Challenge to Lassie *** (1949, Edmund Gwenn, Donald Crisp, Geraldine Brooks, Reginald Owen) – Classic Movie Review 5141

Director Richard Thorpe’s interesting 1949 entry in the immensely popular Lassie series stars Edmund Gwenn, Donald Crisp, Geraldine Brooks and Reginald Owen.

It stands out from the rest of the series as a version of the real-life Victorian Greyfriars Bobby story about an Edinburgh dog who will not leave the cemetery where his late, dearly departed owner, sheep herder Jock Gray (Donald Crisp), has his grave. Lassie replaces Bobby in the story.

Jock’s friend John Traill (Edmund Gwenn) can give Lassie a good home, but she always runs away to Jock’s grave. Then the Magistrate (Edmond Brion) orders her to be destroyed for not having a licence. Naturally, Traill has to find a way to convince the Magistrate Lassie’s life must be spared.

MGM’s handsome production is well produced and beautifully filmed by cameraman Charles Schoeenbaum in Technicolor. But it is the sweet story and even sweeter cast that are the main attractions.

Also in the cast are Alan Webb, Ross Ford, Henry Stephenson, Alan Napier, Sara Allgood, Arthur Shields, Lumsden Hare and Charles Irwin.

William Ludwig’s screenplay is based on the novel About A Skye Terrier, Greyfriars Bobby by Eleanor Atkinson.

Pal, a different dog plays Lassie this time, another collie belonging the original’s owner.

The Greyfriars Bobby story was filmed again, definitively, as Greyfriars Bobby in 1961, with Donald Crisp re-appearing as the church caretaker, and again as Greyfriars Bobby in 2005.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5141

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