The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog (1905) User Reviews

A 20th-Century "Meet the Fockers"

[kobe1413 · 4/10 · 11 May 2010]

A mildly entertaining short that expands on a popular postcard of 1905. It presents a complete family with the last name of Dam. They each mug for the camera as they are introduced. Then they all sit together as if for a postcard. Then, following a brief interlude of animation that presents the name of short, the family sits down for a meal. After fighting with the Dam dog, the Father Dam yells at Jimmy Dam for smoking at the table. All is interrupted though when the dog returns and proceeds to pull the tablecloth off of the table.

The characterizations are okay but, do the time constraints, only hit one note. The dog steals the picture of his obvious joy of fighting with the father and barking at the family. The chaos he provides livens up the mundane picture.

Overall, I give 4 out of a 10.

It's just one joke

[edwartell · 4/10 · 21 June 2001]

Like the title says. Like snickering fourth-graders, the movie makes jokes about the family's name. The wife's name is Mrs. Hellen Dam, etc. They pose for us behind a platform with their name written on it. Notable as a surviving early silent rather than for any cinematic value.

One Dam joke after another...but all essentially the same Dam joke!

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 10 February 2019]

Many folks today assume that back in the old days, folks never swore and films were 100% squeaky clean. Well, if that was true, then the Edison Company would never have brought out a film called "The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog"! Obviously they were trying to get the folks' attention to draw them into theaters!

The film itself is a bit of a disappointment, as it's basically the same Dam joke again and again and it lacks the narrative or jokes to make it memorable...just the title. The film starts with an over-long introduction where you meet all of this Dam family. Then in the story itself, the family is eating dinner and nothing happens until the very end. Overall, I was just Dam disappointed.

A Pop Culture Curio

[Snow Leopard · 6 July 2005]

Although only mildly entertaining in its own right, this comedy feature is interesting as a pop culture curio that preserves the memory of a popular fad of its day. Pop culture icons come and go in every era, and moving pictures have proved to be one of the most enduring ways that the various whims and crazes of public taste are kept from being completely forgotten.

The concept of the 'Dam family' was based on some highly popular postcards of the time. The new Kino collection of Edison films includes a photograph of one of these postcards, which allows you to see how closely the characters in Edwin S. Porter's movie resemble the original conceptions. Indeed, a large part of the film consists simply of a series of close-ups of the characters, each one held much longer than would normally be necessary. These are then followed by a short comic sequence starring the family dog.

The one innovation in the actual film is the animated title cards, which are pretty good for 1905. They also lend the appropriate jaunty tone to the movie.

The whole movie is deliberately silly, and while it's still good for a smile or two, its appeal at first seems a bit mystifying. But then again, the trends and fads of every era often mystify later generations. This little movie may not seem like much in itself, but if nothing else it provides a little interesting food for thought.

Post Card Idea Brought To Life

[springfieldrental · 5/10 · 14 November 2020]

Contrary to one reviewer's opinion on The Dam Family Edison Studio short film, this movie was allegedly based on a popular series of postcards depicting the Dam Family, a novel twist on a profane word that drops the letter N.

Edwin Porter, creative genius of 1903's The Great Train Robbery, puts his idea of transferring pop art onto film when he introduces each member in a "breaking the fourth wall" format. This is the first time cinema has taken a pop art phenomenon and created a movie of it, something that is so popular today in films like the Marvel Studio's action heroes.

What's novel of Porter's singular portrayal of each member is the text masked on the bottom of the screen describing the name of the individual Dam family. Porter seemingly anticipated the Chiron title effect we are so familiar with on today's TV news shows.

As mentioned elsewhere, there is stop-motion animation in the titles within the movie's framework. This is one of the earliest examples of film animation, this time manipulating both letters and a figure of a dog to create titles going in and out of frame.

The final third of the film is rather static with a held-down camera wide shot showing the family in action at the dinner table. This is the portion where the Dam Dog is seen disrupting the otherwise dysfunctional Dam Family's placid food feast. From a historical perspective the Edison movie breaks new ground. Otherwise, don't expect this to be a blockbuster if it is reissued to be shown at your local cinema.

