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This film starts off with a collie named Bill who breaks away from his family and encounters all kinds of friends in the woods which are bears, ravens, hawks and even travels on a pile of wood through all kinds of rapids that almost drown him. Bill no sooner takes a chance and relaxes in the grass when he is shot by hunters and Katie Merrick, (Elizabeth Taylor) comes to his rescue who had been following Bill because he ran off with her pants as she was swimming in the a lake. Kattie manages to tell the hunters not to kill Bill, because she is going to bring him to get help from a good friend of hers, Harry MacBain, (Frank Morgan) who manages to bring Bill back to health. There are many problems that face Katie with her collie dog and Bill is even recruited in the Army. Very nice film from the past. Enjoy.

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.

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.)

'Courage of Lassie' is not really about 'Lassie' but about a Lassie-like collie named Bill. 'Courage of Lassie' is one of the best Lassie films, in my opinion. The storyline is packed full of adventure in which Bill saves the day, but when Bill is hit by a truck and taken away from young Kathy (Elizabeth Taylor), Bill becomes an army dog in the second World War. (I think this is the only Lassie film to have a female girl as the dog's primary master.) There are also some happy parts of the movie, showing the deep friendship that the young girl and collie share. This, intertwined with Lassie saving sheep in a snow storm and becoming a war hero makes this a good film. It's not as good as 'Lassie Come Home', but it is still worth a watch if you enjoy films about dogs.

When you've got a young Elizabeth Taylor and such scene stealing character actors as Frank Morgan and Harry Davenport it's almost an obligation to watch Courage Of Lassie. All of them have their moments not to forget America's favorite collie.

In fact the collie isn't Lassie. When Taylor finds him having gone astray in the woods she names the pup Bill. She trains Bill as a sheepdog and it works out well until he becomes separated from her and drafted into the canine corps of the US Army.

Service in the Aleutians leaves a shellshocked collie and of course eventually he's reunited with Taylor who does her best to rehabilitate him.

Morgan plays a kindly neighbor to widow Selena Royle who is Liz's mother and Davenport is the judge who will decide the fate of the collie. Guess how it goes.

Nice scenic color location cinematography also characterizes Courage Of Lassie, but it doesn't overshadow the human performers who are at their scene stealing best.

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.

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

If you enjoy watching "A-Dog-As-A-Shining-Hero" movie, then you're sure to get a satisfying charge out of Courage Of Lassie (COL, for short) from 1946.

Featuring plenty of carefully staged wildlife photography (especially within its first 20 minutes), COL had our favourite celebrity canine, Lassie, heading out on one daring, brave and big-hearted adventure after another.

As something of a bonus - COL starred a fresh-faced, 14-year-old Elizabeth Taylor, who played young Kathie Merrick, the easily-excitable daughter of simple sheep ranchers etching out a modest living in the American North-West.

All-in-all - COL was, for the most part, an enjoyable enough feature film, but I seriously think that its story was probably best suited for a much younger audience than myself.

*Note* - What didn't make a whole lot of sense to me was that, even though this film's title clearly named this prized collie-dog as Lassie, Kathie kept repeatedly calling this pedigree pooch, Bill, for whatever reason.

Fred M. Wilcox returned to direct Lassie in his third film, but this is not a continuation of "Son Of Lassie", though original costar Elizabeth Taylor does return as a new character called Kathie Merrick, who rescues a collie pup, and names it Bill(Lassie is not the name here, despite the title!) whom she raises as a sheep-herder, until one day he is hit by a truck and taken to a veterinarian. Bill's life is saved, but is not identified, so is instead sent off as a war dog to assist soldiers in the trenches. Sadly, this experience turns Bill vicious, and upon his return home becomes a livestock killer. Can Kathie convince the court not to put Bill down? Strange film is mostly an uninspired rehash of the first two(unrelated) pictures, when it would have been far wiser to just continue that story, instead of creating this one. A wasted opportunity.

A pup gets left behind in the forest. He manages to survive following a bear. He is found by Kathie Merrick (Elizabeth Taylor) and given the name Bill. After an accident, Kathie loses Billie who gets sent into the war as Duke. He suffers from trauma and escapes back to Kathie but carries the burden of violence.

