What about Dog Movies? Everyone loves 'em, right? Lassie Come Home, Old Yeller, 101 Dalmatians, Benji.......The list is long and as endearing as the four-legged tail waggers who star in those films.
But what about Cujo? He's adorable too, isn't he? "Heeeeere, Cujo! C'mon, boy. Niiiiiice doggie".....
Hang on a sec - are you out of your freakin' mind? If there was ever a Hound from Hell it's Stephen King's rabid St. Bernard, big as a Grizzly and angry as a nest of murder hornets. He might be a nice boy for the first three minutes of the movie, but once he gets bitten by a bat - after sticking his head in a rabbit hole - he turns into a frothing, unstoppable death machine. Good Dog he isn't, and he may be the only canine in cinematic history to hold that distinction. Cujo belongs to "Joe Camber" (Ed Lauter), a shade tree mechanic in Castle Rock, Maine. We'll get to Joe in a moment, but first let's begin with our protagonists, "Vic" and "Donna Trenton" (Daniel Hugh Kelly and Dee Wallace). The Trentons have a son named "Tad" (Danny Pintauro). He's four and is terribly frightened of monsters, whom he's certain are lurking in every available hiding place in his bedroom.
Were you afraid of monsters as a child? I was, but not for very long. And it was really only The Boogeyman who scared me. I remember having my Dad check the closet for him when I was around Tad's age, and I slept with a night light for a while. But Tad's got a serious case of the heebie jeebies concerning monsters, so his father has created a ritual to reassure him. Every night at bedtime, Vic carries Tad on his hip, and they go around the bedroom reciting from a tract called The Monster Words, written by Vic as a spell. "Monsters stay out of this room, you have no business here"!, it begins. The Monster Words expel monsters from under the bed, from the closet, and those who look in through the window.
But they don't cover psychological monsters like lust and infidelity, and that's really what King was getting at in his book : the rot that can develop in a marriage. Not that a little boy would understand such a thing, however.
You see, Tad's Mommy loves him too, but she's sleeping with Steve the local handyman (Christopher Stone), who she refers to as "the town stud". He acts nonchalant around Vic and pretends to be his friend, but when Vic's at work he's in bed with his wife. Donna feels guilty but that doesn't stop her from continuing to see Steve..........for a while.
But then things begin to go downhill. Vic's an advertising agent who's created a wildly successful TV campaign with his partner. They've designed a popular series of commercials for Sharp Cereals, featuring a character known as The Professor, who eats a spoonful of whatever cereal is being promoted, then delivers the testimonial tag line : "Nope! Nothing wrong here"! But in reality there's a lot wrong. Besides Vic's yet-to-be-discovered marital trouble, the account with Sharp gets cancelled when a whole bunch of kids spit up "blood" after eating one of their products. It turns out it was only the red dye in the cereal, but the damage is done. Sharp pulls the plug and Vic's agency takes a huge hit. Then his sporty red Jaguar needs repairing, so he takes it to Joe Camber, who lives way out in the sticks. Joe's a great mechanic, but also an abusive a-hole. His marriage is in the tank too; his wife has just won the lottery and is gonna use the money to leave him, though he doesn't know it yet. On the way home from Camber's, Vic sees Donna standing out on the sidewalk with Steve the handyman, in front of his house. Right away he knows what's going on. The irony is that Donna and Steve have just had an argument. She's finally told him she can't see him anymore. "Why the hell not"?, he wants to know. "Because I've got a terrific husband and a sweet little boy", she answers.
Back home, Vic confronts his wife. She admits the affair but swears it's over. Vic tells her he needs to get away for a few days to think about the future of their marriage. "Before you go", Donna mentions, "I should tell you that the Pinto's been having engine trouble. I know that's probably not important to you right now, but while you're gone I'll need it to get to the store".
"Take it to Joe Camber", Vic tells Donna, giving her directions to Joe's place before he drives away. Donna takes Tad with her to get the old car looked at. They barely make it to Camber's place before the engine quits for good.
By now, Cujo's really sick. His eyes are dripping pus, his jowls are spilling slobber, and his fur is matted with something slimy. I'd tell you that he's "sicker than a dog" if it wouldn't get me banned from the Punner's Round Table, but yeah.......that's how rabid he's become. And that slime on his coat? I might as well tell you it's blood; you're gonna find out anyway. He's already killed two people : his master Joe Camber, and Joe's beer-swilling buddy, who was to accompany him on a trip to Las Vegas. So when Donna and Tad arrive in their now stalled-out Pinto, there's no one alive to help them. And Cujo's diseased dog brain is on fire.
When I first saw the movie in the theater in 1983, I was slightly disappointed because I was comparing it to the book, which goes into great detail about the various dysfunctional relationships, including Joe Camber's alcoholism and abuse of his wife. As I mentioned, that's what King was really examining, using Cujo as a metaphor. But in viewing it a second time nearly 40 years later, I was much more impressed. The movie works on it's own as a horror film and is extremely intense. The scenes in the car with Dee Wallace and Danny Pintauro are excruciating.
Director Lewis Teague gives us just a sketch of the deeper problems in the book to focus instead on Cujo's seige of the Pinto and it's trapped occupants. In addition to the psychotic animal, Donna and Tad have to battle the heat. Sitting in the car with the windows rolled up, they eventually become dehydrated and little Tad starts to hyperventilate. Cujo is relentless; driven crazier than he already is by a ringing telephone, he throws himself against the driver's side door of the small car. Angry at not breaking through, he does it again, and again, his messy bulk hitting the ground undaunted, each time.
