Byrdz
Once again, Hopalong Cassidy and his faithful companions Windy, Lucky and Topper are involved with dastardly villains who rustle, lie, cheat and do all sorts of other mean and nasty stuff.Windy and Lucky are still squabbling like little kids.The scenery is beautiful and the rocks look familiar from dozens of other westerns filmed at the same location.One of the better Hoppy films with interesting characters and plot twists and turns ... some of which come as surprises.*I wrote a more detailed review about a month ago when I saw the film but it's in someone's wastebasket or reject file so this one will have to do for now.
bkoganbing
The song Silver On The Sage was introduced in 1938 in a big budget Paramount western The Texans that starred Randolph Scott and Joan Bennett. The following year it serves as the title to this Hopalong Cassidy western. In fact you can hear the song on a lot of subsequent Hoppy films.However this film finds Hoppy turning over the herd they are selling to Russell Hayden and Gabby Hayes. But that Bar 20 herd is stolen before the buyer counts and takes possession. Hayden is on the hook for the price of the herd.The villain of the story is Stanley Ridges playing a dual role. Very handy to have a twin when you need an alibi. Hoppy goes incognito as a tinhorn gambler to get the evidence needed.These rustlers have quite a racket going with their twin bosses. The shootout climax is one of the better ones from Hoppy series.Nice title song and the movie is enough to make anyone a Hopalong Cassidy fan.
Seaver257
With Windy and Lucky getting more of a featured play in this movie lent itself to take on a much different feel. I really enjoyed the way that these two characters developed and you really identified more with them in this film, than most of the Hoppy adventures. Of course the main part of the Hero was played well by Boyd and I got the feeling he really enjoyed watching Lucky and Windy step up to featured roles for part of the film! Great Movie!
wrbtu
One of the last Hopalong Cassidy movies to feature Gabby Hayes (as "Windy"). Gabby & Russell Hayden (as "Lucky") have larger roles than usual in this film, & Hoppy appears only after the first 9 minutes have gone by! There isn't too much action until near the end of the film, but this movie is well done & interesting. Windy claims to be the well known stagecoach robber named Black Bart, & even has "Wanted" posters printed with his photo on them. For Hoppy completists, we learn that Windy carries a Remington 1876 reissue revolver (unloaded!). For added fun, there's also a quite noticeable blooper at the end. Windy leaves on his horse, & Hoppy mounts Topper to follow him, but Topper's first step is into a bucket of water! William Boyd (as "Hopalong Cassidy"), a pro with many years of acting experience, looks down to see what happened on both sides of Topper, with a startled expression, but continues the scene as written! His laughter is on cue for Windy's departure, but also fits Topper's accidentally stepping into the bucket of water. I give it 8/10.
AD
