The fourth of the sixty-six Hopalong Cassidy pictures is one of the best. When Howard Lang is shot, everyone blames it on James Ellison, who's been getting drunk with the wrong people -- including Gabby Hayes as a bad guy with a pretty daughter. It's all an excuse for the baddies to rob and plunder and stuff like that there, and it's up to William Boyd to sort out matters, with a combination of brains, good humor, threatening, and gunplay.
Paramount and RKO were producing the best B westerns in this period; if you want to say that the Hopalongs were the best, I won't dispute you. Because of their strong distribution network and studio resources, they could spend extra money, and it shows here, particularly in the brisk editing by Edward Schroeder. Watch out for old-time comedy pro Chester Conklin. He gets a good gag in that actually contributes to the plot!
Paramount and RKO were producing the best B westerns in this period; if you want to say that the Hopalongs were the best, I won't dispute you. Because of their strong distribution network and studio resources, they could spend extra money, and it shows here, particularly in the brisk editing by Edward Schroeder. Watch out for old-time comedy pro Chester Conklin. He gets a good gag in that actually contributes to the plot!