This section of the film is brutal and takes up most of it's second half. The photography by Jan de Bont is one of the picture's main strengths, along with the editing in the attack scenes. The dog himself must be given a lot of credit for creating a memorable character. Of course, they always use a number of animals in any film like this, to get the desired results (and because of long hours, attention spans, etc.) But whoever the Principal Cujo was, he was "doggone good" at creating a sense of terror. Perhaps he was a Method Actor and imagined himself with rabies, I dunno, but he deserves kudos as the film's dominant performer.
In reassessing "Cujo", I give it Two Big Thumbs Up. It helps to have read the book so that you're aware of the movie's shortcuts, but even if you haven't read it, and you just want a straight-up white knuckle fright fest, with some adulterous behavior thrown in as a backdrop, "Cujo" will do ya.
Sit, Cujo, sit!......now stay.........good boy. Niiiiiice Cujo....... /////
Okey dokey, now let's do another Whistler. This time, Richard Dix stars as "Steve Reynolds", the owner of a trucking company in "The Thirteenth Guest"(1947). This is the final Whistler movie Dix appeared in, and one of only two that don't have it's namesake in the title. As it opens, Dix is in a roadside diner celebrating the birthday of it's proprietor, "Eileen Blair" (Karen Morley), who's also his girlfriend. Dix surprises the guests by announcing their engagement. Then he drives home in his company truck, after the party is over.
Cue the freakin' Whistler : "Ahh yes, Steve. That fateful drive. It changed your whole life, didn't it? What if you'd left five minutes earlier, or later? Then you might've missed that driver swerving on the road. Do you ever think about that? I'm sure you must. Just five minutes, one way or the other. Funny how fate's always on time".
You see, Steve's about to encounter a reckless driver who's trying to impress his girlfriend. The guy's hauling major league bootation. He crosses the yellow line then fishtails around a corner, running Steve into a ditch. His truck overturns and he's knocked unconscious. When he comes to, a cop is standing over him. He accuses Steve of drunk driving.
"But Don, I only had one drink at the party". Dix knows the officer, who was once his romantic rival. "I swear there was another car involved. It almost ran into me. The guy was driving at least 90 miles per hour".
"That's just your word", says the copper, who's got it in for Dix. "There aren't any witnesses to back up your story. I'm gonna have to take you to the station".
But then Dix remembers something : "Wait a minute. There's a passenger in my truck! I picked up a hitchhiker a few miles back. He can vouch for everything I'm saying".
Now didn't we just say, in the last blog or so, that you should never pick up hitchhikers? Well, there's an exception to every rule, and this is it. Dix's hitcher is gonna provide him an alibi, except for one thing :
The cop opens the truck's door and he's not there.
"A hitchhiker you say"?, asks Officer Don.
"I swear he was in there! I just picked him up! He must've run off for some reason".
"Sure, Steve, sure. Or maybe you had more than one drink. Let's go. I've gotta take you in. You can tell it to the judge in the morning".
So Steve does just that. In court, he testifies to the reckless driver and his witness/hitchhiker. The judge doesn't believe him and suspends his trucking licence. But then Steve discovers an item of interest. In the wreckage of his truck is a glove.
"This must've belonged to the hitchhiker"!, he tells Eileen excitedly. The glove has an interesting property. It's owner has stuffed the thumb with a metal plug. "We need to look for a man with a missing thumb", Dix concludes. "When we find him I can get my licence back". Meanwhile, there are still routes to be run. Steve's short on drivers and is prohibited from driving himself. "My company's gonna go under", he worries. And then one night, an important shipment cannot wait. "I've gotta take it myself", he decides, "even at the risk of going to jail". He sets out to make the delivery, staying off the main highway to avoid the police. But someone has stowed away in the back of his truck - a masked gunman who suddenly climbs into the cab.
He knocks Dix out, takes over behind the wheel, and detours back to the highway, where he deliberately exceeds the speed limit to attract attention. Here comes Officer Don, signalling for Dix to pull over. He assumes it's Dix; we know it isn't. Dix is knocked out. The masked driver does as ordered and pulls to the side of the road. Then, as Officer Don is parking his motorcycle, the bandit starts the truck and throws it in reverse. He runs over the officer, killing him. Guess who's gonna take the blame for that?
Cue the freakin' Whistler.
The remainder of the plot finds Steve in and out of jail, trying to prove he didn't kill Officer Don. Motive weighs against him. It's well known that he and Don were rivals for Eileen's hand. A tipster clues Steve in on the existence of a stolen car ring, that Don may have had a hand in covering. But then Eileen makes an even bigger discovery, hidden in the glove's metal plug.
That's all I'm gonna tell ya about this very complex Whistler. It plays like a traditional Noir and doesn't have as many Sneering Observations by our host, but it's one of the best of the series. Richard Dix passed away two years later at the age of 56. He looks unhealthy in the film but gives his all. There are some great roadside locations, including Eileen's diner and an old gas station I believe is on Sierra Highway near Newhall. It's still sitting there today, abandoned for decades.
Well, so there you have it. Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Thirteenth Hour". I hope you're enjoying your Fourth of July weekend. I love the holiday and I'll bet you do too. Have a great rest of the day.
Tons and tons (and tons) of love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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