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Benji is a american film of genre Drama directed by Joe Camp released in USA on 17 october 1974 with Frances Bavier
Benji (1974)
Benji
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Add to a movie listBenji is the first film in a series of five theatrical features about the golden mixed breed dog named Benji. It was written, produced, and directed by Joe Camp and filmed in and around Denton, Texas. Released in 1974, it was a critical and box office success, grossing $45 million on a budget of $500,000. The film also received an Academy Award nomination for the Best Original Song for the theme song "I Feel Love," by Euel Box. The film was turned down for distribution by every studio in Hollywood and Camp had to form a distribution company to distribute the film worldwide, without the help of Hollywood. Yet Variety reported this was the #3 Box Office film of the year.
Synopsis
Benji is a lovable stray dog who lives in a small Texas town where he has befriended many local people, each of whom calls him by a different name, but the people he likes best are two school-age children (Paul and Cindy) and their housekeeper, Mary. Paul and Cindy's father, however, doesn't want a dog around the place. One day Benji befriends a stray dog (presumably a Maltese) that Mary calls Tiffany, and the kids beg their father to allow them to keep her and Benji, but he refuses. Benji escorts Tiffany to his hide-out, an apparently abandoned house. Two people later break in and bring a kidnapped Paul and Cindy into the house. Benji rushes to "tell" George and Mary of the kids' whereabouts but is shooed out. He then grabs the ransom note, but it gets taken from him and poor Benji is a loss at what to do next. He follows two policemen into the station and gets locked in and seems doomed until he accidentally turns on the drive-through intercom and the policeman lets him out. He goes back to the old house and spots a failed try at writing the ransom note and an idea strikes him. He grabs the crumpled note but is grabbed by one of the kidnappers and Tiffany rushes out and bites him and gets a vicious kick in return (she is not killed but apparently injured). Benji races back to Mary the kids' Dad, but Linda beats him there. The rest is for you to see. Camp never revealed the plot to the press but rather spoke of the essence of the movie: "It's a love story about a dog struggling against the odds to accomplish something that most people would consider to be impossible; and it's the first film ever in which a dog actually acted and expressed emotion on the screen. He was more or less the three-dimensional character in the film and the people were more or less the props. The dialog is in the eyes of the dog." Many film critics stated that Benji deserved a Best Actor Oscar for his acting.Actors
Frances Bavier
(Lady with the Cat)
Patsy Garrett
(Mary Gruber)
Edgar Buchanan
(Bill)
Peter Breck
(Dr. Paul M. Chapman)
Christopher Connelly
(Henry)
Benji
(1974)
(1977)
(1978)
(1980)
(1987)
(2004)Comments
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Suggestions of similar film to Benji
There are 92 films with the same actors, 7 films with the same director, 96632 with the same cinematographic genres (including 4 with exactly the same 6 genres than Benji), 7262 films with the same themes (including 291 films with the same 4 themes than Benji), to have finally 70 suggestions of similar films.If you liked Benji, you will probably like those similar films :
For the Love of Benji (1977)
, 1h25Directed by Joe Camp
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy-drama, Crime
Themes Films about animals, Films about dogs, Children's films, Mise en scène d'un mammifère
Actors Patsy Garrett, Ed Nelson, Peter Bowles
Rating58%
Benji est perdu à Athènes, en Grèce, essayant de retrouver sa famille tandis que des agents secrets le poursuivent afin d'obtenir une formule collée à sa patte.
, 25minutesDirected by Joe Camp
Origin USA
Themes Films about animals, Christmas films, Films about dogs, Children's films
Actors Ron Moody, Patsy Garrett, Sadie Corré, Deep Roy
Rating53%
The actors from the Benji films are on a promotional tour in Switzerland and are asked to be grand marshalls of a Christmas parade in Zermatt. Due to a broken leg Kris Kringle is sending his elves out to deliver presents, and as this will force them to miss the parade he wants them to meet Benji first. With help from the Benji actors, Kringle realises the true meaning of Christmas and performs a musical number showing how Saint Nicholas appears all over the world.
Hawmps! (1976)
, 1h53Directed by Joe Camp
Genres Comedy, Western
Themes Children's films
Actors Jack Elam, James Hampton, Christopher Connelly, Slim Pickens, Denver Pyle, Gino Conforti
Rating53%
Benji the Hunted (1987)
, 1h28Directed by Joe Camp
Origin USA
Genres Comedy-drama, Action, Adventure
Themes Films about animals, Films about dogs, Children's films, Mise en scène d'un mammifère
Actors Joe Camp
Rating62%
Benji has become lost in a remote area of Oregon after a boating accident. He finds himself struggling to survive in the wilderness, avoiding close encounters with a timber wolf, a brown bear, and a territorial female cougar with her cub. Benji made friends with other animals including a great horned owl, a deer, a red fox and a raccoon.
Oh! Heavenly Dog (1980)
, 1h44Directed by Joe Camp
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Comedy, Fantasy, Crime
Themes Films about animals, Films about religion, Films about dogs, Children's films
Actors Chevy Chase, Jane Seymour, Omar Sharif, Robert Morley, Alan Sues, Lorenzo Music
Rating54%
Chevy Chase plays a private investigator who is called to a job and is killed after finding a dead woman. The afterlife has not decided if he is destined for Heaven or Hell, so he is given the chance to return to Earth as a dog in order to solve the case and earn his way to Heaven.
