CAIRN MOVIE DESCRIPTIONS 

1950’s

·         Backfire-1950,
     Gordon McCrae, Edmund O’Brien, Virginia Mayo, Vivica Lindfors, Dane Clark, Shela Stephens, Ed Begly, this film was directed by Vincent Sherman. The Cairn Terrier is uncredited and plays the role of Diggy.
     This is a really nifty little film noir picture. Gordon McCrae fans may be surprised to find he does not sing in this picture. The film’s plot takes off when a sexy siren, Vivica Lindfors, doing a fair impersonation of Ingrid Bergman’s character Ilsa from “Casablanca”, sneaks into the hospital on Christmas Eve, and begs the hero, a heavily drugged veteran recovering from back injuries, to come and save his badly injured pal. Of course, no one believes his story; he is told he must have had a hallucination from his sedatives. When he recovers and starts searching for his friend, he quickly finds himself following a trail of bodies.
     The Cairn Terrier appears as the devoted pet of one of the murder victims. We meet Diggy the Cairn in the arms of his mistress and also in a flashback to the murder of his owner. The loyal terrier stays with his master to the end.
     This is a tidy little whodunit picture and, of course, there are lots of sexy dames complicating the plot, plenty of tough guys, shady characters, cops, and gunfire. This picture contains violence, adult themes, available on DVD, included on the Warner Brother’s Film Noir Classic Collection, Volume 5, disc 4, and from Netflix.

·         *?Rumpus In The Harem-1956,
     Moe Howard, Shemp Howard, Larry Fine, directed and produced by Jules White, written by Felix Adler.
     This picture is a remix of Malice In The Palace and it is hilarious. No matter how it is remixed or which of the two you view, they are both terrific. It is one of 190 film shorts produced with the Three Stooges over a thirty year time span. The three stooges play the proprietors of the not so fabulous Café Casbah. They serve up hot dogs. When one of their hot dogs is mistaken for an actual dog in the bun, their days as restaurateurs come to an abrupt halt. As they serve the hot dogs, they overhear a criminal theft plot from their customers and decide to go to the palace of the Emir Schmow and steal a famous priceless diamond to get rich quick.
    The café scenes are just hilarious. The dog and the cat actors do terrific work. The stooges are at their best playing along with it. Since Toto died in 1945 and the scene in the café with the Cairn Terrier was shot in 1949, even though the Cairn in this role looks like Terry playing the part of the “hot dog”. She could not have been in this film unless the stooges filmed the bit over 4 years earlier and put it in the picture later. The dog on film looks just like her and does typical Terry performances with ease. The Stooges producers were known for reediting films with old footage so this might have been done but without further documentation, I must assume this Cairn Terrier is not Toto. The dog is a really good Toto look alike so I am leaving a question mark on this selection even though I think it is highly unlikely to be Terry aka Toto. This film is available for viewing on YouTube, available on The Three Stooges Collection 1955-1959 DVD, Netflix.

·         Pal Joey- 1957,
    Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak, Danny the Cairn, trained by Bob Blair, Danny was owned by Frank Inn, the film was directed by George Sidney.
     This is a classic Rogers and Hart musical adapted for film from the Broadway play, “Pal Joey”. It is full of standards. It has wonderful music with choreography by Hermes Pan who choreographed all of Fred Astaire's dance numbers for his entire career. It is a treat for Sinatra fans with Frank singing “The Lady is a Tramp” among many other famous tunes.
     The Cairn Terrier is a wheaten Cairn named Danny in the role of Snuffy. The Cairn acts as a vehicle for the relationship between Novak and Sinatra after Novak buys the dog for Sinatra at the local pet store for $25.00.The dog appears throughout the film.
     This film earned four Academy Award nominations, and two Golden Globe nominations. This film has some adult romance and night club scenes. VHS, DVD, available on Netflix.

·         Anatomy Of A Murder-1959,
     James Stewart, George C. Scott, Lee Remick, Eve Arden, Kathryn Grant, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O’Connell,  Brooks West, Orson Bean, Murray Hamilton, Joseph N. Welch-(a real life attorney known for standing up to Joseph McCarthy during  the McCarthy anti-communist hearings), Danny the Cairn Terrier, trained by Bob Blair and owned by Frank Inn, directed by Otto Preminger.
     This is a movie of a best selling novel from a real life story. It is realistic, frank, and eye opening. However, by today’s standards of extreme behavior, this film seems quaint. This movie deals with domestic abuse, rape, police investigations, dishonesty, witness interviews, and general courtroom activities. It was the first of its kind, very much a courtroom crime reality drama complete with forensic evidence.
     Danny the Cairn plays Mrs. Manion’s dog Muffy in the film. The picture opens with a very sexy Lee Remick playing Mrs. Manion as she calls an attorney for representation from a cocktail lounge while her dog distracts her. Her husband is accused of murdering her attacker.
      The dog is featured throughout the film. The Cairn is taken everywhere in the story, bars, offices, jail etc., and is used as charming evidence in the suspenseful trial. It is a very sweet Cairn. Jimmy Stewart is outstanding as the defense attorney for Mrs. Manion.
     This film was nominated for seven Academy Awards. This film has content dealing with violence, rape, and dishonesty .VHS, DVD, also available as part of the Screen Legends Collection, available on Netflix.