L'invincible Cassidy

This is one of the worst Hoppy films. The plot was unbelievable and weak. The comic sidekick (Frank Darien as Pappy) was also among the worst in the series. ***Spoliers.***

Hoppy is out to help his girl friend whose ranch is being rustled and preyed upon by local rustlers-land grabbers, led by Clay Allison. For no good workable reason (from my viewpoint) Hoppy lets himself get arrested and imprisoned for trespassing (or whatever), and then he convinces Allison to put Hoppy on parole and work his time out at Allison's ranch. In short order, Hoppy sees Allison's men maybe rustling Nora's cattle. So Hoppy rides off to see Nora. (What about his parole agreement?) Meanwhile, Fred is the only witness to see Allison shoot Nora's partner (or foreman) dead. For no real good reason that I could see, Fred's mom suspects her son as involved in the murder and has the son placed in jail! None of this really matters because Allison finally decides to have his gang descend on Hoppy and everyone else at Nora's ranch, but they are beaten back and Allison is killed.

Not much of a good plot.

When bad-guys begin harassing the townsfolk, Hoppy's (William Boyd) former gal Nora Blake (Nora Lane) sends him a plea for help. Hoppy is the boss of Bar 20 ranch in Texas, so he rides down the Camino Real in the New Mexico cattle country near Alamogordo.

Before he and his saddlemates, "Lucky" Jenkins (Russell Hayden) and "Pappy (Frank Darien), can reach her ranch, they are stopped by Clay Allison (Robert Fiske), a cattle-rustler who is in almost complete control of the district, and wants to extend his holdings by seizing Nora's cattle and driving her out.

The plot portion where Hopalong and co. Volunteer to wrangle horses for bad guy cattleman instead of paying fine and going prison is unusual and makes a change from a straightforward Hopalong taking on the crooked cattleman. There's nice cinematography, lush mountain scenery and some good action, well at least in the finale.

Its been a long time since I watched a Hopalong feature film. This one kind of surprised me. The plot was more complex than the average horse opera. The acting is what you would expect of this type genre and funding. There were some surprisingly well-done shots by the camera as well. All in all, much higher rated than those who said it lacked this and that. Not a great movie, but one I would submit is about as good as it gets for this type movie. Hoppy actually has a serious interest in the girl ... but still rides off into the sunset with his buddies and his horse.

Not the greatest Hopalong Cassidy movie, but not a bad effort. After a hard roundup the men of the Bar 20 head into town for some fun. That is all except "Hoppy" (he tells the rest of the boys "I'll see you back here in two weeks, and be practically sober!") and "Pappy" (enjoyingly played by Frank Darien in his only appearance in the Cassidy series). Later joined by "Lucky" the trio have a series of adventures which commence with their being arrested by a crooked landowner. Also prominent is an unusual love story, a curmudgeonly storekeeper, and of course the usual romance involving "Lucky" (Charles Hayden) which ends in plenty of action. Light-hearted and fast-moving throughout.

Cassidy Of Bar 20 has two things unique in the series. I only recall one other time that actual personality from the old west is in a Hoppy movie as a character. One was a later Belle Starr story and in this one Clay Allison makes an appearance. However the real Allison assuredly no boy scout was not anything like the rat we see in this film.

The other is that Frank Darien makes his one and only appearance as the old timer sidekick for Hoppy. There were a few before producer Harry Sherman settled on Andy Clyde after Gabby Hayes left. He was just simply Pappy and he rode a mule. He never really took and I can see why Sherman just used him once and that was that.

Allison is making trouble for small ranchers like John Elliott and his wife who had some history with Hoppy sends for him. Allison is played by Robert Fiske and he's not got much in the way of character. He does a couple of cold blooded murders in Cassidy Of Bar 20 and pays in the end.

Hoppy fans should like this. Belle Starr made out better in a Hoppy movie, Clay Allison far worse.