Of the nearly three dozen Hopalong Cassidy films I've seen, this is the closest that comes to a ghost story Western. But it's in name only, as right up front there's very little prospect of a ghost showing up, even if housekeeper Matilda Hackett (Una O'Connor) insists on hearing voices and believing in ghosts herself. What we have looks more like a picture about that 1930's pulp creation known as The Shadow, with a mysterious man in black slinking around, arranging to kill the heirs to a family fortune, with California Carlson (Andy Clyde) one of the family members.
But wait a minute! When it's revealed at the end of the story that Hiram Baxter is still alive, you have to ask yourself, why was he killing off his heirs? He wasn't even dead yet! But even beyond that, having seen Baxter's elaborate headstone in the cemetery, how is it that none of said family members ever went to the funeral or the graveside service? Does that make any sense? The answer of course is that a lot of these B Westerns of the Thirties and Forties made no sense at all, but they could be entertaining for the juvenile set who came to the theater in droves to watch this stuff. Especially with a hero like Hopalong Cassidy and a comical sidekick like Andy Clyde.
For anyone expecting a ghost to show up, the story does offer some neat, old dark house atmospherics, along with a secret door that leads to an underground passage and spooky cavern. Lucky Jenkins (Rand Brooks) seems to get framed for a murder at one point, and reacts strongly out of character by pulling a gun on Lawyer Potter (John Parrish) and his own pals, but that's only a temporary predicament. As for Matilda, she did hear voices, but they were human ones coming from her old boss Baxter. It wasn't disguised, so you had to wonder why she didn't recognize it!
But wait a minute! When it's revealed at the end of the story that Hiram Baxter is still alive, you have to ask yourself, why was he killing off his heirs? He wasn't even dead yet! But even beyond that, having seen Baxter's elaborate headstone in the cemetery, how is it that none of said family members ever went to the funeral or the graveside service? Does that make any sense? The answer of course is that a lot of these B Westerns of the Thirties and Forties made no sense at all, but they could be entertaining for the juvenile set who came to the theater in droves to watch this stuff. Especially with a hero like Hopalong Cassidy and a comical sidekick like Andy Clyde.
For anyone expecting a ghost to show up, the story does offer some neat, old dark house atmospherics, along with a secret door that leads to an underground passage and spooky cavern. Lucky Jenkins (Rand Brooks) seems to get framed for a murder at one point, and reacts strongly out of character by pulling a gun on Lawyer Potter (John Parrish) and his own pals, but that's only a temporary predicament. As for Matilda, she did hear voices, but they were human ones coming from her old boss Baxter. It wasn't disguised, so you had to wonder why she didn't recognize it!