Written by COLIN MACKENZIE & S.H. BARNETT Directed by JACK B HIVELY CAST JACK de MAVE as BOB NORMAN ALDEN as MIKE WILLIAM SMITH as BUCK MICHAEL FARRELL as JOE STUART RANDALL as CHARLIE JAMES McCALLION as JIM

This is Lassie working on her fourth or fifth master.  [Jeff moved from the farm to the City and handed her off to Timmy who later moved with his foster parents to Australia so handed her off to Ranger Corey who got injured and handed her off to Rangers Bob and Scott].  In the first half of this two-parter, war hero Bruno, a German Shepherd,  is being rehabilitated for civilian life.  So far he is friendly only to his soldier master Mike and, of course, Lassie.  Bruno suffers war flashbacks during some blasting in the forest.  He escapes from his kennel run, kills a calf and stampedes some horses.  [Query:  why would a dog trained to attack humans as part of his job as a sentry dog attack livestock if he thought he was back in the war.]  Mike and Ranger Bob try to find him before he's shot by someone else.  In the second part, Buck [William Smith], the owner of the calf, sets out on horseback to hunt down Bruno.  When Buck's horse is spooked, he's thrown, injuring his knee.  Bruno finds him and seems ready to attack until Lassie intervenes.  When Buck tries to crawl to his rifle, Lassie picks it up and moves it out of reach.  Everything ends happily as Mike and Bob find Buck and the dogs and everyone agrees that Bruno is on his way to rehabilitation.

Chick Note:  OK so this isn't high drama but it's got nice dogs and it's got William Smith in a nice guy role before his repertoire tilted to villains.  He's hunting down Bruno to protect people and livestock but bears no grudge against him.  He's willing to take Lassie's "word" that Bruno is worth rehabilitating.  And we get to see Bill in a cowboy hat.

Mike Farrell while he was still calling himself Michael, prior to playing B.J. Hunnicut on M.A.S.H.  Now in the series  Providence.

James McCallion played horse trainer Mi Taylor in the 1960-62 series National Velvet.  Stuart Randall played the sheriff on the 1959-63 series Laramie.