Here are non-red fox movies, such as gray foxes and Arctic foxes. Please let us know if you see others. Live-action narrative films only (no animation or documentaries). You’ll find the page for red fox films here.
The title links will take you to Amazon movie pages (Reel Dogs earns a referral fee at no cost to you) or, for rarer titles, alternative sources for the films.
Amanda and the Fox * Year: 2018 * Country: US * Fox content: Low
Although the cover art shows a red fox, there is none to be seen in this low-budget film; only a nervous Arctic fox kit (blue color morph) who has a handful of brief scenes.
The Call of the Wild * Year: 1972 * Country: France/Italy/Spain/UK/West Germany * Fox content: Low
The Arctic fox in this film is seen only briefly when two German Shepherd Dogs chase, knock him own, and he ultimately gets away.
The Courage of Lassie * Year: 1946 * Country: US * Fox content: Low
A gray fox meets a Collie puppy, but bounds away to climb a tree. The fox was controlled by the handlers to prevent escape with cords attached at the fox’s neck and wrist.
In Society * Year: 1944 * Country: US * Fox content: Low
A frightened gray fox features in the fox-hunting scene, trying to run against wires attached to the body and forelimbs, then has apparently been drugged in the next shot when Lou Costello holds the animal.
The Journey Home AKA: Midnight Sun * Year: 2014 * Country: Canada/Italy * Fox content: Unconfirmed
Possibly a sighting of an Arctic fox.
Kina & Yuk AKA: Kina et Yuk, renards de la banquise AKA: The Adventure of Kina and Yuk * Year: 2023 * Country: Canada/France/Italy * Fox content: High
About Arctic foxes Kina, white, and her mate Yuk, blue. (Pronounced Yook.) A beautiful family film that, purely from the perspective of the happiness and wellbeing of the foxes, is the best narrative fox movie ever made. This pair is obviously having a ball for much of the film, bouncing around, playing, teasing the dog “Rita” with a quick ear nip, and peacefully falling asleep in front of the cameras. Unlike nearly all other fox films, there is never a hint of curled-tongue stress panting or resistance behavior in the whole of Kina and Yuk. Bravo to the animal trainers. Unfortunately, at the time of this post it is difficult for English-speakers to find, with the UK DVD currently the only option. Hopefully it will soon be more widely available for streaming and a US DVD edition for those who need it in their fox collection.
The Little Shepherd Dog of Catalina * Year: 1973 * Country: US * Fox content: Low
An island fox, subspecies of gray fox, makes off with a fish before the Shetland Sheepdog star can enjoy it in this Wonderful World of Disney TV movie.
Nedopesok Napoleon III / Недопесок Наполеон III AKA: Polar Fox Napoleon III * Year: 1979 * Country: Soviet Union * Fox content: High
Many foxes are seen at the fur farm in this Soviet film that then follows one escapee, Arctic fox Napoleon III, and the little boy who tries to help him. Only ever released in Russia but you can see it online.
Nomads of the North * Year: 1920 * Country: US * Fox content: Low
Many wild animals were filmed on set for atmosphere in this first movie adaptation of the classic James Oliver Curwood novel. The gray foxes are only seen for a moment.
Seal Island * Year: 1948 * Country: US * Fox content: Low
This short was the first of the Walt Disney True Life Adventure films and in this case there really was a certain amount of documentary footage, so perhaps this film should not make the list, but there are glimpses of Arctic foxes (summer coat), staged or otherwise.
White Wilderness * Year: 1958 * Country: Canada/US * Fox content: Low
The Disney True Life Adventure series is rightly infamous for claiming to be documentary filmmaking when the majority of footage in all of them was staged, often shot on controlled sets. This one in particular is famed for starting the myth that lemmings, a northern rodent, commit suicide by throwing themselves off cliffs and into the ocean. The sequence was carefully staged and created by the filmmakers by throwing and pushing the animals. The Arctic foxes are not main players, but more time is devoted to the wolves, who were also captive and their scenes carefully staged. You can even see the collar rings around their necks where the fur is worn short.
Know more live-action non-red fox movies? Please send info to moviedogs@gmail.com. Thank you!
]]>The post English Foxhound appeared first on Reel Dogs.
]]>
Many a period English film featuring aristocracy also features a hunt scene. Let us know what other movies should be on this list with a fox hunt and foxhounds!
The title links will take you to Amazon movie pages (Reel Dogs earns a referral fee at no cost to you) or, for rarer titles, alternative sources for the films.
