FAQ

Having fallen on hard times, Sam Carraclough (Donald Crisp) is forced to sell the family's rough collie Lassie to the rich Duke of Rudling (Nigel Bruce), much to the chagrin of his son Joe (Roddy McDowall). However, Lassie won't stay with her new owner and keeps returning to the Carracloughs, so the Duke moves Lassie to Scotland. Thanks to the Duke's granddaughter Priscilla (Elizabeth Taylor), Lassie escapes again and begins a long and dangerous trek back to Yorkshire.

Lassie Come Home is a 1940 novel by English-born author Eric Knight [1897-1943]. However, Lassie was actually introduced two years earlier in a magazine story published in The Saturday Evening Post on 17 December, 1938. The novel was adapted for the movie by Canadian-born screenwriter Hugo Butler. Lassie Come Home was followed by Son of Lassie (1945) (1945), Courage of Lassie (1946) (1946), Hills of Home (1948) (1948), The Sun Comes Up (1949) (1949), Challenge to Lassie (1949) (1949), and The Painted Hills (1951) aka Lassie's Adventures in the Goldrush (1951), eventually leading to a long-running television series, Lassie (1954) (1954-1974).

A Rough collie, or rough-coat collie, as opposed to a smooth-coat collie, has longer fur, the fur forming what looks like a thick mane around the head. They also have thin, pointed heads. They were originally bred as sheep herding dogs in Scotland.

It was an insensitive way to tell Joe, but his parents were a) dealing with their own sadness at having to sell Lassie and b) trying to make it a closed subject, as there was no way they could get her back (or so they thought). There was nothing for them to discuss at that point because Lassie was already sold, so they wanted to just move on and not talk about it at all because it was too painful. Though some viewers see Joe's father as an unsentimental stoic or realist, others see him as a man moved by his own failure to provide for his family (Sam didn't have a job which is why he had to sell Lassie). Joe's mother Helen (Elsa Lanchester) may have seemed excessively harsh to some viewers; others feel that she was trying to make it easier for Joe as well as to hide her own feelings. Still others point out that, at this point in time in England, families were centered around the needs of the father as breadwinner, not around a child or a pet, and so his parents were attempting to make Joe understand that he also must be practical in the matter.

As Sam and Helen discuss Sam's inability to find work, they hear a whining at the door. They both rush to open it and find Lassie, wounded and bedraggled, but alive. Lassie comes in and collapses by the fire. Mrs Carraclough sets a bowl of stew in front of her, but Lassie is too weak to eat. Just then, the Duke and Priscilla ride up in their carriage, looking for their dog. Sam tries to hide Lassie in another room, but her whining gives her away. Sam explains that she is just a stray dog that he found, but the Duke looks her over suspiciously. Then, winking at Priscilla, he asks whether she has ever seen this dog before, and Priscilla says no. The Duke offers Sam a job at his kennel, and then he and Priscilla leave. Lassie suddenly realizes that it is almost 4pm and begins to scratch at the door. Sam lets her out, and Lassie limps all the way down to the schoolyard where Joe happily finds her waiting for him. In the final scene, Lassie runs behind Joe and Priscilla on their bikes. Behind Lassie can be seen five little collie pups.

Lassie was played by a Rough collie named Pal. Pal was raised and coached by American animal trainers Frank and Rudd Weatherwax. Pal was the very first dog to ever play Lassie onscreen. Pal also played Lassie's son "Laddie" in Son of Lassie, "Bill" in Courage of Lassie, "Lass" in Hills of Home, "Shep" in The Painted Hills, and Lassie again in Challenge to Lassie and The Sun Comes Up.

Sorry, but it's true. Although Lassie was supposed to be a girl, Pal was actually a male. There's a reason for this. The story goes that both male and female dogs shed their coats during the summer, when the Lassie movies were filmed, but male dogs keep more of their fur and look better onscreen. They're also larger than female dogs, so they can play opposite older children and not look too small.

No. The film was made in Hollywood and the wilderness areas through which Lassie travels were found in various natural areas in California such as the San Bernardino National Forest. Some of the pine mountains and fast-flowing rivers used as locations would not be at all typical of the landscape of the north of England.