Behind the Scenes at the Ace of Hearts

BY CLAUDIA CORNWALL

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Action! Rolling! I’m in Maple Ridge, B.C., on the set of Ace of Hearts, a movie based on the remarkable relationship between a policeman and his dog Ace. This story was first told in a Reader’s Digest article, “Ace and The Dog Man,” in January 2000. The scene being shot this morning is fairly straightforward—Dean Cain, the actor playing the policeman, has to leave a clinic and training facility, angry and upset. Only a couple of takes are needed to get it just right. Still, something unusual is going on today. Sgt. Glen MacKenzie, the policeman, whose life inspired the movie, is visiting the set for the first time. “I’m happy you’re playing me. You’re much better looking than I am,” he says, grinning, when he meets Cain. It’s easy to tell them apart. Cain is dark-haired and wears a crisply pressed policeman’s uniform while MacKenzie, a blond, is causally dressed in a turtleneck and cargo shorts.

MacKenzie says that when he first heard about the movie, “I was really excited. And my family—they were really, really excited.” That’s why his 17-year-old son, Max, and his 13-year-old daughter, Megan, have come along today—to see their father portrayed by the man who played Superman in the TV series Lois and Clark. In the movie, the policeman’s name is Dan Harding. MacKenzie, who prefers to live out of the limelight, says, “The kids were a little concerned that they were using someone else’s name and not my name, but I actually prefer that.”

The dog is still called Ace though. Says MacKenzie, “The fact that they used Ace’s name is fairly important to us. We wanted that to happen.” In the movie, Ace is played by two dogs, Solo and Bobbi. Solo is the “acting” dog and Bobbi is the “stunt” dog. Though both are German shepherds, like the original Ace, the movie dogs have somewhat different colouring. That’s why Bobbi had to have her hair dyed to get the part.

The second scene of the day is about a struggle between Ace and the bad guy, Torko. Solo has to walk slow, breathe heavily, act exhausted. MacKenzie, a dog man through and through, is intrigued. “It’s really hard,” he says, “to get a dog to do that.” When Solo flops down and puts his head on the pavement, MacKenzie is appreciative. “That’s not easy; the dog won’t get why it’s being asked to do that.” Chasing a bad guy, on the other hand, is something a dog understands. “You’re playing on its natural instincts.” Numerous takes are needed to get the scene perfect. When it’s done, we break for lunch.

Over plates of tacos, MacKenzie tells me the story behind the opening scene of the movie. Once, when he and Ace were chasing a car thief, Ace suddenly plunged into a lake. As he swam along the shore, another policeman on a dock shouted, “He didn’t come this way.” But Ace knew better. He swam under the dock and sank his teeth into the thief, who was clinging to the wharf’s pylons. MacKenzie, who still had Ace on a lead, pulled and reeled in both Ace and the thief.

MacKenzie says, “Ace was never very happy once I took him out of service. I’d go to work and he couldn’t come with me. He didn’t like it.” Ace worked until he was 9 years old. He died when he was 13, staying with the MacKenzies right until the end.

Though MacKenzie has another dog now, he still misses his old partner. “There will never be another Ace. There are no other dogs like Ace. Ace was a very special dog because he was good at everything. Ace was an all-round family pet, but he was also good with bad guys. He had tremendous drive. He didn’t stop until he found what we were looking for.” With Sergeant MacKenzie, Ace was responsible for 325 arrests in his career. Says MacKenzie, “The movie is a fitting tribute.”