Courage of Lassie

Well, folks, there were no surprises in this one. A young girl adopts a lost puppy and takes it in for her own, turning it into a first class sheep dog. Then the inseparable pair are separated and the dog must face a cruel world without his master. The film has the usual [and some unusual] assortment of adventures from the collie being shot, run over, drafted, shot again, ran to exhaustion, put on trial, exonerated, and then a tearful re-union with the little girl [the dog didn't shed a tear]. Some little girl. Wow! I liked it, but then, I am a hopeless dog lover: it was pretty corny, though. Nice Canadian scenery throughout, should be a winner with the kids.

This is a mildly entertaining Lassie film in which the collie (who is named Bill in the story) plays the leading role while the human players (ELIZABETH TAYLOR, FRANK MORGAN, TOM DRAKE) are mere foils. The plot concerns a pretty teen-aged Taylor who finds him in the Canadian wilderness, loses him when he goes astray, and finds him again in time for a heart-warming conclusion, but only after war-weary dog has gone on trial for, of all things, murder.

It starts out slowly as a nature film with nothing but shots of rabbits and other woodland creatures before it gets to the heart of the story with the opening scenes of Frank Morgan and Elizabeth Taylor (in her early teens and seemingly unspoiled, giving one of her more natural performances). Taylor's fawning over Lassie seems genuine, if a bit too sentimental, and it's a relief at the finale that she is reunited with her pet.

Standout are the war scenes where Lassie is forced to help American soldiers in a dangerous assault on some Japanese soldiers. Lassie is trained in these chores by soldier TOM DRAKE and after battle fatigue sets in he becomes another shell-shocked victim of war. How he's able to return to Taylor for the film's happy ending is the balance of the story.

Nicely done, filmed in wilderness areas of Canada and the state of Washington, but still just a minor entry in the Lassie stories.

This is a Lassie movie. It stars Lassie. Lassie's name is above the title. It is not an Elizabeth Taylor movie, although her presence is just as lovely, young and innocent. Lassie here is played by the very first and original Lassie collie---who was in most, not all, of the Lassie movies. There were nine Lassies. Today, April, 2005, we have the ninth Lassie, all descendants of this very first Lassie. Courage of Lassie is a sweet and very sad story at times with a plot and storyline particular to WWII and is is not unrealistic or spectacular. It is a family movie and a throwback to a time when Lassie movies were popular. It must be viewed in that light. I recommend it,as I would recommend all Lassie movies and I, personally, am looking forward to seeing the new Lassie movie currently being filmed.

Not only did she play two different parts in this film (with three different names) but she had two deathbed scenes and played a war hero who turns into a crazed killer. Any actress in Hollywood would have killed for a chance to play that kind of character, which usually leads to an Oscar nomination. But this was no ordinary actress and she wasn't even a female or even a human. We're talking about Lassie, who was played by the greatest female impersonator in the history of the silver screen, otherwise known as Pal.The star of this vehicle not only got away with playing both a male and a female in this picture (a son and his mother) but he/she was such a mega star that the producers could call the film COURAGE OF LASSIE without the character Lassie even being in it.(You wouldn't find Johnny Weissmuller playing the Thin Man in a Tarzan movie, would you?)Be that as it may, Lassie (or should I say Pal?) plays Bill with such acting skill that there should have been an Oscar awarded for the performance. Of course, the Academy would have had the dilemma of not sure whether to give the statuette for the Best Actor or Best Actress. Toss in some cute animal scenes at the beginning and a tear-jerking ending, with some beautiful location footage at Lake Chelan in north central Washington in the middle, and you've got one of the most heartwarming animal movies of that era. You just wouldn't have wanted to tell the star that he/she was an animal. Thespians can be sensitive about that kind of thing. Dale Roloff

How can you not like a movie in which Lassie is inducted into the army and comes out warped into a serial killer? Like so many MGM stars during wartime Lassie found himself pressed into morale-building patriotic duty. When Frank Morgan tells Elizabeth Taylor he has a son in the Philippines, it's almost a foregone conclusion that Lassie (who goes by a variety of aliases here) will find his way to some kind of military heroism. The truly bizarre twist is that, pushed past the breaking point by his desperate Army masters to lead them to the rescue of a trapped patrol, he comes out with a grudge against the world, and winds up, essentially, on trial for murder. Ultimately, Morgan's courtroom summation turns this odd story into a surprisingly moving allegory for the situation of returning combat vets. (And I'd leap off a moving train, too, if I had little Liz Taylor waiting for me at home.)