In Los Angeles, unemployed actress Julie Sawyer picks up a white German shepherd that she has knocked down with her car. After having it examined by a vet, she takes the animal home with her and then sets out with her boyfriend to find its owner. However, it turns out that the dog is a so-called ‘white dog’ – trained by racists as a puppy to attack people of colour. She seeks help from Keys, an African-American animal trainer: he takes on the apparently hopeless challenge of ‘reprogramming’ the dog.
Sam Fuller’s radically anti-racist thriller WHITE DOG is a bitter indictment as well as a fascinating parable, showing that no one is born a racist but made into one.