In the 1950s, many B-westerns by a variety of cowboy favorites were trimmed and shown on TV. This was done with Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy films, and probably a few others. But William Boyd (Cassidy) was smart...he retained original copies of these movies...and today you can watch the entire film instead of a truncated version. Fortunately, some time ago, these original movies were posted to YouTube...and they are the best copies you can find anywhere. The version of "Sunset Trail" I watched was one of these originals.
The film begins with John Marsh selling his ranch to Keller and moving out of town. However, the scum-bag who bought it has no intention of letting John keep the money...and soon his bandit buddies attack the stage and rob everyone aboard. And, in the process, John is murdered. Fortunately for the widow,, a kind man helps set her up in business AND contacts Hopalong Cassidy to look into the murder and robbery.
As you'd expect, Hoppy arrives soon after...with his two sidekicks in tow. In this case, it's Windy (Gabby Hayes) and Lucky (Russell Hayden). Hoppy always seemed to have two sidekicks--one a lover and occasional singer, the other a crusty old guy like Hayes or Andy Clyde. And in this case, he tells his friends to go to Silver City* and wait to hear from him, as Hopalong often liked to investigate on his own.
When Hoppy arrives in town on the stage, he's dressed like an eastern dude....and plays a very funny version of himself. It's actually pretty cute seeing Boyd playing a nervous hypochondriacal coward. But this enables him to look about without attracting too much attention from the baddies.
I love seeing cowboy heroes going undercover in their films. It provided a nice change of pace and it was fun seeing Boyd playing the dude...just like it's fun seeing Tim McCoy (another famous western star) playing Mexican bandits in a few of his films. This is especially true since B-westerns in general have a real sameness to most of their plots....and variety is nice. Overall, it's one of the best of the Hopalong Cassidy films...fun and clever and quite original.
*I checked. There are MANY Silver Cities in the west...in Nevada, California, Colorado and New Mexico...and a few others. I went through the famous one in Nevada...and there isn't much left of the town. Virginia City, down the road, is a great little town to visit.
**In the film, they used the term 'Yellowbacks'. These were paper bills used as currency and which were redeemable for gold. When the US left the gold standard in 1934, these bills were no longer redeemable for gold. In contrast, 'Greenbacks' were dollars NOT redeemable for gold nor silver....and were, as a result, less desirable.
