Fred M. Wilcox directed this popular adaptation of the Eric Knight novel that sees the debut of Lassie, a brave and loyal collie dog that lives in the Yorkshire home of the Carraclough family; Son Joe(played by Roddy McDowall) father Sam(played by Donald Crisp) and his wife(played by Elsa Lanchester). The family is destitute, and in desperation, Sam sells Lassie to the Duke of Rudling(played by Nigel Bruce) for his daughter Priscilla(played by Elizabeth Taylor) in Scotland, where Lassie will undertake a long perilous trek back home to the boy he loves, Joe. Heartwarming and beautiful film with a fine cast of actors, even among the supporting players like Edmund Gwenn, and especially a wonderful interlude with an elderly couple who nurse Lassie back to health. The ending may not be in doubt, but who would want it to be any other way?

"Sentimentality is the emotional promiscuity of those who have no sentiment." - Norman Mailer Fred Wilcox directs "Lassie Come Home". The plot: as the Great Depression has left Mr and Mrs Carraclough with little money, they resort to selling Lassie, the adorable dog of their adorable son Joe. Lassie's new owner is a wealthy Duke, who takes Lassie to Scotland, a country several hundred miles away from her previous home in Yorkshire, England. Unfortunately Lassie misses Joe dearly. She thus escapes the grip of her new owner and embarks on an epic cross-country journey rife with danger, peril, spectacular scenery and seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Lassie then arrives back in the hands of Joe, the devoted kid who never stopped loving her.Though some kind of classic, modern audiences will no doubt have no time for "Lassie". No matter, as Steven Spielberg's recent "War Horse", based on a blockbuster play by Nick Stafford (and novel by Michael Morpurgo), is virtually a scene-for-scene remake. Watching Stafford's play, it's immediately apparent why Spielberg would be interested in turning Morpurgo's material into a film. "War Horse" not only ticks all of Spielberg's usual boxes (brand recognition, carnage, hokey sentimentality, children's book plot, much war, special effects and spectacle), but is a literal retelling of "Lassie Come Home", one of Spielberg's favourite films. It's a "boy loves horse, boy loses horse, boy goes through hell to find horse" trajectory, with "Lassie's" roles reversed. Instead of Lassie finding Joe, we have a horse called Joey (Morpurgo couldn't even bother changing character names) being sought after by a boy, Albert, who bravely treks across war-torn Europe (specifically World War 1) in search of his gigantic pet ("Lassie" was itself remade as "Gypsy Colt" in 1954 with a horse instead of a dog). The play and film then end with a shamelessly extended piece of audience manipulation, in which Albert, blinded by gas, is unknowingly within inches of a wounded Joey, who is about to be shot. And so viewers sit on the edges of their seats: will Joey be shot? Will Albert find his best friend? Will boy and horse be reunited? Will Joey die? Will Albert die? You already know the answer. And of course Lassie made it home as well.It makes sense that Spielberg would be drawn to "War Horse", as all his films are remakes of a certain type or era of film (call it 1950s schmaltz plus gleeful sadism). He thinks he's Ford plus Kramer plus Capra plus Sturges plus Disney plus Hitchcock, and does his best to channel the films he adored in his youth. So "ET" is "Old Yeller" with an alien instead of dog, the Indie and dinosaur movies channel old adventure serials, his "serious history movies" are all Kramer inspired sermons, his "War of the Worlds" is George Pal/"Invaders from Mars" with shaky-cam and "Private Ryan" is every RKO/Warner/Paramount war B movie he saw as a kid. No surprise too that he recently scrapped a planned remake of "Harvey" (a Capra-toned Jimmy Stewart vehicle and play by Mary Chase) and that Stafford's "War Horse" ends with a scene straight out of Ford's "How Green Was My Valley", a silent, tearful reunion which no doubt brought Spielberg back to his childhood fondness for Ford. Indeed, much of "Lassie's" own cast (Elsa Lanchester, Donald Crisp, Roddy McDowall etc) can be found in Ford's "Valley", another rough-hewn and supposedly uplifting ode to rural working class life."War Horse" - both film and play – also captures the kind of hypocrisy typical of both Spielberg and his influences, it's narrative not only cynically calculated to pander to the basest of emotions (the play pushes buttons like a caffeinated monkey with a cash register), but busy salivating over the spectacle of carnage. Killing is bad, you see, but check out them special effects baby. It's Stanley Kramer preaching ("Holocaust bad!", "Slavery bad!") plus Hitchcockian glee ("Murder sells!"). The play's so, not politically correct but politically irrelevant, that it includes a major "cute, good German" role and allows hero horse Albert to "fight on both sides of a war".But of course it's all about the special effects. Stafford's "War Horse" became a blockbuster not only because of its hokey plot (as Andrew Lloyd Weber has proved, most theatre goers are not theatre goers), but because of its elaborate, eye-popping special effects. The play features complex puppet work by the Handspring Puppet Company – the theatre equivalent of CGI – and its second act is an orgy of explosions, machine gun fire, death, murder, flashing lights, whizzes, bangs, back-lighting and dazzling FX. In short, the play is already your typical Spielberg movie; remove the special effects and there is nothing there. Spectacle is its raison d'etre.Meanwhile there's "Lassie Come Home", a film that now wishes it had a couple A-bombs to drop on poor Lassie. That's how modern audiences like their sentimentality: bloody. Nothing says I love you more than dodging 1.2 mega-tonnes of TNT.7.5/10 - Worth one viewing.

A classic. A dear story of a impoverished English family who has to sell their prized possession, a collie dog named Lassie, to make ends meet. I never tire of seeing this movie whenever it plays, even though I own the DVD. Make sure to get out a handkerchief or some tissues for, surely, you will be tearful, if not totally slobbering. It is that touching and endearing. It is without time constraints, veneer or facade. This was the first Lassie movie and showcases the first Lassie. Now, in 2012, as I write this review, there is Lassie 10, a direct descendant of the original brilliant collie. Again, the collie escapes to travel many miles from Scotland to England to reunite with his master. He endures great hardships on his journey. The movie is lustrous, brilliant, and excellently acted with young ELizabeth Taylor. Just a lovely classic movie, as modern as it is old fashioned, yet not old fashioned at all. I enjoyed the speech patterns and scenery. A movie that is for any age, but remember, get out the tissues. What an endearing movie.

I feel compelled to rebut the curmudgeon who 'couldn't stand this movie'. First off, what a cast!..... eight of the greatest film stars and character actors who were ever on the screen, including 11 year old Elizabeth Taylor and 15 year old Roddy McDowall. You will never see child actors this talented in any film made today.Obviously, the writer is no animal lover. The complaint about Lassie continually whining is a whine in itself. Yes, the whining was meant to pull at the heartstrings. This movie was made in 1943, part of the greatest era in motion picture history. They knew how to tell stories back then, and 'this' story is about a dog trying to find its way home. The entire 'premise' of the film is a heart tugger!And one more point; no animal character dies in this film, unlike in 'Bambi' and some other Walt Disney films that scare very young children to death.This is one of MGM's best family films, a wonderful, heartwarming adventure story that anyone who loves dogs will enjoy again and again.