pretty bad . this film about a grizzled ( and frankly rock stupid ) old prospector and his dogshep i. e. and lassie and as well a an annoy kid whose name i can not recall at the moment . at the beginning of the movie and the old prospector have deliberately bury himself in some sand so that the poor dog will have to dig him out . why . do he hate the dog . anyhoo and somehow or other this idiot have manage to strike gold and and go to tell his partner . but the man have die and and his sleazy other partner be happy to assist old jonathan in dig up the gold . the geezer try to leave be dog with the dead guy son and but not even the retarded mutt want to stay with this kid . there quaint old preacher ( for quaint read smelly ) and and the oily guy finish off the old guy ( surprise and surprise ) and try to steal all the gold . plus he poison the dog and try to kill the kid and too . so i suppose it okay that a devilish and crazy lassie . err . shep do this the guy in at the end and although it pretty disturbing in what be basically a child movie . there be extremely stereotypical ( to the point of racial slur ) native american who speak without use verb ( a in and me make camp fire type speech ) . and that pretty much the extent of the cast and because apparently lassie salary be too big for them to hire anyone else . kind of dull . not very interesting and and a tad too dark . not a great movie in any way .