Lassie's home
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Lassie's home |
| Original title | Hills of Home |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1948 |
| length | 94-97 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Fred M. Wilcox |
| script | William Ludwig |
| production |
Robert Sisk for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| music | Herbert Stothart |
| camera | Charles Edgar Schoenbaum |
| cut | Ralph E. Winters |
| occupation | |
| |
Lassie's home (original title Hills of Home ) is an American feature film from 1948. The main character of the film is the Collie Lassie , the leading roles are occupied by Edmund Gwenn , Donald Crisp , Tom Drake and Janet Leigh .
William Ludwig's script is based on Ian MacLaren's Doctor of the Old School sketches in Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush , first published in New York in 1894.
action
Collie Lassie lives as a shepherd dog in a Scottish village. However, since she is afraid of water and therefore unsuitable as a shepherd dog, shepherd Milton hands her over to the doctor William MacLure, who is popular throughout the village. The shepherd does not speak well of MacLure, as his son Tammas wants to study medicine in order to be MacLure's successor, which is supported by the doctor. Milton's plans are different, he wants his son to be a farmer. Tammas is in love with Margit Mitchell, a young girl from the village.
When MacLure finds out that Milton has kept Lassie's fear of water from him, he initially wants to return the dog, but then sells the animal at the fair. However, when he learns how cruelly Lassie is being treated by his new owner, he buys the dog back and, despite the villagers' opinion that the dog is useless, decides to keep Lassie and teach her to swim. When the doctor has to visit the sick patient Saunders during a snow storm, he has to cross a bridge that was badly damaged by the snow storm. This can only be achieved if he does not have to bear the additional weight of his medication. With Lassie's help, who carries his doctor's bag on his back, he manages to treat Saunders. Even when MacLure is called to the sick pastor, who seems to be a hopeless case, Lassie supports him by calling Tammas to help.
Margit and her father David now have completely different problems to contend with. She is very desperate that Margit's mother and David's beloved wife are dying. MacLure sees the only chance in the treatment by the royal personal physician, who uses the still unusual chloroform in his operations and can actually save Margit's mother in this way. During the personal doctor's trip to Margit's mother, Lassie again proves to be afraid of water and thus arouses MacLure's displeasure.
When Tammas fell ill with appendicitis and needed an operation, MacLure wanted to anesthetize him with chloroform instead of the whiskey that is usually used for anesthesia and meets with resistance from Tammas' parents. However, he can break this when he successfully tests the chloroform on Lassie. When Milton MacLure promises to pay him whatever price he can to save his son, MacLure takes him at his word and demands funding for Tammas' studies.
The years go by and Tammas' medical studies are coming to an end. The villagers want to help the aging MacLure with the management of daily life, which the latter vigorously refuses. When MacLure is called to a patient in a snowstorm and passes out from his horse, Lassie calls on the Milton couple to help. It is thanks to Lassie, who this time has overcome her fear of water, that the village doctor was found in time. But a little later MacLure dies shortly before Tammas returns to Glen Urtach after completing his studies. After the funeral of the village doctor, Tammas and Margit visit the grave of his patron. Tammas is now the new village doctor, Margit his wife and Lassie finds a new home with Tammas and Margit.
production
Production notes
The film industry magazine The Hollywood Reporter reported in August 1947 that several film scenes had been shot in the Scottish highlands at Sonora Pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Northern California.
The film had the working titles Danger in the Hills and Master of Lassie . Ian MacLaren's story was filmed in 1921 for Paramount Pictures by Donald Crisp under the title The Bonnie Brier Bush .
background
In 1943 MGM released Lassie Come Home , the first film in which a collie named Lassie was to star, played by Pal, a collie dog. The animal was trained by Rudd Weatherwax, one of the most prominent trainers in Hollywood. The film was so successful that it was followed by six other Lassie films starring Pal Lassie before the role went to Pal's son Lassie junior. The animal was one of the studio's top stars and even had its own radio show in 1946. In 1945 the first follow-up film Son of Lassie was made . The dog's character was the same in every film: handsome, dignified, brave, smart, and resourceful. Hills of Home was the fourth Lassie film. He reunited the animal with Edmund Gwenn and Donald Crisp, who had already appeared in the first film. For more film adaptations, see → Article on Lassie .
As Pal was an excellent swimming, all his skills and Weatherwax's training experience were required, not only to convincingly convey the dog's water phobia, but also to show how the animal overcomes its fear in order to save its master.
Hills of Home was the last Lassie film to be directed by Fred Wilcox, who made his directorial debut in Lassie Come Home and who, as in the first film, also directed Courage of Lassie with Elizabeth Taylor . Janet Leigh, whose third film this was, recalled in her biography that Wilcox had been of little help to inexperienced actors like you at the time and was a rather poor director.
Reviews
“Emotional animal film with an appealing description of life and the landscape in the remote Scottish highlands. Especially recommended for children. "
“Adorable film about a Scottish country doctor and his shepherd dog Lassie. The formal weaknesses of this real Heimat film are outweighed by the direct advocacy of humanity and charity. "
Web links
- Hills of Home in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Hills of Home at Turner Classic Movies (English)
- Lassie in Hills of Home Fig movie poster on IMDb
- Hills of Home original trailer at TCM
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hills of Home (1948) see screenplay info at TCM - Turner Classic Movies (English)
- ↑ a b Hills of Home (1948) see notes at TCM (English)
- ↑ a b c Hills of Home (1948) see articles at TCM (English)
- ↑ Lassie's home. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 770/1957