This film starts off with a collie named Bill who breaks away from his family and encounters all kinds of friends in the woods which are bears, ravens, hawks and even travels on a pile of wood through all kinds of rapids that almost drown him. Bill no sooner takes a chance and relaxes in the grass when he is shot by hunters and Katie Merrick, (Elizabeth Taylor) comes to his rescue who had been following Bill because he ran off with her pants as she was swimming in the a lake. Kattie manages to tell the hunters not to kill Bill, because she is going to bring him to get help from a good friend of hers, Harry MacBain, (Frank Morgan) who manages to bring Bill back to health. There are many problems that face Katie with her collie dog and Bill is even recruited in the Army. Very nice film from the past. Enjoy.

Lassie should have barked, "RE-WRITE!" during the third in the series, "Courage of Lassie". Elizabeth Taylor takes over the reigns as Lassie's owner. Obviously, the filmmakers were still not sure how to use Lassie as a name; so it's implied that the dog you love as Lassie is playing "Bill" (but it's really "Pal" playing "Lassie" playing "Bill"; and, it gets even more complicated in the film).Since it is 1946, we'll just have to go along with Lassie being drafted; but, is this "Lassie Come Home from World War II" - is Lassie an unpatriotic deserter? Then, the poor dog comes down with Post-traumatic Stress Syndrome, becomes a killer, and goes on trial. On the plus side: Lassie is terrific, as usual; the dog tries to make a bad script hunt. Elizabeth Taylor and the film look very nice in color; and, Frank Morgan feels like a good substitute for Donald Crisp, who was in the last Lassie film, and will be in the next one… **** Courage of Lassie (7/24/46) Fred M. Wilcox ~ Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Morgan, Tom Drake

'Courage of Lassie' is not really about 'Lassie' but about a Lassie-like collie named Bill. 'Courage of Lassie' is one of the best Lassie films, in my opinion. The storyline is packed full of adventure in which Bill saves the day, but when Bill is hit by a truck and taken away from young Kathy (Elizabeth Taylor), Bill becomes an army dog in the second World War. (I think this is the only Lassie film to have a female girl as the dog's primary master.) There are also some happy parts of the movie, showing the deep friendship that the young girl and collie share. This, intertwined with Lassie saving sheep in a snow storm and becoming a war hero makes this a good film. It's not as good as 'Lassie Come Home', but it is still worth a watch if you enjoy films about dogs.

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