all but the young american be probably familiar with the iconic call of laaaaaa sie . from little timmy and or whatever the kid name be and wail his little tow head off for his border collie friend . these same american may or may not be familiar with the fact that lassie make the leap from television to movie ( or be it the other way around . i be clearly too lazy to do any research here ) and and the painted hill be one of those . it be irresistible to make a this movie have go to the dog . pun and so i would not ( even though i technically just do ) . but in a way and it have . lassie ( play shep and man best friend ) get top billing . the dog get top billing . now and i be not familiar with how actor or their agent negotiate contract and but here how it play out in my mind represent movie mogul represent okay and lassie and in the credit and it gon na be and and with lassie a shep . lassie represent rrrrowf . grrrrrrr . movie mogul represent ha and ha and kid and calm down and calm down . lassie represent rrroo rrrrooo roooo . movie mogul represent okay and i think i see . co lead billing . lassie represent rawrf . rawrrrrff rawrf . movie mogul represent oh god . let go of my arm . top billing . top billing for you and now let go of my arm . so and the dog get top billing and and with the rest of this shell shock cast and i suppose it understandable . we get lovable old grumpus jonathan the prospector and his young and whiny and apparently orphan friend tommy and sketchy loser lin taylor and and lovable old religious grumpus pilot pete . the meat of the plot here could be sum up in a few sentence and so i will save you the actual pain of watch the movie . jonathan be a prospector with a dog name shep and and his partner dy while he be at his claim . he get a new partner name lin who become obsess with the gold and and jonathan for some reason give shep to whiny little crybaby tommy . lin kill jonathan and shep see it and and lin try to kill shep . then lin try to kill tommy . then tommy whine and it get cold and and shep carry out an elaborate plan to get revenge on lin and which he ( or she . ) do . the end . unless you have a deep and unsettling need to see a lassie movie ( even then and there get to be a good lassie movie than this ) and just avoid the painted hill . when it not drag on and marvel at lassie limited ability to act ( similar in style and perhaps and to keanu reef always the same facial expression and only the body move ) and set up the obvious use several minute of film and or insult native american everywhere with it white actor in facepaint ugh . how . me run bear . stereotype and the painted hill be fit only for lassie fetishist or people who have some kind of connection to prospect through their day a a grizzled old prospector lookin fer that consarned vein of glittery gold .