Courage of Lassie

Starring:Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Morgan, Tom Drake, Selena Royle, Harry Davenport, George Cleveland, Catherine McLeod, Morris Ankrum, Mitchell Lewis, Jane Green, David Holt, Bill Wallace, Minor Watson, Donald Curtis, Clancy Cooper, Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer, Conrad Binyon, Douglas Cowan, Addison Richards, Bill Lewin
Director: Fred M. Wilcox
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Description

The devoted collie escapes kennel captivity (with help from young Elizabeth Taylor) and braves storms and peril to return home to Roddy McDowall in the all-time classic Lassie Come Home (Disc 1/Side A). Courage runs in the family in Son of Lassie (Disc 1/Side B), as Lassie's progeny stows away on a World War II Allied bombing run piloted by RAF airman Peter Lawford. Wartime heroics are again at the forefront in Courage of Lassie (Disc 2), starring Taylor and shot on beautiful Canadian locations.

Customer Reviews:

When we were young.......2007-05-07

When I was a little boy I used to go to the movies every week and three of the great films that Ill never forget are those of the wonder dog Lassie the heart warming stories are magnificently captored in these dvd that i bought from Amazon . If your'e looking for some family and clean entertainment I suggest to readers to buy these films from Amazon at great price for such great films. John Fenech Malta.

Lassie come home (3 movies).......2007-02-12

I bought it for the nursing home I work at. They will love it. I can't show it to them yet cause the boss took it home and I think she only watched the first movie, but said it was very nice. I know they are classics and are happy to have them. I received them promptly without a hassle.
Thank you so much.

Average customer rating:

Best use of Technicolor
Liz is again the overwrought, ecstatic child...
Courage of Lassie
Interesting...
STRANGE SEQUEL NOT NEARLY AS ENGAGING AS ORIGINAL!

Courage of Lassie
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor , Frank Morgan , Tom Drake , Selena Royle , and Harry Davenport
Director: Fred M. Wilcox
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Military & War | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Lassie Come Home
Son of Lassie
Lassie
Lassie - 50th Anniversary TV Collection
National Velvet

ASIN: B000294U4G
Release Date: 2004-08-24

Amazon.com

Peril lurks behind every scene resolution in the 1946 hit Courage of Lassie. After an odd, peaceable-kingdom beginning, Lassie is shot by Carl Switzer, the kid who used to play Alfalfa (really!), and rescued by Elizabeth Taylor. She inexplicably names Lassie "Bill" (maybe in revenge because Lassie got on the movie's title) and trains him to be a sheepdog. Bill gets hit by a truck, then impressed into service in the U.S. war effort in the Philippines. Presaging Rambo, Bill becomes a war hero, yet returns home from the front a broken dog and is considered a menace to society. The war scenes are a bit too grueling for a family film (at least with very young children). Bill gets shot (again) and has to do a reconnaissance mission that Joseph Conrad would admire. Taylor doesn't so much act as sob and gush, and only Frank Morgan, the actor known best as the Wizard of Oz, comes off as well as the collie. That collie, though, is pretty wonderful and fans of the first film won't be too disappointed. --Keith Simanton

Customer Reviews:

Best use of Technicolor.......2007-01-31

While this film really can't compare with the story line of the original Lassie Come Home, it is cetainly one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. Is there really a place so beautiful? Then I read from the cover notes of the two disc,three film version, that it was filmed in Canada during the Second World War. That country is gorgeous! It must have more pristine scenery packed into it than anywhere else on earth.

Liz is again the overwrought, ecstatic child..........2006-12-24

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...

Courage of Lassie.......2006-02-23

This a great movie for the whole family. Who could not love this dog?

Interesting..........2005-06-11

I still don't understand how Lassie showed up in the title to this movie because she plays a male dog named Bill. Elizabeth Taylor is OK, but the best actors in my opinion are Frank Morgan and Tom Drake. The end is heart-warming, but the trailers sure didn't sound like the film would give anybody warm fuzzies. Watch the movie before the trailers. It's better that way. All in all, this is worth watching for the scenery, with its breathtaking shots of mountains and lakes.

STRANGE SEQUEL NOT NEARLY AS ENGAGING AS ORIGINAL!.......2004-08-24

"The Courage of Lassie" MGM's 1946 sequel of sorts to its blockbuster, "Lassie Come Home" is by far the most depressingly humiliating cinema excursion for those old enough or young at heart enough to recall the tender poignancy of the original film. Minus Roddy McDowell, the film stars Elizabeth Taylor this time as Kathie Merrick - an angelic nymph living in serene surrealism until Lassie comes hobbling out of the forest with a gun shot wound. Seems Lassie took on for the team by a hunting youth played by none other that Little Rascals Alfalfa, Carl Switzer (billed here only as `first youth'...oh, well - it's a living!) Kathie restores the dog to health, inexplicably names her "Bill" (presumably because gender is something that Liz just didn't get at that early age) then sets Bill on a course of one perilous and implausible mishap upon the next. Bill gets hit by a truck, serves as part of the U.S. war effort in the Philippines, is considered an outcast of society, then a war hero, then gets shot yet again in a sort of war time bedtime story that would have made the likes of Ernest Hemmingway gush. Though this film too was a resounding hit upon its initial release there's very little in the way of the original's magical charm to insight loyalty or repeat viewings once you've sat through it once. The war nonsense is too intense for a family picture and, at times, laughable in a "I can't believe they did that" sort of way.

