Lad: A Dog on DVD

 It's finally happened! After 53 years, the Warner Archive Collection has released Lad: A Dog, one of the great canine classics of both page and screen, on DVD!

And check out some other Warner Archive Collection dog films brought out of the vault after many years of obscurity:

 

Formally as rare as Lad: A Dog, Goodbye, My Lady is another classic gem of canine films brought to DVD for the first time in 2010.

A truly remarkable dog movie and unique film, It's a Dog's Life stars a white Bull Terrier named "Wildfire."

Double feature from the 1970s Doberman Gang trilogy about Doberman Pinschers trained to rob banks.

The Dogville shorts of the 1930s spoofed popular human films of the day with all-dog casts.

The Weatherwax Legacy

Great short film for Lassie fans or anyone interested on the history of canines in movies, from Blue Heron International Pictures and Weatherwax Trained Dogs:

Daily Reel - Darling Companion (2012)

Canine star of Darling Companion, Kasey, a Collie/German Shepherd mix, was found by the Las Vages Humane Society tied to a tree and abandoned with a rope embedded in his neck. Years later, Kasey is a minor celebrity after Darling Companion, with Diane Keaton and Kevin Kline, and the hard work of trainers Sarah Cole and Guin Dill.

Kasey plays Freeway here, but his film career started long before with scenes in Santa Buddies (2009) and The Lincoln Lawyer (2011), as well as a costarring role in Monster Mutt (2011), and numerous TV and advertising appearances. Dyed to match him, another canine TV star, Kuma, doubles as Freeway in scenes like the deer chasing.

Produced by Werc Werk Works, Kasdan Pictures, Likely Story

Blair: The Beginning of Canine Film Stars

It seems fitting for the first post of this blog, which is dedicated to dogs in film, to be about the first canine movie star; Blair. A male Collie, Blair was the star of Cecil Hepworth's six and a half minute film, Rescued by Rover (1905). 

In the film, "Rover," must rescue a baby who has been stolen from her maid by a gypsy. He trails them to an attic hideout, then races home to bring the infant's father (Hepworth) back to save her. Most of the footage is devoted to the dog's brave journey, a brand new concept in film at the time. The public loved it and Rescued by Rover became so popular it had to be remade twice because the original negative degraded to badly.

Hepworth cast his own wife, who also wrote Rescued by Rover, and baby daughter for the film, as well as the family dog, Blair.

Pictured: Blair with the Hepworths in a scene at the end of Rescued by Rover.