The Ugly Dachshund (Disney) (1966)

DOG-LOVER ROLE IS A NATURAL FOR SUZANNE PLESHETTE Playing a doting dog-lover in Walt Disney’s rollicking new comedy, ‘“‘The Ugly Dachshund,” was no real acting tour-de-force for talented Suzanne Pleshette, for in real life she is just that. “The Ugly Dachshund” is the featured motion picture in Walt Disney’s “perfect program” of entertainment, which also includes the fully animated cartoon featurette, “Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.” The owner of a pert and petite Yorkshire terrier named Missy, Suzanne confesses she is every inch the doting mother to this precocious canine cut-up at home. However, during filming of the Technicolor feature, in which she stars with Dean Jones and Charlie Ruggles, Suzanne was plagued by one problem with her devoted pet. Working every day with four dachshunds and a great Dane left tell-tale traces of dog scents that would nearly drive poor Missy out of her mind. The minute Suzanne would arrive home in the evening, the little dog would go wild, sniffing her from head to toe. Fearing that Missy would snap under the strain of trying to identify five strange dogs’ odors, Suzanne finally resorted to taking a hot shower every night before leaving the studio and changing all her clothes. This worked and soon Missy’s shattered nerves were restored to normal, not to mention those of her mistress. “The Ugly Dachshund” was directed by Norman Tokar and coproduced by Winston Hibler for Buena Vista release. Star of Walt Disney Comedy Got His Start In High School Play Dean Jones’ first stage experience was such a complete disappointment, he might have forsaken show business forever, had it not been for a later quirk of fate. Jones, currently starring with Suzanne Pleshette and Charlie Ruggles in Walt Disney’s rollicking romantic romp, “The Ugly Dachshund,” first stepped before the footlights in a high school farce as a Casper Milquetoast character who becomes a lion of a man before the final curtain. “The Ugly Dachshund” is the featured motion picture in Walt Disney’s “perfect program” of entertainment, which also includes the fully animated cartoon featurette, “Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.” “It was pretty awful,” Jones recalls now. “In the last act I had to swing the leading lady over my shoulder, fireman-style, and carry her away. Actually she about matched me in weight and size and it was all I could do to make it offstage.” Following this disaster, Jones gave up all aspirations of an acting career until some years later when he was lured to Hollywood as a new singing find with a contract tucked neatly in his pocket. To date he has yet to sing on screen but to earn his salary, he switched to acting and through hard work developed into one of the most refreshing young comedians on the Hollywood scene. Filmed in brilliant Technicolor, “The Ugly Dachshund” was directed by Norman Tokar and co-produced by Winston Hibler for Buena Vista release. THE PERFECT PROGRAM ‘THE UGLY DACHSHUND’ THE STORY (Not for Publication) Mark Garrison (DEAN JONES), a young free lance artist, is awakened from a sound sleep by his attractive young wife, Fran, (SUZANNE PLESHETTE) and told, “The time is now. We'd better get to the hospital.” Dressing hurriedly, he calls the doctor and they dash for the car. Speeding along the highway, they are stopped by Officer Carmody (KELLY THORDSEN) but when he thinks he detects the emergency of their plight, he provides a motorcycle escort to the nearest hospital. Dr. Pruitt (CHARLIE RUGGLES) soon announces that Danke has given birth to three puppies and that mother and daughters are doing fine. He suggests they remain overnight, just to get the puppies off to a good start. The next day Mark goes to the veterinarian’s to pick up Danke and litter. Dr. Pruitt tries to persuade him to take along a Dane puppy that has been cast out by its mother. Mark arrives home with Danke and four puppies. Fran thinks Danke has given birth to another pup and is delighted, happily ignoring the difference in size and appearance. As the awkward puppy begins to outgrow his nursery mates, the truth becomes painfully obvious. Brutus, as he has been named, is a very great Great Dane. Thus begins a confusing period for Brutus. The only dogs he ever sees are Danke and her puppies. He, therefore, comes to the conclusion that he, too, is a dachshund. His size and clumsiness get him into all sorts of trouble. He tries to explore Mark’s studio and, quite by accident, wrecks the place. The dachshunds love to frolic on Fran’s bed but when Brutus tries this, the bed collapses. Brutus proves himself a too able watch dog. While a policeman is searching the Garrison yard for a cat burglar, he is treed by the great Dane and forced to spend the night perched on a high limb. Fran and Mark