Call of the Prairie

Hoppy returns to the Bar 20 ranch after a successful cattle sale, but finds out while he was away, Johnny Nelson has spent the majority of his time drinking and gambling in town. When Hoppy and Buck Peters confront Johnny about this, he leaves the ranch in anger and heads for the saloon. Porter, head of the criminal gang that has won much of the money Johnny gambled away, get Johnny drunk enough to tell him about the money Buck has in his safe. Porter and his men ride to the ranch and hold up Peters (using Johnny's gun and kerchief for a pouch), who is shot after giving him the money, but Buck tricked Porter giving him a bunch of blank paper. Porter returns to the bar and tells Johnny that he is now wanted for shooting Buck, and when he confronts Porter, Johnny is overcome by Porter's men. Shanghai McHenry is ordered by Porter to kill Johnny, but is overcome and Johnny escapes. Meanwhile, soon after Hoppy puts the money in the bank, Porter's men rob it and head for McHenry's shack, where Johnny is being hidden by McHenry's daughter Linda. Hoppy also makes his way to McHenry to go after Porter, who has tied Johnny to a death trap and left McHenry to be caught by the law. Its up to Hoppy to save the day. Okay entry in the series, mainly due to the slow pacing of the film by Bretherton, where we have more drama in the film that action, even though the last reel of the film is a nice climax. Bridge seems wasted in the villain, considering I've seen him play the outlaw or badman better in several other B westerns. It's interesting to see Hayes as an outlaw here, but it is in the Windy/Gabby persona he would adopt in the next film. Rating, based on B westerns, 5.