Review: Lady and the Tramp

Lady (voiced by Barbara Luddy) is the pampered pooch of a well-to-do couple whom she refers to as ‘Jim Dear’ and ‘Darling’. However, after a while, her human owners decide to have a baby, and Lady feels ignored and fears she will be cast out of the household altogether. Once the baby is born things get even worse with the arrival of Aunt Sarah (voiced by Verna Felton) a woman with no fondness for dogs whatsoever. Aunt Sarah’s Siamese cats are even more horrid. On the friendlier side of things are Scotty the Scottish Terrier (voiced by Bill Thompson), and of course The Tramp (voiced by Larry Roberts). It is the latter mongrel, as free as Lady has been sheltered, whom Lady will eventually fall for (and vice versa). Peggy Lee (who voices more than one character) provides some sass as Peg, a stray dog well known to The Tramp.

 

Unless some TV station lose their minds and show “Song of the South” at some point (and that film’s only partially animated), I think this 1955 animated flick is the last of the more well-known Disney animated flicks pre-“The Rescuers” (which I’ll be seeing very soon and reviewing…sometime) for me to see. It’s probably a favourite of many, but although enjoyable I can’t say I fell in love with it. The film seems to lack some kind of conflict or truly villainous character to make it stand out (the Aunt is overplayed as a horrible woman, but hardly a ‘Disney villain’), and the only memorable song comes from Peggy Lee’s character. The rest are either forgettable, or in the case of the notorious ‘We are Siamese’…let’s just say they probably played better to 1955 audiences than 2015. It’s not “Song of the South” levels of racism (or Mickey Rooney in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”), but the song is still terribly annoying, as are several others. The ethnic stereotypes on show here are really awful. Italians (ruining the most famous moment from the film. There’s even a bloody accordion playing…geez!), Asians (the bitchy, duplicitous Siamese cats), Irish (Does any real Irish person use the word ‘Begorrah!’ or just in the movies?), pretty much all the colours of the ethnic rainbow get a serving. By the way, I also call bullshit on Jock’s Scottish accent. Saying ‘bonny’ and ‘lass’ every two lines doesn’t make you Billy Frigging Connolly, son. It makes you a bloody pirate!

 

I also have to say that Lady (voiced by Barbara Luddy) completely outshines The Tramp (voiced by Larry Roberts) in every single way. I don’t think Roberts sounds remotely scrappy or street-wise enough to cut the mustard as a ‘tramp’. Lady, however, you’ll fall in love with in about 2.5 seconds. So. Cute. Sure, not as cute when she’s an adult, but isn’t that always the way with puppies and kittens? It’s a bit weird that she’s supposed to be a Cocker Spaniel when for all money she looks like a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (They’re easy to tell apart. The latter are gorgeous, the former are mangy-looking), only with different colours. I loved how Lady refers to her two owners as ‘Jim, Dear’ and ‘Darling’. It’s cute, ‘coz that’s what she hears them calling each other. I also liked how the film stressed that Lady is rather pampered, so that when she starts to worry about the arrival of a baby, it makes sense because she’s so used to being the centre of attention. It’s also kind of true to life, really, and it’s not just that Lady is worried that she’ll have to leave the house because a baby is around and might pose a danger to it. It’s more than that. Special mention must be made of Beaver (voiced by Stan Freberg), he’s absolutely hilarious.

 

The plot isn’t terribly original (a dog-snatcher? Really?), though “The Aristocats” and “One Hundred and One Dalmatians” owe something to this film, and if I liked those films (the latter especially) I surely can’t dislike this one. I just wish the story weren’t so thin. It’s a nice, colourful-looking film (quite vibrant, actually), but the racial stereotyping is quite aggravating, and one half of the central coupling is far more charismatic than the other.

 

Directed by the trio of Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske, all three of whom would later direct “One Hundred and One Dalmatians”. The screenplay is by Don DaGradi (Yes, the guy later played in “Saving Mr. Banks” by Bradley Whitford), Erdman Penner (“Fantasia”, “Pinocchio”), Joe Rinaldi (“Cinderella”, “Alice in Wonderland”, “Peter Pan”), and Ralph Wright (“Peter Pan”, “The Jungle Book”, “The Aristocats”), partially based on a Ward Greene short story.

 

Rating: B-