Lad, A Dog (film)
Encyclopedia
Lad: A Dog is a 1962 American drama
tic film based on the 1919 novel Lad: A Dog
written Albert Payson Terhune
. Starring Peter Breck
, Peggy McCay
, Carroll O'Connor
, and Angela Cartwright
, the film blends several of the short stories featured in the novel, with the heroic Lad winning a rigged dog show, saving a handicapped girl from a snake, and capturing a poacher who killed his pups and injured one of his owners. Warner Brothers purchased the film rights for the novel from Vanguard Productions
, and acquired the film rights for the other two Lad novels from the late Terhune's wife.
Aram Avakian
was initially selected to be the film's director, but when he continually refused to do a sentimental-type dog story, he was replaced by Leslie H. Martinson
. Lillie Hayward
and Roberta Hodes wrote the screenplay for the film, adapting several of the short stories from the novel to create a single narrative, and adding in an all-purpose villain. The film was released on June 6, 1962. The studio hoped it would be successful enough to be followed by a second film and a television series. Though praised by fans and modern reviewers, contemporary critiques felt Terhune's work did not translate well to film and it was considered a low budget, B-movie
. It was released to home video
in 1995.
Lad and his owners, Stephen (Peter Breck
) and Elizabeth Tremayne (Peggy McCay
), are visited by their wealthy neighbor Hamilcar Q. Glure (Carroll O'Connor
) and his 8-year-old daughter Angela (Angela Cartwright
), who is crippled from polio. While Lad befriends the girl, Glure invites the Tremaynes to show the prize-winning Lad at his upcoming dog show
. However, Glure is jealous of Lad's success and has rigged one event to have such specialized rules that he believes only his recently purchased high-priced, English-trained collie can win. During the competition, which involves directing the dogs through a tricky set of a maneuvers, Lad is able to complete the course, while Glure's champion does not recognize the hand signals Glure makes while holding a cigar
.
Later, Lad saves Glure's daughter Angela from a poisonous snake by knocking her backwards to get her out of harm's way, then fighting and killing the snake, getting bitten in the process. Her nurse (Alice Pearce
) initially does not see the snake, and begins beating Lad for "attacking" the little girl. Distraught, Angela stands and walks for the first time since her illness to stop the nurse's abuse of her friend. Lad disappears for three days, reappearing covered in mud but cured of the poison.
After his return, Lad is bred with another prize-winning collie, Lady, and they have three puppies. Angela is allowed her choice of one as a present to her when they are old enough to leave their mother. However, Jackson White (Jack Daly
), a poacher Lad fought and chased off the property before, sets fire to barn out of vengeance. Elizabeth is injured and all of the pups are killed except for Wolf. Lad later aids in capturing White when he breaks into the house to try to steal Lad's gold trophy from the dog show. Angela is initially inconsolable over the loss of her puppy, and refuses to have anything to do with Wolf. After he is nearly lost in another accident, she changes her mind and accepts Wolf as her new dog.
, purchased the film rights for Albert Payson Terhune
's Lad: A Dog
from publisher E.P. Dutton, then later sold the rights to Warner Brothers. When the studio learned of the other two Lad novels, Further Adventures of Lad
and Lad of Sunnybank, they were concerned to learn that Dutton only had the rights to the first novel as they were hoping the film would be successful enough to develop a sequel, and possibly a television series. Executive Bruce Chapman
negotiated for the film rights for the other two novels with Anice Terhune, the late wife of the author. She set up a foundation, Terhune Lad Stories, Inc, to negotiate the rights for other two novels. All told, Warner paid $25,000 for the rights to all three books, though the bulk of the funds went to Dutton.
Warner Brothers initially hired Aram Avakian
, a "talented, aggressive young ex-film editor" known for his avant-garde
tendencies, to direct the film. The studio wanted a sentimental dog story that played true to the novel, which Avakian opposed. In a 1969 Life
interview, Avakian stated that he "wanted to make a kind of pop, camp thing that wouldn't be a complete ordeal for parents" while everyone else involved in the production wanted "Dick, Jane
and Doggie". Jack Warner, then head of the studio, eventually fired him, bringing the more conventional Leslie H. Martinson
to complete the film. Peter Breck
and Peggy McCay
were cast as Lad's owners, renamed to Stephen and Elizabeth Tremayne. Veteran actor Carrol O'Connor was hired to play the pompous and newly wealthy Hamilcar Q. Glure, with the role of his daughter played by Angela Cartwright
, a noted young actress who had starred in The Danny Thomas Show
. To cast the role of Lad, a talent search was conducted, eventually resulting in the selection of a collie from the San Fernando Valley
who was credited simply as "Lad". The film is set in a modified version of the Place, with Pompton Lake reduced to a river with a large dock. The house, though similar to the real Terhune home, even including duplicates of the stone lions on the veranda, was built on a scale three times larger than the original.
