What makes it different from others?

Really Surprised!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Yes, I know.I'd never seen it - it was MacDonald's last film - what better way for MGM to say you are a has- been than to make her a "mother" in a Lassie movie. Drek! I prepared to "endure it" for Jeannette's sake.I was utterly captivated. What a lovely movie - classed up there with Friendly Persuasion in terms of truly loving, and truly honest human emotion. I keep trying to convince myself to pass this along, but I cry too much, it's too real, too human, too GOOD for that. For the lovers of what President Wilson tried to do for the US and what Obama in his footsteps is still unable to do for us, this is what the ideal of the US is as it lives on in ideals, honesty, and right thinking and feeling. Jeannette has four classical aria/song moments - a French song, a repetition of Puccini's Un Bel Di (Broadway Serenade), Songs My Mother Taught Me, and Romance. Not much to go on, but it doesn't matter. She is fine dramatically, as a war widow , whose son dies and is left alone, but is brought to life by her encounter with an orphan {exceptional performance by young actor, Claude Jarman, Jr.] Her son exits at 10 minutes into the film, young Jarman arrives at 20 minutes.Lewis Stone is seen briefly as an adviser. Percy Kilbridge is brilliant in a Charles Butterworth role as the local sage. Margaret Hamilton is unforgettable as a fashion-conscious spinster. Poor Lloyd Nolan doesn't arrive until an hour and 3 minutes in, but we know he will anchor the film, as he always did {most successfully in Peyton Place).Oh, do see it - that dog will melt you as will the story and the deft acting, direction and over-all good intentions of it.

There are conflicts in reviews I've read of this in my earlier research of the film. Some people refer to this as a "Lassie" film which happens to star Jeanette MacDonald, while others refer to it as just the opposite. For MacDonald to go from her long teaming with Nelson Eddy to the queen of canine movie stars might have seemed literally like going to the dogs, but the results of the film prove otherwise. Jeanette and Lassie definitely share the responsibility for making this one of the most delightful family films, written by the author of "The Yearling", and featuring its star, Claude Jarman Jr. in a most sensitive performance that is a joy to behold.MacDonald is a widowed opera star who is returning to the concert scene when tragedy strikes her once again. She moves to the country, reluctantly taking along Lassie, yet initially shunning any contact with the locales, especially the children. But the local store owner's handy boy (Jarman) makes a quick impression on her (literally helping save Lassie from a rattle snake), and her closed heart begins to re-open. MacDonald begins to come back to life and is considering another concert tour when she comes to terms with the needs that are really important for her and for the people she's come to love.The gorgeous color photography makes this an absolute joy to look at, filled with country sides and sunsets and rolling meadows in the hills. Percy Kilbride gives an amusing performance as the country store owner (William Goode-the e is not silent), with Margaret Hamilton and Ida Moore as two local women who are experts with snuff, and Lloyd Nolan as the owner of the house MacDonald rents who comes in late to the story and provides the moral of the story. Lewis Stone has a small role as one of MacDonald's advisers early in the film. She gets to sing a few songs (even an aria from "Madame Butterfly"), and for once, you can actually hear all the lyrics she is singing.It must have seemed a comedown for Jeanette (here in her last film) to possibly take second fiddle to a dog, but she manages to rise above that thought, still looking equally as gorgeous as she had ten years before. It is a shame that she didn't make any films after this, because she is far from being beyond her prime, and mixes both comedy and pathos with dignity and beauty.

Except for the fact that I feel that MacDonald quit films because being paired with a dog was pretty much the last straw, I think that.so far, everything that's needed to be said has been said--although I'm sure that someone else will come up with something new observation.Viewers and fans always do with each viewing of the film. You get more and more perspectives as time goes by.But for me, I couldn't help but notice two things that strangely make a future connection to a future TV show which would become as much as a legend as Lassie.One is Barbara Billingsly (Beaver's mom) playing a nurse.The other is a kid named Mickey McGuire (Didn't Mickey Rooney use that name for a while when he was acting in the silents? Got it after playing the lead character in a series of "Toonerville Trolley" films based on the Fontaine Fox comic strip). He plays a boy named Cleaver! Somewhat odd and prophetic that the name and the actress should be in the same movie, don't you think?

I am often fond of the Turner Classic Movies even when they contain out-dated mores and occasional slights to my feminist sensibilities. This is typically because the story lines, the character development, or the acting is strong enough to compensate for a bit of backward thinking here and there. But this film manages to smash its thick, worthless message at you, over and over in every line, scene, and plot point. "Women should be at home caring for a child or they have no meaning in this world, and while you're at it, be sure to be a good home-grown, rural, backward idiot." I couldn't be bothered to stay for the last 15 minutes of this entirely predictable - from minute one - loathsome, uninspired, piece of garbage from a hopefully dead value system.