plan a garden party. When the caterers arrive to get things ready, Brutus greets one joyfully enough to knock him over. That evening, after the guests have arrived, Chloe, one of Danke’s puppies, gets into the service yard and teases Brutus, who tears himself loose and he chases little Chloe through the party. It is chaos. The next morning Fran insists that Brutus be returned to Dr. Pruitt. But then Chloe gets herself trapped in a trash can and Brutus redeems himself by preventing the trash man from hauling her away. Brutus wins a reprieve. Mark decides that Brutus must learn he is not a dachshund, but a great Dane. He begins to train the dog for the show ring but keeps this a secret from Fran, who is training Chloe for the coming dog show, too. Show time arrives. Mark and. Dr. Pruitt slip Brutus into the show tent without Fran’s knowledge. Brutus does very well in the competition with the other great Danes until a woman carrying a dachshund stops near the ring. Brutus sees the dachshund and immediately slouches into his “‘dachsie” walk. The judge (CHARLES LANE) asks sharply if the dog is ill. It seems that Brutus will surely be disqualified. Then a beautiful harlequin Dane appears with her handler. Brutus straightens up and assumes his proudest stance. He is every inch a great Dane, and the blue ribbon is his. ‘WINNIE THE POOH and the Honey Tree’ THE STORY (Not for Publication) In the Hundred Acre Wood, Winnie the Pooh, the roly-poly little bear, is taking his stoutness exercises and singing his “hungry” song. His tummy is rumbly with hunger and when he goes in search of his honey jar, he finds it empty. A bee buzzes into the house and Pooh bear follows it out into the forest and to the honey tree. Climbing high up into the tree, Pooh almost reaches the hole to the bees’ honey cache when a branch breaks and he tumbles down, down, down into a gorse bush. Meanwhile, Christopher Robin, who lives in another part of the forest, finds that pessimistic old Eeyore, the donkey, has lost his tail again. Christopher Robin tacks it back on, with the help of Owl, Kanga and little Roo. ; Pooh arrives, borrows a balloon from Christopker Robin, and disguises himself as a small, black rain cloud by rolling in a mud puddle. Holding onto the balloon, he floats up alongside the honey tree singing his “Little Black Rain Cloud” song. Stopping at the hole in the tree where the bees keep their honey, Pooh reaches in to get a pawful of honey. He quickly pops it into his mouth, along with a few bees. Some of the bees come out of Pooh’s ears but one flies around inside Pooh, tickling him into gales of laughter. The bees, under the leadership of the queen, now pursue Pooh. His balloon begins to lose air and starts darting about like a rocket. Pooh hangs on for dear life until he finally drops onto Christopher Robin below. The two seek the safety of a mud puddle and shield themselves from the bees beneath Christopher Robin’s large, black umbrella. Hungrier than ever, Pooh calls on Rabbit in his underground house. Out of politeness Rabbit is forced to let Pooh dig deeply into his supply of honey. The bear consumes the last jar and becomes so stout, he gets hopelessly wedged in the doorway on his way out. Rabbit runs to Christopher Robin for help. A gopher appears on the scene and dickers with Owl on a price for extricating poor Pooh. When they fail to reach an agreement, the gopher pops back into his hole. Christopher Robin arrives with Eeyore, Kanga and Roo. Apparently Pooh is to remain stuck fast in Rabbit’s doorway until he loses some weight. Rabbit is frantic. To make the best of the situation, he decorates Pooh’s rear, which is protruding into his house. Pooh sneezes and the posterior plan collapses. Christopher Robin produces a picnic basket, laden with goodies. As he and his other friends enjoy a delicious lunch, poor Pooh moans and groans with hunger. To take Pooh’s mind off his predicament, Owl reads poetry but, alas, each poem deals with the joys of food. Midnight comes and the gopher, on the swing shift, gets out his lunch pail and wolfs down his meal right under Pooh’s nose. This is almost more than the bear can bear. The next morning Rabbit leans reflectively against Pooh’s rear. The bear budges! Outside Rabbit’s house, Christopher Robin and his friends tug at Pooh’s head. Inside, Rabbit runs like a battering ram at Pooh. The bear comes unstuck, and goes sailing through the air like a bullet. He lands in the bee tree, with his head stuck right in the honey hole. He is ecstatic as he starts to lap up the golden syrup. Mat POO-2A ‘WINNIE THE POOH' has filled his tummy with “hunny” and is stuck in the front door of Rabbit's house in Walt Disney's animated cartoon featurette, “Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.”” Kanga and Roo offer him flowers and solace. The