Wilby Daniels, now all grown up and running for district attorney, finds himself once again turning into a shaggy dog at inopportune moments.
Sequel to the 1959 movie about a boy who gets turned into a dog because of an ancient ring which some say is cursed. Today the boy, Wilby Daniels is a grown man, a lawyer and with a family. When they're robbed and Wilby tries to report it to police but only gets the run around, he decides to run for District Attorney or D.A. Because he believes that the current D.A. John Slade is not only doing his job but is on the take. When Daniels publicly denounces Slade, Slade decides to try and get something on him. And he might have found it when the ring that turned him into a dog when he was a boy is stolen from the museum and when the words inside are read, he turns into a dog.—[email protected]
Wilby Daniels, a successful lawyer running for District Attorney, suddenly finds himself being transformed into an English sheepdog. Somehow he has to keep his change a secret and find just what is causing it, all the while eluding the local dog catcher.—Jean-Marc Rocher <[email protected]>
With his family's happy support, Wilby Daniels decides to try and get elected District Attorney in place of dishonest John Slade. But then robbers steal the magic Borgia ring that made things a bit difficult for Wilby as a lad. Once again he keeps turning into a large woolly dog at awkward moments. Unless he can get the ring back his chances of winning the election don't look good, as mean old Slade soon realises too.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}
In this sequel to the 1959 film 'The Shaggy Dog' now set 17 years later, the adult Wilby Daniels (Dean Jones) is now a successful attorney who is married to Betty (Suzanne Pleshette), and they have a 10-year-old son named Brian (Shane Sinutko). Returning to the town of Medfield from a vacation, the family discovers that they have been robbed of almost all their possessions, and Wilby blames the corrupt local district attorney John Slade (Keenan Wynn), who is reputed to have connections with organized crime, particularly with warehouse owner Edward "Fast Eddie" Roshak (Vic Tayback). After being robbed a second time later that night (along with their Navy admiral neighbor, Gordon C. Brenner), Wilby vows to run for district attorney to make his town safe again.
Meanwhile, the two thugs who had robbed the Daniels', Freddie (Richard Bakalyan) and Dip (Warren Berlinger) (at the behest of John Slade), observe the cursed Borgia ring at the local museum and assume it might fetch a large sum, so they steal it. The ugly ring with a scarab on it can only be pawned off to local bumbling ice cream salesman, Tim (Tim Conway), who is the owner of a large Old English Sheepdog named Elwood. Tim figures he will give the ring to his girlfriend Katrinka (Jo Anne Worley), a local roller derby star and pastry assistant.
While dressing himself in preparation for a live television broadcast to announce his candidacy, Wilby hears a report of the Borgia ring being stolen. He freezes in terror, then reveals his former shape-shifting secret to his wife, who is certain his story cannot be true; he warns her that if the Latin inscription on the ring ("In canis corpore transmuto") [I transmute into the body of a dog] is spoken by anyone aloud he will turn into a shaggy dog. Soon afterward, Wilby is moments before his live television debut as Tim discovers the inscription on the ring and reads it aloud, causing his dog Elwood to disappear - only to reappear moments later as he takes over Wilbys body. Moments before the cameras roll, Brian notices that shaggy hair is growing all over his father, who reacts in horror as he realizes he is turning into a dog. He rushes from the house and cameras in his dog form and briefly confounds Tim, who cant understand why his dog Elwood suddenly can speak. After a few minutes spell wears off, and Wilby is now in his human form again and determined to find the ring as he faces the prospect of being a candidate in the public eye who never knows when he might turn into a dog.
Soon, Wilbys fears come true as Katrinka receives the ring and once again the inscription is read, just as Wilby is giving a public address at a ladies garden club (the Daisies). Betty warns him of his shaggy condition a split-second before his canine form would become apparent to all gathered and creates a near riot while trying to escape. Once again, Tim finds Wilby in Elwoods form and is convinced that his talking dog could make millions; when Tim wanders off momentarily, Wilby returns to his human form, leaving a silent Elwood to confound Tim further. Meanwhile, Raymond, an agent (Dick Van Patten) of Wilbys rival, John Slade, gets suspicious and wonders why Wilby keeps disappearing.
Desperate to find the ring, the hunt leads to Katrinka, who seems to have lost it in a vat of cherry pie filling intended for a John Slade fundraiser. Offering a reward to whoever finds the ring, Katrinka and her colleagues go into a mad dash to find it, eventually escalating into a large-scale pie fight. In the pandemonium, the ring once again finds itself in the hands of the local thugs who this time attempt to pass it off to an undercover police detective. Once again in the hands of the museum, the inscription is read aloud as a point of reference; in the middle of the police station, Wilby (who had arrived to confirm the ring had been recovered) finds himself turning into Elwood once again. This time, Slades agent puts two and two together when he overhears the museums curator explaining the rings reputed power and how his predecessor (from the first film) told him a story of a young man that turned into a sheepdog years ago. Slade is informed of this weakness in his rival, is dubious at first, and then invites Wilby to his office to test out the theory.
Slade invites Wilby to his office and advises him to withdraw his campaign. Wilby refuses and tells Slade that when he is elected, he will have him investigated regarding his criminal connections. Slade then reveals he has his ring. With a reading of the inscription, Slade is thrilled to see Wilby Daniels turn into the shaggy dog right before his eyes and makes a call to the local pound. Wilby escapes hearing Slade repeat the inscription several times, which guarantees that the spell will not wear off, and he will be trapped in a dogs form for some time to come. Slade ignores warnings from Wilby that reciting the incantation too often could cause the spell to transfer to him and keeps reciting the incantation over and over.
Wilby eventually disguises himself as a female roller-derby competitor to elude Slade, who as district attorney has the entire police force and animal control at his disposal. Eventually, Wilby is caught and taken to the local dog pound where he is able to understand the other dogs, who band together to help him escape by stealing the dog pound truck.
With the help of Brian and Tim (who still thinks his dog Elwood can speak until Wilby tells him the truth about what really happened), Wilby gets evidence that John Slade is connected to organized crime as well as responsible for the break-in at his house to drive Wilby and his family out of town. Wilby and Tim trick Slade into showing up at Roshak's warehouse, and Wilby uses a tape recorder to collect information that confirms Slade's wrongdoings. With the help of his dog friends from the pound, he also manages to retrieve the ring from John Slade, who unfortunately has read the inscription aloud so many times that the curse has now passed onto him, causing him to transform into a bulldog.
At the end, Wilby gets elected district attorney, Slade is supposedly jailed (although it is never actually revealed), and Tim gets engaged to Katrinka. Together, they adopt Wilbys dog friends from the pound.
