Forty Thieves (1944) User Reviews

"You'll leave, alright, riding, walking or feet first."

[zeppo-2 · 6/10 · 28 June 2005]

This episode of the series hits the ground running from the first scene as Hoppy cleans up the territory while newspaper proclaim this with banner headlines.

It's a shoe-in that Hoppy will be re-elected town sheriff, that is until parolee, Tad Hammond rides into town. Still smarting from been sent up the river by Hoppy years earlier, he vows revenge and with the help of the local gangs, he rigs the election. Saloon owner, Doyle is installed as puppet sheriff and the crooks think they've won. Up to the point where Hoppy gives them an ultimatum to leave town and gives the warning of what will happen if they don't in the summary above.

Hoppy has his black duds on and his steely gaze is full on too. Even California proves he isn't quite the bumbling comic relief when he saves Hoppy from a back-shooter. Sadly, Jimmy Rogers is useless and just gets tied up at any occasion.

Good action all the way through with a big shoot out at the finale and a classic fight on a swaying rope bridge above the river. All of which may be clichés now but still entertaining just the same.

Pop Sherman Rides Into the Sunset!

[bsmith5552 · 7/10 · 23 April 2005]

"Forty Thieves" was the 54th and final Hopalong Cassidy series western produced by Harry "Pop" Sherman. It is nonetheless an above average entry in the long running series. It was directed by long time series director Lesley Selander. The production values remained high and the supporting cast was filled with a cast of veteran players.

Hoppy (William Boyd) is the sheriff who has driven out all of the bad elements from the town with the help of his trusty deputies California Carlson (Andy Clyde) and Jimmy Rogers (Jimmy Rogers). The film starts out with several hard ridin' chase sequences of Hoppy chasing down the baddies. One day an old nemesis Tad Hammond (Douglas Dumbrille) rides into town. It seems that Hoppy had been responsible for Hammond's recent imprisonment.

Hammond vows revenge. Since Hoppy is running for re-election as sheriff, Hammond plans to run his own candidate for the office with a little help from his friends. His candidate is the spineless gambler Jerry Doyle (Kirk Alyn). So Hammond calls in the forty thieves of the title to ensure that Doyle wins. The forty thieves include such "B" western veteran heavies as Glenn Strange, Hal Taliaferro, Bob Kortman and Jack Rockwell.

The heroine and love interest of Rogers is Katherine Reynolds (Louise Currie) the daughter of upstanding citizen Judge Reynolds (Robert Frazer).

Hammond fixes the election and Doyle is proclaimed sheriff. Hoppy then decides that it is time to clean up the town once more. He is aided by his former boss Buck Peters (Herbert Rawlinson) and the boys of the Bar 20. After a classic climatic gunfight justice prevails and California provides the standard "leave 'em laughing" ending.

This would be the last Cassidy feature for two years. Boyd would take over production of the series in 1946 and crank out a further 12 installments before moving on to TV in the early 50s.

Kirk Alyn (Doyle) is best remembered for playing Superman in two Columbia serials (1948 & 1950).

"Pop" Sherman could hold his head up high as he signed off from the series for the last time.

Douglass Dumbrille appears in the film...I wonder if he'll be playing a villain!

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 25 September 2020]

During the 1950s, the B-westerns of heroes like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy were hacked to pieces in order to fit them into a TV time slot. In some cases, these adulterated versions are the only ones we have left. Fortunately, William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy) was smart and kept original copies of his films. And, even more fortunately, these complete versions were posted to YouTube some time back....and they are in gorgeous condition and free to watch.

Douglass Dumbrille made a career out of playing bad guys and scum-bags. So when I saw that he was going to be in "Forty Thieves", I assumed that he'd be some evil boss who ultimately would get his comeuppance from Hoppy! This isn't much of a stretch.

