More MacMurray Blogathon: What I Learned About 1959 from “The Shaggy Dog”

Posted by medusamorlock on August 9, 2008

1.) That a mailman could afford to keep a wife, raise two kids, and live in a big two-story house on his salary — at least in Disney’s version of 1959.

2.) That your average suburban father might keep a shotgun in his hall closet, with buckshot close by.

3.) That the same average suburban father could go around threatening to shoot neighborhood dogs with the aforementioned gun…which Fred tries to do in the movie, running outside after the Shaggy Dog — who’s really his own son — taking aim, and spraying buckshot into some laundry hanging on a clothesline in the backyard. Cue the SPCA, please! And the anger counseling, maybe….

4.) That teenage girls moving in from Europe wear tight sexy dresses and speak seven languages. Ooo la la!

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10 Responses More MacMurray Blogathon: What I Learned About 1959 from “The Shaggy Dog”

Posted By Glenn : August 9, 2008 11:55 am

Sorry, folks, I gotta take issue with points one and two at least. My father was a mailman, kept a wife, was raising four kids (I wasn’t around yet) and lived in a big two-story house, and kept a gun cabinet in the dining room – all in 1959. And we definitely didn’t live in any kind of Disney environment at all.

I’m reasonably sure that Dad never took any shots at neighboring dogs though. Or Fred MacMurray for that matter. ;-)

Posted By Medusa : August 9, 2008 1:46 pm

Glenn, I’m glad to find out that real life could be at least as sunny as Disney pictured it! You never turned into a shaggy dog though, did you? :-)

Posted By morlockjeff : August 9, 2008 5:20 pm

The scenes with Fred trying to shoot the dog are funny? Let’s get back into that issue of animal abuse played for laughs in comedies, past and present.

Posted By Medusa : August 9, 2008 8:40 pm

Yeah, I thought the character’s real hatred of dogs — because they made him itchy, he said — was way creepy. Great role model for little Moochie (Kevin Corcoran), seeing his father run for the gun and chase after the dog, fully intending to wound or kill it. They tried to soften the violence and make it “funny” by having Fred sort of get tangled up in the laundry after failing to bag the dog. The movie also justified Fred’s animosity by the fact that he was a mailman — trad archenemy of dogs everywhere — plus he had that probably psychosomatic allergic reaction. A real dark and unsettling aspect to what was a teen/family comedy. At least Ward Cleaver never went for a gun!

Posted By 42nd Street Memories : August 10, 2008 6:57 am

If you watch Old Yeller in slow motion you’ll see that the shot came from a grassy knoll. Fred MacMurray was making Gun For A Coward in 1957. Coincidence?

Posted By Medusa : August 10, 2008 10:26 am

By Jove 42nd Street Memories, I think you’ve got it! :-)

Posted By Hondo : August 12, 2008 12:42 pm

People need to lighten up a little and quit trying to apply modern day political-correctness to movies from 50 years in the past. I’m sure “No animals were harmed in the making of this movie.” Of course it goes without saying that people shouldn’t harm, be cruel to, or needlessly kill innocent animals. But at the same time, in 1959 people in general didn’t elevate the value of the life of an dog to be equivalent to the life of a human. I don’t think “The Shaggy Dog” was subversively training people to be cruel to pets. People then had enough common sense to separate fictional entertainment from real life. I’m not so sure that’s true anymore.

Posted By Medusa : August 12, 2008 7:28 pm

I agree, Hondo, that audiences back then would probably merely have thought Fred a crank and a little crazy and therefore amusing in “The Shaggy Dog” and not have taken it past that. His reactions to dogs were extreme and out-of-the-ordinary, hence comedic. Like you, I do think that the issue is more troubling today. I think it was the combo of dogs and the gun that creeped me out — and the little boy who so clearly loved dogs and wanted one himself. Thanks for bringing us back to earth! :-)

Posted By Animal Love Pets : August 14, 2008 6:34 am

I don’t think “The Shaggy Dog” was subversively training people to be cruel to pets. It was just a different time in cinema.

Posted By Medusa : August 14, 2008 9:33 am

Definitely a different time, ALP! Thanks for your comment!

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