False Colors

Although Hoppy appears dressed all in black throughout this film, it's not one of the better Hopalong Cassidy outings. Interesting highlights are a fight between Hoppy & Robert Mitchum (at one point William Boyd's stunt double is quite obvious), & Hoppy's shooting a gun out of Mitchum's hand. Hoppy always had two sidekicks. One was the scruffy oldtimer (first done to perfection by George "Gabby/Windy" Hayes & later played by Andy Clyde as "California"). The second sidekick was usually named "Johnny" or "Lucky." The "Johnnies" & the "Luckies" of the Hoppy films were often handsome young actors who had trouble acting. The idea was to give the women in the audience something to look at, & to provide a romantic interest when "Johnny" or "Lucky" fell for the heroine. "False Colors" makes me yearn for a Johnny or a Lucky, because the "Jimmy" (Rogers) in this film is neither attractive to look at, nor can he act. As a matter of fact, he's the worst actor of any junior sidekick in the Hoppy movies, and he appeared in several of them. Aside from having a famous dad (Will Rogers), why they needed this guy is beyond me! His attempts at providing a romantic interest are unintentionally laughable. I rate this 5/10.