Lassie

Be warned: This isn't a lighthearted variation on the American TV show in which heroic pooch Lassie regularly helps her boy out of mild scrapes. English writer-director Charles Sturridge returns Lassie to her U.K. roots and hews closely to Eric Knight's classic 1940 novel, Lassie Come Home, which tells a significantly darker tale. With war looming, wealthy little Cilla (Hester Odgers) is sent from London to live in Yorkshire with her grandfather, the Duke of Rudling (Peter O'Toole); her great fear is that he'll ship her off to boarding school, which he eventually does. In the meantime, Cilla spots a beautiful collie, which her grandfather promptly decides to b...