This film, although not bad, moves along at quite a leisurely pace. There are a couple of interesting plot elements, but there's also a greater amount of riding back & forth from place to place, with no action, than usual. "Doomed Caravan" struck me as almost a "filler" in the series, which lacked some of the gusto of other Hoppy films. Thankfully, there are no songs. The humor is standard California fare, not nearly as funny as other California skits. There are only three gunfights that Hoppy's involved in, & he only nicks one baddie, although there are a couple of good fight scenes. Interesting note: Andy Clyde is listed as "California Jack" in the credits, as he was in his first appearance in a Hoppy film. Blooper?: in one scene, Minna Gombell ("Jane") is seen holding a small automatic pistol. Just when was this film supposed to have been set? In a following scene, she is shown with a revolver, as she had used earlier in the movie. This seems to be too obvious to be a blooper, so what was the point? Was the property master working on a gangster film at the same time as this one? For those of you who are keeping score, Hoppy wears the black hat, but has a tan shirt & lighter colored pants, only one good sign out of three, & one which accurately predicted the quality of this film! (see my other Hoppy reviews for an explanation). I rate this only 5/10.
Review of Doomed Caravan
