Lassie Come Home (1943): Maybe it's because I had a collie as a little girl, but I can walk into this movie at any point and find tears streaming down my face within seconds. It's a classic, of course, featuring a young Roddy McDowell and Elizabeth Taylor (and it was remade pretty faithfully a few years ago with Peter O'Toole and Samantha Morton). No, "Lassie" is not realistic. The dog is possessed of such preternatural navigational skills, she ... more 

Lassie Come Home (1943): Maybe it's because I had a collie as a little girl, but I can walk into this movie at any point and find tears streaming down my face within seconds. It's a classic, of course, featuring a young Roddy McDowell and Elizabeth Taylor (and it was remade pretty faithfully a few years ago with Peter O'Toole and Samantha Morton). No, "Lassie" is not realistic. The dog is possessed of such preternatural navigational skills, she can find her way from Scotland to Yorkshire on her own, despite the many obstacles and threats along the way. But when she arrives back home and young Joe Carraclough sees her again for the first time ... wow. Manipulative, yes, but effective. less