Olho de Águia

This is the second of 66 Hopalong Cassidy films and captures the series and its stars at a formative moment. The result is perhaps the best film in the series, with only "Three Men From Texas" on the same footing. Five minutes into this film and it's obvious that it was not made for children. Some scenes are disturbing and there are no curbs on violence. Hoppy's world can be a nasty one and producer Harry Sherman was out to make realistic westerns, not sugar-coated Bs for kids. The film establishes a theme that ran through the entire series: Hoppy and his friends are really ranch hands; cowboys whose main job is driving cattle. But the stories typically pull them away from that and into adventures that have them helping total strangers simply because they need the help. Here it is the rescue of a young child who has been badly traumatized. The cast is excellent and is especially enhanced by James Ellison as young Johnny Nelson, Hoppy's juvenile sidekick, who is all too willing to fight and is thus often rash. Like sidekicks throughout the series, they often need a guiding hand from Hoppy to channel their instincts. Boyd, of course, is clearly forming his interpretation of the Cassidy character and he clearly puts to work his many years of film experience going back to the silents and classics like "King of Kings" and "The Volga Boatman." This is a first rate film that happens to be a western. It blurs the line between A and B pictures.

Ace Cassidy western. It's only Boyd's second of the series, so many of the later trademarks are not yet in place. Instead of "Hoppy", for example, he's called "Bill". Plus his first horse, a black one, tosses him into a swamp of quicksand of all places! Good thing he soon gets the trustworthy Topper. Familiar cohorts Hayes and Ellison are on hand to help, but not yet as a team. There're also a number of uncharacteristic twists I didn't expect, along with great mountain scenery you haven't seen a hundred times before.

Plotwise-- Cassidy is trying to get little Pablo back to his sometimes outlaw granddad, El Toro, before baddie Big Henry kills him. After all, little Pablo's seen Henry's gang kill his parents, so now he's hiding out in the mountains, thanks to saloon dancer Delores. But can she evade the killer gang before they find out, and can little Pablo survive in the wilderness.

Speaking of Delores (Woodbury), her opening scenes put her in the tightest bustle this side of Mae West. And catch Cassidy's many hard-eyed stares, proving he could go toe-to-toe with Eastwood any time. In fact, even though he's still a force for good, our hero shows a shifty side that soon disappears from standard Hoppy. Anyway, I'm still not sure what Bartender Spike (Hayes) kept trying to do with one hand. I think it was a roll-your-own cigarette, old style. See if you can figure it out.

Anyway, it's an unusual Hoppy, well staged and well worth catching up with, including more surprises than usual.

"The Eagles Brood" was the second feature in the long running Hopalong Cassidy series produced by Harry "Pop" Sherman. Directed by Howard Bretherton, it gives us some spectacular outdoor photography and several exciting action sequences including the good guys riding to the rescue in the nick of time at the film's climax.

The story opens with the notorious Mexican bandit El Toro's son and his wife being brutally murdered. Their young son hides and is taken in by saloon girl Dolores (Nana Martin aka Joan Woodbury). El Toro (William Farnum) vows revenge and sets out to find his grandson. Along the way he rescues "Bill" Cassidy (William Boyd) from quicksand. Cassidy then offers to find the grandson in payment for El Toro's saving of his life.

Cassidy and his pal Johnny Nelson (Jimmy Ellison) set out to find the murderers. Dolores meanwhile, is the girl friend of the head bad guy Big Henry (Addison Richards) and learns that it was his men who murdered El Toro's son and his wife. Big Henry finds out that the grandson is alive and has witnessed the crime. So he and his gang which includes Frank Shannon, Paul Fix and John Merton, also search for the missing youngster.

Big Henry learns that Dolores is harboring the child and in a scene unusual for a series western, murders her in cold blood. Cassidy in the mean time, finds the boy and shields him from the outlaws. A shootout ensues followed by the aforementioned ride to the rescue and concludes with a cliffside fight to the finish between Cassidy and Big Henry.

