Short-story author Samuel A. Derieux, who died twenty-four years earlier in 1922, received story credit for the film, suggesting to some the expectation that he wrote a work with the title "A Boy and His Dog".[3] However, a plot summary for the film, attributed to David Glagovsky,[4] closely parallels Derieux's short story "The Trial in Tom Belcher's Store", suggesting the film-makers drew on the published (and once celebrated)[5] story, but gave the film a title Derieux need not ever have considered.
