Rustlers' Valley

It all starts when Lucky ( Russell Hayden) escapes from the posse chasing him for a bank robbery with a spectacular horse diving scene. Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) wants to get a good lawyer but Gabby quips, "Don't get that Cal Howard ( Lee J. Cobb) I wouldn't trust him any further than ya can throw a bull by the horns." The next scene enlivens things considerably with Muriel Evans the west's favorite "prairie flower" and her father (Morris Ankrum). Don't miss the sidesplitting scene with Gabby and Dot Farley at the square dance. Also notable work by Howard's partner in crime, mainstay performer Ted Adams.

Born in 1933, I began watching B westerns frequently in 1941, and therefore missed most of the Hoppy westerns when they were at their best. Because Rustlers' Valley (1937) is not as long and complex as several that preceded it, connoisseurs should not be blamed for giving it middling reviews, but compared to most mass-produced westerns of the 1930s it is still quite good, if not among the very best. It is a pleasure to correct an otherwise fine review in this list: the name of the tree-lined town may be inferred from two signs: Griggs Valley General Store and Griggs Valley State Bank. Trees also abound in the scenery through which the good guys and bad guys gallop and the cattle, so prominent in these early Hoppy movies, move along. Lucky, a fugitive from the law through most of this story, has no opportunity to flirt with the only pretty girl in the cast, but, as in some of these early flicks, Hoppy does. She is unusually cheerful, even when it appears someone is trying to kill her.

When the story begins, a posse is chasing Lucky (Russell Hayden). To evade them, he jumps, along with his horse, off a cliff into the water. The folks assume he's dead...but they also don't bother to wait for him to emerge from the water...which is sloppy writing.

Later, Hoppy arrives in town and learns why the posse was chasing Lucky....a witness says he saw him robbing the bank. Now of course this makes no sense...and it's up to Hoppy to investigate. And, the most likely place to start is with an obnoxious lawyer (Lee J. Cobb) who simply oozes nastiness!

This is a pretty good film, though redundant when you think about it...such as having an evil lawyer! Overall, not a great installment of the Hopalong Cassidy franchise...but a very good one despite the opening scene. Plus, like many of the best, this one also co-stars Gabby Hayes as 'Windy'.

If you want to see this and other Hoppy westerns, try YouTube, as the very best and most complete copies were uploaded to the site some time ago.

There's an exciting opening sequence where Lucky is chased by a posse & jumps off a steep cliff with his horse into a river. The heroine ("Agnes," played by Muriel Evans) looks like a cross between Claudette Colbert & Loretta Young (I guess this was a popular look in 1937), but isn't as pretty as either. Agnes & Hoppy have a conversation about his horse (oddly, Hoppy says "I don't know much about his past"), whose name is not mentioned (& later, "I shouldn't have let you ride that white horse"). Which makes me wonder, what was the first time Topper was called by name? I'll bet that other horse owners would be able to say more about their horses, like Tarzan, Duke, Trigger, Buttercup, Champion, etc. Often in Hoppy films, the name of the town is made known, but not in this case, & that's a shame also, because this film's set in one of the more unusual western towns, a town with a tree lined dirt main street, where there are no hitching posts, but the horses are tied to metal rings set in the trees. Question for old west historians: is this detail realistic or complete fantasy? A good film & mildly interesting, but a little slow. I rate it 6/10.

Pleasant Hopalong Cassidy outing. The basic story is about Cal Howard (played by Lee J Cobb), who has learned that Congress has approved an irrigation project in the area, a key part of which is the Randall ranch. To acquire the ranch, first he gets engaged to the owner's daughter, then when that falls through he convinces the local banker to call in a Randall note on some prize cattle, and finally he has his men rustle the cattle further trying to ruin Randall. In between all this, Howard also has the local bank robbed.

What I liked about the movie is it's mysterious leisurely start. The first thing we see in the movie is about a dozen horsemen chasing someone through nice usual Hoppy movie scenery. We don't know who or why. Then we see that the horseman being chased is Lucky Jenkins, Hoppy's sidekick, who is forced to leap off a cliff into the river below, perhaps to his death. Back in town Hoppy learns that Lucky is accused of robbing the bank. Then we meet the other characters at a square dance party. Finally the plot develops bit by bit.

Things I noticed:

I was satisfied with the action, mainly the chase at the start and a wonderful shootout at the end at the outlaws' hideout, highlighted by Lucky and Windy dislodging huge boulders to roll down on the bad guys' cabin.

I am always annoyed by this staple of Hoppy movies: some weird, persistent, obnoxious woman is always romantically pursuing Hoppy's old comic sidekick.

It seemed so unlikely that the heroine (Randall's daughter) would ever become engaged to rude Lee J Cobb.

A minor complaint: it seemed silly and unrealistic to me that the posse on horseback chasing Lucky would be holding onto their pistols as they were riding, when they were so far from Lucky they could never successfully fire a shot.