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Good-bye, My Lady

  • 1956
  • Approved
  • 1h 34m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
1.2K
YOUR RATING
Good-bye, My Lady (1956)
Official Trailer
Play trailer0:43
1 Video
22 Photos
Drama

An old man and a young boy who live in the southeastern Mississippi swamps are brought together by the love of a dog.An old man and a young boy who live in the southeastern Mississippi swamps are brought together by the love of a dog.An old man and a young boy who live in the southeastern Mississippi swamps are brought together by the love of a dog.

  • Director
    • William A. Wellman
  • Writers
    • Albert Sidney Fleischman
    • James Street
  • Stars
    • Walter Brennan
    • Phil Harris
    • Brandon De Wilde
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.2/10
    1.2K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • William A. Wellman
    • Writers
      • Albert Sidney Fleischman
      • James Street
    • Stars
      • Walter Brennan
      • Phil Harris
      • Brandon De Wilde
    • 31User reviews
    • 3Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Good-bye, My Lady
    Trailer 0:43
    Good-bye, My Lady

    Photos22

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    Top cast8

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    Walter Brennan
    Walter Brennan
    • Uncle Jesse Jackson
    Phil Harris
    Phil Harris
    • A. H. 'Cash' Evans
    Brandon De Wilde
    Brandon De Wilde
    • Skeeter Jackson
    • (as Brandon de Wilde)
    Sidney Poitier
    Sidney Poitier
    • Gates Watson
    William Hopper
    William Hopper
    • Walden Grover
    Louise Beavers
    Louise Beavers
    • Bonnie Drew
    George Chandler
    George Chandler
    • Reporter
    • (uncredited)
    My Lady of the Congo
    My Lady of the Congo
    • Lady the Dog
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • William A. Wellman
    • Writers
      • Albert Sidney Fleischman
      • James Street
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews31

    7.21.1K
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    Featured reviews

    8VernC

    Don't low-rate Phil Harris

    Phil Harris's contribution to this low-key gem should be acknowledged. Harris does not strike a single false note in his role as the local merchant and bird hunter. Sydney Poitier is a little less believable. By the way, the characters are properly described as swamp folk, or swamp rats, not hill billies.
    7rupie

    not bad at all

    I too caught this one on American Movie Classics and I have to say it's a modest little movie that does a lot of things right. The moment we hear of a movie about a boy and a dog, we expect a surfeit of sentimentality, a la "Old Yeller". This movie is rather understated, right down to being in black & white and having a single acoustic guitar do the background music. The movie does not opt for the cheap happy ending it might have, but gives us something sadder and more real. By doing so it makes for a much richer movie. This fine little film isn't going to be on anyone's "ten greatest movies" list, but it's worth a see.
    Teenie-1

    A wonderful film for the entire family

    This is one of my all-time favorite family films. It doesn't remind me of "Old Yeller" or "Lassie," but something different. It centers around an elderly backwoods hillbilly (Walter Brennan)who is raising his young grand(?)nephew (a very young Brandon DeWilde). The boy finds a strange dog in the woods and, after much reluctance, adopts the dog, only to find that it is one of the strangest breeds (Basenji) in captivity. (Being a Basenji owner, they are indeed very strange but lovable). The film is very moving in parts, especially when you first note the gradual bond between the boy, the dog and the old man and how the little dog seems to bring out a lonely side of the little boy that you don't pick up until that part of the film. Yes, the dog does "sing" ( Basenjis do not bark, they "yodel") and it runs very fast (they are fast runners). The boy's fascination with figuring out just what this dog is all about really manages to capture and hold your attention throughout the entire film. Even you will want to figure out what this dog is all about.

    Walter Brennan is hilarious, although it appears as though this role was intended to be on the light side, not hysterically funny side. I found myself laughing so hard in the scenes where he is running to catch up to the dog or running to get the wood chopped when he is suddenly awakened from a long nap. His character is "Grandpa McCoy" from "The Real McCoys" but a little more gritty (at least Grandpa McCoy had dentures). Brandon DeWilde is absolutely marvelous. And "Lady" is both magnificent and fascinating to watch.

