The Eagle's Brood

This is the second of 66 Hopalong Cassidy films and captures the series and its stars at a formative moment. The result is perhaps the best film in the series, with only "Three Men From Texas" on the same footing. Five minutes into this film and it's obvious that it was not made for children. Some scenes are disturbing and there are no curbs on violence. Hoppy's world can be a nasty one and producer Harry Sherman was out to make realistic westerns, not sugar-coated Bs for kids. The film establishes a theme that ran through the entire series: Hoppy and his friends are really ranch hands; cowboys whose main job is driving cattle. But the stories typically pull them away from that and into adventures that have them helping total strangers simply because they need the help. Here it is the rescue of a young child who has been badly traumatized. The cast is excellent and is especially enhanced by James Ellison as young Johnny Nelson, Hoppy's juvenile sidekick, who is all too willing to fight and is thus often rash. Like sidekicks throughout the series, they often need a guiding hand from Hoppy to channel their instincts. Boyd, of course, is clearly forming his interpretation of the Cassidy character and he clearly puts to work his many years of film experience going back to the silents and classics like "King of Kings" and "The Volga Boatman." This is a first rate film that happens to be a western. It blurs the line between A and B pictures.

This is one of the best Hopalong Cassidy movies I have seen, and it is also most unusual for a Hoppy movie. Mainly it has a small narrow plot that drives the action every step of the way. The other Hoppy movies are more like epics with large forces of horsemen on each side; usually the bad guys slip up at the end which unleashes a furious battle of riders. Here it is more like a well-tuned detective mystery with every little discovery initiating a counter move.

On one side you have several bad guys, led by Big Henry, who murdered El Toro's (a famous retired Mexican bandit) son during a gold shipment robbery. They warn Gabby Hayes to stay quiet about the son and the gold passing their way, and in doing so learn that there was El Toro's grandson there who must have witnessed the murder-robbery and who has vanished. So the bad guys set about to locate the kid and kill him.

On the other side, Dolores, an honest dance hall girl, finds the kid in the woods. She decides to ask her boss, Big Henry, to help return the kid to his grandfather in Mexico, but before she can open her mouth, she overhears Big Henry discussing his part in the robbery-murder. So she hides the kid in the woods and writes a letter to El Torro to find her and get his grandson.

El Torro, on his way to Dolores, bumps into lawman Hoppy, saves Hoppy's life, and ends up giving Hoppy Dolores' letter so Hoppy will find the kid and bring him to El Torro (payment for saving Hoppy's life).

By now, Big Henry becomes wise to Dolores and kills her. Both the bad guys and Hoppy are looking for the kid. I won't say more about the intricate plot.

Other pluses for the movie: wonderful scenery and cinema photography; lack of comic side kick and cornball humor; and James Ellison as Hoppy's best sidekick.

In case you are interested in seeing this film, it and most (if not all) of the Hopalong Cassidy B-westerns are available through YouTube. And, unlike many B-western heroes, these films are complete...not the chopped to pieces films which were cut down for TV time slots in the 1950s.

When the story begins, some bandits murder a couple...as their terrified son, Pedro, hides. The men have no idea that the kid can identify them....but later they learn and begin searching in earnest for the boy. At the same time, the boy's grandfather, a Mexican bandit known as 'El Toro', has learned what happened and he's left his hiding place in Mexico to cross the border to rescue the kid. But he's a wanted man...and lots of lawmen, include Hopalong, are looking for the retired bandit.

During his search for El Toro, Hoppy has an accident in the river...and he might drown. El Toro sees his predicament and saves him...and Hoppy is torn. He IS a lawman and has sworn to uphold the law...but he owes the man. And, when he learns why El Toro is there, Hoppy tells him to head back to Mexico...an HE promises to find the boy and return him to his grandfather. This means two things....resigning his job and posing as a baddie in order to infiltrate the gang who is looking for the boy.

This is among the very best of the Hopalong Cassidy films. And, since it's only the second one, it's a bit different. While George 'Gabby' Hayes is in the film, as he was in nearly all the early films in this series, like the early ones he plays a different character...not Windy. In this case, he sports a huge mustache instead of his usual grizzled beard.

Why did I like this one so much? Well, it's quite original and I enjoyed the violence. Now I am not a huge fan of violence, but too many of the B-westerns feature good guys who never kill anyone yet save the day...which is pretty unrealistic (Lone Ranger....take note!). In this one, one baddie gets drug to his death and the final one...well...it's memorable! This combined with good writing and acting make this one to see.

Ace Cassidy western. It's only Boyd's second of the series, so many of the later trademarks are not yet in place. Instead of "Hoppy", for example, he's called "Bill". Plus his first horse, a black one, tosses him into a swamp of quicksand of all places! Good thing he soon gets the trustworthy Topper. Familiar cohorts Hayes and Ellison are on hand to help, but not yet as a team. There're also a number of uncharacteristic twists I didn't expect, along with great mountain scenery you haven't seen a hundred times before.

Plotwise-- Cassidy is trying to get little Pablo back to his sometimes outlaw granddad, El Toro, before baddie Big Henry kills him. After all, little Pablo's seen Henry's gang kill his parents, so now he's hiding out in the mountains, thanks to saloon dancer Delores. But can she evade the killer gang before they find out, and can little Pablo survive in the wilderness.

Speaking of Delores (Woodbury), her opening scenes put her in the tightest bustle this side of Mae West. And catch Cassidy's many hard-eyed stares, proving he could go toe-to-toe with Eastwood any time. In fact, even though he's still a force for good, our hero shows a shifty side that soon disappears from standard Hoppy. Anyway, I'm still not sure what Bartender Spike (Hayes) kept trying to do with one hand. I think it was a roll-your-own cigarette, old style. See if you can figure it out.

Anyway, it's an unusual Hoppy, well staged and well worth catching up with, including more surprises than usual.

We actually get a nice plot in this western theme film. As Hopalong has to fend off a gang of henchmen to save a boy from certain death by the local gang in a small western town.

The plot folds out as the boy's mother and father are killed and their gold stolen. The henchmen did not know that the boy was around and can quickly identify the men. So now the local gang is out to get the boy that has been hidden by a local bar dancer that actually works for the leader of the gang. She is going to try to get the boy back to his grandfather without the gang knowing. But her plan only ends in tragedy. But thanks to Hopalong and Johnny, things appear to be going in the correct direction to save the boy. That is till one of the main characters get shot.

There is nothing real remarkable about the performance and at times it felt the film was lacking action. But near the end, all things come together to make a nice show. Plus it was nice to see Gabby Hayes return to the cast since he was killed off in the last film. But he might just need a re-write to make it to film three.