"A story with heart...the fighting heart of a boy...the faithful heart of a dog...the loving heart of a girl," read the poster for Git! (1965). Described in the film's press book as "A runaway boy and a renegade hound! Who would say they had a chance in a world that wants only winners? But a girl believed in them both...," Git! was a live-action tale geared towards children in much the same style and plot as films Walt Disney was then producing.

Git! begins with the arrest of Deke (Jack Chaplain), a 17-year-old fugitive from an orphan's home who is taken to jail when he stops animal trainer Art Finney (Leslie Bradley) from shooting Rock (Seldom-Seen Sioux), an English setter who is believed to have killed an animal. Andrew Garrett (Richard Webb), the rich California dog breeder that Finney works for, has Deke placed into his custody by the authorities and offers him a job, much to the annoyance of Finney. Garrett puts Deke in charge of training Rock, who Deke is convinced would make a good hunting dog. Along the way, Garrett's neglected 15-year-old daughter, Elaine (Heather North), shows up to spend the summer with her widowed father and she works with Deke to train Rock. Also in the cast were Hanna Landy, Emory Parnell, Joseph Hamilton and Richard Valentine.

Directed, produced and co-written by Ellis Kadison, Git! was based on screenwriter Homer McCoy's original story. The film was presented by Joseph E. Levine for World-Cine Associates and distributed by Embassy Pictures when it was released in the United States in October 1965. The film was no great shakes at the box office and seemingly neither hurt nor helped the careers of Chaplain and North, the young stars of Git!. Chaplain, who was 22 during production, was a stage actor who had already appeared in several television Westerns like The Rebel, and he would appear in several more before his television career ended with Land of the Giants in 1969. This was 19-year-old Heather North's first feature film, and after Git!, she would spend a few years on the Days of Our Lives soap opera. If her voice sounds familiar, it's because she spent the majority of her long career as a voice actress, primarily as Daphne Blake for nearly thirty years on the Scooby Doo cartoon series.

SOURCES:

'A promising pompadour' - The Visual Journal. (2014, September 15). Retrieved from http://visuals.sj-r.com/picturing-the-past/2014/9/15/a-promising-pompadour
AFI|Catalog. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://catalog.afi.com/Search?searchField=MovieName&searchText=Git%21&sortType=sortByRelevance
Park, A. (2017, December 20). Heather North, voice of Daphne on "Scooby-Doo", is dead at 71. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/heather-north-voice-of-daphne-on-scooby-doo-is-dead-at-71/

By Lorraine LoBianco