As long ago as 1932's The Hounds of Zaroff, film-makers were playing with the idea of a pack of dogs providing some megalomaniac with the reins of power. By 1978, in the hands of France's Alain Jessua, the theme has assumed political implications. Victor Lanoux has the juicy role here as the ambitious Morel who uses dog-power to dominate his town, and a good cast also includes Gérard Depardieu, Nicole Calfan and the veteran Anna Gaylor who, as a pretty young ingenue, starred in one or two British films in the Fifties.

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