Figure 1.--Frankie Muniz stared in "My dog Skip". It is a lovely little film set in the 1940s about a boy and his devoted dog. It did not get a lot of critical attention. Frankie of course got much more attention for his role of Mzlcomb in the TV series 'Malcolm in the Middle'.

"My Dog Skip" is based on a story by Willie Morris. A smart Jack Russell terrier (great little dogs) helps a lonely, shy boy come out of his shell, make friends, and grow up. The film is superbly faithful to period (1942-44) clothing details. The main character, a 9-year old boy played very well by Frankie Muniz, wears collared short-sleeved shirts, short pants, crew-length socks, and leather lace-up shoes in the many of the early scenes. At his birthday party when he receives Skip as a present, he also wears suspenders with his shorts. Other boys wear white "T"-shirts, denim overalls, jeans, sneakers, and casual, zippered jackets for cooler weather. [HBC note: I am not sure how common it was for younger boys to wear white "T"-shirts. Some teenagers did in the 1950s, but not to school. My impression is that younger boys usually wore colored stripe "T"-shirts and not white ones, but would be interested in reader input on this.] At school a couple of the boys wore shorts, which was very common in the hot, humid late summer and late spring weather of Mississippi, where the film is set and was filmed. One other fashion typical of the time, colorful, horizontally striped T-shirts, were worn by some of the boys. Several of the boys wore baseball caps for casual wear, and others wore a very common cap for boys. It's something like the flat cap, with a fuller crown, topped by a button. The button is covered with the same material as the cap. The cap's brim is rather short. This is a really fine, well made film with a terrific cast, though a couple of the subplots were not well developed and seemed a little forced. A HBC reader writes, "My Dog Skip is a wonderful film. A sensitive, beautiful theme song is the icing on this film's cake. Well worth seeing." The film seemed to launch Frankie Muniz's career who made a name for himself in the TV series, "Malcomb in the Middle".

Created: 6:43 PM 5/18/2010
Last updated: 6:44 PM 5/18/2010