Well-known screenwriter Lillie Hayward
, and newcomer Roberta Hodes, were hired to adapt the novel for film. They combined several of the stories from the novel, modifying characters to create a single flowing narrative. For example, the crippled girl who was a neighbor girl in the original novel became Glure's daughter. Noting Terhune's frequent disdain for the Ramapough Mountain Indians
, they named the film's villain Jackson White, a play on the nickname used to refer to those people. White became the catch all villain of the film, who poaches deer, sets fire to the Tremayne barn, and break into the house to try to steal a gold trophy won by Lad.
Lad: A Dog was released to theaters on June 6, 1962. The 98 minute film was released to VHS
format on January 31, 1995.
" with its low production budget. Terhune biographer Irving Litvag praised O'Connor's performance as Glure, feeling his talent made him "seem human" and "a person of dignity and love" versus Terhune's "overdrawn and exaggerated" silly character. He felt the setting and cinematography was "typical Hollywood overstatement", and that as a whole found that Terhune's "sentimental writing" did not do well in film form, calling the resulting film "cloying" and a "minor, unsung film." However, he noted that fans of the novels seemed to thoroughly enjoy the film, suspecting part of it was the "handsome collie" found to play the titular role, and seeing the names of the beloved collies they knew on the screen. A New York Times reviewer called it a "bucolic drama of no discernible merit". The Monthly Film Bulletin
praised the dog actors, but felt the film was "stultifyingly mawkish, with a touch of supposed humor contributed by an allegedly English chauffeur". Bob Ross, of the Tampa Tribune, considered it to be an "earnest, well-acted story". Leonard Maltin
felt it was a "genuine if schmaltzy" adaptation of the novel.
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
tic film based on the 1919 novel Lad: A Dog
Lad, A Dog
Lad: A Dog is a 1919 American novel written by Albert Payson Terhune and published by E. P. Dutton. Composed of twelve short stories first published in magazines, the novel is loosely based on the life of Terhune's real-life rough collie, Lad. Born in 1902, the real-life Lad was an unregistered...
written Albert Payson Terhune
Albert Payson Terhune
Albert Payson Terhune was an American author, dog breeder, and journalist. The public knows him best for his novels relating the adventures of his beloved collies and as a breeder of collies at his Sunnybank Kennels, the lines of which still exist in today's Rough Collies.-Biography:Albert Payson...
. Starring Peter Breck
Peter Breck
Joseph Peter Breck is an American prolific character actor of stage, who has played roles on television and in film...
, Peggy McCay
Peggy McCay
Peggy McCay is a long-time American actress with a career lasting over sixty years in film and television...
, Carroll O'Connor
Carroll O'Connor
John Carroll O'Connor best known as Carroll O'Connor, was an American actor, producer and director whose television career spanned four decades...
, and Angela Cartwright
Angela Cartwright
Angela Margaret Cartwright is an English-born American actress primarily known for her roles in movies and television...
, the film blends several of the short stories featured in the novel, with the heroic Lad winning a rigged dog show, saving a handicapped girl from a snake, and capturing a poacher who killed his pups and injured one of his owners. Warner Brothers purchased the film rights for the novel from Vanguard Productions
Vanguard Productions
This article is about the film company. For the publisher of this name, see J. David Spurlock.Vanguard Productions, Inc., otherwise known simply as Vanguard, is a production company established by American producer David O. Selznick after the dissolution of Selznick International Pictures...
, and acquired the film rights for the other two Lad novels from the late Terhune's wife.
Aram Avakian
Aram Avakian
Aram A. Avakian was an American film editor and director.Directed ground-breaking indie film End of the Road- Life and work :...
was initially selected to be the film's director, but when he continually refused to do a sentimental-type dog story, he was replaced by Leslie H. Martinson
Leslie H. Martinson
Leslie "Les" H. Martinson is an American television and film director. He is married to television host and writer Connie Martinson.-Career:...
. Lillie Hayward
Lillie Hayward
Lillie Hayward was an American film actress and later screenwriter whose Hollywood career began during the silent era and continued well into the age of television...
and Roberta Hodes wrote the screenplay for the film, adapting several of the short stories from the novel to create a single narrative, and adding in an all-purpose villain. The film was released on June 6, 1962. The studio hoped it would be successful enough to be followed by a second film and a television series. Though praised by fans and modern reviewers, contemporary critiques felt Terhune's work did not translate well to film and it was considered a low budget, B-movie
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
. It was released to home video
Home video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
in 1995.
Plot
Purebred rough collieRough Collie
The Rough Collie is a long coated breed of medium to large size dog that in its original form was a type of collie used and bred for herding in Scotland. Originating in the 1800's, it is now well known through the works of author Albert Payson Terhune, and through the Lassie novel, movies, and...
