Courage of Lassie

Courage of Lassie follows Bill, a young collie separated from his litter who grows up among wild animals before being taken in by Kathie Merrick, a girl who raises him on a sheep farm. An accident tears the dog away from her, and he ends up conscripted into military K-9 service during the Second World War. The hardship of the front leaves him changed, and when he eventually makes his way home he is seen as a dangerous animal rather than the pet Kathie remembers.

Fred M. Wilcox directed the film, his second feature after Lassie Come Home and one of five he made across a career that later included Forbidden Planet. Elizabeth Taylor, already a well-known child performer, plays Kathie, with Frank Morgan as the farmhand Harry MacBain, Tom Drake as Sergeant Smitty, Selena Royle as Mrs. Merrick and Harry Davenport as Judge Payson. Lionel Houser wrote the screenplay and Robert Sisk produced for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Made for a budget of about two million dollars, the film took roughly twice that amount at the worldwide box office. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.2 from around 1,800 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 5.9 from a much smaller group of 37 votes.