Rustlers' Valley

"Rustler's Valley" is a routine entry in the long running Hopalong Cassidy series produced by Harry "Pop" Sherman. There's little action save for the finale and no fights to speak of.

It does have a couple of interesting footnotes though. First Stephen Morris (aka Morris Ankrum), a regular villain in the early entries in the series, plays a good guy for a change...the heroine's father. Second, Lee Colt who plays the chief villain, became better known as Lee J. Cobb and enjoyed a long and distinguished career.

The story has crooked lawyer Cal Howard (Cobb) and his cronies trying to force rancher Randall (Morris) and daughter Agnes (Muriel Evans) off their ranch. Hoppy (William Boyd), Lucky (Russell Hayden) and Windy (George "Gabby" Hayes) come to their aid.

Curiously enough, Hoppy hires on as Randall's foreman. There is no mention of the Bar 20 (Hoppy's home base)whatsoever in the picture. Hayes had now developed his "Gabby" character although he is called Windy in this series. He continued to be billed as George Hayes until he moved over to Republic to co-star with Roy Rogers.

Rustler's Valley finds Hopalong Cassidy trying to help his young friend Lucky Jenkins out of a real jackpot. The young man has been accused of a bank robbery and evidence planted at the bank against him.

The villains are the usual, a banker, a crooked ranch foreman, and a shyster lawyer all conspiring to get a hold of Morris Ankrum's ranch. The lawyer has his own plans, he's going to marry Ankrum's daughter Muriel Evens.

Ankrum this early in his career is billed as Stephen Morris. But our lawyer is played by none other than Lee J. Cobb, billed here with the traditional western sounding name of Lee Colt. Under any name Cobb is a nasty and crafty villain who has a real mean on for Hoppy.

There's a real nice shootout between the outlaws and Ankrum's men. And Russell Hayden and Gabby Hayes find a really unique way to bring a sudden halt to the shootout.

Hoppy's fans should be pleased like I was.

When the story begins, a posse is chasing Lucky (Russell Hayden). To evade them, he jumps, along with his horse, off a cliff into the water. The folks assume he's dead...but they also don't bother to wait for him to emerge from the water...which is sloppy writing.

Later, Hoppy arrives in town and learns why the posse was chasing Lucky....a witness says he saw him robbing the bank. Now of course this makes no sense...and it's up to Hoppy to investigate. And, the most likely place to start is with an obnoxious lawyer (Lee J. Cobb) who simply oozes nastiness!

This is a pretty good film, though redundant when you think about it...such as having an evil lawyer! Overall, not a great installment of the Hopalong Cassidy franchise...but a very good one despite the opening scene. Plus, like many of the best, this one also co-stars Gabby Hayes as 'Windy'.

If you want to see this and other Hoppy westerns, try YouTube, as the very best and most complete copies were uploaded to the site some time ago.

It all starts when Lucky ( Russell Hayden) escapes from the posse chasing him for a bank robbery with a spectacular horse diving scene. Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) wants to get a good lawyer but Gabby quips, "Don't get that Cal Howard ( Lee J. Cobb) I wouldn't trust him any further than ya can throw a bull by the horns." The next scene enlivens things considerably with Muriel Evans the west's favorite "prairie flower" and her father (Morris Ankrum). Don't miss the sidesplitting scene with Gabby and Dot Farley at the square dance. Also notable work by Howard's partner in crime, mainstay performer Ted Adams.

Born in 1933, I began watching B westerns frequently in 1941, and therefore missed most of the Hoppy westerns when they were at their best. Because Rustlers' Valley (1937) is not as long and complex as several that preceded it, connoisseurs should not be blamed for giving it middling reviews, but compared to most mass-produced westerns of the 1930s it is still quite good, if not among the very best. It is a pleasure to correct an otherwise fine review in this list: the name of the tree-lined town may be inferred from two signs: Griggs Valley General Store and Griggs Valley State Bank. Trees also abound in the scenery through which the good guys and bad guys gallop and the cattle, so prominent in these early Hoppy movies, move along. Lucky, a fugitive from the law through most of this story, has no opportunity to flirt with the only pretty girl in the cast, but, as in some of these early flicks, Hoppy does. She is unusually cheerful, even when it appears someone is trying to kill her.