Son of Lassie

Son of Lassie (1945)

M-G-M's NEW Adventure!

Laddie (Son of Lassie) and his master are trapped in Norway during WW2 - has he inherited his mothers famous courage?

Date of release
1945-04-20
TMDB
6.2 / 10 (22)
Runtime
1h 42m
Genres
Action, Drama, Family, Adventure
Director
S. Sylvan Simon
Collection
Lassie Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Alberta and British Columbia

Son of Lassie is a 1945 American Technicolor drama film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer based on characters created by Eric Knight, and starring Peter Lawford, Donald Crisp, June Lockhart and Pal. A sequel to Lassie Come Home (1943), the film focuses on the now adult Joe Carraclough after he joins the Royal Air Force during World War II and is shot down over Nazi-occupied Norway along with a stowaway, Lassie's son "Laddie" – played by Pal. Son of Lassie was released theatrically on April 20, 1945.

Production

Produced under the working title, Laddie, Son of Lassie, the film originally had Elsa Lanchester playing the role of the adult Priscilla. Shortly after filming began, June Lockhart took over the role. It was the first movie filmed using the Technicolor monopack method.

Principal filming began May 22, 1944 and ended in mid-November at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in Culver City, California. Location shooting also took place in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and various locations throughout western Canada, including Vancouver Island and Christopher Point in British Columbia and Banff National Park in Alberta.

The wartime airfield scenes were shot at the air base at Patricia Bay which is now Victoria International Airport. The aircraft used included Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters, Bristol Bolingbroke and Lockheed Ventura bombers of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, John Charles Reed sued MGM in October 1947 for plagiarism, claiming the film script was based on his 1943 story "Candy". The jury disagreed and the suit was dismissed.

Son of Lassie reportedly popularized the name "Lad" for male dogs. Pal, the original male collie who played Lassie in Lassie Come Home (1943) played Laddie. A 20-year-old June Lockhart, whose screen career had consisted of bit parts, had a more meaningful connection to the iconic Lassie story when in 1958, she took on the role of Ruth Martin, who adopts orphan Timmy (Jon Provost) in the long-running TV series Lassie.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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