Of course, I understand that there are multiple Lassies over the years. I figured that the roles would be all called Lassie. That's my biggest question. Isn't it more compelling to call all the characters Lassie? I don't get it but that's what happens here. It's the only confusing aspect. Young Elizabeth Taylor is showing her charisma but she's not actually in a majority of the film. This is the dog's tale. It's surprising that it's dealing with PTSD before it's even called that. It's an interesting premise to show that struggle not in a human but in a dog. In a way, it's able to engender even more sympathy and thereby pull on the heartstrings harder. It's a good way to access that emotional story from a different angle.

Lassie should have barked, "RE-WRITE!" during the third in the series, "Courage of Lassie". Elizabeth Taylor takes over the reigns as Lassie's owner. Obviously, the filmmakers were still not sure how to use Lassie as a name; so it's implied that the dog you love as Lassie is playing "Bill" (but it's really "Pal" playing "Lassie" playing "Bill"; and, it gets even more complicated in the film).

Since it is 1946, we'll just have to go along with Lassie being drafted; but, is this "Lassie Come Home from World War II" - is Lassie an unpatriotic deserter? Then, the poor dog comes down with Post-traumatic Stress Syndrome, becomes a killer, and goes on trial. On the plus side: Lassie is terrific, as usual; the dog tries to make a bad script hunt. Elizabeth Taylor and the film look very nice in color; and, Frank Morgan feels like a good substitute for Donald Crisp, who was in the last Lassie film, and will be in the next one…

**** Courage of Lassie (7/24/46) Fred M. Wilcox ~ Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Morgan, Tom Drake

"Lassie Goes Nuts"....or, perhaps another title that might fit for this one is "Lassie Goes Through Hell and Ends Up With PTSD". This is because Lassie (here actually called Bill) is tortured and goes through more in one film than most of his others combined!!! In this film, he loses his mother, gets shot, gets run over, gets sent to war and almost dies...and, naturally, ends up losing his mind. While the term was never used, he obviously was suffering from PTSD...and the film was actually a metaphor for the millions of damaged soldiers coming home from Europe and Asia following WWII...which ended the year before.

Fortunately, the film is not just one series of torment after another for good 'ol Bill/Lassie. When he's not suffering, he's living with a lovely little girl (Elizabeth Taylor) and loves her dearly. But he gets lost and goes through the worst before he ultimately is reunited with her.

The movie is enjoyable and the scenery AMAZING...having been filmed in the Pacific Northwest in beautiful color. And, because it was a prestige project (after all, Lassie was a BIG star at MGM), the studio used some of its best supporting actors (Frank Morgan, Harry Davenport and Tom Drake, among others) and it really is a lovely film. But some might tire of seeing the animal going through torment, so it's not nearly the film as "Lassie Come Home"!

Finally, although I liked the movie I really would have loved a scene with Lassie lying on the couch being psychoanalyzed near the end of the story!

After emoting so sincerely in "National Velvet", Elizabeth Taylor looks almost forced into this absurd scenario: Collie pup, separated from its family, raises itself in the woods before finding the love of a dedicated young lass, and then--for reasons almost indescribable--is adopted into the Army! Opening nature shots are hilariously 'wholesome': we get birds, a bunny rabbit, and a man in a boat (who yells at a bird to hold its tongue!). Lassie plays the Collie (here called Bill, and later Duke!), and it's a strenuous part even for a dog. Taylor shows the same moony-eyed strength and determination she showed as Velvet Brown, but this part is a mere whisper of her last. After appearing in 1943's "Lassie Come Home", this must've seemed like a step backwards for the young star. It's a tearjerker via the doghouse. ** from ****

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.

Seeing this in 2013 for the first time and as a 50-year-old adult, I really tried to imagine what I would have thought of this film had I been a young teen back in the late 1940s. I think I might have had a different reaction, but I have to say I didn't care for it at all and thought it was pretty odd.

I won't recap the plot -- you can read other people's comments for that -- I'll just skip to what bugged me the most. Aside from the multiple "Oh, c'mon!" moments that made no sense at all, I thought the acting was very over the top by everyone -- with the possible exception of the dog. Several characters did highly moronic things, which, although they moved the story along, were very unbelievable, irresponsible, and disturbing.

I'll give the film two stars for the outdoor sequences which had some gorgeous scenery, although I was wondering for about the first 15 minutes if I hadn't recorded a National Geographic nature flick by mistake.