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MYSTERY LASSIE MOVIE. HELP!

posted 16 years ago by Jal8919536
8 replies | jump to latest

There was this live-action movie I saw on the Disney Channel back in 1992 that looked like it was made either in the Fifties, Sixties, or early Seventies about a collie dog, yet I've looked up all the Lassie films and none have matched the plot:

In one scene, there's this test held inside a ring filled with checkpoints at a dog show for collie breeds where the dogs must obey spoken commands from their owners instructing them to each checkpoint without them intervening. The collie obeys his mistress' orders. Next to compete is a man with another collie, however his dog won't obey and he breaks the rules by stepping inside the ring, disqualifying him, and a jeweled trophy is presented to the mistress of the first collie, whom a burgler later breaks into the woman's home to steal.

The man who was disqualified has a crippled daughter. The girl is left sitting on a blanket on the ground with the neighbor's collie, who saves her from a king snake. The girl's governess, hearing the girl's screams, thinks the dog was attacking the girl and beats it with an umbrella, but the girl intervenes.

The crippled girl eventually learns to walk, and is given one of the collie's two puppies whom she names Sonny. Tragically, Sonny perishes in a fire, and the girl wants nothing to do with the other puppy, whom she calls a wolf, that is almost killed by an automobile that pulls up in the driveway, but whom she accepts.

Does anyone know the title to this film. PLEASE let me know so I can go buy it. Thanks.

[–] Jadis___Queen_of_Charn 16 years ago

"Lad: a Dog" is the movie you're looking for, one of my favorites when i was a kid... now maybe you can help me, do you by chance know the name of a lassie movie where she's in alaska?

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[–] trina_disneyfanatic 16 years ago

I'm not sure if it actually takes place in Alaska or not, but there is a movie entitled The Painted Hills, in which Lassie's owner is a gold prospector who finally does find some, but his partner kills him. Lassie, although she did not see what happened, immediately figures it out, and develops in immediate hatred for this man who killed her beloved master.

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[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] opalasattic 14 years ago

I don't think that film takes place in Alaska...think it's set in a small English village and the owner was Edmund Gwenn (he's done at least 2 of the original Lassie films)..the only other thing I can remember about that film is that the dog would'nt leave her master's grave and that the church next to te cemetery would try to keep her out. Now, as for that other movie mentioned here, that is indeed "Lad: A Dog", based on Albert Payson Terhune's semi-autobiographical tale of his beloved collie Lad. In 1912 he and his second wife decided to take up permanent residency at their summer home in Pompton Lakes NJ affectionately known as Sunnybank. They bred champion collies which inspired Terhune, already a well respected author and writer for the Evening World, began penning short stories about his dog, a hobby which led to his first book, "Lad: A Dog" in 1919. He wrote a total 30 books about his collies, most of which have never gone out of print.

[–] Ironman54 14 years ago

No help here nut the one where she wouldn't leave the grave was set in a city in Scotland - Glasgow, Edinburgh ? They declared her a public nuisance IIRC. I watch TCM all the time so most likely I saw it last on TCM - probably withing the last 3 years.And again, IIRC, the man buried had been a Scots Highlander or similar - ya know, the soldiers that play the bag pipes and wear kilts etc. I think the movie starts off in a castle/armory kinda place where the buried owner was stationed at.Its possible that I'm confusing a few different movies I guess but I really think as of this writing that I have this part right.

[–] MargaretBailey 13 years ago

That one is Challenge to Lassie (1949), Ironman54.

[–] nycruise-1 11 years ago

Yes - "Challenge to Lassie".

I saw it on TCM awhile ago and it confused the Hell out of me. I saw mountains and alpine lakes and I thought "oh - Scotland" or "Europe" at the very least. Then it turned out to be ALASKA.

The way the story got Lassie to North America seemed convoluted.

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[–] kathy-hopkins2010 12 years ago

Ironman, I think the film you're thinking of is Greyfriars Bobby and it is based on a true story of a little dog who used to sleep on his master's grave in Greyfriar's Cemetery in Edinburgh. They have a memorial to him just outside the cemetery and there is a grave for him in the cemetery where people leave flowers.