Popular reviews

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  Review by theironcupcake ★★★★ 2

  "When you've got champion dogs in the country, you've got champion men."

  As was also true in The White Cliffs of Dover (1944), the wartime drama Son of Lassie - second in MGM's series for the beloved pooch - suggests that Roddy McDowall (who played young Joe Carraclough in Lassie Come Home) has suddenly grown up to become Peter Lawford, taking on his first top-billed role for the studio at age 21. Only Donald Crisp (as Joe's father Sam) and Nigel Bruce (as the Duke of Ridling, owner of the kennel where Sam works) have returned from the previous film's cast; there is no mention of Joe's mother, who had been portrayed by Elsa Lanchester, and the Duke's grannddaughter Priscilla…

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  Review by FaveAmanda ★★★

  I put this on as something to fall asleep to and damn if I wasn’t sucked in by the dogs 😭 So sweet and entertaining enough. Too bad Laddie kept giving away Peter Lawford to the nazis though.

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  Review by PUNQ ★★★

  The second Lassie movie with Lassie (or Pal as the dog was called in real life) playing dual parts as mother and son. Uneven pacing, but definitely a dog adventure full of action as Lassie enters Nazi occupied Norway. Got to say the settings (shot in Canada) looked authentic. More than most Hollywood films I've seen with war stories from Norway made during the war. And combining that good family movie feeling with my native country made for a pleasant one.

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  Review by Mike Garland ★★★½

  I have no idea what to rate this movie because if it was only about the humans it would be boring as hell, but because it stars a dog I was riveted from start to finish.

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  Review by David Pousak ★★★

  Lassie's son faces off against the Nazis. Nice bit of fluff.

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  Review by aletheajoy ★★★

  Watching movies about animals stresses me out. When you throw in Nazis it just gets worse!

  The problem with animals is they can't communicate. So I felt bad for Laddie the whole time, trying to find his master, but I also felt bad for the kids who adopted him and then lost him. I'm sure if they knew his story they would be sympathetic and happy to have helped, but they don't. They're just going to grow up with a sad story of the dog they found and who then deserted them back in the days of the war. Oof.

  Anyway, this movie was adorable. Was it good, from a cinematic perspective? Meh (although the cinematography was incredible--I hear a lot of it was filmed in Canada). But it was adorable.

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  Review by kylegarvey ★★½

  Well, for one thing (out of a broad, soap-opera-ish cartoon given to humans, while the real material is reserved for canines), I find the variety of accents put into Yorkshire a little unrealistic. Maybe that's the way it is, though: I am only an American. The plot involves a sudden conscription for war dog service, Lassie and Laddie both, to fight the Nazis during WWII, in what ends up Norway.

  Oh! But bonkers, only a little charming. In gutsy Technicolor is a delightful frivolity here. Canadian dogs smoke pipes in a badass way, huh? (Trailer Park Boys didn't prepare me for this. But since it's only a photograph, I'm sure anything is possible.) But how do we still be so…