the rest of the film is nice and a great treat for those who want to see some stars of yesterday take another curtain call. For a few this was their last moment on the big screen.

Strictly for fans of all things Old Hollywood and bad movie buffs. For some reason, Hollywood was caught up in big Tinseltown wave of nostalgia in mid-Seventies (Gable & Lombard, WC Fields & Me, Day of the Locust,etc.--ultimately none of them very popular) so this must have seemed like a way for Paramount to hedge its bet--tapping into Hollywood nostalgia by way of Mel Brooks-style humor.Doubtful Mel himself (who also dipped into the Old Hollywood genre himself with Silent Movie) could have done much with a feature-length satire on Rin Tin Tin, the kind of thing that might, at best, have made an okay 10-minute sketch on The Carol Burnett Show. The dog--easily the most compelling character in the film, but in a Lassie sort of way--isn't even funny and during last reels, when he's required to attempt suicide in a variety of "comic" ways, movie really becomes not only unfunny but downright distasteful. Talents of human co-stars Madeline Kahn, Bruce Dern and blink-and-you'll-miss-her Teri Garr are totally wasted although Late Late Show fans may get a perverse kick out of seeing umpteen dozen former big-name and B-list stars of yesteryear who show up in embarrassing last-gasp career cameos. Filmic Parvo.

I give this movie a 10. Because even though I can't seem to remember one scene in it, it touched my heart and I remember that dog to this day. Touching hearts, thats what movies should be about, so 10 out of 10.Hearts are much more important than minds after all. I mean look at me, I've forgotten the film- but I still feel something nice when I remember the name. How many movies, or people, can you say that about today?I think I saw the movie, like a dream, in black and white. However, like a dream, those old black and white movies could pull you in so you imagined the colour. Imagination, that is important in movies too- for both sides of the looking glass.You know, I never would have considered myself a movie fan until I watched Swordfish and saw right through it. However, I have met a lot of nice people and seen a lot more while trying to find others that saw through it. And so, while Swordfish is an outstanding film for the mind- perhaps Mr. Travolta was wrong, perhaps Hollywood didn't always make...

I saw this movie when I was in high school. It sticks in my mind as the worst movie I've ever paid to see.