Hidden Gold

With Speedy (Britt Wood) having turned gold prospector his old friends Hoppy (William Boyd) and Lucky (Russell Hayden) decide to pay him a visit. After arriving at the nearby town they learn that the stage has been held up several times in recent weeks with the gold from Colby's (Minor Watson) mine being stolen. Hoppy is immediately suspicious as Colby use to be an outlaw before reportedly going straight but he is also suspicious of his business partner as well. When Speedy strikes gold Hoppy decides to use it as bait to draw out the robbers and bring them to justice.

Ex-outlaw turned gold miner, Stagecoach robbery, Lucky going ga-ga over an attractive woman and some shootouts - diverting enough entry, like most Hoppy westerns, but overall a pedestrian one. Lacks the ingenuity in other entries, but hey it got its fair share of gun smoke shenanigans.

In a distinct minor league entry in the Hopalong Cassidy series Hoppy and Lucky Jenkins answer a distress call from old friend Britt Wood about a series of robberies of gold shipments. The outlaws have a marvelous scheme for hiding their stolen loot and it involves former outlaw Minor Watson as a potential fall guy.

Although suspicious initially this outlaw scheme can't fool Hopalong Cassidy for too long. He sets an ingenious trap that almost doesn't work thanks to the blabbing of Britt Wood.

Between Gabby Hayes and Andy Clyde the Cassidy series had Britt Wood as the old timer sidekick for Hoppy. But Wood never really took with the fans which was why he was replaced.

Case in point, during the final shootout with the outlaws and Hoppy and his posse, Britt Wood gets one outlaw and then spends the rest of the time trying to carve a notch in his rifle. I mean really, that was more stupid than funny. No wonder they replaced Wood with a far more colorful Andy Clyde.

Future B picture cowboy hero Eddie Dean has a small part in the film as well, but sings not a note.

If there are any Britt Wood fans out there, this one's for you.

William Boyd was an excellent cowboy, but earlier he had been a good actor in all kinds of roles. I thought he stole "King of Kings," the silent version of the Christ story. Boyd had a cameo appearance, coming out of the crowd to help Jesus carry His cross.

As many times as I have seen that short bit, I still get tears, and chills of admiration for Boyd's ability to express his emotions with no words. It's a beautiful example of silent movie-making.

In "Hidden Gold," he has a more prosaic role, Hopalong Cassidy.

The Hoppy movie character is very different from the book Hoppy, and a better one, in my opinion.

The book Hoppy was a Bar-20 cowboy, but in the movies he was other things, too, including a bit of a detective, as in "Hidden Gold."

He is aided by a very capable cast, including Russ Hayden, an extremely likable young man with some funny dialog here.

A very lovely Ruth Rogers underplays the unhappy leading lady, and I wonder why she didn't make more movies.

That marvelous singer Eddie Dean makes a small appearance, and we get another chance to see the great Roy Barcroft, and Jack Rockwell, and the veteran Walter long, among a long list of talented performers.

Lesley Selander might have been brushed off as "capable" or "dependable" but those are important qualities, and in his hands, this B western shines.

It is also helped by a bouncy score, apparently put together by Irvin Talbot from stock music from such greats as Victor Young and George Antheil, and others, all uncredited, except, of course, here at IMDb.

This is another Hopalong Cassidy feature from Paramount, which means it's enjoyable entertainment, and it's one I highly recommend -- except: The excellent version at YouTube is marred by commercial interruptions, sometimes right in the middle of a scene, rather than between scenes, which would have been bad enough.

Ordinarily I refuse to watch movies interrupted by commercials. Here I make an exception. If you can't watch "Hidden Gold" elsewhere, see it at YouTube. You'll be glad you did.

A pretty pedestrian entry into this long running series. Someone is hijacking the gold from a mine, can it be an ex-outlaw, now supposedly gone straight or could it be his business partner and the shady foreman that are behind it all? If you need me to answer that, you haven't watched many westerns! This plot was hackneyed and old well before this was filmed. Still, the cast do their best with the material and Bill Boyd always puts his heart into the role that he made forever his own.

There's some nice shots of the posse riding to the rescue and full use is made of the beautiful scenery of the unspoilt American western range. And there's enough gunfights and action to keep things moving along to the somewhat predictable finale.

Some nice touches in this otherwise average entry. That tunnel collapse is well done, well enough that you might wonder how Hoppy walks away. But then who worries about realism when entertainment's at stake. So who's behind the gold robberies? As this ex- front row kid (turned old geezer) knows, you just look for the guy with the moustache. Not just any moustache, but the pencil-thin variety favored by those evil-doers from Hollywood.

Producer Harry Sherman popped for a lot of hard riding extras and some gold mining sluice boxes that add color. I hadn't seen comedy relief man Britt Wood before. He's no Gabby Hayes, but does look a little like Shemp of the Three Stooges (that's surely no compliment). I am curious, however, about the leading lady Ruth Rogers. She died young, 35, after what looks like a brief, unrewarding career. She's very much a subdued presence here, and I'm wondering if she was an unfortunate casualty of movie star ambitions.

Anyway, there's enough hard riding, good scenery, and faux shoot-outs to keep this old suburban cowboy happy.