I’m not sure why Polidor needs to disguise himself as a dog, complete with mask and studded collar, in order to deliver a letter to the bourgeois drawing inconroom of his fiancée and create the inevitable commotion. Clarity, after all, does not always help one attune to the logic of comic cinema. One must sometimes assume a dulling of reason, which in this case takes the form of a collective hallucination. Is it possible that no one realises that the disconcerting creature hopping around the house on all fours is not a dog, but a short gentleman in a dog costume? After escaping the cook who was determined to feed him leftover meat, Polidor is unmasked in the street. One might assume that, at this point, the species mix-up has been resolved and that everyone agrees that Polidor is a man. Not at all. A passing squad of dog-catchers sees a tail protruding from the costume and that is all it needs to deliver an unappelable verdict.

Andrea Meneghelli