The Devil's Playground

"The Devil's Playground" is a very flawed Hopalong Cassidy film. While I generally love these old B-westerns, in this case bad writing really hurt my ability to enjoy one of the Hoppy pictures.

When the story begins, Hoppy and his pals discover a woman who's been shot. They nurse her back to health and soon Judge Morton and his men arrive...saying the girl is the Judge's mentally ill daughter. But their story makes no sense and Hoppy is reticent to let them see the girl, though it hardly matters since she's apparently vanished from their cabin.

According to the young lady, she was shot by the Judge's men because she knows where some stolen gold is buried...and they want the gold. This makes sense for many reasons and it's pretty obvious the Judge is a scum-bag. So, after she disappears, Hoppy heads to town to talk to the Sheriff about this. Here is where the film starts to stumble...the Sheriff is the most unconcerned and incompetent character I can recall seeing in a film. Instead of investigating the Judge, he keeps wanting to lock up Hoppy and his men....and this pattern happened several times throughout the story. The worst time was AFTER the Judge pulled a gun on the Sheriff and threatened to kill him. After the Judge and his gang run away, the Sheriff doesn't want to chase after the Judge but tries to lock Hoppy and his partners up!!! Does this make any sense?! There's incompetence and there's the Sheriff has an empty skull and he's dumber than a tomato....which is this film.

Overall, not a bad idea for a film...in fact it's a good one. But the Sheriff character makes zero sense and only would have made sense if the Sheriff had been in league with the Judge. He wasn't...he was just tomato stupid. And, perhaps, the same can be said for the writer....expecting the audience to believe this! A decent story idea...ruined by a dopey character.

Driving cattle through the region, Bill Boyd, Rand Brooks, and Andy Clyde pass a group of rocks called The Devil's Playground, good for absolutely nothing unless you're hiding stolen gold there. That's what Ned Young did and a lot of people are looking for it.

Including Elaine Riley who lies to Hoppy and the guys about her motives. But her lies a little fibs next to Robert Elliott playing a former judge who does not let people know he's an 'ex' and that he's a crook which is why he's an 'ex'.

This little treasure hunt with a few more participants ends up back at Devil's Canyon where the truth is sorted out and the good guys come out on top. Would it be any other way in a Hopalong Cassidy film?

The law in this case is absolutely useless, I suspect Joe Greene playing the sheriff will not be re-elected. Greene is hilarious as the fiddle-footed sheriff who will not let duty interrupt his poker game. Western perennial Earl Hodgins is his deputy who has some decent set of priorities.

Nice set of performances, the story could have been better told though.

Hoppy finds a wounded girl and later finds Judge Morton who claims the girl is his daughter and he is looking for her. But Hoppy soon learns the girl is looking for stolen gold she wants to return and the Judge in not her father but only wants the gold. Hoppy and the girl find the gold but the Judge and his men find Hoppy and the boys and trap them in a cabin.

A rather energetic and unusual mix of mystery and treasure hunt with plenty of chase sequences, night riding and Alabama Hills adding to the atmosphere. But it's the serpentine plot and the interesting characters that make this film, especially the card playing sheriff, who must be the most useless sheriff ever. It's amazing that Hoppy didn't slap him in the face. Just comes to show how he respects a lawman, no matter how thick he is.

Catch that spooky opening. I've seen a ton of great daytime shots of the rocky Alabama Hills. This is the first night time segment I've seen and it's very effective. The movie itself is solid Hoppy as the Bar-20 boys try to get the stolen gold before the bad guys. Hoppy also has to deal with a portly sheriff more interested in a poker hand than in law-enforcement.

The chuckles are also more spread around than California's (Clyde) usual silliness. It's a little hard at times knowing who is chasing whom since the cast of speaking parts is bigger than usual. And, unless my recollection is slipping, this is a Hoppy without a single fistfight! Also, catch that neat little twist with the winsome leading lady that leaves Lucky dumbfounded.

In passing—Curly is played by Nedrick Young who had an interesting Hollywood career. As a writer, he penned such popular prestige films as The Defiant Ones (1958), Inherit the Wind (1960), and even Elvis's Jailhouse Rock (1957). Many of his credits were under pseudonyms since he was also blacklisted during the McCarthy period. Not the kind of career you'd expect in a Saturday afternoon programmer, to say the least.

After a couple of years break the Hopalong Cassidy series resumes with the William Boyd produced films, this is the first of the dozen and a great start, nice moody night scenes set the stage for an interesting plot, and newcomer to the series Rand Brooks is the best 'Lucky' since Russell Hayden left. I'm sure in the immediate post war years, for the kids of America, young and old, it was just wonderful to have Hoppy back!