Lassie's Back

In Manhattan, it seems as if everyone is rushing off to see it, and all house records were broken the first week. Yet the subject was regarded as so out-of-date that most film makers considered the producers crazy to gamble $3.5 million on it. What is this kinky movie? And what famous male star appears in drag in the title role? If you answer Lassie to both questions, you will be given instant directions to Radio City Music Hall, where thousands of kids are laughing and crying every day at the trials of Hollywood's top dog in The Magic of Lassie.

The film is one of the oddest success stories of 1978. Though Jack and Bonita Wrather had wanted to make a new Lassie movie for some time, they were daunted by the fact that in recent years most so-called family pictures have done rather poorly at the box office. Moreover, since Lassie Come Home was released in 1943, there have been eight sequels, not to mention the TV series that ended only five years ago. Most people in Hollywood thought the public had seen enough of that particular collie.

Jack and Bonita felt different, however, and the Wrather Corp. (oil, radio, TV and hotels) conducted a poll of audience attitudes. One of its conclusions: the public was in the mood for upbeat entertainment. And so the tenth--but unquestionably not last--Lassie was unleashed.

Bonita wanted the plot to follow the pattern of the original, and anyone who saw that one might be excused for saying, "If you've seen one, you've seen them all." Crusty but kind James Stewart is raising his two orphaned grandchildren in postcard-pretty Northern California. "Oh, golly, gee, I love that home-town feeling," sings Gramps. "People always say hello." Lassie is their pet, and they all spend a lot of time hugging her. Suddenly a baldheaded, mean-looking rich man develops a yen for the dog; she reminds him of his own dead collie, the only female who never deserted him. He produces papers proving that Lassie is really his and takes her, growls and all, to his mansion in Colorado. She outwits him, however, dumps him into his swimming pool, and runs away--a long, long way to California. She climbs up mountains and falls down mountains, crosses deserts, rivers and seemingly impenetrable barriers, and rescues a kitten from a flaming inferno. Does she make it back to California and her family? Well, you'll just have to see the movie.

At Radio City, Lassie is not only onscreen but also onstage four times a day. She and her trainer and groom share a $380-a-day suite at the Plaza Hotel, and a Pinkerton detective protects her from unfriendly Dobermans and Great Danes and overly friendly Shih Tzus and Lhasa Apsos. He cannot protect her from the law, however. In Central Park last week, a policeman came up and ordered Bob Weatherwax, the son of her famous trainer, Rudd, to put her on a leash. "This dog never wears a leash," protested Weatherwax. "This is Lassie!" Responded the cop: "Right, and I'm the King of Siam. Now get a leash, or I'll have to arrest you."

One final note: in all of the above, she should be he, and hers should be his. Lassie is a male, as were all five of the earlier Lassies. "Female dogs are smarter, generally," explains Weatherwax, "but males are usually better looking." Just don't tell that to your eight-year-old.

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