That beloved collie, Lassie, made her debut in the 1943 film Lassie Come Home, based on the novel of the same name by Eric Knight. For more than eight decades now, Lassie has entertained audiences on the big screen and television, but these first five films, all shot in glorious Technicolor, were where our Lassie Love began. From travelling hundreds of miles to return to Roddy McDowall to escaping a Nazi prison camp to a snowy rescue, the heroic dog (always played by Pal) continues to excite us all these years later. This Saturday Matinee-exclusive series is perfect for family viewing!
Dates and Titles:
August 15 (2 p.m.): Lassie Come Home (Fred M. Wilcox, US 1943, 89 min., 35mm)
August 22 (2 p.m.): Son of Lassie (S. Sylvan Simon, US 1945, 102 min., 35mm)
August 29 (2 p.m.): Courage of Lassie (Fred M. Wilcox, US 1946, 92 min., 35mm)
September 5 (2 p.m.): Hills of Home (Fred M. Wilcox, US 1948, 97 min., 35mm)
September 19 (2 p.m.): The Sun Comes Up (Richard Thorpe, US 1949, 93 min., 35mm)
Events in this Series
Matinee: The Sun Comes Up (35mm) - Free for Members!
Adventures of Lassie In her final film, Jeanette MacDonald plays Helen Lorfield Winter, a widowed concert singer who loses her son in an accident, but who escapes embitterment when she encounters a charming orphan boy and his trusty canine companion, Lassie.
Matinee: Hills of Home (35mm)
Adventures of Lassie Recalling similar nostalgic films such as How Green Was My Valley, the title refers to the Scottish Highlands where Dr. William MacLure (Edmund Gwenn, in his second Lassie film) adopts Lassie in return for services rendered before he learns that she has an unnatural aversion to water.
Matinee: Courage of Lassie (35mm)
Adventures of Lassie Elizabeth Taylor returns to the franchise as a different character taking care of a descendant of the original Lassie (although still played by Pal). After growing up alone in the Scottish forest, a young collie survives danger and meets up with young Kathie Merrick (Taylor) before promptly stealing her clothes.
Matinee: Son of Lassie (35mm)
Adventures of Lassie Gorgeously shot in Technicolor, the second in MGM’s massively successful seven-film series follows the adventures of grown-up Joe Carraclough (Peter Lawford), now an RAF pilot who is shot down over Nazi-occupied Norway along with a stowaway: Laddie, the son of Joe’s beloved Rough Collie Lassie (in a remarkable dual performance, the great canine star Pal plays both mother and son).
Matinee: Lassie Come Home (35mm)
Adventures of Lassie The ultimate boy-and-his-dog movie—and the first in the warmest, fuzziest film franchise of all time—stars young Roddy McDowall as Joe Carraclough, an impoverished Yorkshire lad who must sell off his best friend, a Rough Collie named Lassie (beautifully played by legendary canine star Pal), when his family falls upon hard times.