Who Killed the Scots Terrier?

I was hoping to find the answer to that myself on this board. Did the kennel club really have all that much to do with the plot anyway? Murder mysteries of this vintage never seem to play fair with the audience and always let us down in the area of detection.


...Justin

I'm glad I was not the only one at a loss as to what happened with the dog.

I wondered about this too. Perhaps the film originally answered this question, but all we ever see now are edited versions with this part cut.

I checked the original novel by S.S. Van Dine (available online at gutenberg.net.au/ebooks04/0400411h.html) to see if it answered this question. However, no dog is killed there. Sir Thomas MacDonald, owner of the murdered dog in the film, isn't even a character in the book. The only Scottie is the dog found wounded in the Coe house. A big chunk of the book is about tracing the owner of this dog, with lots of praise for the wonderful way the AKC keeps accurate records and cameo appearances by the author's real-world dog-breeding friends. A Doberman also figures in the plot, but in a way that differs somewhat from the film.

The title caused me some hesitation. Then, the movie started and all I saw were a bunch of dogs. Is this what I'm going to be watching? When the dog was killed I almost stopped the movie right then. This better not be a whodunit about a dead dog.

Thank goodness that wasn't the plot! Soon someone was killed, then two; then an attempted murder so who cares who killed a dog? It didn't matter. Why would you focus on a dead dog and not the actual plot which was two dead people?

The dead dog was to make us think that was the killer's motivation. We see Sir Thomas saying he'd kill the person who did it. He and Archer Coe had a rivalry over which dog would win the ribbon. It was to throw us off; just as the Chinese cook and the sale of the vases to Grassi was to add possible suspects to the mix.

The movie starts with a dog show so any of those people could have killed the dog. Maybe Brisbane had someone kill him to throw suspicion off himself if it came to that. At some point someone might question why he did not leave town as planned; the very night his brother dies.


Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]