Border Vigilantes (1941) - Movie Review

Описание: #Hopalong Cassidy #Western #MovieReviews

Border Vigilantes was a 1941 Hopalong Cassidy movie, featuring William Boyd as Hopalong, Russell Hayden as Lucky Jenkins and Andy Clyde as California Carlson. So the story here is that outlaws have been robbing folks and one of the locals has enough and sends for Hopalong Cassidy and his friends Lucky and California. Dan Forbes, played by Morris Ankrum who I think I caught in Rocketship X/M, suspects corruption and sent for help. The baddies catch on, and he get's shot. But thankfully in the arm, as those injuries heal quickly and easily in these films. Apparently the town's vigilante committee has gone corrupt.

So Hoppy and friends ride into town. The bad guys are on to his arrival though, and there's an ambush! But Hoppy outsmarts the baddie Big Ed and shoots him. They meet up with Dan's lovely daughter Helen, played by Frances Gifford, and she brings them to meet with her slightly injured father.

Hoppy starts to suspect Henry Logan might be bad (and he's played by Victor Jory, who plays bad guys in films like this. He was the baddie in another Hopalong film as well.) Meanwhile, in a silly sub-plot, Ethel Wales plays Aunt Jenifer, who mistakenly things California is her long lost love, for comedic effect, you know.

Hoppy and crew head to town to check things out. They walk into a saloon and "make it look good and tough" and pretend to be baddies in town, not connected at all with Dan Forbes.

As they leave, sure enough, there's an attempted robbery by some baddie and Hoppy steps in to get involved with the shooting.
That night, back at Dan's ranch, Helen sings a beautiful song to Lucky, who is, of course, totally in love. The ranchers always have beautiful young daughters in these Hopalong films. And Aunt Jenifer cozies up to California to listen to the music. California, however, is not interested.
So the next day the raids and robberies continue. Hoppy and Dan talk about it, and Hoppy has an idea for a trap.
The have a stagecoach setup with fake silver to be infiltrated by baddies, but the bad guys catch on to Hoppy and suspect a double cross.
The gig is up, and Hoppy is made, so the baddies congregate to go after him, as he harmlessly tries to drink his sarsaparilla at the town saloon. There's a brief, tense faceoff of Hoppy and the bad guys, when California shows up just in time and gives enough of a distraction for Hoppy to shoot and kill the baddies. Yeah!
Meanwhile, the other baddies have captured Lucky and... they're gonna hang him!! Well, Hoppy heads to the rescue but will he make it in time? And will he survive the epic gun battle at the end? Well, check this one out to see.

Some closing thoughts: I think this is the first Hopalong Cassidy film I've watched that have nothing to do with cattle rustling, or cattle at all, for that matter, It was all about a scheming, corrupt group of vigilantes. And although he's no Gabby Hayes, I do like Andy Clyde as the silly comic relief of the film. Plus every time he does something goofy, you get to hear Hoppy's infection laugh. Seems he's always laughing in these films. I also realize these are probably all filmed in the same locations with the same sets, but I don't care: they do always seem to have an authentic, dusty old west feel. The small towns, the saloon, the ranches and so on. I just like them. I can't just watch heady Citizen Kane films all the time - I need to keep my viewing balanced with a steady diet of B-westerns. Sure the stories aren't deep and they can be cheesy, but I don't mind. I plan to watch and review all of the Hopalong films.