# SOB (1981) - Blake Edwards: The Dog \[Oh, yeah, unboxed spoilers\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [October 12, 2026, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sob-1981-blake-edwards-the-dog-oh-yeah-unboxed-spoilers/1033767 "2026-10-12T03:55:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2026, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sob-1981-blake-edwards-the-dog-oh-yeah-unboxed-spoilers/1033767/1 "2026-10-12T03:55:50Z")
Not that there’s a whole lot to spoil. More or less based on some elements from Edwards’s personal life and professional life in the business. Recently shown on TCM. Anyway. . . I saw this when it first came out, and while I remembered the basic plot, such that it is, I hadn’t remembered a lot of the scenes. One of the first is a man, presumably an actor, jogging down the beach with his dog. As he’s running, he has a heart attack and ends up croaking. No one has noticed. Several times during the movie it cuts to the ever-faithful dog, staying put the location where his owner fell. No interaction with the dog or the departed with any of the other actors. At the end of the, a different person (a director) has croaked and his friends give him a so-called Viking funeral, setting a boat aflame with his body in it. The scene cuts to the dog watching the smoke rising in the distance at which point it wags its tail. The final scene shows the dog, still waiting at the beach, presumably for his owner to wake up and either continue the run or go home. I’d invite any interpretations of what this motif might mean, if anything. I found a post that was supposed to be from an interview with Edwards said that he had attempted suicide, but his dog pretty much interfered and interrupted him, so that might be something. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2026, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sob-1981-blake-edwards-the-dog-oh-yeah-unboxed-spoilers/1033767/2 "2026-10-12T04:17:14Z")
All I remember is Julie Andrews doing a topless scene ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2026, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sob-1981-blake-edwards-the-dog-oh-yeah-unboxed-spoilers/1033767/3 "2026-10-12T04:37:51Z")
Oh, yes. The Jane Hathaway of song and dance drops top. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2026, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sob-1981-blake-edwards-the-dog-oh-yeah-unboxed-spoilers/1033767/4 "2026-10-12T05:33:52Z")
MAD’s treatment of it had one guy saying, “The studio figured they could recoup their expenses if they showed Julie Andrews topless.” Another man says, “If they showed Dolly Parton topless, it could pay off the national debt.” ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2026, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sob-1981-blake-edwards-the-dog-oh-yeah-unboxed-spoilers/1033767/5 "2026-10-12T08:48:41Z")
Yeah, I remember _S.O.B._ also, and I still don’t know what Blake Edwards was trying to do. Oh, I get it partially—big-money musicals weren’t doing well, so let’s make a big money musical movie where Mary Poppins takes off her top. The dog story added little. _Airplane!_ was better at stitching the start and the end, through the Robert Hays’ taxi passenger at the end of the movie, saying, “I’ll give him twenty more minutes, and that’s it” at the end. The dog story does nothing to equal that. _The First Nudie Musical_ (1976) did it first and did it better. Nice girl Cindy Williams (Shirley Feeney of “Laverne and Shirley” and shy Laurie of _American Graffiti_) calling for a “stunt cock” is hilarious. _S.O.B._, with Julie Andrews baring her top is meh. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2026, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sob-1981-blake-edwards-the-dog-oh-yeah-unboxed-spoilers/1033767/6 "2026-10-12T09:02:52Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > At the end of the, a different person (a director) has croaked and his friends give him a so-called Viking funeral, setting a boat aflame with his body in it. The scene cuts to the dog watching the smoke rising in the distance at which point it wags its tail. The final scene shows the dog, still waiting at the beach, presumably for his owner to wake up and either continue the run or go home. The way I remember it is that the dog’s dead owner is discovered and carted off near the end of the film and the principles discover the body (who they recognize as a forgotten character actor) in the funeral home and place it in the director friend’s casket when they steal his -the director’s - body for the Viking funeral. The dog remains on the beach until it sees the smoke from the funeral boat, wags its tail, and walks away. That’s, at least, what I remember decades later. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2026, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sob-1981-blake-edwards-the-dog-oh-yeah-unboxed-spoilers/1033767/7 "2026-10-12T21:31:34Z")
That’s my memory too. Body swap, the character actor gets a fitting send-off, Felix gets torched and “Night Wind” breaks box office records. “Irving, did you come to see my boobies?” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2026, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sob-1981-blake-edwards-the-dog-oh-yeah-unboxed-spoilers/1033767/8 "2026-10-13T12:12:09Z")
My favorite exchange from that movie. Robert Preston plays Dr. Finegarten: > - [Dr. Irving Finegarten](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0696481/?ref_=ttqu_qu): Now Lila, in order to inject this properly I have to expose my gluteus maximus. > - [Lila](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0250089/?ref_=ttqu_qu): Want me to do it for ya? > - [Dr. Irving Finegarten](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0696481/?ref_=ttqu_qu): Are you perchance a nurse? > - [Lila](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0250089/?ref_=ttqu_qu): No, I used to be a junkie. > - [Dr. Irving Finegarten](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0696481/?ref_=ttqu_qu): Would it endanger your amateur standing if I asked you to use a sterilized needle? > - [Lila](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0250089/?ref_=ttqu_qu): You’re the doctor. > - [Dr. Irving Finegarten](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0696481/?ref_=ttqu_qu): Oh, that’s the nicest thing anyone’s said to me all week.