Stagecoach War

There are several odd things about this film: 1) it contained three songs (a lot for a Hoppy movie), that really slowed things down quite a bit; 2) the songs were all sung by the baddies, a highly unusual feature which made it appear that they were the good guys; 3) Hoppy, as prophet, predicted that some day men will fly (since he predicted this in the "1870s," perhaps he was in the wrong field as a horse rancher!); 4) William Boyd actually did some of his own stunt work; & 5) the plot was unusually complicated for a Hoppy film. On the positive side were seeing Boyd looking to be in his prime, dressed in the all-black outfit, an impassioned speech by Hoppy on the virtues of the Mustang, veteran character actor Frank Lackteen effective as a baddie, & an interesting story. On the negative side were the songs, the slow moving plot, & the inferior humor provided by Gabby Hayes substitute Britt Wood (as "Speedy," a one-joke wonder). I found a lot to like about this film, but in the end I felt that something was missing. Only a 6/10.

Stagecoach War has one thing I've not seen either in any western film let alone a Hopalong Cassidy film, singing outlaws. Singing cowboys are usually the leads and the good guys. But in this film someone at Paramount hired the vocal group The King's Men together with future cowboy hero Eddie Dean as a group of outlaws who've got great harmony.

These outlaws are having a great old time robbing two competing stagecoach lines, one run by Harvey Stephens and the other run by J. Farrell MacDonald and his daughter Julie Carter. It's business and personal because Stephens and Carter were once and item. In the mix comes Russell Hayden who as the young Hoppy sidekick gets to do a lot of romancing but never gets the girl.

There's a thrilling stagecoach race to see who gets the Wells Fargo mail contract. In the end all is resolved for the law and for the forces of love and romance.

Hoppy also gets to speak his peace about that unsung hero of the west the prairie mustang. Speaking it I couldn't help being reminded of those mustang horses in The Misfits. Hoppy did say they would wind up as dog food

This film not the greatest of Cassidy films definitely isn't dog food.

Stagecoach War features veteran character actor J. Farrell McDonald as Jeff Chapman, a stage-line owner about to lose a lucrative Wells Fargo contract after his driver is shot in a holdup. The crime opens a door for Neal Holt (Harvey Stephens), who is not only a rival stage-line operator, but also the former boyfriend of Jeff's daughter, Shirley (Julie Carter).

There's many musical numbers, with singing cowboys and outlaws and there is a exciting Stagecoach chase, however it's not too engaging and the love triangle between Lucky, Shirley and shirley's ambitious former boyfriend doesn't add much in terms of drama. I guess it's a different type of Hoppy with not too much shootin', and the good guys (who I thought were harmless singers as presented in these type of westerns) turning out the bad guys but not too memorable.

I have enjoyed watching the Hopalong Cassidy films that I've seen nearly all 66 since I discovered them on YouTube. Much of it is because they are enjoyable and better than a typical B-western. Much of it is because the copies on YouTube are exceptional...complete and clean copies. However, even though I really enjoy the films, I must admit that a few are klunkers...and this is true of "Stagecoach War"...mostly because the writing was really poor.

So why wasn't I pleased with it? Well, one is the singing...something you DON'T associate with Hopalong Cassidy films. But in this one, there inexplicably is a trio who sing barbershop quartet-style tunes that just don't fit the film and were distracting. There also was a lack of any real serious villainy and more focused on Lucky and his REALLY stupid infatuation. First, the girl really didn't encourage him and was clear she was interested in another...but like the creepy guy he is in the film, Lucky won't take the hint. Second, the girl is nonsensical and her actions (such as sneaking aboard a stagecoach in a race) made no sense at all. Emotionally, the lady was simply all over the place! There's more...including several instances where folks behave in ways that simply make no sense, but frankly, it's so boring and unlike other films, I'll just leave it at that. A huge miss...don't assume all Cassidy films are like this one!

By the way, if you care, this is the final film where Britt Wood appeared as Speedy....not one of the better Hopalong Cassidy sidekicks.

I gave this 5 out of 10, the worst Hoppy movie I have seen so far. As others have said, it moved slowly, especially with the three songs. I big downer is Julie Carter (the heroine), bad in so many ways, I'll be kind and not list them. Not surprising that she appeared in only about a dozen works, most of them as uncredited. As others pointed out here, it is novel, to say the least, that the SOLE bad guys/killers were the amusing-friendly-looking singing cowboys. One far-fetched thing was the girl hiding in one of the coaches during the stagecoach race, though it was important for the plot. Another unusual thing (that I would rate as good) is that all the main characters ended up as honest friendly good guys, reconciling at the end. That made the film easy to take and amiable.