GoodBye My Lady

[MrBaRooampBitty]

Just walked into the TV room and found my wife Karin watching the movie about B's, "Goodbye My Lady", on the Turner Classic Movie channel. I wasn't awqare that it was showing ahead of time or I would have put out the word earlier.

[eeeefarm]

I have it on DVD. It's fascinating to watch the Basenji act. The story behind the movie is interesting, too. From Wikipedia: Veronica Tudor-Williams provided the Basenji, named My Lady of the Congo, who played Lady in the film, and also provided four additional dogs to serve as "doubles" for My Lady. After filming ended, My Lady was adopted by deWilde, and the other dogs were adopted by various members of the film crew.

The only disappointing thing for me was that the vocalizations certainly appeared to be faked. Too bad they didn't manage to capture actual Basenji vocalizations.

[Shaye's Mom]

My best friend told me yesterday about it being on television. She watched it and said Lady looked like my Shaye - no kidding, don't all red/whites resemble each other. I had told her last year about that film, and that I had gotten it on DVD but evidently it didn't sink in until she actually saw it. I agree the vocalizations were not all that realistic - never heard one "laugh" for instance.

[krunzer]

@Shaye's:

My best friend told me yesterday about it being on television. She watched it and said Lady looked like my Shaye - no kidding, don't all red/whites resemble each other. I had told her last year about that film, and that I had gotten it on DVD but evidently it didn't sink in until she actually saw it. I agree the vocalizations were not all that realistic - never heard one "laugh" for instance.

Someone this weekend when we were camping came over and said..'that's the laughing dog right??'. I didn't have a clue what they were talking about….I was like...'I think you mean barkless dog'. I had never heard that expression before.

[Knipper]

Blaze laughed twice. Sounded exactly like the movie. The first time, I knew it had to have come from him, because we were the only ones in the house. The second time was him responding to the movie. I tried to get him to do it again, but he never did. The lady that had his great grandfather told me that he did it several times through out his lifetime, and he actually cried. One of the male dogs used in the movie was in his bloodline, but I don't remember what his name was (I went through a depressing/difficult time after he passed and got rid of a lot of stuff I shouldn't have)

[bewler]

Somebody posted on the BRAT Facebook page that the original movie had a different, happier ending - the little boys gives up the dog, but is later given one of her puppies. I have never seen this version, but the person who posted this said they saw the original film as a girl when it first came out.

[agilebasenji]

@bewler:

Somebody posted on the BRAT Facebook page that the original movie had a different, happier ending - the little boys gives up the dog, but is later given one of her puppies. I have never seen this version, but the person who posted this said they saw the original film as a girl when it first came out.

I've seen that version - it was a (color) cartoon version. I saw it when I was a kid (more years ago than I'd want to admit, but probably25- 30 years ago) and remember it. But I've never been able to find any info on the cartoon version/remake.

James Street wrote the book Goodbye My Lady which predates the b/w movie. He originally wrote the story as a series for the Saturday Evening Post(?) and he ended it with Skeeter giving Lady to her original owner. And that's how the book ends. However, I guess there were so many people upset with how he ended it that he wrote a follow-up where the Uncle manages to get Lady back for Skeeter. That "final" chapter can be found in a book called "Dog Stories for Teenage boys and girls" (or something similiar). Sometime that will come up for sale on ebay. I found my copy in a second hand book store on St Simon's Island, Georgia.

Ah, here it is:
http://www.amazon.com/Teen-Age-Dog-Stories-Library-10/dp/B003LOIZHC/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1341458601&sr=8-4&keywords=dog+stories+for+teenage

[eeeefarm]

Ah, we all love the "Hollywood ending". But of course life is not like that. I find the poignant ending stays with one longer, and is far more realistic, plus the point made that Skeeter had grown up enough to do "the right thing" and return the dog that was not his.

Movies often change from the book, and not in a good way. For those who remember "Old Yeller", in the movie Travis waited until the dog obviously had rabies before shooting him. In the book, he knew he couldn't take a chance with his family's safety, and shot the dog right after the fight with the rabid wolf. A tough decision. Obviously shooting him when he had rabies and would die from it anyway isn't really a decision at all.

I "discovered" Basenjis from reading James Street's book when I was a child, and I had never seen the movie until I ordered it on DVD recently. I thought they did an excellent job of sticking to the story line, at least in the version I have…..

[Barklessdog]

The only disappointing thing for me was that the vocalizations certainly appeared to be faked. Too bad they didn't manage to capture actual Basenji vocalizations.

They used Dolphin sounds which is really hilarious, Basenjis sound like dolphins, who knew?