MY DOG TULIP

A Tail of Friendship

HOT REELS

The London literary figure J. R. Ackerley (1896-1967) had many liaisons with working-class chaps, but was so exacting a suitor that he abandoned hope of finding a human companion and settled down with an Alsatian bitch called Queenie. His 1956 memoir, My Dog Tulip (her name discreetly changed), has now inspired an American independent movie. Directed and animatedin the offhandedly scratchy style of 50s book illustration—by Paul and Sandra Fierlinger, this singular tale of mutual devotion may prove the love story of the year.

As Ackerley, Christopher Plummer narrates man and dog’s history in a wry undertone as the images morph from brightly colored realism to spare anthropomorphic fantasies sketched on bluelined notepaper. He presides wonderingly over Tulip’s toilet habits, forgives her chaotic infractions, and is often humbled: on the one occasion he biffs her on the nose, she licks his in response. Tulip, for her part, is highly strung, mercurial, and territorial—fiercely defending her and Ackerley’s favorite room against the prying of his sister (the late Lynn Redgrave). And like master, like dog: Tulip, too, fancies a bit of rough, spurning several aristocratic suitors to mate, finally, with a “ragamuffin” mutt. “I was in awe of this beautiful animal,” Ackerley concludes, judging their 14 years together “the happiest of my life.”

GRAHAM FULLER