During the course of the Hopalong Cassidy series, the composition of Hoppy's two sidekicks often changed. Both the handsome younger guy and the grizzled old coot sidekicks are basic archetypes for the series...but who played them varied. The most stable of the two was the old coot. Gabby Hayes played Windy in almost all the early films and later the majority of the times Andy Clyde played California...but in between the studio tried with several others that just didn't seem to fit in very well...such as Britt Wood as Speedy, Frank Darien as Pappy and, in this film, Harvey Clark as Baldy. Sadly, whether Clark would have worked in this role or not, it was his only Cassidy film since he died soon after making this movie!
When the film begins, the Englishwoman Lorna Drake arrives to take control of her family's ranch. This woman is essentially a one-dimensional cartoon, as she seems very unreal...too haughty, too nasty and too much of a know-it-all to be realistic in the old west. To say she's abrasive and unbelievable is pretty much on point.
Lorna immediately takes a dislike for Hoppy...Lord knows why. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, she decides to seduce him...which is super unlikely as in nearly every film, Hoppy is either asexual or shows a mild dislike of dating and female company. Her fiance becomes jealous and enlists the help of a local baddie, Scar, to kill Cassidy. Naturally, the plan backfires and Lorna is nearly killed instead. Can Hoppy save the day as well as tame this shrew?
As I mentioned above, Lorna is a ridiculous character...so abrasive and annoying that I almost stopped watching the movie. Yes, she's THAT bad!! My advice is to resist the urge to stop and stick with it. It does improve....but she STILL remains annoying and hateful. In fact, unlike all the other reviews now posted, I do think this character ruined the movie...making it hard to enjoy. I am a very kind man and would never strike any woman...but Lorna is so awful that I just wanted to see Hoppy punch her in the mouth! That is NOT a glowing endorsement of this film, that's for sure!!