Boyd was still playing the lead character with a rough edge. He is called "Bill" throughout except for one instance where Ellison calls him "Hoppy". Heck, Hoppy even has an eye for the ladies in this one. George "Gabby" Hayes had not yet settled into his Windy Halliday character. He played several character roles in the early films of the series, much as he had done in the John Wayne Lone Star series. Here, he plays a good bad guy Spike, Big Henry's bartender who spends most of the picture trying to roll a cigarette. Hayes doesn't have his tell tale whiskers in this one, only a drooping moustache with short hair.

This is a good action packed series western which maintained its excellent production values throughout. The Hopalong Cassidy series was in my opinion, the best "B" series ever made.

This is a superior B westerns from the early career of cowboy superstar William Boyd, AKA Hopalong Cassidy. "The Eagle's Brood" was released in 1935. By the early 1950's when I was growing up, Hoppy had become an institution. As a child I often wore a Hoppy hat, a Hoppy neckerchief with a steer's head as a clasp, black cowboy clothes, a Hoppy holster and toy guns (with steer heads on the handles), and a pair of Hoppy boots. For some odd reason, I had a Roy Rogers lunch box for school. Maybe Hoppy's merchandising agent unintentionally left that money maker off his list. Hoppy who was twenty years older by 1955 than he had been in his first Hopalong Cassidy films, still looked the same. How did he do that?

"The Eagle's Brood" has a fairly simple story. Yet it is so well-written and directed that it holds the viewer's attention all the way. This early entry came out before the era of the singing cowboys. So there's no music to slow down the action. By 1935 background music was being used to enhance the action. In the first talky westerns, no music was used because the movie moguls didn't think the audience would accept hearing an orchestra playing in the middle of a wild chase or fight. Yet a live orchestra (or a piano player) was used during the silent years to increase the impact of the action taking place on the screen.

This outing, Hoppy and his sidekick Johnny (Jimmy Ellison) are out to rescue a Mexican lad hid out by Delores, a friend of El Toro, the boy's grandfather, who just happens to be a notorious outlaw, played with gusto by silent film star William Farnum. The boy witnessed the murder of his parents. Thus the ringleader, Big Henry (Addison Richards), is out to silence the lad permanently if he and his gang can find the hideout. Delores is shot by Big Henry when she refuses to divulge the hiding place. Hoppy and Johnny step in leading to a wild shootout in the hills.

Gabby Hayes was still just plain George when he appeared in "The Eagle's Brood," playing sort of a good bad guy as a bar tending lackey to Big Henry. He goes by the moniker Spike. Fortunately he decided in later films to use the name Gabby. Somehow Spike Hayes just doesn't sound right.

The early Hoppy had a romantic streak. When he meets a soiled dove named Dolly, Delores' friend, he flirts with her using the line, "You're a cute little trick," and buys her not one but two drinks while he quenches his thirst with sarsaparilla.

This is one of the best Hopalong Cassidy movies I have seen, and it is also most unusual for a Hoppy movie. Mainly it has a small narrow plot that drives the action every step of the way. The other Hoppy movies are more like epics with large forces of horsemen on each side; usually the bad guys slip up at the end which unleashes a furious battle of riders. Here it is more like a well-tuned detective mystery with every little discovery initiating a counter move.

On one side you have several bad guys, led by Big Henry, who murdered El Toro's (a famous retired Mexican bandit) son during a gold shipment robbery. They warn Gabby Hayes to stay quiet about the son and the gold passing their way, and in doing so learn that there was El Toro's grandson there who must have witnessed the murder-robbery and who has vanished. So the bad guys set about to locate the kid and kill him.

On the other side, Dolores, an honest dance hall girl, finds the kid in the woods. She decides to ask her boss, Big Henry, to help return the kid to his grandfather in Mexico, but before she can open her mouth, she overhears Big Henry discussing his part in the robbery-murder. So she hides the kid in the woods and writes a letter to El Torro to find her and get his grandson.

El Torro, on his way to Dolores, bumps into lawman Hoppy, saves Hoppy's life, and ends up giving Hoppy Dolores' letter so Hoppy will find the kid and bring him to El Torro (payment for saving Hoppy's life).

By now, Big Henry becomes wise to Dolores and kills her. Both the bad guys and Hoppy are looking for the kid. I won't say more about the intricate plot.

Other pluses for the movie: wonderful scenery and cinema photography; lack of comic side kick and cornball humor; and James Ellison as Hoppy's best sidekick.