Warner's DVD is even more of a disappointment than "Lassie Come Home". The worn film negative exhibits a very dated picture with inconsistently rendered colors that, at times, are vibrant - if garish - and other times, quite pale and uninspiring. Age related artifacts abound throughout and there is a considerable amount of edge enhancement and pixelization. Overall, fine details are very nicely realized. However, contrast and black levels are not very solid. The audio is mono but respectably cleaned up and presented with a fidelity that outweighs the visual characteristics. There are NO extras.

Average customer rating:

So-so undistinguished silent film
Great! Much More Than 'Tolerable'!
A Silent David and Goliath
LUKE HATBURN
Much of the same scenery in the film still exists today.

Tol'able David
Starring: Richard Barthelmess , Gladys Hulette , Walter P. Lewis , Ernest Torrence , and Ralph Yearsley
Director: Henry King
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Classics | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

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ASIN: 6305302227
Release Date: 1999-03-23

Description

Tol'able David is a magnificent film, carefully transferred from the best available elements, and starring the great Richard Barthelmess (Broken Blossoms) in the title role. This silent classic chronicles David's passage into adulthood as he confronts three crooks looking for trouble. A delightful gem from film's early years.

Customer Reviews:

So-so undistinguished silent film.......2002-01-29

This film is a lukewarm piece of americana. It is meant as a hymn to a bygone pastoral era but seems contrived and manipulative to me. The directing is competent, the acting fair. Nothing stands out here but the scenery. The laughably speedy manner in which members of David's family are crippled, his dog shot, his father dies of a heart attack (all in one afternoon) is a bit over the top. It is only mildly pleasant, nothing more. Not a terrible film but not that important or indispensable either.

Great! Much More Than 'Tolerable'!.......2001-03-13

Watching this film is an amazing experience -- something like a great mixture of looking through the personal scrapbook of someone from a bygone era, hearing a wonderful legend retold, and feeling your own visceral emotions fired with electricity.

In making the film, the characterizations and plot were designed in such a way that they are familiar but also unique. The story defies some of what have come to be conventions (stereotypes) for supporting roles. And, it betrays what have always been simpler expectations for a story with a happy ending. While there is sorrow and loss in modern film and earlier film, here they are portrayed without the often contingent silver-linings. Bad things happen in this film...and we are not given the immediate sense that all will be right in the end.

The title role is filled admirably by Richard Barthelmess. He did fine work here -- no wonder it led to his making as a star. But for me, the film was made by the principal heavy -- played by Ernest Torrence. What a creep he managed to portray -- a villain with a completely perverted moral sense. And Torrence held nothing back in his postures and expressions. He had this character nailed. A stunning performance.

Director Henry King did marvelous work with this villain and all of the film's elements. Portraying an idyllic rural atmosphere which is soon troubled by the arrival of lawlessness (Torrence and two other actors who play the nefarious Hatburn family), he demonstrates an ability to frame a scene with great visual appeal. He also manages to be economical in a sense -- one camera angle captures the majority of a scene's action and this is supplemented by occasional close-up reaction shots. His camera positioning is expert in this. We are given the best angle -- not several lesser angles from which to view.

I could not leave out mention of the charming Gladys Hulette who played the sweet romantic lead in this film. As the young girl, Esther, who is a neighbor to David and his family, she gave an incomparable performance. This role called for her to do much more than bat her eyelashes at the camera and she accomplished it with skill.

So, yes, this film does end happily...but I'll say no more.

It is the sort of film which should be appreciated as something other than a relic from the cinema's past. It is a postcard from an earlier day -- the message isn't as simple as "wish you were here" though. It has much more to tell us than that!

A Silent David and Goliath.......2001-02-22

Tol'able David is one of the finest silent films which I have seen. It seems more realistic than many silents. This is partly because of the location shooting, partly because the story is neither overly melodramatic nor comic. Barthelmess as the David character gives a wonderful performance while Torrance as the Goliath character is only just a little over the top in his villainy. He was perhaps more suited to the comic monster type of his later Captain Hook. The real revelation though, is Hulette. She is almost completely forgotten now, but clearly had great talent. Her performance is realistic and charming. She is quite simply adorable. The print on this DVD has been formed from separate sources. Thus it looks slightly different from scene to scene. There is some damage, but it rarely detracts. It is however, slightly distracting to see variations in the tinting. It is inconsistent to have one green scene when the rest of the movie uses greys and browns. One of the best features of this DVD is the music, which is a series of wonderful folksy tunes which fit in so well with the action that even David's harmonica playing is included. As an added bonus the DVD includes an interesting interview with director Henry King and some useful, extensive sleeve notes. Tol'able David is not as well known as many silent films, but really it ought to be considered as among the very best.

LUKE HATBURN.......2000-05-20

Widely considered one of the finest early U.S. action films. Under Harry King's stellar direction, it quickly and quietly becomes a mesmorizing film; it's like watching an antique photo album/scrapbook come to life! David's older brother is killed by the notorious Hatburns, and ironically, the girl he loves is one herself! As the honest, non-violent postal worker, David shows everyone he's no coward, and everything comes out in the wash at the end. I just watched this little flick at the home of my video store-owner friend and I was impressed by this essentially timeless slice of rural Americana which was directed by Henry King (long considered his masterwork). The film contains one of the greatest fight scenes recorded on film, and it's nothing short of revelation watching Torrence as Luke Hatburn, who delivers perhaps the greatest interpretation of villainy in the history of the cinema!

Much of the same scenery in the film still exists today........1999-07-09

It may be of interest to film history buffs to know that much of the scenery and buildings in this film still exist today in rural Highland County, VA where the film was shot.

It is a credit to the director that he brought a cast and crew so far into the wilderness and captured an authentic backdrop for an accurate depiction of pre-automobile America.

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