One of my all time favorites.

Just perfect...

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

This film does have something important to say about PTSD and the military's gradual recognition of it as a medical condition during the second world war despite ignoring all the evidence from the 1914 - 1918 conflict.Apart from that,"The courage of Lassie" is merely a mildly diverting tale of a lost dog who gets press - ganged into the U.S.Army and ends up in the Aleutian Islands helping to rescue some ambushed soldiers. Miss E.Taylor is delightful as Lassie's erstwhile owner who is horrified to find her pet a changed animal when he makes his way back home after escaping from a railroad carriage carrying him to be p.u.t. d.o.w.n. after displaying aggressive behaviour to his handler. He goes on trial for totally uncharacteristic sheep killing and is condemned to death,only to be reprieved at the last minute when his military number is found tattooed on his skin. A little girl and her dog are reunited and millions of 8 year - olds all over the world weep copiously.Or they did in 1946. Now they'll probably turn on "Tour of Duty" and wipe out half the German Army in revenge. I think Ill stick with the weeping.

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.

I'm reading glimpses of other reviews here and many are a bit skeptical of this movie and of Lassie being a shell shocked war vet. Well I grew up watching Lassie the 50's TV show and I must admit I'm very partial to everything I've seen with Lassie in it. Yes we should all know that Lassie was played by more than one dog (its obvious that thats the way they make dog movies, isn't it?), that Lassie was a female, all that geeky stuff, I say whatever. I was not expecting anything from this movie and had it on in the background as I was surfing the web this morning and doing other tasks, I ended up getting very focused on this film! It's just another testament that if it's a Lassie movie, it's good entertainment. I wish I had watched this with my now teenage daughter while we had the opportunity, I know it would have strengthened our relationship at least just a little. Work overseas and divorce tell me that wont happen any time soon (if ever). If I ever get the chance no matter how old she is I'll try to see this at home with her. It has Liz Taylor and her pet's loving bond in Lassie which is very wholesome, it also has a lot of adult overtones with war and such, so it should keep any mature adult interested. In todays overly skeptical world, I'm happy I have not fallen into the trap to not really enjoy a Lassie movie. 8 of 10.

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