Behave Yourself!

1951
Approved
1h 21m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Shelley Winters and Farley Granger in Behave Yourself! (1951)

When a cute Welsh terrier follows Bill Denny home, little does he know that all gangland has its eye on that dog. Who will be bumbling Bill's undoing - the gangsters, the cops, or his suspic... Read allWhen a cute Welsh terrier follows Bill Denny home, little does he know that all gangland has its eye on that dog. Who will be bumbling Bill's undoing - the gangsters, the cops, or his suspicious mother-in-law?When a cute Welsh terrier follows Bill Denny home, little does he know that all gangland has its eye on that dog. Who will be bumbling Bill's undoing - the gangsters, the cops, or his suspicious mother-in-law?

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.5/10

838

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
When Jonas picks up Archie and goes to the Thrifty drug store to make a phone call, you can see the May Company Wilshire building in the background. Built in 1939 and located at 6067 Wilshire Blvd. at S. Fairfax Ave., it is a superb example of "Streamline Moderne" architecture. After a $250M renovation, it is scheduled to become the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in 2017. The location of the Thrifty drug store is now occupied by the City National Bank building at 6100 Wilshire Blvd.

Goofs
Plot hinges on a small trained dog who is shipped to Los Angeles by crooks, with message that if dog is walked on Wilshire Boulevard, he will lead crooks to their criminal contact. However, Wilshire is one of city's longest streets (16 miles) and instructions don't indicate either what area of this street dog is to be walked or even which side, meaning the dog would conceivably have to be walked 32 miles.

Crazy credits
The end credits begin with the words "Cast, in the order of their disappearance".

Connections
Featured in Fandor: James Wong Howe | Fandor Spotlight (2022)

Soundtracks
Behave Yourself!
Written by Lew Spence and Buddy Ebsen

User reviews31

Review

Featured review

Fun screwball comedy

From RKO, this minor rom-com starring Farley Granger and Shelley Winters is quite entertaining, thanks to the pleasant lead players but especially filled with great character actors, mocking the format of a crime movie. And with Archie the dog stealing scenes throughout, it represents the type of innocuous entertainment that kept fans happy during 1950s Hollywood.

One could easily imagine a straight, serious film noir with this cast, and Granger/Winters playing tough guy and femme fatale, but here they are ably involved in crazy comedy situations, intentionally goofy as sets of criminals all compete to find the cute doggy who has attached itself to Granger. Murders keep occurring and Granger's little white lie (he pretended the pooch was an anniversary present for his wife Shelley) ends up getting him into big trouble.

Elisha Cook Junior, Hans Conried and Lon Chaney Junior are among the familiar faces who are so much fun to see, even seven decades later when such obscure films show up regularly on YouTube. Influence of producer Norman Krasna is obvious here, while obscure writer-director George Beck (this was the only movie he ever directed) does a fine job keeping things moving at a brisk pace.