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Dog Eat Dog!
[Dark Sky Films]
1966; b&w
Directed by Ray Nzarro, Richard Cunha & Gustav Gavrin
Starring: Jayne Mansfield, Cameron Mitchell, Ivor Salter, Isa Miranda, Werner Peters, Aldo Camarda & Dody Heath
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Dog Eat Dog! is a kicky, kitschy thriller built on whispered secrets, double crosses and hidden agendas. With a movie like this you can't really do more than outline the basic plot without risking giving too much away. On the other hand, I have to fill this space with something besides "I liked this movie" so I'll do my best. Essentially the action revolves around a trio of crooks who have recently - like, yesterday - relieved the US Treasury Department of one million dollars; in cash no less. While in the process of evading Johnny Law they draw the interest of an enterprising hotel manager who figures out who they are / what they've got and devises a plan to relieve them of their ill gotten gains. He draws his co-worker (who is also his sister) and boss (who is also his lover) into the mix and in short order everyone mentioned above, minus the boss, take to the sea, bound for a deserted island some distance from where the hotel is located. Except this deserted island isn't as deserted as one might believe. A madam has taken up residence there, along with her man servant. (Who, as we're soon to find out, has a criminal history of his own. Madame is not there to operate a mansion of ill repute by the way, but to live out the rest of her days in comfort and peace.) And thus is the set up that sets it up so that the seven stranded castaways can chase each other, and the money, around the island for a while. This cat and mouse game meanders along until one member of the party mysteriously winds up dead. And not in a they-died-peacefully-in-their-sleep kind of way either. We're talking mur-diddly-urder, daddy. Mur-diddly-urder most foul. Hmmm, who could have killed this not so innocent victim? Him? Her? The other him? The butler? The butterfly? (No one ever suspects the butterfly.) Me? No, don't be silly. It couldn't have been me. Besides, I have an alibi. I was watching a movie with the Kommandant at the time of the murder. It was about this trio of crooks who stole a million dollars… Anywhoo, while all of this intrigue is afoot, the local police have finally started sniffing around the hotel in their own effort to catch the criminals—and, of course, the money. As the dead start to outnumber the living, and alliances are made only to be broken moments later, the man starts approaching the island to end this story once and for all. But don't worry, there's still time for one final story-ending showdown featuring the remaining living castaways before the police even hit the beach. With all that said, I did like this movie. It started off in kind of a weird disjointed way, and at the beginning Ms. Mansfield's character had this totally annoying habit of starting every sentence with "Crackers!", but things gel rather quickly and by the time they get to the island hep slang has been forgotten in favor of a long series of interesting (though not completely unexpected) twists and turns, almost each of which has it's own twist and / or turn. On a somewhat related note, according to rumor Jayne was four months pregnant during the making of this movie with Mariska Hargitay—who, according to the Kommandant, has grown up to be a well known TV actress and star on one of those prime time crime shows I don't watch—which would explain why she wears a loose fitting men's white button down shirt throughout most of it. (As opposed to the curve hugging black knee length shift dresses we saw her wear while gallivanting around Europe in The Wild, Wild World Of Jayne Mansfield.)
—Bunny
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