Technicolor production is based on the books written by A. A. Milne, and directed by Wolfgang Reitherman. Walt Disney Brings the Original ‘Winnie the Pooh’ Charm to Screen Winnie the Pooh, the winsome, hugable fictional bear of A. A. Milne’s classic children’s tales, now comes to the screen for the first time in Walt Disney’s enchanting animated cartoon featurette, “Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree,” along with the rest of the beloved Milne characters who roamed the Hundred Acre Wood with their friend Christopher Robin. Eeyore, the doleful donkey who lost his tail, timid Piglet, bouncy Tigger, Rabbit, Owl, Kanga and little Roo are all here just as they have become forever fixed in the minds and memories of millions of children the world over. In bringing this cast of characters to life through the animated cartoon medium, Disney and his creative staff of artists have carefully adherred to the original illustrations of Ernest H. Shepard. The story itself is adapted from one of several adventures contained in the book, “Winnie-the-Pooh.”’ The author, A. A. Milne, a successful English novelist and playwright, first tried his hand at children’s literature in 1924 when he wrote some poems about his four-year-old son, Christopher Robin. From this came two books of verse, “When We Were Very Young” and “Now We Are Six.” Two other books, ‘Winnie the Pooh” and “The House at Pooh Corner,’’ introduced Christopher Robin’s fanciful friends, the animals patterned after his son’s stuffed toys who inhabited a woodland setting like that around Milne’s own country home in Sussex. Together the four books, all illustrated by Shepard and translated into 12 languages, have sold more than ten million copies. Though Milne died in 1956, the world of Pooh lives on through the wonderful stories he bequeathed to children everywhere. Now, through the magic of Walt Disney, the world of Pooh bear and Christopher Robin comes to motion pictures to delight their millions of fans and to enchant millions of new ones. Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, the Oscar-winning song writers of “Mary Poppins” fame, have composed five new songs for the comedyfantasy. They are “Winnie the Pooh,” “Up, Down, and Touch the Ground,” “Rumbly in My Tumbly,” “Little Black Rain Cloud” and “Mind Over Matter.” Each song sets the mood and tempo for the scene in which it is introduced. The musical score for the cartoon featurette was arranged and conducted by Buddy Baker, whose recent Disney scores include “Summer Magic,” “A Tiger Walks,” Mats (including the copyright notice thereon) must be used intact. “The Misadventures of Merlin Jones” and “The Monkey’s Uncle.” Wolfgang Reitherman held the directorial reins alone on this newest Disney cartoon achievement, just as he did recently on the feature-length cartoon production, ‘The Sword in the Stone.” Prior to that, he shared directing credit on Disney cartoon successes like “Peter Pan,” “Lady and the Tramp,” “Sleeping Beauty” and “One Hundred and One Dalmatians.” Working closely with Reitherman on the animation were veteran Disney artists Hal King, John Lounsbery, John Sibley, Walt Stanchfield, John Ewing, Eric Cleworth, Eric Larson, Hal Ambro, Fred Hellmich, Bill Keil and Dan MacManus. A group of Hollywood’s most talented performers were rounded up by Walt Disney to provide the voices for the famed Milne characters. Sterling Holloway lends his unique vocal talents to the title role of Winnie the Pooh. Barbara Luddy voices the soft-spoken Kanga, and Clint Howard speaks for little Roo. Providing vocal characterizations for Rabbit, Eeyore and Owl are Junius Matthews, Ralph Wright and Hal Smith, respectively, and Howard Morris gives voice to the gopher, a delightful new Disney character who explains his presence by exclaiming, “I’m not in the book, you know!” Bruce Reitherman, nine-year-old son of the director, is the voice of Christopher Robin, and that wellknown performer of stage, screen and television, Sebastian Cabot, handles the off-scene narration. Larry Clemmons, Ralph Wright, Xavier Attencio, Ken Anderson, Vance Gerry and Dick Lucas pooled their talents to adapt and write the story, based on the books of A. A. Milne. Background artists Art Riley, Al Dempster and Bill Layne painted the colorful scenics against which the animated cartoon characters play out their scenes and the layout designs were created by artists Basil Davidovich, Don Griffith, Dale Barnhart and Sylvia Cobb. Filmed in color by Technicolor, “Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree” is released by Buena Vista. “Winnie the Pooh” is part of Walt Disney’s “perfect program” of entertainment, which also includes the full-length feature comedy, “The Ugly Dachshund,” in Technicolor, starring Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette.