This version of Dondi is dreadful. Those of us who read the original Sunday stories about the adventures of Dondi were often enthralled by the characters in the strip; especially the relationship between Dondi and Mrs. McGowan. This film completely ignores that sensitive relationship. In fact, this $10.000 production looks more like a bad episode of SGT Bilko (or in this case Private Janssen, since the Bilko episodes were much better than this piece of junk. There are absolutely no production values in this film. The city (New York) looks nothing like a place it would be in 1945. People are driving cars that are over a decade older than the setting of the story. The soldiers are dressed like fifties soldiers; not WW2 soldiers. Dondi is fine, but the rest of the cast is terrible. And I actually liked The Fugitive (David Janssen's only success). This film is begging to be remade with all the bells and whistles. This slapstick crap was an idiotic idea by some moron writer to try and get a few cheap laughs instead of telling a decent story. It looked like it was written during a bathroom break. The dialogue or make-believe screenplay was idiotic. It is dangerous to give people like that a typewriter (or most likely just yellow pads). I really hope someone picks up this story and does it the right way, but it seems unlikely that will happen. Stick to the comic strip.
Review of Dondi
