Border Patrol

If you're a Jolly fan this is a very enjoyable film. It really needs to be restored and reblocked. It has big stars that give fine performances like Geroge Reeves and Robert Mitchum.

"Border Patrol" is yet another entry in the long running Hopalong Cassidy series produced by Harry "Pop" Sherman between 1935 and 1944. The "Hoppy Trio" consists of Hoppy (William Boyd), California (Andy Clyde) and Johnny Travers (Jay Kirby). This time the boys are members of the Border Patrol of the title.

The story opens with the trio coming upon a fleeing Mexican worker who has been shot trying to escape to his homeland. Mexican ranch owner Inez La Baroa (Claudia Drake) comes upon them and accuses them of murdering her ranch hand. She takes them to the Commandant of the Mexican Border Patrol (Duncan Renaldo) who straightens things out. It seems that Mexican migrant workers have been crossing the border to work in the U.S. never to be heard from again. Hoppy decides to investigate the matter.

The trail leads to the town of Siver Bullet run by a Judge Roy Bean type named Orestes Krebs (Russell Simpson) who has the boys arrested. Krebs is an everyman in the town being mayor, sheriff and judge, among others. With the aid of Inez they overpower jailer Pierce Lydon and escape. They discover that Krebs has been imprisoning the Mexican workers led by Don Enriquez Perez (George Reeves) and forcing them to work in his silver mine. Well, Hoppy and the boys soon rectify that situation.

Frequent series director Lesley Selander gives us an action packed adventure with plenty of fisticuffs and gunfights, as well as, the customary spectacular outdoor scenery which was common to the series.

This film is also notable for the screen debut of Robert Mitchum who plays a Krebs gunman. Mitchum would go on to appear in several other Hoppys before his breakthrough role in "The Story of G.I. Joe" (1944). George Reeves, who would gain greater fame as TV's "Superman", appears briefly as the leader of the Mexican workers. He too would play a variety of roles in the series, even so far as to appear as one of the "Hoppy Trio" in a couple of pictures. Russell Simpson was perhaps better known as Pa Joad in John Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940). Duncan Renaldo would shortly achieve fame as "The Cisco Kid" in a series produced by Monogram Pictures and a subsequent TV series.

Top notch Hoppy.

Hoppy, California, & Johnny are all Texas Rangers (I guess they had very loose hiring criteria if California got in!). Hoppy's dressed in all black throughout the film (this is important to those of us who know that his black outfit signifies "he means business" & his rancher's & other outfits signify "he's only fooling around & trying to act like someone other than "Hoppy"). The setting is Silver Bullet, Texas, & no, The Lone Ranger is not in this movie, although practically everyone else is! George Reeves (Superman) is here; he plays a Mexican & is on screen for only a few moments. Duncan Renaldo (The Cisco Kid) is here, & has a nice role as a Mexican police commandant. Robert Mitchum plays his usual (for his early days in the westerns) baddie. Claudia Drake actually has a more significant role in the film than anyone other than Hoppy himself. There's good action (4 gunfights), good humorous situations, & overall it's quite nicely done, with good production values. I rate it 8/10.

A number of Hoppy films revolve around a mining background, they sure wanted to get their money's worth out of that particular mine setting! This time it's a crook who is using forced labour to run his mine.Hoppy tracks missing Mexican labourers to both the mine and town that is ruled by the elaborately named villain, Orestes Krebs.

Framed by Krebs as both judge, jury and executioner, Hoppy, California and Johnny are sentenced to hang. Initially suspected to be outlaws by the leading lady, Claudia Drake as Inez, (a common occurrence it seems for Hoppy and his companions), she does however see the light and helps the friends to clean up the whole crooked town.

A fairly lightweight entry in the series, with enough action and story to keep things bubbling to the end. Krebs makes a suitable evil schemer, who doesn't know when he's beaten and Hoppy gets plenty of opportunity to use his patented steely gaze at the proceedings.

More plot-heavy than most. The trio are Texas Rangers trying to bust up a silver mine operation that's luring Mexican illegals (sound familiar?) across the border. On the way, they have to get past a cantankerous Mexican senorita (Drake) and a petty tyrant—hanging judge (Simpson). Some good scenery, especially the roaring Kern River, long a favorite of these oaters. Clever action climax does a neat twist on the old circle-the-wagons maneuver. I also like the charming dinner scene with the Commandant (Renaldo) that's well scripted and nicely played.

There's also a couple of interesting lesser-knowns to add to the stars-of-the-future list (Mitchum, Reeves, Renaldo). Claudia Drake managed a shot at immortality by landing a key role in the noir cult classic Detour (1945). Here, she gives a spirited performance as the willful senorita that really over-shadows everyone else. However, perhaps most notable and surprising is the screenplay. It's credited to Michael Wilson who later penned such A-list classics as A Place in the Sun (1951), Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), and Lawrence of Arabia (1962), among others. A victim of the early-50's blacklist, several of these were written undercover, but have since been restored to his credit list. Here, the plot deals with such potential political themes as exploited workers, a company town, and a rich man making up his own laws. So, perhaps Wilson's participation is not so surprising after all.