Lad and his owners, Stephen (Peter Breck
Peter Breck
Joseph Peter Breck is an American prolific character actor of stage, who has played roles on television and in film...
) and Elizabeth Tremayne (Peggy McCay
Peggy McCay
Peggy McCay is a long-time American actress with a career lasting over sixty years in film and television...
), are visited by their wealthy neighbor Hamilcar Q. Glure (Carroll O'Connor
Carroll O'Connor
John Carroll O'Connor best known as Carroll O'Connor, was an American actor, producer and director whose television career spanned four decades...
) and his 8-year-old daughter Angela (Angela Cartwright
Angela Cartwright
Angela Margaret Cartwright is an English-born American actress primarily known for her roles in movies and television...
), who is crippled from polio. While Lad befriends the girl, Glure invites the Tremaynes to show the prize-winning Lad at his upcoming dog show
Conformation show
Conformation shows, also referred to as breed shows, are a kind of dog show in which a judge familiar with a specific dog breed evaluates individual purebred dogs for how well the dogs conform to the established breed type for their breed, as described in a breed's individual breed standard.A...
. However, Glure is jealous of Lad's success and has rigged one event to have such specialized rules that he believes only his recently purchased high-priced, English-trained collie can win. During the competition, which involves directing the dogs through a tricky set of a maneuvers, Lad is able to complete the course, while Glure's champion does not recognize the hand signals Glure makes while holding a cigar
Cigar
A cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, and the Eastern...
.
Later, Lad saves Glure's daughter Angela from a poisonous snake by knocking her backwards to get her out of harm's way, then fighting and killing the snake, getting bitten in the process. Her nurse (Alice Pearce
Alice Pearce
Alicia “Alice” Pearce was an American actress. Brought to Hollywood by Gene Kelly to reprise her Broadway performance in the film version of On the Town , Pearce played comedic supporting roles in several films, before being cast as Gladys Kravitz in Bewitched in 1964...
) initially does not see the snake, and begins beating Lad for "attacking" the little girl. Distraught, Angela stands and walks for the first time since her illness to stop the nurse's abuse of her friend. Lad disappears for three days, reappearing covered in mud but cured of the poison.
After his return, Lad is bred with another prize-winning collie, Lady, and they have three puppies. Angela is allowed her choice of one as a present to her when they are old enough to leave their mother. However, Jackson White (Jack Daly
Jack Daly
Jack "Jackie" Daly was a Fine Gael politician from County Kerry in Ireland. He was a senator for many years.The managing director of a motor vehicle business, Daly was elected to the 13th Seanad on 23 April 1975, at a by-election on the Industrial and Commercial Panel following the death of...
), a poacher Lad fought and chased off the property before, sets fire to barn out of vengeance. Elizabeth is injured and all of the pups are killed except for Wolf. Lad later aids in capturing White when he breaks into the house to try to steal Lad's gold trophy from the dog show. Angela is initially inconsolable over the loss of her puppy, and refuses to have anything to do with Wolf. After he is nearly lost in another accident, she changes her mind and accepts Wolf as her new dog.
Production
Max J. Rosenberg, of Vanguard ProductionsVanguard Productions
This article is about the film company. For the publisher of this name, see J. David Spurlock.Vanguard Productions, Inc., otherwise known simply as Vanguard, is a production company established by American producer David O. Selznick after the dissolution of Selznick International Pictures...
, purchased the film rights for Albert Payson Terhune
Albert Payson Terhune
Albert Payson Terhune was an American author, dog breeder, and journalist. The public knows him best for his novels relating the adventures of his beloved collies and as a breeder of collies at his Sunnybank Kennels, the lines of which still exist in today's Rough Collies.-Biography:Albert Payson...
's Lad: A Dog
Lad, A Dog
Lad: A Dog is a 1919 American novel written by Albert Payson Terhune and published by E. P. Dutton. Composed of twelve short stories first published in magazines, the novel is loosely based on the life of Terhune's real-life rough collie, Lad. Born in 1902, the real-life Lad was an unregistered...
from publisher E.P. Dutton, then later sold the rights to Warner Brothers. When the studio learned of the other two Lad novels, Further Adventures of Lad
Further Adventures of Lad
Further Adventures of Lad, also known as Dog Stories Every Child Should Know, is a 1922 American novel written by Albert Payson Terhune and published by George H. Doran...
and Lad of Sunnybank, they were concerned to learn that Dutton only had the rights to the first novel as they were hoping the film would be successful enough to develop a sequel, and possibly a television series. Executive Bruce Chapman
Bruce Chapman
Bruce K. Chapman is the director and founder of the Discovery Institute, an American conservative think tank often associated with the religious right. He was previously a journalist, a Republican Party politician and a diplomat.- Political career :After graduating from Harvard University in 1962,...
negotiated for the film rights for the other two novels with Anice Terhune, the late wife of the author. She set up a foundation, Terhune Lad Stories, Inc, to negotiate the rights for other two novels. All told, Warner paid $25,000 for the rights to all three books, though the bulk of the funds went to Dutton.
