Coração do Arizona

Two-faced cowpoke Twister steals a herd of cattle and pins the blame on Hoppy's unfortunate friend, Lucky. But Hoppy and Windy aren't buying Twister's tale and set out to clear their buddy's name. Guns are blazin' on Belle Starr's ranch for a final showdown between the good hombres and the bad hombres!

Heart of Arizona isn't the most action-packed Hoppy, but it has a robust plot, it's a little unusual regarding the Belle Starr angle and it has some grand rugged scenery. The focus isn't so much on Hoppy but the rest of the cast. Gabby Hayes' comic one liners are great. William Boyd'd acting is grand as usual. Strange downbeat ending.

I can't recall another Hopalong Cassidy film where William Boyd got involved with a character from the real west. Possibly fans more versed in Hopalong Cassidy films can correct me, but in this film Hoppy gets to meet up with none other than the legendary female outlaw Belle Starr.

Belle's a good stand by your man kind of woman. When her husband was caught at rustling and as Hoppy explains it we're not clear if she knew anything about it. Still when the posse came she shot it out with them and did a stretch in the joint. Now she's back and as luck would have it her spread is next to the Bar 20. She's got a daughter Jacqueline Starr and the Starrs Belle and Jacqueline are played by Natalie Moorhead and Dorothy Short.

Unbeknownst to Belle her foreman, Alden Chase, is still using the Starr ranch as a cover for rustling. It's up to Hoppy and his two trusty companions Russell Hayden and Gabby Hayes to set things right.

The real Belle Starr was born in Missouri and did her outlaw thing in Oklahoma then called Indian Territory. In fact Belle's husband Sam Starr was an Indian. Unlike sweet innocent Jacqueline, Belle's real daughter Pearl Starr became a known prostitute and operator of several bordellos in the Old west.

There was a famous film with her as the central title character that starred Gene Tierney. But it wasn't any closer to the truth than this film.

Still it's not a bad film for the Hopalong Cassidy series.

If the chief female had not been called "Belle Starr," which was the name of a real person in the annals of the West, this would have been more in line with the rest of the Hoppy series. But that's a very minor problem.

Playing La Starr is an obvious stage actress, Natalie Moorhead. Because she's an obvious city slicker, she should not have been cast as a long-time Westerner; but her character could more easily have been a fairly recent immigrant. Still, only a very minor problem. Suspend your disbelief.

And enjoy William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy. Boyd was undoubtedly one of the very finest actors to play the lead in a Western series. There is a subtlety in his every move and gesture, in his facial expressions, that show that, if it hadn't been for that ugly "news" paper error early in his career (when another William Boyd was arrested and our guy's picture ran), he might have been a huge mainstream star. He certainly deserved it. He certainly had the talent.

Russell Hayden gave a magnificent performance, surely one of his best. He was a good-looking guy and was a wonderful cowboy. His acting was uneven later, and he often sounded as if he had bad-fitting dentures, but here he was just perfect, a real pleasure to watch.

Dorothy Short gave another of her excellent performances, and George Hayes played his "Windy" character also to perfection. He too, by the way, was actually a city slicker -- well, sort of. In his bio at IMDb is this comment: "In real life he was the exact opposite of the characters he played on film. He was well read, well-groomed, serious and highly philosophical."

He reportedly did not even learn to ride a horse until he was 50, but few actors are more identified with Westerns than Hayes, and probably even fewer are and were more beloved. Any movie is better for his presence.

The other players were talented and the script-writer gave many of them a chance to shine -- which they do.

Paramount produced dusty and gritty Westerns, often showing the dusty and gritty ranch life, and often doing so better than other studios. Perhaps especially in the Hopalong series.

I highly recommend "Heart of Arizona," and you can find a very good copy at YouTube.

"Belle Star" (Natalie Moorhead) is not a woman to be messed with after she returns after an unjust five year spell with Uncle Sam to discover that her herds are being rustled. We know it's her dodgy foreman "Trister" (Leo J. McMahon) who is up to no good, and we know just who is pulling his strings but can she thwart their plan to rob her of her livelihood? Luckily, "Hoppy" (William Boyd) is on hand to try and help her get to the bottom of just who killed her husband and framed her for stealing her own cows! The deft use of some branding, some fine shooting from the young "Artie" (Billy Peters) and an hidden coin all contribute to the adventure as "Hoppy" determines to get his man. The production here is really basic, but there's more of a story and as ever the dynamic between Boyd and "Gabby" Hayes keeps the pace moving swiftly along. Moorhead and her on-screen daughter "Jacqueline" (Dorothy Short) also deliver at the livelier end of the damsels-in-distress scale and there's Stephen Chase's "Ringo" to keep the nastiness going, too. It's not the most original, no, but for a low-budget affair it's actually quite exciting and worth an hour.

In the 1950s, many old series B-westerns were chopped down to a length that would allow them to be placed in a one-hour time slot. Because of this, it's common to find multiple versions of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy films. The version of "Heart of Arizona" I saw on YouTube is the recently restored one that returns the picture to its original 68 minute run time.

The story does what MANY series westerns did back in the day...it uses the name of a real life western figure but completely fictionalizes them. In this case, early in the story, a deputy is manhandling Belle Starr following her release from prison. Hoppy witnesses this and like you'd expect, he stands up for her...decking the deputy and freeing her.

Later, after Belle arrives at her ranch, she realizes she has a problem...someone has been stealing her cattle. But how will she and Hoppy find out who's behind all this wickedness?

"Heart of Arizona" is enjoyable but not especially well written. Not only does it fictionalize Starr, but there are some serious logical problems with the script. In one case, a 9 or 10 year-old boy is given a gun and told to guard a prisoner....and this happens two different times!! The worst, however, was near the end when the sheriff is about to make an arrest on the gang who is rustling. He approaches this group of criminals alone...no backup whatsoever!! Take a WILD guess what happens next?!?! The writers just were a bit lazy in this one.