La rueda del destino

I enjoy the Hopalong Cassidy B-westerns, though I am not so enamored with them that I won't admit that sometimes the plots are a bit predictable. This is especially true with "Hopalong Cassidy Returns".

When the story begins, Peg-leg comes into town making a ruckus....as he's just discovered a rich vein of gold in his mine. He's so loud about this strike that you KNOW sooner or later someone will kill him and take his mine before the old prospector can file his claim...which is exactly what happens. And, when Hoppy comes to town to investigate, it's not like he needs to be Nostradamus to realize that a guy named 'Blackie' is one of the folks behind the murder and stolen claim! To make it more obvious, Morris Akrum plays Blackie....and he ALWAYS is a bad guy when he appears in a Hopalong Cassidy flick....always. You might want to note that in this film, Akrum is inexplicably billed as 'Stephen Morris'...but it's obviously him. As for Blackie's confederate, it's also pretty obvious that the local madame, Lilli Marsh, is involved...as she files a claim for a big strike the day AFTER Peg-leg is killed!! It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes or Charlie Chan to figure out who's behind the murder!

This film is a bit unusual in that it is the only one of 66 Hopalong Cassidy films that features his brother, Buddy (William Janney), as one of his sidekicks...the other is Windy (Gabby Hayes), who was one of the sidekicks in the earlier Cassidy pictures. Why his brother never appeared in another film, I have no idea...but he was pretty much like Lucky or Jimmy...young, headstrong and kind of stupid...but brave when it counts.

So is this film any good despite being a bit predictable? Yes. I think one thing that really helped the film was how violent it was. While I wouldn't say it was grisly, it was more action-packed and featured some amazingly tough scenes...such as the guy in the wheelchair being drug to his death and the final showdown with Blackie. Gritty and exciting...and, of course, a bit predictable. But overall a very good film.

I have lately been revisiting these black and white B-Westerns, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, the story of William Boyd, and how he made the character of Hopalong Cassidy his own (not to mention how the Hoppy role changed Boyd) is more interesting to me now as an adult than when I first watched these films in the 1950s. Second, I've been reacquainting myself with a broad spectrum of retro/nostalgic film/TV/radio media generally, and these films are excellent examples. Also, Watching the B-Western films of John Wayne (especially the Republic/Lone Star films), the early work of Roy Rogers, and the Hoppy films themselves all have a common element in the sidekick persona of George "Gabby" Hayes, one of the character actors who defined the sidekick role. This particular Hoppy story features some unusual elements, like Hoppy's kid brother Buddy, an apple-chomping villain, a wheelchair-bound good guy, but especially a "woman gone wrong" who falls for Hoppy in a big way, even to the point of letting her feelings endanger the criminal empire she's built for herself. Excellent acting performances also make this film above average for the Hopalong Cassidy body of work. I guess I'd have to say I like them all, but I love this one.

Who ever heard of a town called Big Table? Anyway, it was over run with the criminal element who would knock off stupid gold miners who didn't have brains enough not to come to town and shoot off their mouths about the big strike they just made at their secret gold mine. When Hoppy comes to town as the new marshall things change, you can bet. Good action western with lots of gunplay; and Hoppy even found himself a girlfriend.

Apple-eating killers, great costumes for the female villain (a different, dazzling costume for almost every scene) and the impressive California Sierras make this Hopalong Cassidy adventure one of the best of the 60. It was so good in fact that Harry Sherman and his crew recycled the plot elements in another fairly good Hopalong titled, Wide Open Town. Although Hopalong Cassidy Returns is by far the better of the two, not only by virtue of being first, but also because more money was spent on the production and each had a different director: Nate Watt for HCR and Lesley Selander for WOT.

The dark-haired Miss Brent in satin and sequins plays well against the shimmering, silvery haired William Boyd. Their final scene is worth waiting for, if not for the emotional content then for the technical aspects of lighting and photography.

You won't see another like it in the series.

*Hopalong Cassidy Returns* is the seventh in the HC series, released in late 1936, and with William Janney (Buddy Cassidy) standing in for James Ellison (Johnny Nelson) as Hoppy's mischievous sidekick, in this case his own brother. William Boyd as Hoppy is back, this time as a new town Marshal bent on cleaning out corrupt saloon owner Lili Marsh. A number of the familiar early Cassidy 'heavies' are here; Joe Rickson, Ernie Adams, Morris Ankrum (appearing as Steven Morris), and Al St John. George 'Gabby' Hayes is back in yet another incarnation of the fuzzy headed 'Windy'. Practically all these early Hoppy films were tongue-in-cheek, and this one is no exception. Fast-paced action leading up to an exciting climax, with great fun having been had by all. Recommended!!