Warner Brothers initially hired Aram Avakian
Aram Avakian
Aram A. Avakian was an American film editor and director.Directed ground-breaking indie film End of the Road- Life and work :...
, a "talented, aggressive young ex-film editor" known for his avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
tendencies, to direct the film. The studio wanted a sentimental dog story that played true to the novel, which Avakian opposed. In a 1969 Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
interview, Avakian stated that he "wanted to make a kind of pop, camp thing that wouldn't be a complete ordeal for parents" while everyone else involved in the production wanted "Dick, Jane
Dick and Jane
Dick and Jane were the main characters in popular basal readers written by William S. Gray and Zerna Sharp and published by Scott Foresman, that were used to teach children to read from the 1930s through to the 1970s in the United States...
and Doggie". Jack Warner, then head of the studio, eventually fired him, bringing the more conventional Leslie H. Martinson
Leslie H. Martinson
Leslie "Les" H. Martinson is an American television and film director. He is married to television host and writer Connie Martinson.-Career:...
to complete the film. Peter Breck
Peter Breck
Joseph Peter Breck is an American prolific character actor of stage, who has played roles on television and in film...
and Peggy McCay
Peggy McCay
Peggy McCay is a long-time American actress with a career lasting over sixty years in film and television...
were cast as Lad's owners, renamed to Stephen and Elizabeth Tremayne. Veteran actor Carrol O'Connor was hired to play the pompous and newly wealthy Hamilcar Q. Glure, with the role of his daughter played by Angela Cartwright
Angela Cartwright
Angela Margaret Cartwright is an English-born American actress primarily known for her roles in movies and television...
, a noted young actress who had starred in The Danny Thomas Show
The Danny Thomas Show
The Danny Thomas Show is an American sitcom which ran from 1953-1957 on ABC and from 1957-1964 on CBS...
. To cast the role of Lad, a talent search was conducted, eventually resulting in the selection of a collie from the San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
who was credited simply as "Lad". The film is set in a modified version of the Place, with Pompton Lake reduced to a river with a large dock. The house, though similar to the real Terhune home, even including duplicates of the stone lions on the veranda, was built on a scale three times larger than the original.
Well-known screenwriter Lillie Hayward
Lillie Hayward
Lillie Hayward was an American film actress and later screenwriter whose Hollywood career began during the silent era and continued well into the age of television...
, and newcomer Roberta Hodes, were hired to adapt the novel for film. They combined several of the stories from the novel, modifying characters to create a single flowing narrative. For example, the crippled girl who was a neighbor girl in the original novel became Glure's daughter. Noting Terhune's frequent disdain for the Ramapough Mountain Indians
Ramapough Mountain Indians
The Ramapough Mountain Indians, also known as Ramapo Mountain Indians or the Ramapough Lenape Nation, are a group of approximately 5,000 people living around the Ramapo Mountains of northern New Jersey and southern New York. Their tribal office is located on Stag Hill Road on Houvenkopf Mountain in...
, they named the film's villain Jackson White, a play on the nickname used to refer to those people. White became the catch all villain of the film, who poaches deer, sets fire to the Tremayne barn, and break into the house to try to steal a gold trophy won by Lad.
Lad: A Dog was released to theaters on June 6, 1962. The 98 minute film was released to VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
format on January 31, 1995.
Reception
The film was considered to be a "B-movieB-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
" with its low production budget. Terhune biographer Irving Litvag praised O'Connor's performance as Glure, feeling his talent made him "seem human" and "a person of dignity and love" versus Terhune's "overdrawn and exaggerated" silly character. He felt the setting and cinematography was "typical Hollywood overstatement", and that as a whole found that Terhune's "sentimental writing" did not do well in film form, calling the resulting film "cloying" and a "minor, unsung film." However, he noted that fans of the novels seemed to thoroughly enjoy the film, suspecting part of it was the "handsome collie" found to play the titular role, and seeing the names of the beloved collies they knew on the screen. A New York Times reviewer called it a "bucolic drama of no discernible merit". The Monthly Film Bulletin
Monthly Film Bulletin
The Monthly Film Bulletin was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a narrow arthouse release. The MFB was edited in the mid-1950s by David Robinson, in the late...
praised the dog actors, but felt the film was "stultifyingly mawkish, with a touch of supposed humor contributed by an allegedly English chauffeur". Bob Ross, of the Tampa Tribune, considered it to be an "earnest, well-acted story". Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
felt it was a "genuine if schmaltzy" adaptation of the novel.