Send in the Dog: Skippy as Screwball Screenwriter's Savior

by Jenny Curtis Crickpot Critic When the judge in the Awful Truth yells, "Send in the dog!" He is referring to Mr. Smith played by Skippy, best known and occasionally billed as "Asta." In that scene Smith is brought in by a bailiff to choose whether or not he wants to live with Jerry or Lucy Wariner. But the phrase could easily be attributed to Hollywood screenwriters who seemed to call on Asta every time the pace of a screwball comedy began to slow.

Skippy as Geoge, the perfect little fiend

Have you ever stopped to think about just how often the entire plot of a film depended on the performance of a dog? What if Skippy weren't inspired to steal Jerry's hat in The Awful Truth? Then Jerry wouldn't have gotten in a fight with Armand Duvalle in front of the fiancee and Lucy might have ended up marrying Dan Leeson. Mr. Smith's hat tricks are not only delightfully funny in and of themselves, but entirely necessary to the continuation of the plot, which at that point is stagnating because Lucy doesn't know how to break up with Leeson. In classical theater, Deus Ex Machina, or God from the Machine, is the term used to describe any plot device that is overly convenient and wraps up a messy plot. The image springs from the Greeks who would occasionally lower a mechanical god on stage to magically fix any plot strands that weren't resolved by the end of the play. This sudden and unnatural order out of chaos was frequently necessary before the invention of stage lights. One might picture Skippy as the reverse type of god, a chaos machine brought in generate another fun-filled reel of film: Madness from the Dog, if you will. Skippy's performance goes beyond mere plot device in many cases. Can one forget the pathos with which he sighs in Lucy's lap in The Awful Truth? He misses Jerry and his sadness reflects the emptiness in Lucy's new separation from her husband. Later in the same scene he springs to life when Jerry enters and plays a rousing duet with his master at the piano. Again, Smith is the reason Jerry has arrived and his presence fuels the comedy as well as the plot. When Howard Hawks wasn't satisfied with the chaos generated by a loose leopard in Bringing Up Baby, he added Skippy to mix. One can imagine Hawks calling out on the set,"Send in the dog!" In that film Skippy plays against the Man's Best Friend type for George, the perfect little fiend. George's constant barking and maniacal bone stealing set the tone for the entire film. In George, Skippy single-pawedly creates the small dog as villain/nuisance character that's become familiar in comedies such as There's Something About Mary and A Fish Called Wanda. George is sadistically oblivious as David and Susan hunt for hours looking for the bone, a wicked gleam in his eye as he pretends to be merely playing a game. He knows all along that he's a running gag and a damned good one. There's something a little mean-spirited about George that wasn't there in earlier roles for Skippy, such as the star-making, Asta. As Asta in the Thin Man films, Skippy's antics were merely misguided playfulness and he's often more of a help than a hindrence to Nick and Nora Charles. Asta is smooth and refined like his masters, his comedy bred from a refined intelligence. Even when he misbehaves, he is treated almost like another person. "Honestly, you're getting to be so rude," Nora admonishes him when he steals a clue. It was this professional quality to Skippy's acting that made director's rely on his ability to create chaos and a watchable scene whereever he went. No wonder they cried so often, "Send in the dog!"

Back to the Critics on Cary