Lassie Come Home was released in 1943 by MGM Studios. Lassie Come Home was the original Lassie movie that inspired numerous sequels, a TV series, a radio show, and a cartoon. Lassie is one of the top movie franchises of all time.
Lassie Come Home was inspired by a bestselling novel of the same name, written by Eric Knight. Knight visited England in 1938, a time of poverty for many,. Many dog owners were forced o sell their pets in order to make ends meet and feed their families. Knight decided to write a story about one of these dogs finding her way back to her family after being sold. The novel was extremely popular, and three years after its release came the movie adaptation. The movie is set in Yorkshire, England. In the movie, a poor family must sell their collie, Lassie. Lassie is sold to the Duke if Rudling and his granddaughter Priscilla, who take good care of the dog. Lassie misses her previous owners, especially the young son Joe. She runs away from her new home and begins a long journey back to her beloved owners. The cast of Lassie Come Home includes Donald Crisp (Pollyanna, The Sea Hawk) as Joe’s father, Sam Carraclough, Roddy McDowall (My Friend Flika) as Joe Carraclough, Elizabeth Taylor (National Velvet, Father of the Bride, Little Women) stars as Priscilla, the granddaughter of the Duke of Rudling, who is played by Nigel Bruce. Lassie was actually played by a male dog, Pal, instead of a female, because female dogs tend to shed more in the summer, when most of the filming was done. Lassie Come Home was filmed in California and Washington State. It was directed by Fred Wilcox and produced by Samuel Marx and Dore Schary. Lassie Come Home was a huge success, making $2,249,000 in the US, Canada, and overseas. The film was nominated for an Academy Award, and preserved in the United States National Film Registry in 1993. |