Ferradura Fatal

There are several odd things about this film: 1) it contained three songs (a lot for a Hoppy movie), that really slowed things down quite a bit; 2) the songs were all sung by the baddies, a highly unusual feature which made it appear that they were the good guys; 3) Hoppy, as prophet, predicted that some day men will fly (since he predicted this in the "1870s," perhaps he was in the wrong field as a horse rancher!); 4) William Boyd actually did some of his own stunt work; & 5) the plot was unusually complicated for a Hoppy film. On the positive side were seeing Boyd looking to be in his prime, dressed in the all-black outfit, an impassioned speech by Hoppy on the virtues of the Mustang, veteran character actor Frank Lackteen effective as a baddie, & an interesting story. On the negative side were the songs, the slow moving plot, & the inferior humor provided by Gabby Hayes substitute Britt Wood (as "Speedy," a one-joke wonder). I found a lot to like about this film, but in the end I felt that something was missing. Only a 6/10.