Il falco nero

In the late 1940s, William Boyd (the real name for Hopalong Cassidy) made a brilliant deal. He bought the rights to all his films and edited them down in order to make a weekly TV show...one that brought tons of marketing money for Hoppy merchandise and kids of the day loved him. But what about the original unedited films? Well, Cassidy apparently kept them and these newly restored originals were recently posted to YouTube. "Call of the Prairie" is just one of many I have found on this site.

As I watched "Call of the Prairie", I felt very confused. Johnny (James Ellison) is a jerk...much more than his usual not exactly bright persona in the Hopalong Cassidy films. But if that wasn't enough, I was shocked when I saw familiar Gabby Hayes....who made many Hopalong Cassidy films...playing a villain, not the lovable coot Windy!!! In fact, it's been a long time since I ever saw Hayes play a baddie. Now I know he did in his earlier westerns...such as a few of John Wayne's B-westerns. But in those earlier westerns, he wore his teeth and played rather dapper villains. In other words, in these pictures, George Hayes isn't playing his Gabby (or Windy) persona at all. By 1936 he was a dependable lovable coot sidekick sort....and casting him as this villain was quite shocking in "Call of the Prairie"! I mean...it's hard to imagine that Gabby had gone bad!

The film begins as Hoppy arrives back at the ranch after selling his boss' stock. Now the boss has a lot of money and Johnny begs him for some. But Buck refuses, as Johnny has been gambling and hanging with jerks....and behaving like a jerk himself. After storming off, Johnny tells his ne'er do well friends about this...and they get him drunk and pump him for information. With this information, they try to rob Buck and end up beating him up in the process AND framing Johnny for it! Now everyone seems to think Johnny is more than a big dummy but also a crook! Naturally, it comes to Hoppy investigating and learning the truth.

I would imagine that many serial B-western fans would dislike "Call of the Prairie" because the trio of Boyd, Ellison and Hayes was familiar and beloved...but here the trio isn't exactly lovable. Hoppy is Hoppy, Johnny is even dumber and much more annoying than usual (he was often headstrong) and Windy (Gabby) is scum!! Of course, I could also imagine a few fans liking this as it prevented the films from all looking the same....and this certainly is a departure in style!

So is it any good in my opinion? Yes, though having Johnny behave this foolishly seems a bit limp. And, despite being a Hopalong Cassidy film, he's really just a secondary character...and Johnny is the lead. Having a weak character playing the lead isn't a great thing...especially because repeatedly Johnny make really foolish choices...even AFTER he realizes his new friends are all crooks. Not a great film but still enjoyable and worth seeing if you like old B-westerns. More Hoppy and less Johnny would have probably made for a better story.



By the way, in an interesting bit of casting, Chester Conklin was cast as a sheriff. Conklin originally gained fame by being in many Mack Sennett films...including his Keystone Kops.

And, finally, early in the film someone calls Hayes 'an old Sour Dough'. This term was used to denote that he was an old, experienced prospector...I looked it up, as I had no idea what it meant.

A very different, but enjoyable, Hoppy outing. The movie has a slow pace with less action than the usual Hoppy film. There are no epic bad guy plans. Just a corrupt bunch of saloon denizens who learn of Buck Peters having cash from Johnny Nelson's (Hoppy's young sidekick) youthful blabbering in the saloon. Johnny gets blamed/framed for the outlaws'misdeeds. Most of the film concerns Johnny's self-loathing for ignoring Hoppy's warnings and associating with the bad saloon crowd.

What impressed me most about the film is that is was it was so skillfully written. Each scene led believably to the next scene.

As noted by others here, the film was also unusual in that Gabby Hayes was one of the bod guys here, though he reformed by film's end. In subsequent Hoppy films, Gabby played the comic sidekick.

A gang of thieves attempt to pin an a robbery and shooting on a foolish young man. Disbelieving his guilt, Hoppy sets out to prove his friend's innocence. After a bank is held up and his friend is once again in hot water, Hoppy must put himself in danger in a shoot-out with the gang at a lonely cabin in the hills. Seems like this kid is forever getting his butt in a wringer.

The fourth of the sixty-six Hopalong Cassidy pictures is one of the best. When Howard Lang is shot, everyone blames it on James Ellison, who's been getting drunk with the wrong people -- including Gabby Hayes as a bad guy with a pretty daughter. It's all an excuse for the baddies to rob and plunder and stuff like that there, and it's up to William Boyd to sort out matters, with a combination of brains, good humor, threatening, and gunplay.

Paramount and RKO were producing the best B westerns in this period; if you want to say that the Hopalongs were the best, I won't dispute you. Because of their strong distribution network and studio resources, they could spend extra money, and it shows here, particularly in the brisk editing by Edward Schroeder. Watch out for old-time comedy pro Chester Conklin. He gets a good gag in that actually contributes to the plot!

Hoppy returns to the Bar 20 ranch after a successful cattle sale, but finds out while he was away, Johnny Nelson has spent the majority of his time drinking and gambling in town. When Hoppy and Buck Peters confront Johnny about this, he leaves the ranch in anger and heads for the saloon. Porter, head of the criminal gang that has won much of the money Johnny gambled away, get Johnny drunk enough to tell him about the money Buck has in his safe. Porter and his men ride to the ranch and hold up Peters (using Johnny's gun and kerchief for a pouch), who is shot after giving him the money, but Buck tricked Porter giving him a bunch of blank paper. Porter returns to the bar and tells Johnny that he is now wanted for shooting Buck, and when he confronts Porter, Johnny is overcome by Porter's men. Shanghai McHenry is ordered by Porter to kill Johnny, but is overcome and Johnny escapes. Meanwhile, soon after Hoppy puts the money in the bank, Porter's men rob it and head for McHenry's shack, where Johnny is being hidden by McHenry's daughter Linda. Hoppy also makes his way to McHenry to go after Porter, who has tied Johnny to a death trap and left McHenry to be caught by the law. Its up to Hoppy to save the day. Okay entry in the series, mainly due to the slow pacing of the film by Bretherton, where we have more drama in the film that action, even though the last reel of the film is a nice climax. Bridge seems wasted in the villain, considering I've seen him play the outlaw or badman better in several other B westerns. It's interesting to see Hayes as an outlaw here, but it is in the Windy/Gabby persona he would adopt in the next film. Rating, based on B westerns, 5.