Briefly entertaining

[drn5 · 7/10 · 13 September 2003]

Yes, it's just one joke, and not a very funny one at that, but you have to admit that the Dam Dog, when we finally see him, is cute. He has a happy face and looks overjoyed to have made it in the movies. While I am unlikely to place this squib of a film in my top 10,000, I hope the Dam Dog is resting peacefully in his grave, wherever it is.

Yeah, I Get It

[boblipton · 5/10 · 29 February 2020]

Here's the Dam family, with names like I.B. Dam and U.B. Dam, each with quirks. One sneezes, one chatters, and so forth.

It's based on a campaign of cards for Keystone Cigars which ran originally in 1900. In those days, cigar and cigarette companies issued cards, like bubble gum manufacturers do today. Considered risqué at the time, it undoubtedly sold a lot of cigars and elicited the same sort of sniggers that the movie MEET THE FOKKERS did in 2004.

Lubin issued I.B. DAM AND THE WHOLE DAM FAMILY almost simultaneously.

But where's the Dam cat??

[cricket30 · 6/10 · 11 April 2013]

So the film notes for the DVD claims that the 1905 five minute, 34.90 second-long short entitled THE WHOLE DAM FAMILY AND THE DAM DOG is based on a series of "highly popular" post cards of this time. First off, I'm skeptical about this bold-faced assertion. Very few movies are made based on post cards. Maybe you could have a 10-second gag in SCARY MOVIE 12 based Tabitha sending Samantha a picture card from Salem, MA, with an embossed gilt script scrawled across the photo reading "Just hanging around in Witch Town," but other than that, there are few if any post cards in the history of the universe meriting five minutes of screen time (let alone a feature-length movie of today). Further, I spent lots of time with the old folks--great and great great aunts, uncles, and grand beings, and I do not recall even one of them discussing "The Whole Dam Family" when they were recalling what they did for laughs as youngsters. So the DVD talking heads who claim "high popularity" for such cards may be talking through their hats, as they appear WAYYY too young to have first-hand knowledge of any possible fads of 1905. (Wikipedia has no record of the Dam family ever having lived.) Worse yet is my second point. The film notes devote five or six slides to showing close-ups from the allegedly famous post card. This card features the Dam Family Cat. Even if you re-watch this short as many times as I did, you probably won't discover any sign of a Dam Feline!

Little masterpiece

[iliakhachidzegeocrusader · 8/10 · 11 November 2019]

This is a little masterpiece. firstly, it is an interesting pop culture curio and and secondly, the satirical take on various personalities of the family members in a Tristram Shandy or Gargantuan grotesque style.

Two Reviews in One

[Tornado_Sam · 13 June 2017]

There are two versions of this film which are sometimes confused. As a result the reviews for the remake are also posted here, when a separate IMDb page has been created for the remake. Both films can be found on YouTube.

Instead of posting 2 separate reviews, I am going to write a review for both films: "The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog" and its remake, "I. B. Dam and the Whole Dam Family."

THE WHOLE DAM FAMILY AND THE DAM DOG

The film runs at 5 minutes. In the first 3 minutes we are introduced to the members of the Dam Family, one after the other. A moment later we see the family sit down to dinner after the Dam Dog has been booted off his chair. Dinner goes pretty uneventfully, until the Dam Dog comes back to pull the tablecloth of the table, ending the film with a final gag.

I have to say the actors do very good with their parts. I liked their facial expressions. Mr. I. B. Dam can't stop sneezing, and Baby Dam, though a small part, cannot stop crying. Jimmy Dam appears to be obsessed with smoking. The film is entertaining to watch, though today many of its laughs have gone stale. But that can't stop film buffs from sneaking a peek. Overall, my rating is about 6 stars out of 10.

I. B. DAM AND THE WHOLE DAM FAMILY

This film is included in Kino's magnificent "The Movies Begin" set. Unfortunately, they use the wrong title for it, calling it the title of the original film. This remake is only a minute. The reason why this is is because only the first half of the film, the introducing the characters part, is copied. If the final gag was ever copied in this film, then apparently that part of the film is lost.

The facial expressions used here aren't quite as good. There are some differences to the 2 films, though; for instance in the remake there's a Dam Cook. Still, this short feature is fun to watch and film buffs should look at this as well. I'll rate it 6 out of 10 stars.