bkoganbing Driving cattle through the region, Bill Boyd, Rand Brooks, and Andy Clyde pass a group of rocks called The Devil's Playground, good for absolutely nothing unless you're hiding stolen gold there. That's what Ned Young did and a lot of people are looking for it.Including Elaine Riley who lies to Hoppy and the guys about her motives. But her lies a little fibs next to Robert Elliott playing a former judge who does not let people know he's an 'ex' and that he's a crook which is why he's an 'ex'. This little treasure hunt with a few more participants ends up back at Devil's Canyon where the truth is sorted out and the good guys come out on top. Would it be any other way in a Hopalong Cassidy film?The law in this case is absolutely useless, I suspect Joe Greene playing the sheriff will not be re-elected. Greene is hilarious as the fiddle-footed sheriff who will not let duty interrupt his poker game. Western perennial Earl Hodgins is his deputy who has some decent set of priorities. Nice set of performances, the story could have been better told though.

classicsoncall I've had occasion to view a number of Hopalong Cassidy films over the past few weeks and the Alabama Hills of Lone Pine, California happened to be featured prominently in a handful of them. It's a landscape of huge boulder formations with passable trails, and in the restored Hoppy movies I've seen they're magnificent to experience. For this picture, the film makers decided to give them a somewhat mystical connotation, and for a while there during the opening segment it looked like we were going to see a ghost themed Western. I would have liked it if they followed through.Instead, we eventually learn that a woman on the run (Elaine Riley) is attempting to locate some stolen gold so she could have it returned to a bank in Soledad from which it was taken. She's pursued by a posse of outlaws led by Judge Morton (Robert Elliott) who want the gold for themselves naturally. The Judge claims the woman is his daughter, so Hoppy and his pals have some work to do to sort things out. You know, I've seen it in a few of his films now where Hoppy (William Boyd) almost magically seems to know what's what and eventually brings the viewer around to his solution, but it's only until later events reveal what he's been thinking. In that regard, he strikes me as the Charlie Chan of the Wild West.Regarding our heroine, there's a bit of a twist written into her role, and not to the satisfaction of Hoppy's buddy. The Miss is a Mrs., so scratch off another doomed romance for Lucky Jenkins (Rand Brooks). Elaine Riley made for a pretty heroine, but to be quite honest, she was a terrible actress and her performance pretty much defined the term wooden. She has a pretty extensive credits list here on the IMDb, with a fair amount of TV episode appearances in the Forties and Fifties, so maybe she just had a bad day.

dougdoepke Catch that spooky opening. I've seen a ton of great daytime shots of the rocky Alabama Hills. This is the first night time segment I've seen and it's very effective. The movie itself is solid Hoppy as the Bar-20 boys try to get the stolen gold before the bad guys. Hoppy also has to deal with a portly sheriff more interested in a poker hand than in law-enforcement.The chuckles are also more spread around than California's (Clyde) usual silliness. It's a little hard at times knowing who is chasing whom since the cast of speaking parts is bigger than usual. And, unless my recollection is slipping, this is a Hoppy without a single fistfight! Also, catch that neat little twist with the winsome leading lady that leaves Lucky dumbfounded.In passing—Curly is played by Nedrick Young who had an interesting Hollywood career. As a writer, he penned such popular prestige films as The Defiant Ones (1958), Inherit the Wind (1960), and even Elvis's Jailhouse Rock (1957). Many of his credits were under pseudonyms since he was also blacklisted during the McCarthy period. Not the kind of career you'd expect in a Saturday afternoon programmer, to say the least.

malcolmgsw I know that it is difficult for there to be much originality in a Hopalong Cassidy western.However sometimes you feel that the writers have tried a bit to hard.They have come up with certain story lines and mixed them together but they just don't jell.To add to this the actor playing the villain doesn't do a particularly good job.Also there is a particularly inept Sheriff who is a sort of comic Eugene Palette and it just doesn't work.I would also wonder if Hoppy is so clever why does he do the dumbest things.He is being chased on horseback with Lucky,and California and the girl.They decide to hide in a shack,which of course is soon surrounded by the villains,Hoppy has to give up because they have run out of shells!Wouldn't common sense dictate that if you were being chased the last place to go would be a confined space? So i would have to say that this is not of the teams better efforts.