3 out of 5

Directed by: Zion Myers

Part of the 1930s “Dogville Comedies,” or… barkies, Who Killed Rover? is part of a series of shorts in which trained dogs are dressed up, placed about on sets, propped up or trained to walk about, and voice actors dub over their barks, achieving – assisted by tons of edits – something approaching a narrative. And while something of the more drawn out portions of this particular short could make you ask if it’s something semi-serious, naming characters like “Phido Vance” and the cartoonish nature of the whole enterprise underline the parodic intentions.

This time out, it’s a murder “mystery,” on the eve of Rover’s wedding, and I’m sure there’s a motive in there somewhere but I couldn’t suss it out. If you can set aside some it-was-the-style-at-the-time racism – it’s brief, but cue an Asian stereotype and a Black stereotype in bit roles, and yeah, you can’t even avoid this shit in the barkies – Who Killed Rover? is pretty entertaining, though purely for the nonsensical aspects of watching the dogs prance about, or when their fake hands are puppeteered to cover their eyes and so on, and if it went on much beyond 15 minutes, that entertainment would definitely run thin. The ending is especially noteworthy; suffice to say this is not one for the kids – and/or filmgoers were just built different back in the day.