Benji: Off the Leash! (2004)
, 1h37Directed by Joe Camp
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy-drama
Themes Films about animals, Films about dogs, Children's films
Actors Joey Miyashima, Nick Whitaker, Jeff Olson
Rating52%
The film starts with the understanding that the makers of the Benji films are going to various towns in the U.S. looking for the next dog to play Benji. In a small Mississippi town, a freelance dog breeder named Hatchett keeps a backyard kennel under poor conditions behind his home. He lives with a young boy named Colby and his mother and is verbally abusive to them, but Colby loves dogs and secretly nurtures a female black dog who is Hathcett's top breeder. He goes to an abandoned house in the neighborhood and takes food and water to the black dog so she can produce milk for her new pups. Hatchett learns of this and takes the black puppies but abandons a fluffy, light-colored "mongrel". Over several months, Colby secretly cares for the puppy, and it grows into the unnamed fluffy dog that will become Benji.
Gordy (1995)
, 1h30Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Fantasy, Adventure
Themes Films about animals, Films about music and musicians, Films about pigs, Musical films, Buddy films, Children's films, Mise en scène d'un mammifère
Actors Afemo Omilami, Tom Lester, Doug Stone, Ted Manson, Hamilton Camp, Frank Welker
Rating38%
A spunky piglet named Gordy lives a happy life on Meadow Brook Farm somewhere near Hope, Arkansas. Unfortunately, the farm's farmer has gone bankrupt, and thus must sell everything, starting with Gordy's family. Two men arrive in a truck to take Gordy's father, but Gordy is alerted of this by the farm's rooster. Gordy tries to stop his father from leaving by following the truck taking his father, but his father tells him to go home and look after the family. When Gordy returns he finds that his mother and siblings were taken in another truck while he pursued his father. Determined to locate his family and return to the farm, Gordy sets out alone to find them. He eventually ends up in the care of Jinnie Sue MacAllister, a young country singer who lives in a camper van with her also country singer father, Luke, and their "manager", Cousin Jake. Jinnie Sue, not knowing Gordy's name, calls him Pinky.
Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)
, 1h25Directed by Walter Lang
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Romance
Themes Films about families, Children's films
Actors Clifton Webb, Myrna Loy, Jeanne Crain, Betty Lynn, Edgar Buchanan, Barbara Bates
Rating69%
The parents were time and motion study and efficiency experts Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr. and psychologist Lillian Moller Gilbreth. The title comes from one of Gilbreth's favorite jokes which played out in the movie that when he and his family were out driving and stopped at a red light, a pedestrian would ask "Hey, Mister! How come you got so many kids?" Gilbreth would pretend to ponder the question carefully, and then, just as the light turned green, would say "Well, they come cheaper by the dozen, you know," and drive off.
Pocahontas (1995)
, 1h21Directed by Eric Goldberg, Mike Gabriel
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Biography, Comedy-drama, Musical theatre, Adventure, Musical, Animation, Romance
Themes Films about animals, Films about dogs, Films about birds, Musical films, Children's films, Mise en scène d'un mammifère, Mise en scène d'une plante
Actors Irene Bedard, Mel Gibson, David Ogden Stiers, John Kassir, Russell Means, Billy Connolly
Rating67%
In 1607, the Susan Constant sails to the New World from England, carrying British settlers of the Virginia Company. On board are Captain John Smith and the voyage's leader Governor Ratcliffe, who seeks large amounts of gold in the New World to assure a strong position at the British court. Along the way, the Susan Constant is caught in a North Atlantic storm, and Smith saves a young, inexperienced crewmate named Thomas from drowning. In the Powhatan tribe in the New World, Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, dreads being possibly wed to Kocoum, a brave warrior whom she sees as too "serious" for her free-spirited personality. Chief Powhatan gives Pocahontas her deceased mother's necklace as a present. Pocahontas, along with her friends, the gluttonous raccoon Meeko and hot-tempered hummingbird Flit, visit Grandmother Willow, a spiritual talking willow tree, and speaks of a possibly prophetic dream involving a spinning arrow, and her confusion regarding what her "path" in life should be. Grandmother Willow then alerts Pocahontas to the arriving British.
, 1h24Directed by Duwayne Dunham
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Fantasy, Action, Adventure
Themes Films about animals, Films about cats, Films about dogs, Children's films, Mise en scène d'un mammifère
Actors Don Ameche, Sally Field, Michael J. Fox, Ted D'Arms, Robert Hays, Kim Greist
Rating69%
Chance, a disobedient American Bulldog (voiced by Michael J. Fox) and narrator of the film, opens by explaining that he is the pet of Jamie Burnford (Kevin Chevalia), but expresses no interest in his owner or being part of a family. He shares his home with Shadow, an older and wiser Golden Retriever (voiced by Don Ameche) owned by Peter Burnford (Benj Thall), and Sassy, a smart-mouthed Himalayan cat (voiced by Sally Field), owned by their sister, Hope (Veronica Lauren). That morning, Bob Seaver (Robert Hays) marries Laura Burnford (Kim Greist), and Chance manages to cause chaos by digging into the wedding cake in front of all the guests.