Dog Eat Dog
Cast & Crew
Ray Nazarro
Cameron Mitchell
Jayne Mansfield
Elisabeth Flickenschildt
Isa Miranda
Dody Heath
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Gangsters Lylle Corbett and Dolph Kostis rob a bank of a million dollars, and, accompanied by Darlene, a loose woman attracted by the stolen loot, escape to an island in the Adriatic. Intent on keeping the entire sum for himself, Kostis attacks Corbett and leaves him for dead; but as he flees with Darlene to their villa hideout on a neighboring island, Corbett catches up with them and takes charge. Morelli, a shrewd hotel manager who has overheard Kostis ploting with Darlene, follows them with his sister, Sandra. Meanwhile, the robbers discover that their hiding place is inhabited by Xenia, an insane old woman, and her manservant, Jannis. Following the arrival of the second party, a number of murders are committed. Kostis is found strangled in a goldfish pond; Morelli falls from a cliff into a gasoline blaze he himself has set; and Jannis also dies. Sandra, who has taken the stolen money, pulls a gun on Corbett, whose greed has driven him mad, but they both drown in the sea. Darlene, too, dies by drowning, leaving only Xenia alive as the money floats out to sea.
Cast
Cameron Mitchell
Jayne Mansfield
Elisabeth Flickenschildt
Isa Miranda
Dody Heath
Pinkas Braun
Werner Peters
Ivor Salter
Ines Taddio
Aldo Camarda
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Articles
Dog Eat Dog - Jayne Mansfield in DOG EAT DOG on DVD
Cutting to the chase, literally, Dog Eat Dog! begins with Dolph Costis (Ivor Salter) pursuing Lylle Corbett (Cameron Mitchell) with his car along the dark streets of a city by the Aegean Sea. Corbett tumbles off a cliff and Costis goes back to his hotel to meet his wife, Darlene (Mansfield). Darlene has been rolling around in bed with a million dollars stolen by Costis and Corbett from a passing ship, she has also raised the suspicion of the hotel manager, Livio Morelli (Aldo Camarda), who decides to plot his way into a piece of the action. Wanting to get as far away from the authorities as possible, Costis gets on a boat and makes his way to a coastal island, but he and Darlene are far from alone and they meet up with a smashed-up but surviving Corbett, Livio's sister, and (in a knowing nod to Sunset Boulevard) an old woman and her butler inhabitants of a chateau destined for the selective demolition of flared tempers.
Amidst the volatile mix of treachery, greed, and violence that motors the film along to its grim conclusion there is a manic ineptitude to the proceedings that will either charm fans of campy cinema or repel more conservative viewers. Mansfield, sometimes cruelly referred to as "the poor-man's Marilyn Monroe," is certainly not looking her best and was supposedly pregnant at the time (with Mariska Hargitay, who stars on television's Law & Order: SVU). Nathin Rabin, writing for The Onion, writes: "It's a strange juxtaposition of a pregnant Mansfield, seemingly New Wave-inspired high-contrast black-and-white photography, a happening jazz score, hilariously overripe dialogue, international co-production cheesiness, and location shooting in Yugoslavia." By some accounts, everyone except Mansfield and Cameron are dubbed from Italian. By other accounts, everyone gets dubbed, even Mansfield. Either way, she gets to say "Crackers!" enough times to dull the senses of even the most discerning viewer.
Some of the highlights for Dog Eat Dog! include seeing Mansfield complaining about her dirty panties and getting in a catfight, which certainly buys into her image as a blonde bimbo. She was also a one-time Playmate of the Month (February, 1955) and the first mainstream American actress to appear nude in a mainstream American film (Promises! Promises!). These tidbits are easily trolled from IMDB's trivia, where it's also fun to note that she turned down the role of Ginger in Gilligan's Island, spoke five languages, was a classically trained pianist and violinist, and she claimed to have an IQ of 163. Of equal entertainment value are her message boards to see fans sparring over whether her fraternizations with Church of Satan big-wig Anton LaVey reveal her to be a Satanist or simply a cautious observer who was wary of his curses. One fan even notes that Mansfield was not decapitated when the car she was in slammed into the back of a tractor-trailer truck, as is often grimly observed (see Ephraim Katz' The Film Encylopedia), but rather "virtually scalped," leaving a blonde wig on the dash. These morbid ruminations speak of a different curse altogether, one of celebrity, and one easily illustrated by Kenneth Anger's choice to put Mansfield on the cover of his book, Hollywood Babylon.
The Dog Eat Dog! dvd includes a trailer which promotes the film as being "A blind orgy of fury and revenge," as well as two very short newsreels that were shot just prior to the making of the film around 1963 and that feature Mansfield with her family.
For more information about Dog Eat Dog, visit Dark Sky Films. To order Dog Eat Dog, go to TCM Shopping.
by Pablo Kjolseth
Dog Eat Dog - Jayne Mansfield in DOG EAT DOG on DVD
Quotes
I'd rather have fresh panties in Teaneck, New Jersey.- Darlene
Trivia
Notes
Filmed in Yugoslavia and Rome in 1963. Released in West Germany in June 1964 as Einer frisst den anderen; running times: 78 and 95 min. Italian title: La morte vestita di dollari. Prerelease source cites Michael Arthur Productions as production company and Zugsmith as director; however, notices at the time of release refer to the film as an Italian-West German co-production directed by Nazarro.