Lassie Come Home (1943)

Director:

Fred M. Wilcox

Writers:

Hugo Butler (screenplay)
Eric Knight (novel)

Release Date:

December 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Family

Tagline:

A Thrilling Saga Of Courage And Loyalty !

Plot:

After her destitute family is forced to sell her, a collie named Lassie escapes from her new owner and begins the long trek from Scotland to her Yorkshire home.

Plot Keywords:

Dog | Lassie | Escape | Duke | Scotland

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins

Cast

Roddy McDowall	...	Joe Carraclough
Donald Crisp	...	Sam Carraclough
Dame May Whitty	...	Dally
Edmund Gwenn	...	Rowlie
Nigel Bruce	...	Duke of Rudling
Elsa Lanchester	...	Mrs. Carraclough
Elizabeth Taylor	...	Priscilla
Ben Webster	...	Dan'l Fadden
J. Pat O'Malley	...	Hynes (as J. Patrick O'Malley)
Alan Napier	...	Jock
Arthur Shields	...	Andrew
John Rogers	...	Snickers
Alec Craig	...	Buckles
Pal	...	Lassie (as Lassie)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
May Beatty	...	Heavy Woman (uncredited)
George Broughton	...	Allen (uncredited)
Sherlee Collier	...	Little Girl (uncredited)
Howard Davies	...	Cobbler (uncredited)
Hugh Harrison	...	Schoolteacher on Stairway (uncredited)
Charles Irwin	...	Tom (uncredited)
Nelson Leigh	...	Joe's Teacher (uncredited)
Janet Littlewood	...	Little Girl (uncredited)
Roy Parry	...	A.J. Halstead - Butcher (uncredited)
John Power	...	Miner (uncredited)

Directed by
Fred M. Wilcox

Writing credits
Hugo Butler		(screenplay)
Eric Knight		(novel "Lassie Come-Home")

Produced by
Samuel Marx	....	producer
Harry Rapf	....	executive producer (uncredited)
Dore Schary	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Daniele Amfitheatrof
Eric Zeisl		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Leonard Smith		(director of photography)
Charles P. Boyle		(director of photography) (uncredited)

Film Editing by
Ben Lewis

Art Direction by
Cedric Gibbons

Set Decoration by
Edwin B. Willis

Makeup Department
Jack Dawn	....	makeup designer

Production Management
Charles J. Hunt	....	unit manager (uncredited)
George Yohalem	....	unit manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Tom Andre	....	assistant director (uncredited)
Alfred Raboch	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Mildred Griffiths	....	associate set decorator
Paul Groesse	....	associate art director

Sound Department
Douglas Shearer	....	recording director

Special Effects by
Warren Newcombe	....	special effects

Stunts
Larry Kert	....	stunts: Roddy McDowall (uncredited)

Music Department
Wally Heglin	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Paul Marquardt	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Leonid Raab	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Henri Jaffa	....	associate technicolor color director
Natalie Kalmus	....	technicolor color director
Frank Inn	....	dog trainer (uncredited)
Rudd Weatherwax	....	dog trainer: "Lassie" (uncredited)

Thanks
Eric Knight	....	dedicatee (as Major Eric Knight)

Production Companies

• Loew's (as Loew's Incorporated)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1943) (USA) (theatrical)
• Loew's (1943) (USA) (theatrical) (uncredited)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1950) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD) (triple feature with "Son of Lassie" and "Courage of Lassie")
• Warner Home Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Vídeo (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Canada:G (video rating) | Netherlands:6 (2008) | West Germany:6 (f) | Finland:S | Norway:A | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved (PCA #8995) | USA:G (re-rating) (1971) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Big Bear Lake, California, USA

Company:

Loew's

Trivia:

Elizabeth Taylor replaced the actress Maria Flynn, who was not seen to be afraid of the dog on the set. But when the "rushes" came back from the Metrocolor processing lab, three days later, her fear of the male collie showed. And the production was halted. The producer was walking the 600 block of North Foothill Road in Beverly Hills doing his nightly patrol as an air raid warden when he met Francis Taylor, who patrolled the 700 block. Knowing he and Sara wanted to get their daughter into the movies, he asked him to bring Elizabeth to the studio. There she was introduced to Lassie and the production resumed.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: While speaking about whether to keep Lassie or not it is obvious that the large hearth behind the elderly couple is a drop screen. Shadows from the lights show behind the couple left to right as you watch, but the shadows on the hearth shine from the opposite direction right to left.

Quotes:

Mrs. Carraclough: Oh, well. Ye may as well know it right off. Lassie won't be waiting for ye at school anymore.
Joe Carraclough: Why not? What's happened?
Mrs. Carraclough: Because she's sold; that's why not.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Farscape: Beware of Dog (#2.14)" (2000)

Soundtrack:

I Dreamt I Dwelt In Marble Halls

Have several boxes of tissues nearby if you watch this movie!

I sat down tonight to watch this movie, thinking it would be good, warm-hearted fare at the end of a hard day at work. I couldn't watch it. Just. Could. NOT.

I spent the first 15 minutes of the movie crying. I started out teary-eyed for the few brief minutes where Lassie and her boy (played by a roughly 12-yr-old Roddy MacDowell) were together, knowing from the basic plot of the movie (father sells dog to man who lives hundreds of miles away) that the boy and the dog would soon be separated. From there I moved on to full-blown tears when Roddy comes home from school and asks his parents where Lassie is. Anyone who's ever had a dog or ever loved a dog will not be able to take this scene.

We then see where Lassie is living now ... in a kennel, on a rich man's estate who has tons of dogs. Lassie is laying in her kennel all listless because she misses her family. (More tears!) A mean caretaker of the animals tells Lassie, "I'll make you eat even if I have to shove your food down your throat." That did it for me! That was 15 minutes into the movie, I was crying my eyes out, and I said to myself there's no way I can sit through another 75 minutes of this torment of seeing Lassie and her boy separated, of seeing all the terrible ordeals that Lassie must go through before she is reunited with her boy.

I fast-forwarded to the end, thinking the ending would make me happy, and would make up for the 15 minutes of sobbing. Well ... it did and it didn't. I saw the last 2 or so minutes of the film, beginning with a much skinnier Lassie limping on 3 legs to meet Roddy at his school. (How did she get so skinny? What happened to her front paw that made her not be able to walk on it? I don't want to know!) The scene is so touching, so heart-breaking, I don't think anyone could watch it without bursting out sobbing like a baby. Young Roddy did a terrific acting job when he showed his glee and love at seeing his precious Lassie again.

I've read the other comments here, and understand that Lassie went through many trials while traveling back home from Scotland to Yorkshire. I'm glad I fast-forwarded the movie; I don't think I could've taken those scenes! If you ever need a good cry, just watch this movie. I can't recall any other movie I've ever seen that has stirred such emotionality in me, and certainly none that has ever made me cry so hard, both from sadness and happiness and a dozen other emotions.

This review is based on seeing 17 of the 90 minutes of this film. I think if I saw all 90 minutes, I'd be drowning in a pool made from my own tears right now. I don't have enough Kleenex in the house to watch this whole danged movie!