Wolf Dog

Last updated
Wolf Dog
Wolf Dog FilmPoster.jpeg
Film poster
Directed by Sam Newfield
Written by Louis Stevens
Produced bySam Newfield
Starring Jim Davis
Allison Hayes
CinematographyFrederick Ford
Edited byDouglas Robertson
Music byJohn Bath
Production
company
Distributed by 20th Century-Fox
Release date
  • July 1958 (1958-07)(United States)
Running time
69 minutes
CountriesUnited States
Canada
LanguageEnglish

Wolf Dog, also known as A Boy and His Dog, is a 1958 Western film directed and produced by Sam Newfield and produced by Regal Films. [1] [2] The film stars Jim Davis and Allison Hayes.

Contents

Plot

Cast

Production

In August 1957, Newfield and a camera crew filmed the movie in and around Markdale, Ontario, near Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada.

The movie co-starred Hollywood actors Jim Davis, Allison Hayes and John Hart along with Canadian actors Austin Willis and Tony Brown. Several locals were offered a chance to be unpaid "extras". Among those were Paul Hutton, Jerry Bartley, Constable Clarence Bowins, David Jackson, Officer Jack Johnston, Ron Wyvill, Don Wyvill.

Reception

While not an artistic or commercial success, the film is noteworthy in that it was created almost 40 years before Telefilm Canada and federal government subsidies enabled big-name movies to be filmed in Canadian locales. Markdale residents were delighted to have Hollywood make a film in their town.

It was hoped a film set in "The Great North Country" would be a crossover hit in the U.S. and the Commonwealth, both lucrative movie markets. For reasons unknown, the film disappeared from the public eye for almost 50 years. An unsubstantiated rumor suggested one of the main actors wanted all traces of the film destroyed. The only known copies of the film are an incomplete version stored at the National Archives of Canada and a complete version at the U.S. Library of Congress.

Copies of the movie can be found at the Markdale Public Library, Ontario, Canada, donated by the creator of the fan site, Jeff Wilson. He, along with actors from the film, Ron Wyvill and Paul Hutton, appeared in a short documentary made by Rogers Television, Owen Sound. Wilson and Wyvill also organized several screenings in the town of Markdale, Ontario, where the film was originally shot. There is also a link to a radio interview with Ron Wyvill on YouTube which can be found under the channel Toonguy85, belonging to Wilson.

All distribution copyrights belong to 20th Century Fox.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Corman</span> American film director, producer, and actor (born 1926)

Roger William Corman is an American film director, producer, and actor. Known under various monikers such as "The Pope of Pop Cinema", "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood", and "The King of Cult", he is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are low-budget cult films including some which are adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Knox</span> Canadian actor and writer (1907-1995)

Alexander Knox was a Canadian actor and writer. He appeared in over 100 film, television, and theatrical productions over a career spanning from the 1920’s until the late 1980’s. He was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe for his performance as American President Woodrow Wilson in the 1944 film Wilson. However, his career in the United States was hampered by McCarthyism, and he spent the rest of his career in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Backus</span> American actor (1913–1989)

James Gilmore Backus was an American actor. Among his most famous roles were Thurston Howell III on the 1960s sitcom Gilligan's Island, the father of James Dean's character in Rebel Without a Cause, the voice of the near-sighted cartoon character Mr. Magoo, the rich Hubert Updike III on the radio version of The Alan Young Show, and Joan Davis' character's husband on TV's I Married Joan. He also starred in his own show of one season, The Jim Backus Show, also known as Hot Off the Wire.

John Lee Mahin was an American screenwriter and producer of films who was active in Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1960s. He was known as the favorite writer of Clark Gable and Victor Fleming. In the words of one profile, he had "a flair for rousing adventure material, and at the same time he wrote some of the raciest and most sophisticated sexual comedies of that period."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Derek</span> American actor and filmmaker (1926–1998)

John Derek was an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer and photographer. He appeared in such films as Knock on Any Door, All the King's Men, and Rogues of Sherwood Forest (1950).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rory Calhoun</span> American actor (1922–1999)

Rory Calhoun was an American film and television actor. He starred in numerous Westerns in the 1950s and 1960s, and appeared in supporting roles in films such as How to Marry a Millionaire (1953).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clint Walker</span> American actor (1927–2018)

Norman Eugene "Clint" Walker was an American actor. He played cowboy Cheyenne Bodie in the ABC/Warner Bros. western series Cheyenne from 1955 to 1963.

