Le courage de Lassie

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.)

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.

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

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 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.