Courage of Lassie

Plot synopsis:
A collie pup is separated from his mother and grows to young adulthood in the forest. After being swept away in a torrent and then shot by a young hunter, he is found by Kathie Merrick (Elizabeth Taylor) and carried to her home. With the help of a kindly shepherd, Mr. MacBain (Frank Morgan), she tends him back to health, names him Bill, and teaches him to herd sheep.
One day, unknown to Kathie, Bill is hit by a truck and taken to an animal hospital. Kathie risks her life futilely searching for him on the island where they first met. Bill remains unclaimed in the hospital for two months and is sent to a War Dog Training Center, where he is referred to as "Duke". After training, he is shipped out with the troops to the Aleutian Islands Campaign. Duke performs heroically on the battlefield, but the stress and a wound cause him to become aggressive. Sent back to the War Dog Training Center to recover, he escapes, attacking livestock and threatening people as he finds his way back to Kathie.
Merricks' neighbors insist he be put down because of his attacks, and Bill is impounded. A hearing is held and Mr. MacBain acts as Bill's lawyer. He discovers an Army tattoo in Bill's ear; a quick investigation reveals Bill is a war hero. All then realize that the dog who served on the battlefield was not himself after his war experiences, and he will need time to adjust to civilian life. Bill is freed and joyfully reunites with Kathie.