<i>Old Yeller</i> (film) 1957 American film

Old Yeller is a 1957 American Western drama film directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Walt Disney. It stars Dorothy McGuire and Fess Parker, with Tommy Kirk, and Kevin Corcoran. It is about a boy and a stray dog in post-Civil War Texas. The film is based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Fred Gipson. Gipson also co-wrote the screenplay along with William Tunberg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Hutton</span> American actor (1934–1979)

Dana James Hutton, known as Jim Hutton, was an American actor in film and television best remembered for his role as Ellery Queen in the 1970s TV series of the same name, and his screen partnership with Paula Prentiss in four films, starting with Where the Boys Are. He is the father of actor Timothy Hutton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allison Hayes</span> American actress and model

Allison Hayes was an American film and television actress and model.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edd Byrnes</span> American actor and singer (1932–2020)

Edward Byrne Breitenberger, known professionally as Edd Byrnes, was an American actor, best known for his starring role in the television series 77 Sunset Strip. He also was featured in the 1978 film Grease as television teen-dance show host Vince Fontaine, and was a charting recording artist with "Kookie, Kookie ".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Tobey</span> American actor (1917–2002)

Jesse Kenneth Tobey was an American actor who performed in hundreds of productions during a career that spanned more than half a century, including his role as the star of the 1957-1960 Desilu Productions TV series Whirlybirds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Markdale</span> Unincorporated community in Ontario, Canada

Markdale is a community in the Municipality of Grey Highlands, in Grey County, Ontario, Canada. The population was 1,216 in 2016, an increase of 3.5% from 1,175 in 2011. In 2016, the average age of the population was approximately 43 years old.

Gregory Kean Williams is a Canadian television actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Clancy Lass in the television series Dead Like Me.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Clarke</span> American actor (1920–2005)

Robert Irby Clarke was an American actor best known for his cult classic science fiction films of the 1950s. In succeeding decades he appeared in more conventional television, and in The King Family Show, a variety show based on the family of which his wife Alyce King Clarke was a member.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert L. Lippert</span> American film producer

Robert Lenard Lippert was an American film producer and cinema chain owner. He was president and chief operating officer of Lippert Theatres, Affiliated Theatres and Transcontinental Theatres, all based in San Francisco, and at his height, he owned a chain of 139 movie theaters.

<i>Flaming Frontier</i> 1958 film directed by Sam Newfield

Flaming Frontier is a 1958 Canadian-American Western film produced and directed by Sam Newfield in his final credited feature film, from a screenplay by Louis Stevens. Produced by Regal Pictures in Canada, where Newfield was shooting his Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans TV series, it was distributed by 20th Century Fox and opened in August 1958. The film stars Bruce Bennett and Jim Davis.

<i>Showdown at Boot Hill</i> 1958 film by Gene Fowler Jr.

Showdown at Boot Hill is a 1958 American Western film directed by Gene Fowler Jr., written by Louis Vittes, and starring Charles Bronson, Robert Hutton, John Carradine, Carole Mathews, Fintan Meyler and Paul Maxey. The film was released on May 1, 1958, by 20th Century Fox.

Andrew J. Fenady was an American actor, screenwriter, producer, and novelist.

<i>Chicks with Sticks</i> 2004 Canadian hockey film

Chicks with Sticks is a 2004 Canadian independent hockey comedy-drama television movie. It was written by Don Truckey and directed by Kari Skogland, and stars Jessalyn Gilsig, Margot Kidder, Jason Priestley, Juliette Marquis, Michie Mee and Peter Outerbridge.

References

  1. "WOLF DOG". Monthly Film Bulletin. Vol. 25. 1958. p. 92. ProQuest   1305823668.
  2. Schallert, E. (Sep 17, 1957). "Novelist gann writes screen original; haas to star billy gilbert". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest   167201016.