The Amazing Adventures of My Dog Sheppy returns to the big screen

— The Ozark Foothills FilmFest will screen The Amazing Adventures of My Dog Sheppy at 7 p.m. Wednesday, the film’s first public screening in more than 50 years. The film will be shown at the historic Landers Theater, 332 E. Main, as part of a double feature.

The other film is These Amazing Shadows, a documentary that tells the story of the National Film Registry, an organization that works with the Library of Congress to preserve the country’s film heritage by annually selecting a number of films to be preserved and protected for posterity.

The Amazing Adventures of My Dog Sheppy was produced in 1958 as a pilot for a TV series by Harold Sherman - an author, Broadway producer and ESP advocate who moved to Mountain View in 1947 and became a leading citizen instrumental in the development of the Ozark Folk Center and Blanchard Springs Caverns.

The film was intended to raise national awareness to the tourism potential of the Arkansas Ozarks. The script involves a little girl getting lost in the mountains and being saved by a beautiful white German Shepherd and an equally beautiful female archer - Ann P.Marston, the reigning female archer in the country. The archer dramatically kills a bobcat that is threatening the girl. Legendary Arkansas folk musician Jimmy Driftwood appears in a cameo role as Uncle Orie.

The pilot never made it to the air, largely as a result of the popularity of another screen canine, Lassie. The only public screening of the film was at the Melba Theater in Batesville on July 25, 1958. The film was also shown on AETN’s Good Times Picture Show.

The other film to be screened Wednesday, These Amazing Shadows, includes scenes from a large number of National Film Registry films, including Hollywood classics, documentaries, home movies, newsreels, silent films and music videos. These Amazing Shadows has been screened at dozens of film festivals and received Best Documentary awards at the Savannah Film Festival and at Louisville’s International Festival of Film.

Tickets for the familyfriendly double feature are $5 for adults, $4 for students and senior adults, and $3 for Foothills Film Society members. Memberships can be purchased at the door. For more information, visit www.ozarkfoothillsfilmfest.org.

Three Rivers, Pages 132 on 03/25/2012

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