Retro Reel: Good-bye, My Lady

Warner Home Video (VHS), 1956, 95 minutes  

Available on Amazon.com

This movie is in the FetchDog Top 20

Of all the likely things a poor 12-year-old boy could find out in the Mississippi swamps, a purebred Basenji is not high on the list. Yet that's just what young Claude, a.k.a. Skeeter (Brandon DeWilde) finds - a dog that laughs and cries instead of barks; a dog who inspires an unbreakable love in a child who will soon learn some lessons of adulthood the hard way.

Director William A. Wellman, among whose great films are "Nothing Sacred" and "The Public Enemy," has made a sweetly sad picture that balances lightly on the edge between pathos and clean sentiment.   

The actors each do their part - Walter Brennan is genuinely affecting as Skeeter's uncle, his only family; and Sidney Poitier is a dignified presence as a compassionate friend.  

But it is Lady herself - as Skeeter names her, though he comes to learn that at her Connecticut kennel she's known as Isis of the Blue Nile - who is the real star. Her face (and her otherworldly cries) are overflowing with expressiveness, and her intelligence is palpable. It is not hard to see why a boy who has so little in life would see her as a treasure of surpassing richness. And because he does, it is terrifically hard to witness his decision to do the right thing in giving her up.

"I never saw anyone achin' so hard," observes Poitier of the boy. That may well apply to the viewer of the movie, too. At least it did to this one.

Presence of dogs:
Respect for dogs:
Canine star quality:
Family friendly:

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