Olho de Águia

"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.

William Boyd as Hop-a-long Cassidy has a great story and cast to work with. The movie starts off when Pablo's (George Mari) parents are killed by Big Henry's ( Addison Richards) gang. Luckily for him, and us Joan Woodbury comes to the rescue. None other than George Hayes, as the bartender Spike has a gag order put on him, but he isn't called Gabby for nothing. Hoppy actually starts out in quicksand followed by a great scene with William Farnum. An early performance by western's favorite Paul Fix as henchman Steve and Hoppy's trusted sidekick James Ellison is always there when he needs him. Great to see silent screen staple Dorothy Revier as Dolly, John Merton, Frank Shannon and the Bucko brothers.

We actually get a nice plot in this western theme film. As Hopalong has to fend off a gang of henchmen to save a boy from certain death by the local gang in a small western town.

The plot folds out as the boy's mother and father are killed and their gold stolen. The henchmen did not know that the boy was around and can quickly identify the men. So now the local gang is out to get the boy that has been hidden by a local bar dancer that actually works for the leader of the gang. She is going to try to get the boy back to his grandfather without the gang knowing. But her plan only ends in tragedy. But thanks to Hopalong and Johnny, things appear to be going in the correct direction to save the boy. That is till one of the main characters get shot.

There is nothing real remarkable about the performance and at times it felt the film was lacking action. But near the end, all things come together to make a nice show. Plus it was nice to see Gabby Hayes return to the cast since he was killed off in the last film. But he might just need a re-write to make it to film three.

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.