Watch The Doberman Gang

The Doberman Gang is a movie released in 1972 about a pack of dobermans trained to rob banks. The movie has each dog named after someone famous for robbing banks; they were Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Ma Barker, Bonnie and Clyde. This film is rated PG and was directed by Byron Chudnow, written (original concept and screenplay) by Louis Garfinkle and Frank Ray Perilli and stars Byron Mabe, Hal Reed, Julie Parrish and Simmy Bow. The musical score for The Doberman Gang was composed by Alan Silvestri, who later went on to make a name for himself in the 1980s by composing the soundtracks for some major motion pictures. The main story of the movie teams an ex-con, waitress and a genius former military dog trainer. The group decides to steal and train 6 dogs, all dobermans, to rob a bank, thinking that using man's best friend, while staying hidden themselves, would be the perfect crime. For the training of the dogs they use a mock up of the bank and drill the dogs repeatedly on how to act, where to go and what to do. Problems develop because they find the dogs may have been over-trained, and this leads to the plot twist at the end of the movie. The movie is fairly low budget and has no major stars in it yet did well at the box office and enjoyed a small run of popularity. The Doberman Gang was shot entirely on location in Simi Valley, California and became successful enough that there were two sequels. The budget of the film was estimated at $500,000, and by February of 1973 the film had grossed over $5,000,000. This film is also the first motion picture to have the American Humane Society end credit that states "No Animals Were Harmed." The American Humane Society is the organization that is responsible for the oversight of an animal actors welfare during movie productions.