Heimweh

I'm not going to say much about this movie...because it is, of course, very good...BUT the end is what i want to talk about. I'm a guy so it humbles me a little to make the following comment: It makes you so happy to see that Lassie has overcome the most impossible odds just to meet Joe at school, Ya just start bawling like a lil baby! they will be some of the happiest tears you'll ever cry. 9 out of 10 just because the end makes up for any downfalls the movie might have!(not that it has many)

A classic. A dear story of a impoverished English family who has to sell their prized possession, a collie dog named Lassie, to make ends meet. I never tire of seeing this movie whenever it plays, even though I own the DVD. Make sure to get out a handkerchief or some tissues for, surely, you will be tearful, if not totally slobbering. It is that touching and endearing. It is without time constraints, veneer or facade. This was the first Lassie movie and showcases the first Lassie. Now, in 2012, as I write this review, there is Lassie 10, a direct descendant of the original brilliant collie. Again, the collie escapes to travel many miles from Scotland to England to reunite with his master. He endures great hardships on his journey. The movie is lustrous, brilliant, and excellently acted with young ELizabeth Taylor. Just a lovely classic movie, as modern as it is old fashioned, yet not old fashioned at all. I enjoyed the speech patterns and scenery. A movie that is for any age, but remember, get out the tissues. What an endearing movie.

I'm sure that when MGM was filming Lassie Come Home they were not aware they would be setting up the foundation of a collie franchise. The film obviously was meant to be a B picture filler as none of MGM's big box office names were used. But the story of the loyal collie dog who traveled over 1000 miles from Scotland to Yorkshire to return to his young master struck a nostalgic chord in the English speaking world.

What MGM did do for this film was use location footage, most likely in California and film it in Technicolor. Doing that made the film a classic and wanted by today's market which disdains black and white.

Two young future stars Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor are in this as children and they are an appealing pair. For the rest of the cast MGM made liberal use of the English colony in Hollywood with Elsa Lanchester, Donald Crisp, Nigel Bruce, Edmund Gwenn, Alan Napier, Arthur Shields, and Dame May Witty and her husband Ben Webster. In fact if you take away the two child stars, this film may just have the oldest average age of any film cast around.

Elizabeth Taylor and Roddy McDowall formed a lifetime friendship from this film. She also became very attached to Donald Crisp who became a father figure for her until his death in 1974. Crisp and McDowall are reunited as father and son as they were in How Green Was My Valley.

The plot is a simple one. Because he's out of work and needs the money for food on the table, Donald Crisp sells the pure bred collie to Lord Nigel Bruce who takes him from Yorkshire to Scotland. But Lassie ain't having this and escapes and makes the journey to what she considers home. The story is about her adventures on the way.

After over 60 years Lassie is still appealing to children of all ages everywhere.

"Lassie Chien Fidèle" (=Faithful dog,French translation) was one of the first books I read when I was a child .It's a precious memory.

Although it is not,IMHO, Wilcox's most memorable movie (it would rather be his impressive "forbidden planet"),it's still good value and excellent entertainment for the whole family.The color is wonderful .And the real star is Lassie herself for the other characters have less screen time than this extraordinary dog (male colley Pal) and most of them are brilliantly supporting :I particularly like Dame May Witty as the old lady who takes care of Lassie for a short while.

Roddy Mac Dowall was a wunderkind ,my favorite of all the child actors of all time.He is very cute and he is really moving.When I saw the scene he shares with Elizabeth Taylor-very lovely too- in the kennels ,I couldn't help thinking that ,twenty years later ,they would be Octavian and Cleopatra!!!

Like this?try these...

National Velvet (Brown,1944)

The Yearling (Brown,1946)

How green was my valley (Ford,1941,with a younger McDowall)

'Lassie Come Home' is the classic first tale of Lassie, and this film is based on the novel by Eric Knight. This story is about the bond between a boy and his dog. Lassie is sold by the boy's father because of hard times, and Lassie makes a long journey to be back at her master's side again. It's a touching and beautiful story for children, and it was my favourite story for a while when I was much, much younger. I have forgotten much of this story now, but I have not forgotten how much I used to watch this film, over and over again on the old VHS. I think that all children should have the opportunity to watch 'Lassie Come Home'.