Tale Wags the ‘Dog’

Have several boxes of Kleenex available while watching the DVD of “My Dog Skip” ($25), the sentimental family film based on Willie Morris’ best-selling novel about his boyhood dog. Frankie Muniz of “Malcolm in the Middle,” Enzo the Jack Russell terrier, Kevin Bacon and Diane Lane star in this sleeper hit from earlier this year.

This digital edition includes both the pan-and-scan and wide-screen editions of the film, cast and crew information, the trailer and some interesting deleted scenes involving a dropped subplot (with explanatory commentary by director Jay Russell).

The amiable director also provides interesting commentary on the film itself, but for a different perspective, check out the entertaining audio track featuring Muniz and dog trainer Mathilde De Cagney. Muniz, who, at 14, finds most things neat and cool, talks enthusiastically about getting the job and how he and Enzo immediately bonded.

De Cagney discusses how Enzo--the son of Moose of “Frasier” fame--landed the job: He looked a lot like the real Skip. Enzo has had several years’ acting experience as a stand-in for his dad. De Cagney also confesses that Moose and Enzo, both unneutered, haven’t gotten along since Enzo was 8 months old--not because of jealousy but because of machismo. De Cagney also points out that the extremely bright and active Jack Russell terriers may not be the right dog for everybody.

De Cagney also talks about the role the Humane Society plays on a film featuring animal actors. For example, she says, if a trainer tells a director that the weather conditions aren’t right for a dog to do a scene, the director sometimes won’t listen to the trainer and will insist that the scene be done. The Humane Society representative can step in at that point and overrule the director.

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Also new from Warner on DVD is the Bruce Willis-Matthew Perry comedy “The Whole Nine Yards” ($25). Directed by Jonathan Lynn (“My Cousin Vinny”), the farce finds Perry playing a hapless dentist in Montreal who is befriended by a hit man (Willis) on the lam from the Chicago mob.

The disc features both wide-screen and pan-and-scan versions of the box office hit, as well as cast and crew bios and the trailer. The brief interviews with the cast and director Lynn are pretty funny--Perry deadpans that he had to help Willis learn how to act in front of the cameras, and Lynn declares with a sly grin that Perry was absolutely worthless as an actor. Lynn also supplies the audio commentary, in which he talks about the challenges he faced making this picture on a low budget in just 35 days. Because the film was so tightly scheduled, sets were kept to a minimum and the cinematographer had to use his ingenuity to disguise frequent changes in weather in the outdoor scenes.

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Pedro Almodovar’s Oscar-winning Spanish drama, “All About My Mother” (Columbia TriStar, $30), recently made its DVD debut. The disc includes both the wide-screen and pan-and-scan versions, an isolated music track, production notes, the trailer and a very short “making of” featurette in Spanish, with English subtitles.

Included are interviews with Almodovar and his leading ladies, including Cecilia Roth, Antonia San Juan, Penelope Cruz and Marisa Paredes.

Though there is no audio commentary, the DVD features the 25-minute “An Intimate Conversation With Pedro Almodovar,” in which the prolific Spanish director talks with film historian Annette Insdorf (who smiles way too much).

Though Almodovar’s accent is quite thick and at times hard to understand, he gives thoughtful, compelling comments to Insdorf’s questions. When he received his best foreign film Oscar this year for “My Mother,” Almodovar gave a frenetically funny acceptance speech, but in this interview he’s much quieter and introspective. He talks about the fact that he rarely writes a part for a specific performer--though he did write “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!” for Antonio Banderas--because he feels it narrows the focus of the character. Once he casts a performer in a part, he does a rewrite and adds to the role so it fits the actor or actress.

Almodovar also talks about the influence of the improvisational film style of director John Cassavetes on his own films and how Cassavetes’ 1977 film “Opening Night” played a major part in the development of “All About My Mother.”

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Director Ivan Passer is best known in America for his work on the award-winning HBO biographical film “Stalin” and the 1981 cult favorite “Cutter’s Way.” But before coming to America 30 years ago, he was one of the key directors of the Czech New Wave. Passer’s 1965 Czech comedy “Intimate Lighting” (Home Vision, $30) is making its video debut this week. Digitally remastered with new electronic subtitles, the subtle, offbeat comedy examines the hopes and dreams of two musicians.

Also new on video is the stylish “Philip Marlowe: Private Eye” (Goldhil, $60 for the three volume set; $20 each), starring a near-perfect Powers Booth as Raymond Chandler’s legendary L.A. shamus. The set features six episodes of the TV series that was seen on HBO in the 1980s. Among the mysteries featured are “Pickup on Noon Street,” “Guns at Cyrano’s” and “Trouble Is My Business.”