preppy-3 I love Lassie but this film is for the dogs (sorry). It takes place in a small Scottish village. Its doctor (Edmund Gwenn) buys Lassie from its owner. The problem is Lassie is afraid of water. The doctor realizes this and tries to help her. Tom Drake and Janet Leigh play the obligatory young couple in love. Lassie is great, the movie is shot in rich Technicolor and has beautiful settings--but that's about it. It's slow-moving, kind of confusing and has unlikable characters. The Scottish accents come and go at random and the acting is terrible. Gwenn looks miserable, Leigh is miscast and Drake is a total blank. This only gets a 4 for Lassie. She's just terrific!

twobyten-1 This is my first comment on a film so please bear with me. This has been touted as the earliest Lassie film. I beg to differ on that point, it is a film in which Lassie has her debut. The film is about a country doctor in a small community.It's characters play believable roles of people in earlier times in a rural setting. The film's quality doesn't just rival The movie "The Grapes of Wrath" but keeps pace with it only in a different country in simpler times.The characters in the film are not overcooked, no one actor steals the whole show as it were and reveals every part of a rural community and its inhabitants, the pubs, the hardships, the wheeling and dealing.The film also has excellent dialog, a rare commodity in newer films and delivered to perfection. I found the ending particularly interesting as my ancestors are Scottish and many of the older traditions were included in the film down to the last detail.The film is only slow by modern standards, i found it moves along quite well given what the film is about,time period and location in which the story takes place.

tammyvuk Very heartwarming and quaint representation of the era. A Classic! Needs to be seen over and over again, to appreciate the sentiments portrayed. A story about the generous, faithful, over-worked and under-paid country doctor, and his grateful patients throughout the glen. Enjoyed listening to the Scottish accents, and the stereo-typical cultural stubbornness in accepting or giving compliments. Enjoyed the scenery too.Perhaps the first time I saw it, I may have thought it to be slow-moving, too. But for those of us who enjoy watching "classic movies", it's wonderful.However, for a Lassie movie, the dog has a relatively small part to play, in comparison to what you see in the Lassie series over a decade later.

ccthemovieman-1 Well, at least it's nicely filmed with some good shots of Scotland. I say, "at least" because this Lassie film was a huge disappointment. I grew up watching the fine television series and thought the movie - especially with the human cast featuring Edmund Gwenn, Donald Crisp and Janet Leigh - would be even better.Wrong. In fact, the first 30-40 minutes were so bad, I never finished the film. It was boring and annoying. Lassie is afraid of water so the dog's owner, Gwenn, constantly is angry with the dog. Lassie, meanwhile, whimpers and cries the whole time. The whole thing gets irritating, fast! To be fair, I should have stuck with it. You just know that Lassie will overcome his fear and things will turn out well, as always, I'm sure it got better than the first half that I watched. Nonetheless, filmmaker should learn what sports teams realize the hard way - you have to play hard and well the whole game - not just one half and this film's first half stunk enough so that at least one reviewer went home at halftime.