JohnHowardReid In Old Colorado. Paramount, released 14 March 1941. Directed by Howard Bretherton.Cast: William Boyd, Russell Hayden, Andy Clyde, Margaret Hayes, Morris Ankrum, Sarah Padden, Cliff Nazarro, Stanley Andrews, James Seay, Morgan Wallace, Weldon Heyburn, Glenn Strange, Eddy Waller, Philip Van Zandt. 67 minutes. Available on an excellent Platinum Disc DVD, this is an agreeably action-packed, well-written rancher (Andrews) and foreman (Ankrum) versus nesters (Padden and Hayes) outing against magnificent scenery that takes in plenty of gunplay, despite the out-of-place presence of double-talking Cliff Nazarro. On the other hand, Cliff's stupidity enables Andy Clyde to betray more sense than usual (he even outwits Phil Van Zandt's shell game chiseler) and - yet more surprising - take a plausible hand in the action. Margaret Hayes makes a fetching heroine. Hayden can do little with his role, but the part is so small, it doesn't really matter. Hoppy himself comes across in top Bill Boyd form, while H. Bretherton not only contrives an atmospheric use of his impressive outdoor locations but paces the movie along at an admirably fast clip.

classicsoncall I can't tell you how long it's been since I've seen a Hopalong Cassidy flick, but if I had to take a stab at it, I would probably have been about ten years old, so that's going back some fifty plus years! So wouldn't you know it, the way this one starts out left me just a little baffled. The set up has a cattle rancher who's fenced off his property against the encroachment of a 'nester' who believes in free range access to land and water rights. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but in every other Western I've seen with this scenario it's been just the opposite. It's the nester who's a latecomer to the party who tries to establish their right to farm or ranch a claim peacefully. So did the film makers get it backwards? Probably not important.Well anyway, it's cool to see Hoppy, Lucky Jenkins (Russell Hayden) and California (Andy Clyde) teamed up again for a passel of Western adventure. Hoppy and his pals are on the way to Lost River Junction with twenty thousand dollars in cash to buy Ma Woods' (Sarah Padden) cattle, a last ditch effort to make sure she's not foreclosed on at the insistence of rancher George Davidson (Stanley Andrews). Davidson had sheriff Collins (Morgan Wallace) do the dirty work, who voices his displeasure by saying "I'm willing to lay odds Davidson, that you shed your skin once a year, just like all the snakes". Quite the colorful description I thought.A monkey wrench is thrown Hoppy's way when he's held up for the twenty grand, so now the boys try to do a little undercover work to track down the outlaws who robbed them. Their cover is blown pretty quickly by Davidson, but in the aftermath, Hoppy comes to the conclusion that there must be a third party instigating the rivalry between Davidson and Ma Woods. Ma wouldn't have had someone rob Hoppy's crew if she was getting paid for her cattle anyway, and Davidson had earlier offered to sell his cattle to Cassidy for less money to undercut his rival. Getting the warring parties to make peace, Hoppy sets out to uncover who the troublemaker really is.Andy Clyde can usually be relied on for comic relief in any picture he appears in, but this story offered another as well. I got a kick out of Cliff Nazarro's double talk routine as the Woods cook Nosey Haskins. You know, to do it right requires a real talent and this guy's a master. Most everyone simply nods their head in agreement when he speaks but there's no way you could know what he's talking about. I think modern day politicians probably studied this guy.Hey, did you catch that cattle stampede scene when Myra Woods (Margaret Hayes) fell off her horse? The saddle went with her - what's up with that? You know, the first time she showed up in the story, I'd have to say she filled out her dress better than any B Western cowgirl I'd ever seen. No wonder Lucky went gaga over the lady.Well it took some doin', but Hoppy and the boys finally put away Davidson henchman Joe Weiler (Morris Ankrum) to close out the mystery of the third party instigator. I had to chuckle because in virtually every story like this where a large stash of money is stolen, the bad guy who took it is running around the countryside with the loot on him. Don't they know you could lose it that way?

bkoganbing In Old Colorado finds Hopalong Cassidy along with Russell Hayden and Andy Clyde come up from Arizona on a cattle buying deal from the Bar 20. An old friend of Bar 20 foreman Buck Peters needs to sell her cattle because Sarah Padden and her granddaughter Margaret Hayes can't get them to water. They're locked in a bitter dispute with Stanley Andrews who owns the local Ponderosa and controls the water rights. And he ain't about to let no homesteaders have any. Homesteaders by his definition is late arrivals to the territory be they cattlemen or farmers.Padden leads the homesteaders and she's in a bitter dispute with Andrews. But Morris Ankrum of her crowd is looking to get everyone killed and take over. It takes diplomacy to settle this one and Bill Boyd has plenty of both.The romance department in the Hopalong Cassidy series was always left to the young sidekick. Russell Hayden gets a bit serious with Margaret Hayes who would go on to have a good career as usually a second string leading lady.Hoppy fans will go for this one.

Mozjoukine IN OLD Colorado has all the qualities and a few of the faults of this series, which brightened the lives of a generation of little boys (and a few girls). More than half a century later, nostalgia and recognition of the exactness of the approach both make this one rewarding.To start with there's Boyd's painstakingly idealized lead, riding, shooting and attitudinizing. Some of Russel Harlan's most striking mountains photography backs the action, which includes a smallish herd of cattle getting pounds run off them in stampedes in swirling dust. Hayes proves one of the spunkiest of the heroines, actually filmed close to the action, as the herd sweeps by, and managing to take down the bad hat with a rifle shot. The best of the lead trios show up, with Clyde's California allowed to eliminate a look out with a comic routine, after being left holding the horses, and Heyden's Lucky backing off when one of those young women, who seem to prefer Hoppy, actually shows an interest in settling down with him. Bretherton, who did the first of the series, organises things efficiently. The balance between action and basic plot is just right and the comedy is even occasionally funny.Against this is s certain simple mindedness. The cowboys sleep in full western gear. Hoppy manages to reconcile the Nesters and the Rancher and penetrate a dastardly plot with a couple of unconvincing lines of dialogue. Buck Jones and Tim Holt used to ride through something closer to the real world - but what the heck!