Good-bye, My Lady

Good-bye, My Lady
Directed by William A. Wellman
Written by Albert Sidney Fleischman from a novel by James H. Street
1956/USA
Batjac Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Walden Grover: That’s a lot of money.

Skeeter Jackson: That’s a lot of dog.[/box]

This story of a boy and his dog came as a very pleasant surprise.

Skeeter Jackson (Brandon De Wilde) and his Uncle Jesse Jackson (Walter Brennan) live in a cabin near a swamp.  They live very simply.  Skeeter goes to school but Uncle Jesse is illiterate.  Skeeter is an orphan and storekeeper Cash Evans (Phil Harris) paid to keep him out of the orphanage.  Skeeter doesn’t trust Cash much but Uncle Jesse has a bickeringly friendly relationship with him.

Skeeter has been hearing an unearthly laughter coming out of the swamp.  Uncle and son track it down and it turns out to be a little dog they cannot catch.  The dog doesn’t bark. It only emits a strange yodel, runs like the wind, and cries real tears.  Cash goes to the swamp with his hunting dogs determined to capture the animal.  She is much too fast for his dogs.  Finally, Skeeter lures her in with kindness and food.  Thereafter, this is Skeeter’s dog, which he names Lady.

The rest of the movie is taken up mostly with Skeeter’s efforts to train the animal as a bird dog, a task at which she proves to be enormously talented.  Lady becomes famous far and wide and people begin visiting the cabin.  What will happen when research proves Lady to come from an ancient race of African hunting dog?  With Sidney Poitier as an educated neighbor and Louise Beavers as his mother.

I was half expecting something really corny but liked this movie a whole lot. The simple backwoods story is very well written and the acting is just wonderful.  I had no idea Phil Harris could act and Brennan and Poitier are, of course, outstanding.  There are no real surprises here but a ton of warmth and humor.  Recommended for the whole family.

Trailer