Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Dreadfully Boring

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

**spoilers*** The only thing that makes this movie worthwhile is the fine flirtation scenes between Hoppy and Evelyn Brent, a long-time distinguished actress, who plays the leader of the bad guys here. She runs the local saloon-gambling hall, a ranch full of rustlers and a mine she stole from a witless old prospector. Her really terrific scene is at the end after she saves Hoppy's life and asks for a final kiss. At about that time there is some fine cinema photography when Hoppy, at night, shoots Morris Ankrum through a darkened window into a lighted room.The story is quite thin and senseless. One bad guy takes a shot, for no good reason, at Gabby Hays just because he is riding near Brent's mine. The bad guy ends up in jail and is killed there by the worried gang (afraid he'd talk). Then Brent's lieutenant throws a guy out of the saloon and pulls a gun on him, an offense against the local ordinance. So he is incarcerated, the townsfolk inexplicably threaten to lynch him for that (!), so to save his neck he confesses everything to Cassidy.

I have lately been revisiting these black and white B-Westerns, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, the story of William Boyd, and how he made the character of Hopalong Cassidy his own (not to mention how the Hoppy role changed Boyd) is more interesting to me now as an adult than when I first watched these films in the 1950s. Second, I've been reacquainting myself with a broad spectrum of retro/nostalgic film/TV/radio media generally, and these films are excellent examples. Also, Watching the B-Western films of John Wayne (especially the Republic/Lone Star films), the early work of Roy Rogers, and the Hoppy films themselves all have a common element in the sidekick persona of George "Gabby" Hayes, one of the character actors who defined the sidekick role. This particular Hoppy story features some unusual elements, like Hoppy's kid brother Buddy, an apple-chomping villain, a wheelchair-bound good guy, but especially a "woman gone wrong" who falls for Hoppy in a big way, even to the point of letting her feelings endanger the criminal empire she's built for herself. Excellent acting performances also make this film above average for the Hopalong Cassidy body of work. I guess I'd have to say I like them all, but I love this one.

Apple-eating killers, great costumes for the female villain (a different, dazzling costume for almost every scene) and the impressive California Sierras make this Hopalong Cassidy adventure one of the best of the 60. It was so good in fact that Harry Sherman and his crew recycled the plot elements in another fairly good Hopalong titled, Wide Open Town. Although Hopalong Cassidy Returns is by far the better of the two, not only by virtue of being first, but also because more money was spent on the production and each had a different director: Nate Watt for HCR and Lesley Selander for WOT.The dark-haired Miss Brent in satin and sequins plays well against the shimmering, silvery haired William Boyd. Their final scene is worth waiting for, if not for the emotional content then for the technical aspects of lighting and photography.You won't see another like it in the series.

Who ever heard of a town called Big Table? Anyway, it was over run with the criminal element who would knock off stupid gold miners who didn't have brains enough not to come to town and shoot off their mouths about the big strike they just made at their secret gold mine. When Hoppy comes to town as the new marshall things change, you can bet. Good action western with lots of gunplay; and Hoppy even found himself a girlfriend.