Lady and the Tramp

In 1956, when Woof Back in Anger was challenging perceptions on the London stage, a few critics remarked that it had all been done the year before in a Disney cartoon musical with songs by Peggy Lee. Like Osborne's play, Lady and the Tramp probes one of the great social fusses of the '50s: canine hypergamy - marriage or liaison above one's social caste or class - and was inspired by the tale of Walt's family spaniel. All tame stuff today; the humans are disgusting, Tramp is streetwise but sanitary, and the Lady is a wet. Happily the cameo lowlife, an excellent manic beaver, the famously villainous Siamese, and classic songs rescue the film from dumb animal sentiment. Best of these is the almost raunchy 'He's a Tramp', in which Peggy Lee shows that part of being a bitch is knowing when not to be too much of a lady.