A Movie For All Time

Lassie Come Home is a classic movie that is more than just a "Family Film" , a category this lovely movie has been unfairly shoehorned into. I don't mean to disparage family films at all, it's just this particular movie resonates so powerfully over the decades (it's nearly 70 years old) and is just as affecting to watch now as it must have been to moviegoers in 1943, the year of its release. I have no doubt that Steven Spielberg studied this movie when he made the very impressive War Horse. Compare the two movies and you will find scene after scene that mirrors both productions. Lassie Come Home was not an expensive film to make in the early 1940's. It is often referred to as an MGM "B"-Picture, a moniker it does not deserve. War Horse, on the other hand is a lavish production costing millions and employs every state of the art accoutrement available to 21st century filmmaking. Both films are first rate entertainments made with loving care by expert hands. The glorious Technicolor in Lassie Come Home is duplicated to brilliant effect by Spielberg in War Horse, and the production design of the latter film in essence pays homage to the Lassie film. But Lassie Come Home came first, and this deeply affecting movie, powered by the magnificent performance of Rude Weatherwax's Pal, the first collie to play Lassie and the brilliant portrayal of the dog's young master, Roddy McDowall makes this movie one for the ages.