Border Vigilantes

A town bedeviled with outlaws sends for Hoppy, Lucky and California after their own vigilante committee fails to solve the towns problems. Hoppy discovers that the bad guys are led by the town boss, and so are the vigilantes.

Border Vigilantes is another nifty Hoppy western with our hero and co. Getting mired in vigilantes, a crooked miner's diabolical schemes and more plot twists you can shake a hat at. There's a tense scene where Lucky is almost hung by vigilantes because they think he and Hoppy switched the silver. Of course, that's a trick laid out by Victor Jory in a villainous role. But Hoppy turns the table on him, which leads to a rousing shootout finale where Hoppy conjures up his neat trick. On a comic note, poor California is chased by a woman who thinks he looks like her husband. And Lucky is up to his usual girl crazy shenanigans. A fun western with everything stringing along together neatly.

I'm in agreement that Border Vigilantes could have used a more coherent script. That being said Victory Jory has played some great screen villains. He did several Hoppy films and he was never more deadly than he is in this one.

Jory has quite a racket going. He's both head of the vigilante committee to stop the outbreak of outlawry in his area and the head of the outlaws themselves who are preying on the miners in this mining area. Enough of them give up and get out and Jory is controlling all the silver being mined in the area.

Morris Ankrum who also played a few villains in the Cassidy series is the friend who sends for Hoppy to help. Bill Boyd, Russell Hayden, and Andy Clyde come and Hoppy is nearly ambushed and killed on the way. Since Ankrum told only Jory, the guys know who to zero in on.

But even with that knowledge, Jory proves one clever and unscrupulous adversary. He's really something to watch here.

Frances Gifford plays Ankrum's daughter and the reason Russell Hayden is so interested in helping. Romance is in the air for Andy Clyde as Ankrum's visiting sister thinks he reminds her of a long lost love. That's what California wants to do, get lost.

Even with a script that's inferior and confusing Jory makes his character really work and makes Border Vigilantes worth watching.