Son of Lassie (1945 S. Sylvan Simon)

Filmed in Jackson Hole Wyoming and Vancouver Island, Canada standing in for Norway, Pal actually plays Laddie here. Ah the exquisite pain of the dog being dropped out of aircraft, shot at, blown up and cast into the rapids. I expected him to come down the fjord on skis at one point. There's an astonishing moment where he's running along the runway and a bomber takes off right over his head.

Amazing dog, that, trained by Frank and Rudd Weatherwax. In the home of the latter, Pal died in 1958 aged 18. Pal was in all seven of the MGM films, which continued with Courage of Lassie (1946), Hills of Home (1948), The Sun Comes Up (1949), Challenge to Lassie (the 'Greyfriars Bobby' story, 1949) and The Painted Hills (1951).   Even the puppy is well trained, though.

Peter Lawford, June Lockhart, Donald Crisp, Nigel Bruce, William 'Billy' Severn, Robert Lewis.

Lovely skies you get over at MGM

Written by Jeanne Bartlett, photographed by Charles Schoenbaum.