It's A Dog's Life

Take a bow-wow, Wildfire. You're the canine star of It's a Dog's Life and winner of a Patsy Award (Picture Animal Top Star of the Year). Wildfire, a white bull terrier, is also the narrator (voice by uncredited Vic Morrow) of this tale of the pup's rise from 1890s Bowery castoff to backroom saloon brawler (the film does not revel in nor show its dog-fighting scenes in detail) to beribboned show champion to blueblood pet. Jeff Richards portrays ne'er-do-well Patch McGill, who exploits Wildfire's fighting skill. Edmund Gwenn is compassionate stableman Jeremiah Edward Emmett Augustus Nolan. And Dean Jagger plays the upper-cruster who makes room on his estate and in his heart for the remarkable Wildfire.

• comedy
• family