Mystery Man (1944)

Say, did you get a good look at the Trilling Gang during the opening of the story when all those newspaper headlines blared the gang's robberies? In between stories, the gang looked like it had over twenty riders! That's a lot of bad guys to divvy up the loot with. If I were Bud Trilling (Don Costello), I think I'd have cut a few of those guys loose.The story starts out with a bank robbery in the town of Holbrook, with Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) and his pals Jimmy (Jimmy Rogers) and California (Andy Clyde) on hand as part of a Bar-20 cattle drive. Hoppy and a few of the town locals pull a move I don't think I've seen before - they block the exit out of town with a couple of wagons in the middle of the street. This made me wonder why the outlaws didn't turn around and go the other way, but just as well. They're put in the calaboose by Marshall Blane (Jack Rockwell), and Hoppy can return to the trail with his men.Meanwhile, Bud Trilling himself remains incognito as a well dressed businessman, and hangs around to help spring his top henchman Bert Rogan (Francis McDonald) and the rest of his men out of jail by passing him a weapon. From there on in, it's a see-saw game of the baddies and the Bar-20 crew gaining the upper hand. Trilling even impersonates Cassidy by warning Sheriff Sam Newhall (Forrest Taylor) that Hoppy and his men intend to steal his cattle! Well no need to tell you how this thing turns out. With the help of the sheriff's daughter (Eleanor Stewart), this time Hoppy's guys make a jailbreak and take it to the bad guys for a final showdown among the Alabama Hills of Lone Pine, California. It's a tribute to Hoppy's skill and ingenuity that after so many adventures, he's able to come out on top while all during the story, he spent a good deal of time with both hands tied behind his back.

This Hopalong Cassidy film Mystery Man has Hoppy dealing with the Bud Trilling gang. The title of the film comes from the fact that while we know that Trilling is actor Don Costello he's not known to anyone other than his gang. No wanted posters with likeness are circulated so consequently he can move around pretty freely.Bill Boyd, Jimmy Rogers, and Andy Clyde at the beginning of the film happen to be in town when the gang pulls a holdup at the bank and in a very thrilling gun battle they're captured and hauled away to jail. Costello frees them however and the rest of the movie is a running battle between the Bar 20 crew and the Trilling gang. Costello is a resourceful foe, but you know comes out on top.Costello certainly regretted he and the gang decided to diversify from holdups to cattle rustling.

It's a fascinating comment on "B" Westerns, and possibly on films in general, that one of the reviews on this site plugs this simple Western film as one the "better Hoppy films," while one of the other five cites it as "lesser Hoppy." Both reviewers are right, of course, and each took the time to comment from separate viewpoints. In a world as big as the Wild West, there should be plenty of room for both opinions. Too bad the world isn't so big any more!Black-clad, cool-headed Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) must track down lawbreakers and get the guys in the slammer--and wouldn't it be a surprise to all of us if he failed to do so? Most Hoppy films have a distinguishing hallmark, and perhaps this one's is a Movable Herd and the men who move it.Mystery Man is a low-key, genial cowboy movie with only one song tossed in for good measure, and the sheriff's daughter picking on whatever attractions Hoppy's second- hand man has to offer. For action fans, there is a good deal of gun-play behind boulders and dust-raising in Lone Pine, and' as is often the case, the cinematography by Russell Harlan is a major bonus point, taking what could show as dull chases and enhancing California desert landscape with background mountain majesties and banks of clouds. Harlan turns the ordinary into memorable--lucky us!

Set in Holbrook in the 1880s, Hoppy is dressed all in black (usually a good sign, but not always). On the positive side, there's lots of action & gunfights (four in all), & the heroine is especially helpful (she's a Sheriff's daughter). On the negative side, Jimmy Rogers is as wooden as always, the comedy is not too funny, the plot seems rushed between horse chases, & most of all, there's no real sense of toughness from Hoppy. Altogether one of the more minor Hopalong Cassidy entries.I rate it 5/10.