You didn't have many B movie cowboy heroes ever appear in a suit and tie. John Wayne did it in the following year's picture "Dakota", where it suited his profession as a gambler and businessman. William Boyd looks quite dapper in his well tailored suit and tie in this one, until he falls into that oil slick posing as a mud hole. You have to give the guy credit for taking that dive, he sure came out a mess.
All in service to the story of course, in which Hoppy poses as an East Coast Boston attorney who was ambushed in the opening sequence. Hoppy and his pals Jimmy (Jimmy Rogers) and California (Andy Clyde) ride in to make the save, but not before attorney James Corwin (Nelson Leigh) got shot for his trouble by bad guy Sam Miller (Frances McDonald). Unless my hearing is worse than I thought, it sounded to me like Sam's last name was Miller, but in the credits he's listed as 'Nolan'. You can judge for yourself.
The story is a typical one for Westerns of the era. Greedy town attorney (are there any other kind?) J.K. Trimble (Russell Simpson) is calling in loans on local ranchers and repossessing their properties when they fail to make a payment. The primary reason, as mentioned above, is the fact that most of the land around contains oil deposits, which the astute Hopalong Cassidy recognizes as the mineral resource that's making John D. Rockefeller a wealthy man. Trimble's principal henchman is Ace Maxson (Don Costello), who gets his due in the showdown shootout between Hoppy's good guys and the larcenous Trimble bunch. As for Trimble, well, let's just say he provided new meaning to the term 'oily' businessman.
The action takes place in and around the Virginia Curtis (Mady Correll) Ranch in Glenby, Texas, but here's what I don't understand about the story. James Corwin was her cousin from Boston, and half owner of the ranch with Virginia. When he heard from Virginia about Trimble buying up the properties around her under suspicious circumstances, he decided to head West to help her out. My question is - why would he overshoot Texas and wind up near Prescott, Arizona, home of Hoppy's Bar-20 Ranch? The map of the trail Hoppy and his pals took traversed Arizona, New Mexico and Texas before ever arriving in Glenby!
All in service to the story of course, in which Hoppy poses as an East Coast Boston attorney who was ambushed in the opening sequence. Hoppy and his pals Jimmy (Jimmy Rogers) and California (Andy Clyde) ride in to make the save, but not before attorney James Corwin (Nelson Leigh) got shot for his trouble by bad guy Sam Miller (Frances McDonald). Unless my hearing is worse than I thought, it sounded to me like Sam's last name was Miller, but in the credits he's listed as 'Nolan'. You can judge for yourself.
The story is a typical one for Westerns of the era. Greedy town attorney (are there any other kind?) J.K. Trimble (Russell Simpson) is calling in loans on local ranchers and repossessing their properties when they fail to make a payment. The primary reason, as mentioned above, is the fact that most of the land around contains oil deposits, which the astute Hopalong Cassidy recognizes as the mineral resource that's making John D. Rockefeller a wealthy man. Trimble's principal henchman is Ace Maxson (Don Costello), who gets his due in the showdown shootout between Hoppy's good guys and the larcenous Trimble bunch. As for Trimble, well, let's just say he provided new meaning to the term 'oily' businessman.
The action takes place in and around the Virginia Curtis (Mady Correll) Ranch in Glenby, Texas, but here's what I don't understand about the story. James Corwin was her cousin from Boston, and half owner of the ranch with Virginia. When he heard from Virginia about Trimble buying up the properties around her under suspicious circumstances, he decided to head West to help her out. My question is - why would he overshoot Texas and wind up near Prescott, Arizona, home of Hoppy's Bar-20 Ranch? The map of the trail Hoppy and his pals took traversed Arizona, New Mexico and Texas before ever arriving in Glenby!