The Hardly Boys in Hardly Gold
Hardly boys, but girls, and dogs.
A delightful 30-minute film from William Wegman, best known for his kitschy photography featuring Weimaraners in fancy attire and with human figures. Here, a cast of four such pooches – Fay Ray, Batty, Crooky and Chundo – act out the story of the Hardly family, whose peaceful vacation in the wilderness of Maine takes a more sinister turn when the “boys” catch wind of a less than savoury plot being hatched by a psychotic nurse and a greedy but gullible caretaker. As with the Wegman segments made for Sesame Street in the 90s, the somewhat bemused expressions of the Weimaraners and Wegman’s monotone narration are a match made in heaven, topped off here with plenty of dry humour, charming, genial photography and a suitably old-fashioned score.
The storyline’s rather straightforward and maybe has the odd hole here and there - for one thing (and as Wegman himself points out in the commentary) we never get a drop of insight into the motives of the psychotic nurse – but in honestly, none of that really matters. The true delight comes from seeing all those wonderful set pieces in which the canine troupe golf, play tennis, canoe, mastermind their devious schemes and take one another hostage, while Wegman performs the whimsical task of what he aptly calls “placing a thought bubble above their heads” (save the psychotic nurse, whose malicious vocal ramblings come courtesy of Andrea Beeman). For fans of Wegman’s work, this short little burst of curiosity needs no recommendation, and for everyone else, it’s definitely worth your trouble to check this out. For sheer novelty, drollness and geniality, it’s pretty hard to top it.