Woodyanders Earnest, but rather inept treasury agent James Franciscus enlists the aid of an elderly erstwhile con man turned wise, amiable religious kook decent cat (a delightfully droll Fred Astaire, who played a similar part in "The Towering Inferno") and the old dude's special collection of versatile police trained Dobermans so he can collar a brutish, browbeating, money-grubbing racketeer (a robust, blustery turn by veteran Catskills comic Jack Carter) and his gang of nasty goons. Ably directed by Byron Ross Chudnow, this honey sizes up as a really solid and on the mark semi-facetious crime caper yarn that's given an additional lift out of the rut by future big deal mainstream film composer Alan ("Back to the Future," "Predator") Silvestri's funky, with-it get-down groovy soul score, clear, expert cinematography by frequent Monte Hellman movie lenser Gregory ("Ride in the Whirlwind," "The Shooting") Sandor, the gorgeous Barbara Eden in scanty, sexy, revealing apparel (you even get to see Barbara's navel!), a winningly loopy sense of humor (Fred calls his dobies his "family"), the always great Billy Barty as a circus midget, lots of first-rate stirring scenes of the Dobermans in strenuous gangster-thwarting action, and adroit occasional use of wipes, slow motion, hazy soft focus, and other such snazzy 70's cutting edge action film stylistic flourishes. Refreshingly straightforward and bereft of any pretense, this feature overall deserves a golden milkbone.

Lee Eisenberg We all expect Fred Astaire to dance around with Ginger Rogers, we all expect Barbara Eden to dress like an Arabian harem and blink things out of thin air, and we all expect James Franciscus...okay, he's not noted for anything. But in "The Amazing Dobermans", Astaire owns a group of Dobermans whom he controls through a device that sends out sound waves. He uses this to help Franciscus escape some gangsters, while Franciscus and Eden get acquainted at the circus.Obviously, the whole thing seems a little outlandish, but it's not hurting anything. Certainly not like anything that anyone would usually anticipate.

rosscinema This is the third and last entry in the "Doberman Gang" films and while its probably the most lightweight of all of them it does have the best cast of the three films. Story is about a gambler (Supposedly) named Lucky (James Franciscus) who owes a mob guy named Solly (Jack Carter) about 13 thousand dollars and he doesn't have the money so a couple of his goons take him out to a remote area and work him over when an older gentleman named Daniel Hughes (Fred Astaire) discovers the scene. He has 5 dobermans and can control them with a gadget that looks like a TV remote control. He gets his dogs to save him and the goons drive off. After spending the night at Daniels, Lucky hitches a ride into town with a circus midget named Samson (Billy Barty) who helps him get a job with the circus shoveling up Elephant dung. He meets a bareback horse rider named Justine (Barbara Eden) and of course it doesn't take long to get smitten. After a while Lucky gets an idea to get Daniel and his dobermans to create an act and join the circus with him. Of course the mob guys and Lucky get involved in robbing the armored car that picks up the circus earnings every week. This is definitely more of a family oriented film and all three films were directed by Byron Chudnow who never did use any actor more than once in all three. This film has a veteran cast from films and television and while you certainly don't take a film like this seriously, you can sit back and enjoy it on a very easy level. One thing that stood out for me was how beautiful Barbara Eden was wearing her skimpy circus outfit. Eden was probably around 40 or so when this was filmed and her body is just gorgeous. She had abs and her belly button was in full display which we all could not see during her "Jeannie" days. While the first two films were about using the dobermans to rob for money, this one was the opposite. I guess it really wanted to aim at a very young audience. The one major gripe I had about this film was that their were long stretches of the film where you did not see the dobermans nor were they part of the story. Once they joined the circus then the film becomes more of what you expected. I kind of wished they made more sequels because I did enjoy these films. This one is definitely the most lightweight but how can you not enjoy a film that has Fred Astaire spouting from the bible and being in charge of 5 dobermans? Easy going entertainment. Did I mention that Barbara Eden looked sexy as hell in her outfit?