DVD Break: Son of Lassie

Son of Lassie - (1945) - (DVD) - (Technicolor) - (own)

Two years later the sequel to Lassie Come Home was made, but now the little children have grown up.  Well, sort of ... they are supposed to be 17 but Lawford is actually 23 and Lockhart 21, though she looks the older.  Taking on Roddy McDowell's part as Joe, owner of Laddie & Lassie is the handsome Peter Lawford and taking over for Elizabeth Taylor as Priscilla who is madly in love with Joe is June Lockhart an unbelievable replacement for the character.  This is Lawford at his best.  Usually he plays the debonair Englishman in suits, sipping a drink in the parlour as part of the Rat Pack, but here in Son of Lassie he is an energetic, outdoorsy youth trapped in Norway (which is actually Banff. I recognized Lake Louise!) during WWII who undergoes a trek of survival to make it back to England alive with his dog who traipsed across the country searching him out.  Nigel Bruce and Donald Crisp reprise their roles as father and grandfather respectfully.  I enjoyed the movie once the action moved to active war duty.  Prior to that the soppy romantic angle was hard to watch.  I'm not a fan of Lockhart and it is so obvious that Lawford's character loves the dog way more than the girl that she comes off as begging him to love her.  Peter Lawford is gorgeous and I did enjoy him best about this movie.

Ds really enjoyed this.  This type of action is right up his alley   He can't take suspense or gross stuff very well and these old movies are just the thing for him.  He loved all the spying and dangerous situations Joe got himself into, he really enjoyed the war aspect, having bad guy Germans to root against and thought Laddie was cool, even though he doesn't like dogs in real life.  He enjoyed the movie way more than I did.  After the movie we were treated to an old Tom & Jerry cartoon called "Flirty Birdy".  I don't like the newer T&J where Jerry always gets the upperhand but love these old ones.