When the story begins, Hoppy is running for re-election as sheriff. To his surprise, he sees an old enemy, Tad Hammond (Dumbrille) rides into town. Apparently, he's been paroled and as sheriff, Hoppy is now Hammond's parole officer! Well, neither Hoppy nor Hammond like this...and Hammond hatches a plan to get rid of Hoppy...at least as sheriff. This means convincing a weak boob to run...and Jerry Doyle is just such a boob! But to win the election, well, that takes a bit of trickery, as Hoppy is a popular guy and well liked by the good people of the town. So Hammond brings in a bunch of thugs to do whatever needs to be done to make sure Hopalong loses! What's next? See the film and find out for yourself.

Like all the Hopalong Cassidy films I've seen, this one features two sidekicks...usually one who is an old coot (Andy Clyde) and another who sings and does the romancing (Jimmy Rogers).

While the cheating in this film isn't exactly subtle, the film is clever and fun...like most Hopalong Cassidy films. Not among his best, but still enjoyable.

Stuffing the Ballot Box

[dougdoepke · 15 June 2010]

It's a pretty routine Hoppy until we get to that great suspension bridge. What an inspired piece of action, well staged and photographed. It's Hoppy and bad guy Hammond (Dumbrille) trying to stay on the life line high above the chasm, while knocking the other guy off. It's the movie's centerpiece, and I'm wondering if the tightrope was built for this film, or more likely, left over from a big-budget production. Either way, it's a visual treat.

Anyway, Hoppy's a sheriff mixed up in a crooked election master-minded by that fine arch- villain from many a costume epic, Douglas Dumbrille. To oust Hoppy, Hammond assembles forty thieves just like a frontier Ali Baba. Now Hoppy has his hands full, especially in the main street showdown. Not much hard riding or good scenery, however.

Several notable features. Screenplay is by ace writer Michael Wilson who later penned a number of prestige films, including Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). Watch for Kirk Allyn as Hammond's feckless sheriff. So how does the screen's first Superman become a "do nothing" sheriff! Speaking of feckless, poor Jimmy Rogers comes across like a big zero and even looks a little like a young jimmy Durante, of all people. Not so, the luscious looking Louise Currie. Too bad they gave her so little to do—just count her lines. Anyway, Bill Boyd is his usual great Hoppy, making the whole thing an entertaining 60 minutes

Mediocre Hoppy movie, though some exciting scenes in second half.

[chipe · 6/10 · 18 April 2015]

I found this to be an average Hoppy movie. The first half bored me for the most part. It showed the bad guys rigging the election for Sheriff, defeating Hoppy! In various ways they discourage pro-Hoppy voters from voting, and finally they stuff the ballot box! Hoppy turns in his badge but is confident that the Governor will sense foul play and order a new election within a week. …. The second half of the movie is better, filled with a number of good scenes. ***Spoilers.****

Among the good scenes: ¶ after Hoppy "loses" the election, there is a great noir-like scene in the saloon. The main bad guy, Hammond, who is out to kill Hoppy for sending him to prison, is dealing poker hands to his outlaw friends. The one who receives the highest hand is to collect the pot and agree to kill Cassidy. Hoppy walks in on the "game" in its early stage, and he forces them to complete the deal. He dares the winner to draw on him. There are no takers. He orders them all out of town within 12 hours. Hoppy turns his back on the group and observes them in the bar room mirror as he exits. He sees some reach for their guns. He spins around and kills a number of them, shoots out the lights and gets away. ¶ to make good on his threat that the outlaws all leave town, Hoppy alone, on foot, faces them (all mounted on horseback) on the street. They charge him. See the movie to see how he survives! ¶ it was clever of Hoppy to figure out how the ballot box was stuffed — he examined the ballots and noticed that the non-Hoppy ballots had some different type font for certain letters. different than the legitimate ballots. ¶ at the end of the movie there is a terrifically filmed scene of Hoppy in a fistfight with Hammond on a suspension bridge over a ravine.

