Challenge to Lassie

Challenge to Lassie is an American drama directed by Richard Thorpe in Technicolor and released October 31, 1949 by MGM Studios. It was the fifth feature film starring the original Lassie, a collie named Pal, and the fourth and final Lassie film starring Donald Crisp.

Jock Gray Donald Crisp raises his collie Lassie to be an extraordinary sheep dog and companion. When he is beaten to death by robbers after he retires, Lassie keeps vigil over his grave and refuses to let anyone else take ownership of her. However, the law requires that all dogs be leashed and licensed by a legal owner. With no owner to pay her license and her only home being the church graveyard, Lassie faces an uncertain future.Her late owners friend John Traill Edmund Gwenn, his law student son William Ross Ford, and the keepers of the graveyard struggle to keep Lassie hidden from the zealous police Sergeant Davie Reginald Owen and the town magistrate Edmund Breon. Matters are brought to a head when they must go to court to plead for the dogs life before the Lord Provost. ........

Source: Wikipedia