Classics at the Tropic: Lassie Come Home

G, 88 minutes / Cast: Roddy McDowall, Donald Crisp, Elizabeth Taylor

Boy-and-his-dog stories don't get any more iconic than 1943's "thorough delight" (New York Times), "Lassie Come Home."

In a small Yorkshire village during the Great Depression, financial pressures cause the parents of young Joe Carraclough (Roddy McDowall) to sell his beloved dog, Lassie, to the Duke of Rudling (Nigel Bruce). After the duke takes the collie to his Scottish estate, his granddaughter (Elizabeth Taylor) recognizes that the dog misses her former owner and allows her to escape. Facing great dangers and small kindnesses on her lengthy journey, the faithful dog sets forth to rejoin her beloved family—a tearjerking journey for the ages.