A Boy and His Dog

Plot synopsis:
Set in a post-nuclear war of the year 2024, the main character, Vic (Don Johnson) is an 18-year-old boy, born in and scavenging throughout the wasteland of the former southwestern United States. Vic is most concerned with food and sex; having lost both of his parents, he has no formal education and does not understand ethics or morality. He is accompanied by a well-read, misanthropic, telepathic dog named Blood who helps him locate women in return for food. Blood cannot forage for himself due to the same genetic engineering that granted him telepathy. The two steal for a living, evading bands of marauders, berserk androids, and mutants. Blood and Vic have an occasionally antagonistic relationship (Blood frequently annoys Vic by calling him "Albert" for reasons never made clear), though they realize they need each other. Blood wishes to find the legendary promised land of "Over the Hill" where above ground utopias are said to exist, though Vic believes that they must make the best of what they have.
Searching a bunker for a woman for Vic to rape, they find one, but she has already been severely mutilated and is on the verge of death. Vic displays no pity, and is merely angered by the "wastefulness" of such an act as well as disgusted by the thought of satisfying his urges with a woman in such a condition. They move on, only to find slavers excavating another bunker. Vic steals several cans of their food, later using them to barter for goods in a nearby shantytown settlement.
That evening, while watching old vintage stag films at a local outdoor movie house, Blood claims to smell a woman, and the pair track her to a large underground warehouse. There, they meet Quilla June Holmes (Susanne Benton), a scheming and seductive teenage girl from "Downunder", a society located in a large underground vault. Unknown to the pair, Quilla June's father, Lou Craddock (Jason Robards), had sent her above ground to "recruit" surface dwellers. Blood takes an instant dislike to her, but Vic ignores him. After Vic saves Quilla June from raiders and mutants, they have repeated sex. Eventually, though, she takes off secretly to return to her underground society. Vic, enticed by the thought of women and sex, follows her, despite Blood's warnings. Blood remains at the portal on the surface.
Downunder has an artificial biosphere, complete with forests and an underground city, which is named Topeka, after the ruins of the city it lies beneath. The entire city is ruled by a triumvirate known as "The Committee", who have shaped Topeka into a bizarre caricature of pre-nuclear war America, with all residents wearing whiteface and clothes that harken back to the rural United States prior to WWII. Vic is told that he has been brought to Topeka to help fertilize the female population and is elated to learn of his value as a "stud." Then he is told that Topeka meets its need for exogamous reproduction by electroejaculation and artificial insemination, which will not allow him to feel the pleasure or release that he seeks. Anybody who refuses to comply or otherwise defies the Committee is sent off to "the farm" and never seen again. Vic is then told that when his sperm has been used to impregnate 35 women, he will be sent to "the farm."
Quilla June helps Vic escape, as she wants him to kill the Committee members and destroy their android enforcer, Michael (Hal Baylor), so that she can usurp power. Vic has no interest in politics or remaining underground, only wishing to return to Blood and the wasteland, where he feels at home. The rebellion is quashed by Michael, who crushes the heads of Quilla June's two co-conspirators before Vic disables him. She proclaims her "love" for Vic and decides to escape to the surface with him, realizing her rebellion has been undone.
On the surface, Vic and Quilla June discover Blood is starving and near death. She pleads with him to abandon Blood, forcing Vic to face his feelings. Vic decides that his loyalties lie with Blood. This results, off-camera, in her being killed and her flesh cooked, so that they can eat and survive. Blood thanks Vic for the food, and they both comment on Quilla June, with Vic stating it was her fault to follow him, and Blood joking that she didn't have bad 'taste'. The film ends with the boy and his dog walking off into the wasteland together.

