Pirates on Horseback (1941)

A Paramount Picture, relased 23 May 1941. Director: Lesley Selander. Players include William Boyd, Russell Hayden, Andy Clyde, Eleanor Stewart, Morris Ankrum, William Haade, Dennis Moore, Henry Hall, Britt Wood. 69 minutes. (Available on an excellent Platinum Disc DVD). This one starts off with a bang, but unfortunately that initial promise is slowly whittled away when Hoppy and his comrades make their belated entrance. True, it still has its moments (thanks mostly to villainous Morris Ankrum and the lovely Eleanor Stewart), and its real locations are superbly photographed. Unfortunately scriptwriters Ethel La Blanche and J. Benton Cheney obviously decided to pander to the Saturday matinee audience by making our genial Hoppy helpful enough, but rather slow on the uptake. A ten-year-old could work out the clue to the gold mine right from the very moment it's presented. On the other hand, it takes the slow-witted Hoppy almost the entire movie - and even then he achieves the solution only by accident. Naturally, Russell Hayden is too bewitched by Eleanor to be of much help (we don't blame him!), while garrulous Andy Clyde of course is both too stupid and too self-absorbed.

Britt Wood who was a sidekick of Hopalong Cassidy for a few films makes a return to the series in Pirates On Horseback. But it's only a brief return as Wood is killed for the location of his hidden gold mine.The location of which is something that Eleanor Stewart his niece would also like to know. The only clue is a cryptic message left by Wood that Hoppy, Johnny, and California have a time getting a hold of.Sad to say for our cowboy hero he and the sidekicks have to tell a white lie to get dealt in on this game. Andy Clyd pretends he's a relative. When they're caught at it by the real villain, smooth gambler Morris Ankrum it's almost the end.The cryptic clue is something along the lines that both Glenn Ford and William Prince were trying to decipher in Lust For Gold. Let's say Hoppy had better success.Hoppy fans will like this.

Pirates On Horseback is a somewhat unorthodox Hoppy picture. For one thing, Hoppy, Lucky and California don't even appear until 12 minutes into the film. The first reel being a pretty hardened Western with tinhorn gambler Ace (played by familiar face Morris Ankrum) showing the audience he's a ruthless crook and killer by cheating in a card game and gunning down the winner when he calls him on it.Ankrum next takes advantage of old Ben Pendleton, a prospector who comes into town bragging about finding Eldorado and dumping nuggets the size of hen's eggs on the saloon bar for all the greedy eyes to see. Of course Ace dispatches a goon squad to get the mine's location from Ben. When Ankrum's heavies get into a gunfight with the old coot it's a pretty brutal affair with old Ben taking a bullet, some shattered glass to the face and making a brave last stand.The mood shifts radically with the introduction of Hoppy, Lucky and California, who inexplicably has a gardening obsession in this film (California's green thumb serves to provide much of the comedy). The middle part of the movie is a nice mix of comedy and excitement as everyone tries to locate the mine working off a cryptic note Ben scrawled out just before he died.The movie certainly never drags, as even during the necessary talky scenes something is going on, whether it be California's embarrassing himself with the Indian, Ankrum doubling back to the house to eavesdrop or somebody sneaking off with Topper.The climax with Hoppy duking it out with Ankrum returns the picture to the mood of the first reel. Those punches look like they really hurt, and realistic details like kicking over a full spittoon add to the frenzy of the fight. Of course Hoppy comes out on top, but it's clear he's taken some hits and will be sore a spell.A good, solid Cassidy film, one that swings between rough Western action and lighthearted comedy. Don't we Hoppy fans watch these less for the plots and more to see Cassidy and company interact and then go mix it up with baddies like Morris Ankrum? I know I do and I wasn't disappointed.A couple closing notes: The opening credits say this movie was filmed at the foot of Mount Whitney, and it is indeed a beautiful setting for a Western.The print on the Platinum DVD runs only 66 minutes, despite the box and IMDb saying it's 69 minutes.

Producer Harry "Pop" Sherman, originator of the Hopalong Cassidy film series that stars William Boyd, is responsible for this well-devised work, released through Paramount, that recounts of gold miner Ben Pendleton, viciously gunned down by henchmen of gambler Ace Gibson (Morris Ankrum) during an unsuccessful endeavour to force Ben into revealing the location of his newly found rich strike. Since Cassidy's friend California Carlson (Andy Clyde) is a distant cousin of Pendleton, he, Hoppy, and their sidekick Lucky Jenkins (Russell Hayden) attempt to locate the concealed lode while simultaneously seeking Ben's killers, but when the trio comes to the cabin of the deceased, they find it occupied by his niece Trudy (Eleanor Stewart). When the evil Ace succours the young woman, in the process turning her head against Hoppy and his friends while planning to defraud her of her legacy, Hopalong and his pals face tough sledding and many anxious, danger fraught moments. Shot in the rugged high country of eastern California's Inyo County, the brief (69 minutes on VHS) film is replete with finely wrought detail and naturalistic dialogue, trademarks of director Lesley Selander who had benefited from his close friendship with Buck Jones, gradually developing into a top drawer helmsman of low-budget Westerns. Additionally apparent is the hand of assistant director Glenn Cook, one of the best at deployment of extras. The work showcases humour as often as it does action and melodrama, all smoothly blended by Selander, while crisp editing and effective sound mixing, especially of the scoring, are noteworthy, and skillful cinematographer Russell Harlan is consistently inventive. All of the featured players perform capably, the beautiful Stewart a nifty rider to boot, with brief but effective turns from Dick Simmons, as a cheated gambler, and lanky Wen Wright as a Gibson lackey; acting laurels go to Dennis Moore, cast as Gibson's principal henchman, who eventually joined cinema's Forces of Good as a Range Buster but still frequently fulfilled roles as a member of the Forces of Evil.