False Colors

Before he was killed by Mark Foster's men, Bud Lawton willed part ownership in his ranch to Hoppy and his two pals. When the three arrive they find a fake posing as Lawton. When they expose the imposter, Foster gets the Sheriff to jail them for Lawton's murder.

False Colors is a good Hoppy western, well-directed and acted by all. The idea of a doppelgänger replacing a dead heir to get the ranch is a fanciful and exciting idea. There's some good action, especially in the first half in the rugged vistas, but the second half takes a more tense, dramatic turn. Like usual, there's plenty of humour especially by Andy Clyde. And top villainy- Douglas Dumbrille, Roy Barcroft and Robert Mitchum - is to be had here.

The first half is outdoors with some spectacularly moody vistas of the snow-covered Sierras. Just as impressive are those great shots of the many weird boulders covering the Alabama Hills. This is familiar territory for Hoppy and the boys, but it's never been more visually impressive.

There's some good action during this first part as Hoppy tries to prevent bad guy Foster (Dumbrille) from cheating a young brother and sister (Seidel & Drake) from their ranch inheritance. The second half moves indoors as Foster's scheme draws Hoppy and the boys out of the hills and into town. Too bad, in my little book, they couldn't keep this second half outdoors too.

It's a more notable cast than usual. Dumbrille, of course, is a veteran baddie from many an A-production, while hulking thugs Barcroft and Strange get rare speaking parts. Leading lady Drake would soon appear in that most nourish of noir classics, Detour (1945). But most notable is Bob Mitchum promoted into one of his first speaking parts—catch how well he acts with his eyes at the poker table. No wonder he was emerging from the crowd of cowboy extras. And for a minute, it looked like actor Seidel would be one of the few in Hollywood to get killed twice in the same movie!

There're the usual action staples-- some hard riding and a couple of really energetic fist-fights to keep things from getting too talky. I guess my only complaint concerns sidekick Jimmy Rogers. I agree with reviewer Don W that he's an inept presence, who unfortunately rather resembles a young Jimmy Durante. Wisely, the screenplay downplays his romance with the personality-plus Drake.

Anyway, the 60-minutes adds up for me as half-of-a-good Hoppy.

Although Hoppy appears dressed all in black throughout this film, it's not one of the better Hopalong Cassidy outings. Interesting highlights are a fight between Hoppy & Robert Mitchum (at one point William Boyd's stunt double is quite obvious), & Hoppy's shooting a gun out of Mitchum's hand. Hoppy always had two sidekicks. One was the scruffy oldtimer (first done to perfection by George "Gabby/Windy" Hayes & later played by Andy Clyde as "California"). The second sidekick was usually named "Johnny" or "Lucky." The "Johnnies" & the "Luckies" of the Hoppy films were often handsome young actors who had trouble acting. The idea was to give the women in the audience something to look at, & to provide a romantic interest when "Johnny" or "Lucky" fell for the heroine. "False Colors" makes me yearn for a Johnny or a Lucky, because the "Jimmy" (Rogers) in this film is neither attractive to look at, nor can he act. As a matter of fact, he's the worst actor of any junior sidekick in the Hoppy movies, and he appeared in several of them. Aside from having a famous dad (Will Rogers), why they needed this guy is beyond me! His attempts at providing a romantic interest are unintentionally laughable. I rate this 5/10.

The cast just stand about talking for most of this lethargic Hopalong Cassidy western which even feels studio-bound outdoors.

It's distinguishing features are the fanciful plot device alluded to in my heading, the fact that for once the heroine's father died of natural causes before the bad guys get a chance to kill him. And that one of the bad guys is played by a young Bob Mitchum, roughly handled by Hopalong as a lesson in manners.

False Colors is an above average entry in the Hopalong Cassidy series. Young Tom Seidel, a ranch hand on Cassidy's Bar 20 spread is gunned down without any apparent reason. But there's a big reason it turns out, young Seidel is the heir to two thirds of the Diamond Hitch ranch in another part of the state. It seems as though he ran away from home as a kid and his father has died and split inheritance that way with he and his sister.

So Hoppy, Jimmy, and California go off to the Diamond Hitch country and find someone posing as their recently deceased friend. Tom Seidel is playing both the heir and the impostor.

Anyone with any kind of experience watching B westerns will know that it is banker Douglass Dumbrille behind the dastardly scheme as he's behind any number nefarious enterprises in film. Dumbrille even has sheriff Roy Barcroft in his pocket. The suspense here is how Hoppy and his pals save the situation for the sister and now real sole heir of the ranch. Let's just say he's got something up his sleeve and he doesn't tip his hand right away.

In the cast as one of Dumbrille's henchmen is Robert Mitchum and this is one of about half a dozen Cassidy westerns where Mitchum got some of his earliest roles. He has a really brutal saloon fight with Bill Boyd who has to save Andy Clyde from a beating. Truth be told Andy Clyde kind of deserved one. But you see the film to find out.

It's a nicely plotted story, definitely above average for a B western and even a Hopalong Cassidy film which were generally above average as B westerns went. Jimmy Rogers is playing a character with his own name and Jimmy was the younger son of Will. Truth be told he's not much of an actor, but the part doesn't exactly call for Robert DeNiro.