Tags: melodrama

Review:
Might Have Made A Nice Feature.
A Boy and His Dog won an Oscar in 1946 for Best Short Subject and in its less than 30 minute running time spins a nice tale of a dog choosing its own master.Young Billy Sheffield frees a cruelly mistreated dog from a trap and the hound follows him home.
That of course doesn't sit well with owner Russell Simpson.
Homespun and wise country judge Harry Davenport shows just why he is a judge in that neck of the woods in his decision.Basically that's the sum and substance of the film.
I couldn't help feeling that it could have been expanded and been a nice feature film.Though Harry Davenport is true to type, Russell Simpson plays very effectively against his usual roles.
I'd never seen him as a bad guy before, but he was quite effective.A Boy and His Dog is still a nice family film.
And I do love seeing Harry Davenport make Russell Simpson an offer he can't refuse..
Academy Award winner for short subject category.
A country boy (Billy Sheffield, brother of Johnny of the Tarzan movies), who has recently lost his father, befriends a mistreated coon hound which is owned by an ornery cuss(a character actor you will recognize if you have seen many westerns from the 30s and 40s).
The hound follows the boy home after being extricated from an entanglement.
After tracking the dog to the boy's house and being run off by the boy, the owner files a complaint, and a short trial ensues.
The judge, played by venerable actor Harry Davenport, actually presides at two short trials involving the dog.
According to Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies, this was from the golden age of film shorts, and made by Warner Bros..
A sweet and sentimental sugary tale of a boy and his dog....
A BOY AND HIS DOG suffers from being nothing more than a short tale about a boy who sets free a dog being cruelly treated by a neighborhood man (RUSSEL SIMPSON).
When the man tries to reclaim his dog, there's a trial at which the country judge (HARRY DAVENPORT) decides in favor of the boy as the new owner of the mistreated animal.
That's it.Strangely enough, this is directed by LeRoy Prinz, who later became the dance director for many a Warner film.
And the boy is played by BILLY SHEFFIELD, who looks like he would have made a good Tom Sawyer except his acting skills are unremarkable.
He's the brother of Tarzan's Johnny Sheffield.
DOROTHY ADAMS lends some warmth to the tale with her portrait of the boy's sympathetic mother.But it's a sugary confection, easily forgotten..
Sweet Short.
Boy and His Dog, A (1946) *** (out of 4)Oscar winning short about a young boy (Billy Sheffield) who rescues an abused dog only to have its evil owner (Harry Davenport) take him to court to try and get it back.
If you're a diabetic then you might fall into a coma due to all the sugar sprinkled on this thing but the film succeeds at doing what it tries.
The film certainly just wants to be sweet and on that level it works as director Prinz does a very good job at telling the story and doing so in a loving nature.
He also manges to make a great villain with Davenport, a well-known character actor, doing a great job at just being plain mean.
The story doesn't really offer us anything new or original but it's all handled in a good fashion.
The biggest problem with the movie is the performance by Sheffield who comes off very weak especially in any scene where he's suppose to show emotion..
Awwwww....
A barefoot orphan and his faithful basset hound meet up with a folksy Harry Davenport in this manipulative short from Leroy Prinz, who should have stuck to dance numbers.
Not recommended to anyone who doesn't have a good supply of insulin on hand..
Under the legal theories outlined here .
. Private Property would become a thing of the past in America.
("Squire Kirby" notes that he's not affiliated with ANY level of the U.S. Judicial System; and rightly so, since it's clear his legal thinking is 100% Bolshevik.) Under Kirby's Law, if you covet your neighbor's Corvette, you can "confiscate" it the first time you notice it's a little dusty.
If you then run it through a car wash, that proves you a more worthy owner than the guy who's paying for it (since Do-Gooder Kirby must belong to his local Be Kind to Your Chevy Club).
By the same token, your crush on the wife next door need not be unconsummated, since every spouse has vulnerable periods of being "neglected" or "smothered" by her mate on a daily basis, leaving her "fair game" for you to pounce!
"Buck" (we're never told his REAL name) looks perfectly healthy and well-fed after four years of costly care and feeding by owner Mr. Thornycroft.
The fact that he survived his first four days with dog thief Davy Allen proves nothing.
In fact, it's clear that Davy and his newly-widowed mom lack the means to support "Buck" in the manner to which he's become accustomed (unless "Mom" can marry into Mr. Thornycroft's household).
We're never told how many young Thornycroft kids or grandkids are missing their dog.
It takes more than one instance of a tangled dog chain (or a dusty Corvette, or a lonesome wife) to deprive a man of his "best friend" in America--but apparently NOT in Kirby's native Russia!