Some other observations: ¶ the heroine (who lacks a sweet voice) is surprisingly silent throughout the second half of the movie. She is shot at while in a stagecoach, kidnapped and tied up, rescued, watches Hammond fall to his death from the suspension bridge, etc — and never says a word! ¶ California Carlson's (Hoppy's comic sidekick) often turns me off with his inane antics. Here he tries to eat an eight inch high sandwich. In fact, the other actors (both sidekicks, the heroine, even Buck Peters) were poor compared to other Hoppy movies. ¶ I was surprised to see Hoppy pull this deadly ploy on the harmless inept newly-elected sheriff: as noted above, the heroine is kidnapped by Hammond, and Hoppy is instructed to come alone to retrieve her. Sure death is waiting him. So Hoppy changes clothes with the Sheriff and forces him to accompany Hoppy to the rendezvous with Hammond. So Hammond mistakenly shoots dead the Sheriff, giving Hoppy the opportunity to rescue the girl, etc. Not very good-guy heroic of Hoppy.

"If you can't win with ballots, you can win with bullets".

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 7 September 2017]

It was baddie Tad Hammond (Douglass Dumbrille) who made the statement in my summary line to Jerry Doyle (Kirk Alyn), his handpicked choice to replace Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) as the new sheriff of Buffalo Buttes. It's a good bet the players involved all got a look at Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart in a gangster flick that came out five years earlier titled "Bullets or Ballots". That was the first thing I thought about when I heard the comment.

So as the comment implies, there's a rigged outcome at stake, with Hoppy running opposed for sheriff in an election presumed to be his running away. But Hammond, recently released from prison has other ideas, and his revenge plan includes getting rid of Hoppy once and for all. He recruits forty outlaws from neighboring environs in a show of force meant to intimidate and dissuade local ranchers from voting for Cassidy. The strategy is successful, as Doyle is elected sheriff by a slim margin, with more votes counted than eligible voters! Sounds like this could have taken place in Chicago.

Fans of old time action serials will recognize the future first movie Superman, Kirk Alyn, as the none too enthusiastic new sheriff Jerry Doyle, as long as you can overlook that evil intentioned mustache. He's a goner after Hoppy switches clothes with him, shot by his former sponsor when mistaken for our hero from a distance. The final showdown between Ali Baba Hammond's Forty Thieves and Hoppy's old pals from the Bar-20 ends successfully, but not before Cassidy and Hammond duke it out on a swinging rope bridge, which should give you a pretty good idea of how this one turns out.

Andy Clyde once again provides the laughs for the matinée fans of the day, applying new meaning to the term breakfast sandwich, and later having a run in with a store front dummy, although as I write this, it could have been the dummy thinking the same thing. Rounding out Hoppy's usual trio is Jimmy Rogers in a largely unnecessary role, as he doesn't have much to do except try to woo the pretty Katherine Reynolds (Louise Currie).

The real forces of law and order

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 30 December 2013]

Douglass Dumbrille an outlaw who Hopalong Cassidy brought to justice once is out on parole and he's got himself a scheme to take out Hoppy as sheriff. He imports a gang of Forty Thieves to town and they run roughshod over the populace at election time. Believe it or not, the symbol of western law and order is defeated at the polls by Kirk Alyn who is a no good and weak gambler and is Dumbrille's stooge.

Of course these kind of crooked shenanigans might be good for the big city east and their political machines, but in the west they don't cotton to that sort of thing. In the end Hoppy with the help of sidekicks Jimmy Rogers and Andy Clyde get things righted and the real forces of law and order triumph.

With some of the commentary it makes Forty Thieves is one of the more interesting Hopalong Cassidy westerns made. The screenwriter Michael Wilson found himself blacklisted as a result of the HUAC hearings and I can see why some right wing yahoos might object to some of the content of this film.

I'd give it a look, it's quite interesting.

Losing ground!

