Unexpected Guest

Even though this Hoppy Adventure has a good plot and lots of Mystery it is lacking the action of earlier Hoppy movies. Hoppy only fires his gun in the very first few minutes when a shadowy character tries to "Dry Gulch" them. California Carlson steals this movie with his better than usual antics. All in All I would still recommend this flick to anybody that loves a mystery and Hopalong Cassidy! Did anyone notice that the lawyer and Hoppy also appeared together in "The Greatest Show on Earth" ?

With an eventual total of 56 Hopalong Cassidy features, it was only normal to expect that now and again they'd try something a little different to the norm, sometimes it worked, others not so. To me this one was OK a bit of a mystery with elements of 'Then There Were None', all on the pretext of California showing up for a will reading of his late Uncle's estate, naturally his pals Hoppy & Lucky come along to keep him out of trouble. Not a lot of gun fighting involved it's true, but a couple of decent punch ups with Hoppy and the bad guy toward the end. The buckskin jacket didn't really suit William Boyd who usually looks good in most things, but Hoppy was always at his best in black! But as I say, at least they tried for a bit of variety, and I accept that!

While you might not expect it, YouTube has the best copies of most of the old Hopalong Cassidy films. Not only are they complete, but they are the remastered versions from about 2000...and they look great...practically new in fact.

This film is like the merging of two B-movie genres....a western AND a mystery. Both were very popular short films in the 1930s and 40s. So, while everyone is dressed in western duds, the story is a murder mystery at heart.

It all begins with California (Andy Clyde) learning that he's been named in a will. But there are weird conditions....that the cousin's estate will be divided among seven people...provided they are still alive! This sounds ominous....and it is. Soon, there's a body...which disappears!! Just the sort of thing to expect from an old B murder mystery. Unfortunately, who is responsible for this and more is revealed in the IMDB summary...but I'll still keep this to myself.

As a western, the film lacks a bit. The same can be said about the mystery. I especially disliked the whole 'voices talk to me' part of the story...it's pretty dopey. All in all, a bit of a disappiontment.

The version I have has the re-release title of "Saddle & Spurs." Hoppy starts out dressed all in black, although later changes to an unflattering Buckskin suit & tie. There's a mysterious figure running about who resembles the 1940s "The Shadow." Very nice music soundtrack (probably borrowed from an earlier non-Hoppy film). Some good comedic lines, such as Hoppy to California: "The brown horse is yours." Earle Hodgins, who usually plays the snake-oil salesman type of character to perfection, is here cast out of character as a scruffy, bearded cowhand. Old Dark House elements abound: the wind blows the lights out in a big old house, at which time one of the beneficiaries of the will being read is killed, lots of people sneaking about at night, there's a secret passageway, there's a mounted buffalo head where someone is sneaking peeks into the next room, a mysterious voice at a gravesite, & so on. There's a long fight scene in the cellar that features fantastic camera angles & a very neat expressionistic set! Misplaced in a western, but great anyway! The heroine, played by Patricia Tate, is one of the prettiest in all the Hoppy films, but strangely, Lucky is not romantically interested in this young lady. A very good mystery western, but Western fans beware, Hoppy doesn't fire his gun at all in this film, despite being shot at twice. I rate it 7/10.

At the reading of his late cousin's will, California learns the estate will be divided among whoever remains of the seven relatives. With one already dead, another immediately murdered, and the Lawyer telling them the ranch is almost worthless, Hoppy investigates.

Masked Killer in a cloak, secret passages, people getting bumped off, eyes moving in a moose, and strange maid talking about hearing voices - all these make you think you're watching a dark house mystery than a Hopalong Cassidy Western. It's a mix of two genres, and it works really well, and though it's not action-packed, enough things happen to keep you watching. It's great fun, then again I'm sucker for a dark house mystery, add that to a horse opera and I am happy.