I saw this movie one late night in the mid 60's in NYC on CBS Late Late Show, the one where the "Syncopated Clock" was the theme song. I was perhaps 7 or so and this is the first movie I clearly remember seeing by myself. For years I would ask people about this movie not having remembered the title just the profound experience at such an impressionable age. Years later I happened upon AMC and lo it was running I came in around the end when the character "Goldie" was heading back up the "stairway to heaven" at that moment I had an epiphany realizing perhaps the "Led Zeppelin" song had it's inspiration from this movie. I then was able to schedule and see the whole film and wow even though it was a bit dated it was still fun. Also it was most impressive how it affected me as a child for I am certainly one of those who imagine multiple incarnations as a part of our make-up as on the order of Richard Bach's "Illusions" where the character of Donald Shimoda asks Richard "...how many movies have you seen? Hundreds maybe thousands was the answer "...ah then that's how many lifetimes you have had..." and clearly as supposed in this film some of them definitely were as beasts!

I first saw this movie as a teenager on AMC during a lazy afternoon and it was an unexpected pleasure. When I read the brief summary of the movie, which read something like: "A murdered dog comes back to life as a man to hunt his killer," I actually expected a somewhat hard-boiled detective movie, despite the obviously outrageous premise. And I had no idea who Dick Powell was. The movie turned out to be very light-hearted and I was thoroughly entertained. Many light-hearted comedies of that era (early 1950s) make the mistake of just throwing in a lot of cute scenes and dialog and, though this movie does feature such scenes, it also has a lot of quite clever humor that keeps even the more cynical viewer satisfied. Even the murder mystery plot has intriguing aspects. The movie has a kind of fantasy atmosphere throughout that I really enjoy, and Dick Powell was never more likable than he is here. This role was perfect for him (unlike his earlier role in "Murder My Sweet"--see my review). I highly recommend it for good family fun.

I saw this film when I was a kid and loved it! What I wouldn't give to have it restored and on DVD! The story is great, the acting snappy and the comedy superb! A rich old man dies and leaves all his money to his pet dog, Rex. The old gent's lovely young secretary is charged with the care of the dog and is happy to do so. But the dog gets poisoned and the secretary is arrested. Meanwhile, Rex arrives at the judgment seat for animals. Good animals go to Animal Heaven. Bad animals must return to Earth to live as a human! (Called `humals'). Rex has a ticket to animal heaven but he wants to go back to Earth to clear the secretary, whom he is sure did not murder him. He is given three days as a humal to solve the crime and given an assistant, a racehorse named Golden Harvest. The duo return to Earth as Rex Shepard, PI and his assistant, Goldie Harvest. It's all the more humorous as Rex munches on dog biscuits and Goldie has a nose bag for a purse, tiny horseshoes on the soles of her shoes and can outrun a bus! They solve the crime, but Rex falls in love with the pretty young secretary and now must decide if he should go to animal heaven or stay on earth as a humal! Goldie helps him decide but pointing out the girl's father is a humal-part Scottish terrier (you can see the resemblance!) A great film!

A great idea for a film, a very good cast well acted. The scenery and locations were done well and the special effects for the time were stunning, especially in Animal Heaven. A comfortable funny feel good film you can watch again and again. It would not have been the same if it had been in colour. One for the DVD / Video collection if you could get hold of it.