    Check this one out. It's well worth a family get-together for a few good laughs and for bringing folks together. And if you get the chance to watch a Basenji's antics, even you'll be asking, "Is this really a dog?"
    10jdherrera45-622-394908

    Beautiful movie about love, friendship and loyalty.

    I saw this movie with my father when I was a kid, of course we loved the movie. In Spanish the title was Inseparables. I have been looking for this movie for several years, finally my daughter found it on internet and ordered it for me as a Xmas present. We watched it today and I could remember just about everything in the movie. I am a little confused, I remember when I saw the movie many years ago, Lady returns to Skeeter and Uncle Jesse, but the owner comes back to get her. He takes her away again, but this time she does not return. This did not happen in the movie that we saw today. Am I mistaken? Did the movie have an alternative ending? Any clarification to this will be greatly appreciated. We enjoyed the movie so much and it brought wonderful memories of my dear father.
    7bkoganbing

    A most unusual canine

    I remember seeing Goodbye My Lady back when I was a lad as the second part of a double feature. I was pretty amazed at this most unusual canine.

    Young Skeeter, who lives with his Uncle Jesse in the swamp area near Pascagoula, Mississippi comes upon a most unusual dog in the swamp. It grooms itself like a cat, has a hyena like laugh instead of a bark, and has the speed of Secretariat. Any kid like the one I was when I saw this would want to possess an animal like this. When Skeeter finally does capture him he finds he's got the most natural hunting dog ever seen those parts.

    Brandon DeWilde was a pretty popular child actor in the Fifties, Shane and The Member of the Wedding cemented his career. He and Walter Brennan playing Uncle Jesse are a winning combination. They get good support from Phil Harris as the local grocer, Sidney Poitier has a small role as a young black neighbor and William Hopper, the Yankee visitor from Connecticut.

    Would you believe this film was produced by John Wayne? His Batjac Production company occasionally did films that did not star the Duke. Duke got a top director in William Wellman with whom he had just finished The High and the Mighty to direct Goodbye My Lady and Phil Harris and William Hopper who was in the cast of same. Wellman mixes all the elements just right for a winning film.

    This unusual dog turns out to be a basenji from Africa and of course the dog is lost from it's real owner. The ending isn't what you would expect from a boy/dog picture, it's more real and that's as far as I go at this point.

    Living in Buffalo as I do now, there's a bit of humor here that non- Buffalonians can't appreciate. Phil Harris has a hunting dog named Millard Fillmore, named after our 13th American President. Fillmore is somewhere in the middle rank of Presidents generally, but as a native of Buffalo, you'll find a few people in this part of the world who will accord him as great.

    Harris makes a joke about nothing ever being named for Fillmore. Where I live there's a page or two in the phone book for things named Fillmore. That must have sent up a few howls back when I was a kid in theaters here.

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    Related interests

    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      When not filming with the thirteen-year-old Brandon De Wilde, My Lady (full registered name: My Lady of the Congo) spent all her time with him. My Lady was six months old when she was brought over from England, along with other Basenjis to act as stand-ins. In the agreement to supply the dog, it was written into the contract that My Lady would belong to De Wilde after filming was completed.
    • Goofs
      A shot of Uncle Jesse and Skeeter's kitchen shows a bag of C&H (California and Hawaiian) sugar on the shelf. C&H sugar distribution has been almost exclusively west of the Mississippi River. Domino is the longtime sugar of choice in Mississippi, where the story takes place.
    • Quotes

      Uncle Jesse Jackson: That dog's a foreign dog.

      Skeeter Jackson: Maybe it's a Yankee dog. You know how Yankees are.

      Uncle Jesse Jackson: I don't know much about Yankees, thank the good Lord, but that dog's been around folks. Don't belong around here.

    • Connections
      Featured in Frances Farmer Presents: Goodbye My Lady (1964)
    • Soundtracks
      When Your Boy Becomes a Man
      Lyrics by Moris Erby

      Music by Don Powell

      Sung over main title by Howard Keel

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    FAQ13

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 12, 1956 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Good Bye My Lady
    • Filming locations
      • Albany, Georgia, USA(hunting scenes)
    • Production company
      • Batjac Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 34m(94 min)
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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