Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Running time: 93 minutes
Courage of Lassie (1946)
“Combat Patrol 4 is pinned down, taking heavy fire. The lone hope of getting reinforcement is to send through the lines the patrol’s brave collie. ‘Either he gets through or we don’t,’ one G.I. says.
“Heroism and heartfelt values arrive on four feet in Courage of Lassie. Elizabeth Taylor (who was in Lassie Come Home three years earlier) stars, radiating the special love of a child for a dog. And everyone’s favorite collie plays the beloved canine whose adventures range from his wilderness puppyhood to wartime service to postwar stress to a moving family reunion. The Pacific Northwest locales are eye-filling splendors and the story has stirring family appeal. What a treat to share with favorite two- and four-footed pals!” [From the DVD]
Cast
Kathie Merrick: Elizabeth Taylor
Harry MacBain: Frank Morgan
Sergeant Smitty: Tom Drake
Mrs. Merrick: Selena Royle
Judge Payson: Harry Davenport
Farmer Crews: Morris Ankrum
Gil Elson: Mitchell Lewis
Alice Merrick: Catherine Frances McLeod
Pere Merrick: David Holt
Old Man: George Cleveland
Sheriff Ed Grayson: Minor Watson
Mrs. Elson: Jane Green
Sergeant Mac: William Wallace
First Youth: Carla “Alfalfa” Switzer
Second Youth: Conrad Binyon
Crew
Director: Fred M. Wilcox
Producer: Robert Sisk
Screenwriter: Lionel Hauser
Co-Director of Animal Sequences: Basil Wrangel
Cinematographer: Leonard Smith
Art Directors: Cedric Gibbons and Paul Youngblood
Musical Score: Bronislau Kaper
Editor: Conrad A. Nervig
Costumes: Irene
Did You Know?
Courage of Lassie marked the first time Elizabeth received top billing in one of her films. It was known under the working titles Hold High the Torch and Blue Sierra (Elizabeth refers to the film by the latter title in her book, Nibbles and Me).
Elizabeth was reunited in Courage of Lassie, her second film in the Lassie series, with Pal, her canine co-star in Lassie Come Home. Confusingly, Pal, who is credited in the film as Lassie, plays a dog named Bill.
Elizabeth’s chipmunk, the famous Nibbles of Nibbles and Me fame, had a cameo in the film, but his scene was left on the cutting room floor. “He was too good,” she explained. “He didn’t look real.”