A wonderful story about a boy and his dog. Possibly the first movie of that type too.Simple yet heart-warming plot, great cinematography and scenery and some great performances.Movie features some stars in the making. Roddy McDowall is hardly recognisable at 14 years old, and puts in a solid performance as the boy. Elizabeth Taylor was only 10/11, and acting in her second movie, when she appeared in this. Good supporting cast too.And let's not forget the performance of the dog who plays Lassie - great work from her.Great, classic, movie and suitable for all ages.

A tough move to judge by todays standards. It's a beautiful touching yet simple and predictable movie about a dogs love for its family, showing that the power of love is stronger than the will to survive. In message this movie should get a clear 10 as there is a lot of heart in this movie.The fact it is in colour and has beautiful scenery also add to the charm of this movie which likely would be one of my favourite movies had I lived at this time. The acting or animal training of Lassie seem flawless, however I find the acting of most older movies poor by todays standards. The human acting seems staged to me and not very believable though there was some heart warming performances especially by the kids.I found the plot, dialogue and music a bit to be desired though. The music and dialogue annoyed me in parts and distracted me from the emotion I felt and the heartwarming story. The story-line also is too simple, predicable and does not strike me as realistic matching human motives with human behaviour, so even though I shared a tear at this movie and was touched by scenes there was parts where I looked at the clock waiting for the movie to be over.A great movie for its time, a wonderful movie for kids and any who care more about the message and heart of a movie than its quality, but by todays standards I do not think this was a great movie as the bar of movies has been raised causing it to lack in too many areas.

Set in Priestley's beloved Yorkshire,there is a picaresque quality to "Lassie come home" that is reminiscent of that great writer's early works.In particular it seems to me to that the casting of Mr E.Gwenn as a tinker brings to mind the spirit of the Geilgud 1933 "The Good Companions"and also "Anthony Lyveden",the one masterpiece by another unfashionable English novelist Dornford Yates. Both are works very much of their age,and the same can be said of "Lassie come home"with its noble working men in their Helen Allingham cottages and bluff kindhearted noblemen doting on their granddaughters. When a proud,unemployed Yorkshireman (Mr D.Crisp - not quite managing the dialect)is forced to sell his dog to the local Duke(Mr N.Bruce - pootling his way through good naturedly)his son(Master R.McDowall - making a good fist as a wee northern lad)is very upset. The dog(Pal - not at all fazed by being forced into a gender swap) is also unhappy and eventually manages a successful home run. By sea and land - rather like the Royal Marines - Lassie gallantly and doggedly(sorry) finds her way back to the bosom of her family. On her journey she briefly enriches the life of Mr Gwenn and Dame May Witty and her husband(rather touching,actually). I suspect today's children will find it a little unsophisticated,but in a kinder,more innocent age,I doubt if there was a dry eye in the house.

"Lassie Chien Fidèle" (=Faithful dog,French translation) was one of the first books I read when I was a child .It's a precious memory.Although it is not,IMHO, Wilcox's most memorable movie (it would rather be his impressive "forbidden planet"),it's still good value and excellent entertainment for the whole family.The color is wonderful .And the real star is Lassie herself for the other characters have less screen time than this extraordinary dog (male colley Pal) and most of them are brilliantly supporting :I particularly like Dame May Witty as the old lady who takes care of Lassie for a short while.Roddy Mac Dowall was a wunderkind ,my favorite of all the child actors of all time.He is very cute and he is really moving.When I saw the scene he shares with Elizabeth Taylor-very lovely too- in the kennels ,I couldn't help thinking that ,twenty years later ,they would be Octavian and Cleopatra!!!Like this?try these...National Velvet (Brown,1944)The Yearling (Brown,1946)How green was my valley (Ford,1941,with a younger McDowall)