Good-bye, My Lady

Skeeter, an orphan boy living with his uncle in the Mississippi swamp, finds a strange dog in the woods: it does not bark, it makes a sound like crying, and it hunts with unheard-of skill. He attaches himself to it and trains it. Then an advertisement appears looking for the dog. The film is not interested in a dog story. It is interested in property and honesty: if the boy keeps it hidden nobody will know, and the film sits him down opposite exactly that choice. The uncle's refusal to intervene is deliberate. The form is plain: black and white, swamp exteriors, few characters and almost no music. Nature is not decoration but the condition of living. William A. Wellman directed, from James Street's novel. The dog is a real basenji, and the breed's traits, the absence of a bark and the sound it makes in the throat, are placed at the centre of the story. Walter Brennan plays the uncle, Brandon De Wilde plays Skeeter and Sidney Poitier the neighbour. Who it is for: viewers who like classical American rural drama and films built on a bond with an animal. Who it is not for: anyone unprepared for an emotional blow. The film does what its title promises and the last section is heavy for young viewers.