William Boyd was originally offered the role of Buck Peters, the Bar 20 ranch foreman, but chose the role of Cassidy.
This is one of 54 Hopalong Cassidy features produced by Harry Sherman, initially distributed by Paramount Pictures from 1935-1941, and then by United Artists 1942-1944, which were purchased by their star William Boyd for nationally syndicated television presentation beginning in 1948 and continuing thereafter for many years, as a result of their phenomenal success. Each feature was re-edited to 54 minutes so as to comfortably fit into a 60 minute time slot, with six minutes for commercials. It was not until 50 years later that, with the cooperation of Mrs. Boyd. i.e. Grace Bradley, that they were finally restored to their original length with their original opening and closing credits intact.
The first of 66 Hopalong Cassidy movies.
This film's first documented telecast occurred Saturday 7 April 1945 on New York City's pioneer television station WNBT (Channel 1); in 1947 it was seen again on WCBS (Channel 2). At this time it was under the control of Sherman S. Krellberg's Goodwill Pictures, who had re-released it theatrically and was now picking up a little extra revenue from an occasional television broadcast. In September 1948 it would join the rest of its brethren in William Boyd's Hopalong Cassidy movie package, which would become a popular nationally syndicated movie series for many years to come.