Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Figurative Economies
- Part II Adventures of the Classical Body in Modern Cinema
- Part III New Abstractions in Figurative Invention
- Part IV Summonses: Figures of the Actor
- Part V Image Circuits
- Part VI Theoretical Invention
- Epilogue: The Accident
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 13 - Lassie, Unfaithful To Dogs: Fred M. Wilcox's Lassie Come Home
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Figurative Economies
- Part II Adventures of the Classical Body in Modern Cinema
- Part III New Abstractions in Figurative Invention
- Part IV Summonses: Figures of the Actor
- Part V Image Circuits
- Part VI Theoretical Invention
- Epilogue: The Accident
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In Lassie Come Home (1943), Fred McLeod Wilcox's film featuring Elizabeth Taylor and Elsa Lanchester (Frankenstein's fiancée), a male dog named Pal plays the female dog Lassie, who represents all at once a saint, a free spirit, a daughter, her mother, an angel and a goddess: a character as complicated on the side of Good and Beauty as Gelsomina (Giulietta Massina) in Federico Fellini's La Strada (1954).
When Pal bounds forward, he carries with him the elegance of nature. When Lassie looks at a landscape, Wilcox transforms it into an image. Lassie is lacking in animality, but the unimaginable finesse of Pal's mussel helps us believe in the world.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- On the Figure in General and the Body in ParticularFigurative Invention In Cinema, pp. 113 - 114Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2023