(Fred M. Wilcox, US 1943, 89 min., 35mm)
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. Lassie’s aristocratic new owner (Nigel Bruce) ships Lassie off to Scotland, where his granddaughter (a 10-year-old Elizabeth Taylor, in her second film) helps a homesick Lassie plot her escape.
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Film Screenings | 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).