The Belstone Fox AKA: Free Spirit * Year: 1973 * Country: UK * Breed content: High
The preeminent English Foxhound movie, with not only a main pack but a starring hound, “Merlin”, who grows up with a fox as a best friend. Based on the novel The Ballad of the Belstone Fox by David Rook, and inspiration for Walt Disney’s animated feature The Fox and the Hound (1981). Although the Disney Studio bought rights to adapt the Daniel P. Mannix book after it won the Athenaeum Literary Award, and there was an initial screenplay draft that followed The Fox and the Hound novel, producers rejected it (presumably due to being too dark and violent for Disney audiences). The final animated film version shares almost nothing with the original novel beyond the title and some character names, yet it does include many elements from The Belstone Fox.
Becoming Jane * Year: 2007 * Country: Ireland/UK * Breed content: Low
With a fox-hunting scene.
Brideshead Revisited * Year: 2008 * Country: UK * Breed content: Low
Both the 2008 movie and the 1981 TV miniseries include hunting scenes. The image above is from the TV adaptation. Based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh, also the author of A Handful of Dust, which was adapted into another film featuring Foxhounds.
Doctor Dolittle * Year: 1967 * Country: US * Breed content: Low
Only in one quick scene when a fox is chased into a barn.
Gone to Earth AKA: The Wild Heart * Year: 1950 * Country: UK * Breed content: Medium
Both women and foxes are endlessly harassed in this film. Based on a 1917 novel by Mary Webb and released in North America with a different edit and titled The Wild Heart.
A Handful of Dust * Year: 1988 * Country: UK * Breed content: Low
With a hunt scene.
The Hound of the Baskervilles * Year: 1959 * Country: UK * Breed content: Low
Brief but unique shots of foxhounds by night instead of the usual Devon-type countryside daylight fox hunt.
Into the West * Year: 1992 * Country: Ireland * Breed content: Low
About two boys and a magical horse who everyone wants to catch.
Lassie * Year: 2005 * Country: France/Ireland/UK/US * Breed content: Low
Hunt scene right at the start of the film. Of course, a Rough Collie is the star of this excellent dog film.
Murder She Purred: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery * Year: 1998 * Country: US * Breed content: See note
A Disney TV movie about a crime-solving cat and a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, based on Rita Mae Brown’s series of novels featuring a cat named Mrs. Murphy. Although the setting is in the eastern USA, the pack of foxhounds looks more like the English type than the racer lines of the American Foxhound, although they could be the latter.
Omen III: The Final Conflict * Year: 1981 * Country: UK/US * Breed content: Low
A few wonderful shots of the pack during the hunt scene, although the Omen films are better known for the featured Rottweiler.
Private Peaceful * Year: 2012 * Country: UK * Breed content: Low
The dogs play a small but signifiant part at the beginning of the film.
Ultime grida dalla savana AKA: Savage Man Savage Beast * Year: 1975 * Country: Italy * Breed content: Low
This infamous exploitative docudrama merges scripted footage with occasional true documentary footage as it follows violence against humans and animals, wild and domestic, around the world. The fact that most of the incredibly brutal animal cruelty shown on film was staged, including animals tortured, forced to fight, disemboweled, and killed for the demands of the filmmakers makes it unbearable to watch. The fox-hunting scene with a pack of English Foxhounds was entirely staged, including an Afghan Hound in heat used by hunt-saboteurs to lead the pack of hounds into a van. The hounds are unharmed, but the same cannot be said for the fox, held up by his tail by the huntsman and then thrown to the pack to be torn apart, still alive, for the cameras.
Splitting Heirs * Year: 1993 * Country: UK * Breed content: Unconfirmed
Tom Jones * Year: 1963 * Country: UK * Breed content: Low
This time the hunt is after deer.
The Winter Stallion AKA: The Christmas Stallion * Year: 1992 * Country: UK * Breed content: Low
Only a glimpse of a pack trotting through a Welsh village. The main dog is a Border Collie who is led up the street and through the pack by two of the human characters. The dog panics and twists away, pulling his collar and racing off soon after passing the hounds, although the actors go on walking and talking as if nothing happened so as not to spoil the scene. Presumably the fed-up Border Collie was simply running back to his trainer.
Know more English Foxhound movies? Please send info to moviedogs@gmail.com. Thank you!
The post English Foxhound appeared first on Reel Dogs.
]]>