Riders Of The Deadline has Hopalong Cassidy and his sidekicks Jimmy Rogers and Andy Clyde as Texas Rangers with Hoppy taking a fatherly interest in young Richard Crane and his sister Frances Woodward. Young Crane has fallen in with the wrong crowd mainly Anthony Warde and his outlaw gang. Crane has been letting them use his ranch to hide stolen cattle. But he agrees to go straight and Hoppy has his boss Herbert Rawlinson take him on as a Ranger.
It doesn't work out though and Crane is killed for what he knows and Hoppy gets a suspension what modern police shows term a RIP. When he punches out Rawlinson he gets fired.
I'm sure that all the Saturday matinée kids were stunned then to see Hoppy turn outlaw. But patience little ones, it's only some undercover work so Hoppy can uncover who's behind all the rustling.
Robert Mitchum who made his screen debut in Hopalong Cassidy films did his final Hoppy film with Riders Of The Deadline. At first Mitchum only got a line or two, but gradually his roles built up. Usually he was one of the gang and here he plays one with a bad grudge against Hopalong Cassidy for putting him in jail and he doesn't care if he's turned bad guy or not.
This Hoppy films should even satisfy those with more adult tastes in westerns.
It doesn't work out though and Crane is killed for what he knows and Hoppy gets a suspension what modern police shows term a RIP. When he punches out Rawlinson he gets fired.
I'm sure that all the Saturday matinée kids were stunned then to see Hoppy turn outlaw. But patience little ones, it's only some undercover work so Hoppy can uncover who's behind all the rustling.
Robert Mitchum who made his screen debut in Hopalong Cassidy films did his final Hoppy film with Riders Of The Deadline. At first Mitchum only got a line or two, but gradually his roles built up. Usually he was one of the gang and here he plays one with a bad grudge against Hopalong Cassidy for putting him in jail and he doesn't care if he's turned bad guy or not.
This Hoppy films should even satisfy those with more adult tastes in westerns.