Tags: melodrama

Review:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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..
A young girl adopts a lost puppy and takes it in for her own, turning it into a first class sheep dog.
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].
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..
Lassie, WWII Psycho Vet. 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.
(And I'd leap off a moving train, too, if I had little Liz Taylor waiting for me at home.).
Lassie as a shell-shocked war hero steals the show....
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..
Lovely Touching Lassie Story of Old. This is a Lassie movie.
It is not an Elizabeth Taylor movie, although her presence is just as lovely, young and innocent.
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.
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..
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!
Lassie plays the Collie (here called Bill, and later Duke!), and it's a strenuous part even for a dog.
After appearing in 1943's "Lassie Come Home", this must've seemed like a step backwards for the young star.
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.
The Dog Days 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.
When you've got a young Elizabeth Taylor and such scene stealing character
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.
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.
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..
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.
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!.
In "Courage of Lassie," the dog gets top billing, but a pretty teenager (Liz Taylor) has plenty of crying and hugging to do as a supremely devoted mistress Another heart-warming story, filmed in the wilderness of Washington State, the movie (which begins with a long, curious, wild-life sequence) mixes farm-family folksiness with an unusual dog story: Lassie goes to a training school for war dogs, is shipped to the front and performs heroically Returned to America, the dog suffers a nervous collapse, becoming a menace to society As the willful farm girl who finds a dog, loses a dog, and regains a dog, Liz Taylor is again the overwrought, ecstatic child, lavishing her attention on Lassie Because her greatest fame came later, as a young woman, most people forget what a skillful child actress she was Less burdened than at any later time by her beauty and fame, she is at her least self-conscious in these early performances Untouched, she reveals in these animal stories her natural flair for tears and hugsthe paraphernalia of an emotional female.
Cry "havoc" and unleash the dogs of war..well,Lassie anyway......
This film does have something important to say about PTSD and the military's gradual recognition of it as a medical condition during the second world war despite ignoring all the evidence from the 1914 - 1918 conflict.Apart from that,"The courage of Lassie" is merely a mildly diverting tale of a lost dog who gets press - ganged into the U.S.Army and ends up in the Aleutian Islands helping to rescue some ambushed soldiers.
Miss E.Taylor is delightful as Lassie's erstwhile owner who is horrified to find her pet a changed animal when he makes his way back home after escaping from a railroad carriage carrying him to be p.u.t. d.o.w.n. after displaying aggressive behaviour to his handler.
A little girl and her dog are reunited and millions of 8 year - olds all over the world weep copiously.Or they did in 1946.
I'm reading glimpses of other reviews here and many are a bit skeptical of this movie and of Lassie being a shell shocked war vet.
Yes we should all know that Lassie was played by more than one dog (its obvious that thats the way they make dog movies, isn't it?), that Lassie was a female, all that geeky stuff, I say whatever.
I was not expecting anything from this movie and had it on in the background as I was surfing the web this morning and doing other tasks, I ended up getting very focused on this film!
It's just another testament that if it's a Lassie movie, it's good entertainment.
It has Liz Taylor and her pet's loving bond in Lassie which is very wholesome, it also has a lot of adult overtones with war and such, so it should keep any mature adult interested.
In todays overly skeptical world, I'm happy I have not fallen into the trap to not really enjoy a Lassie movie.
As the relative of someone who has suffered Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) originating in his own experiences in the early part of WW II --- it is now some sixty-five years here in mid-2007 from those absurdly horrible and also unbelievable few months of his then-young life --- this is a terribly important film for me.
Although Bill/Lassie is allegedly just some lost dog in the movie, what he experiences as a K-9 dog-soldier within the U.S Army's campaign to push the Imperial Japanese military out of its conquests in the Aleutian Islands in 1942 forever scars him.
He comes home to the Elizabeth Taylor character in Washington state a haunted, and hurt animal and veteran.
First, there is no character in this film called Lassie!, although Lassie may have been the mother of Bill, sometimes called Duke, who starts out as a puppy.
Like the first 2 of this film series, the collie, whatever its name is, gets lost for part of the film, has a series of adventures, and eventually finds its way home......Apparently most of the shoots were taken around Lake Chelan: a long, narrow former glacial valley, with substantial mountains on either side, located in north central Washington state.......This time, 14y.o. Elizabeth Taylor(as Kathie) serves as Bill's non-military master, while Tom Drake, as Stg. Smitty, renames the dog as Duke and serves as his master while in the army.
In training Duke to be a War Dog, the screenplay is repeating the main plot of the previous film; "Son of Lassie".
So, after a couple months of rehabilitation, it's decided to give him to the army and make a war dog out of him, rechristening him as Duke.
But, Frank Morgan: a friend of Kathie's, notices a marking on one ear, and someone identifies it as a war dog ID.
Morgan calls up the nearby dog training center and asks for Bill's record, finding that he is regarded as a war hero.
I think so.......This film is currently available in economical 3 and 4 packs of MGM Lassie-like films..
Though "Courage of Lassie" has a simple plot, it is one of the greatest movies of the last century, and one of the most meaningful and greatest tearjerkers of all time.
The "Courage of Lassie" is a time capsule that reveals the decency of where we came from, who we were, who we truly are, and who we still can be - because goodness is a root of us all.
The "Courage of Lassie" also provides beautifully-crafted lessons in adaptation and the resiliency of both human and animal spirit.Everyone should be positively touched by this film and should be bettered by it.
However, it seems that those who lived at least part of their lives during the 1940's and 1950's will be especially emotionally struck by the realization of what has been lost, what's been gained, as well as by the automatically ensuing calculations of whether the gains were worth the losses.Every character in this film plays his or her parts naturally and flawlessly, including Lassie.
The only iffy scene in this film is where Lassie was a target of countless enemy riflemen but never got hit - somewhat like Kevin Costner in "Dances with Wolves." Other than that single stretch:The "Courage of Lassie" is a magnificent gift!The "Courage of Lassie" is Americana at its best!.
The third movie in the Lassie series, this one confusingly stars a male dog named Pal playing a female dog named Lassie playing a male dog named Bill, who is then, in the course of the film re-named Duke.
After growing up to adulthood, Bill is surprisingly non-feral and is discovered by a 14 year-old Elizabeth Taylor.
Taylor cares for him until he's well again, with the help of Frank Morgan.
Then Bill is hit by an Army truck (the poor damn dog can't get a break).
He finally gets back to America and finds his way back to Elizabeth Taylor, but not before he kills some farm chickens.
Frank Morgan saves him after discovering he was an Army dog and understanding he has post-traumatic stress syndrome.
She's a sweet kid, and, like in National Velvet, a pretty good actress already.