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 8 February 2018]

Copyright 23 June 1944 by United Artists Productions, Inc. A Harry A. Sherman Productions picture, released through United Artists. No New York showcase. U.S. release: 23 June 1944. Australian release: 7 December 1944. 5,441 feet. 60 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Hoppy runs for sheriff, but is defeated when all the rotten eggs in town vote for his rival. He decides to impeach the sheriff but gang boss Tad Hammond hires forty gunslingers to stop him! NOTES: Number 54 of the 66-picture series, and the last to be produced by Harry "Pop" Sherman. When the series resumed in 1946, Boyd himself financed and produced with art director Rachmil acting as his associate. In 1944, Boyd continued his grip on 2nd place in the U.S. money-making list of movie cowboys. Boyd had held this position since 1937, except for 1942 when he came in 3rd to Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. Negative cost: $129,925.73. Initial domestic rentals gross: $114,891.40. The last of the Harry Sherman Productions. And no wonder! It was the first of the series to lose money. COMMENT: Some solid action sequences at the climax and an invigorating action montage start, fail to compensate for some very shallow comic relief. Another barrier to satisfactory entertainment in this offering is that what promised to be some lively action material around the halfway mark turns out pretty tame, partly because all this footage was shot without benefit of Boyd's presence. He was cut in later. Outside of a few nice photographic touches by Russell Harlan, some genuine stunt work by Jimmy Rogers, and the charming presence of Miss Currie, the rest of the film is a bit dull. Dumbrille is an oddly dispirited villain. Mort Glickman's music score is strictly "B" material. (Available on an excellent Platinum Disc DVD). The last of the Harry Sherman Productions.

One of the more action-packed Hoppy films

[narnia4 · 9/10 · 22 March 2012]

If you love action, this episode is for you. Hopalong Cassidy is of course played by William Boyd, who does an impeccable job as usual. Outside of a few nice appearances by a few regular bad guys and California, there's not much to say about the acting which is fairly standard. The appearance of Andy Clyde as California Carlson is always a plus, but unfortunately Jimmy Rogers as "Deputy Jimmy Rogers" isn't one of Hoppy's better sidekicks. The story is also pretty standard fare.

In my mind, what sets this episode apart from many of the later Hoppy movies is the action. There are several gun and fistfights and Hoppy and company manage to dispatch of many of the "forty thieves" on camera. The final fight on the bridge scene is one of the better ones out of all 66 movies, and there's also a classic gunfight in the saloon along with other more standard gun play.

Overall, its fairly standard in most respects except for lots of action. The other elements prevent this from being up there with the very best, but it stands out among some of the weaker later episodes.

Gun smoke and politics

[coltras35 · 8/10 · 4 March 2022]

Hoppy runs for sheriff, but loses to Jerry Doyle (Kirk Alyn) when every crook in town votes for Doyle. When Hoppy tries to remove him from office Tad Hammond (Douglas Dumbrille) hires 40 gunslingers to stop him.

Solid Hoppy entry which is full of energy and is quite clever, plus you got Douglas Dumbrille doing his usually dastardly stuff as a convict out for revenge against Hoppy. He cheats in the voting system, causing Hoppy to lose the election as sheriff so he can have a free reign, but Hoppy don't give in too easily.

Forty Thieves is mainly a town western, moves snappily and features great shootouts. Andy Clyde is hilarious as usual as he tries to stuff a big sandwich in his mouth, and Hoppy chortles at his antics.

Despite several highlights, this was disappointing for Sherman's last Hoppy film

[wrbtu · 9 May 2003]

Set in Buffalo Buttes, the opening is exciting as the film starts with a gunfight on horseback. Hoppy starts off dressed all in black, which usually indicates a hit more than a miss, but then changes to a gentleman's outfit before changing back to black near the end. On the positive side, Earle Hodgins has a (too short) role as a drunk, California is in two real (not comic) fistfights, & gets beat up in both, & there are four gunfights. On the negative side, Jimmy Rogers appears as Hoppy's young sidekick & as always, he can't act (unless you consider "slouching" to be "acting"), is not handsome (as many of the young sidekicks were), & gets beat up in the one fist fight he engages in. Great scene: Hoppy puts guns in the holsters of the baddies, but they're afraid to use them; as Hoppy walks away from them, they shoot. Another great scene: a dozen men in a saloon advance at Hoppy all shooting; as he hides behind the bar, he shoots the lights out, then surprises them from the side of the bar. Despite these highlights, this was disappointing for Sherman's last Hoppy film. I rate it 5/10.