Customer Reviews

Hopalong Cassidy Ultimate Collector's Edition

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This really is the first time that all 66 Hopalong Cassidy movies have been assembled into one DVD collection. I have been trying to collect them all on DVD for a long time. 16 of the early movies were released as double features on DVD. Those are out of print and are very hard to find. The re-mastering of the movies is great. They are a huge improvement over the VCR tapes. The sound is surprisingly good.

Please note that this collection does not include any of the 52 TV programs. You can get them at Amazon.com under "Hopalong Cassidy: Complete Collection". That set has all 52 programs and 10 movies. Amazon.com also has the 52 TV programs on two separate sets of 26 TV episodes." Hopalong Cassidy TV Collection #1" and "Collection 2".

I highly recommend this item to all fans of Hopalong Cassidy, westerns and classic film and television.

Yes, all 66 Hoppy features are collected together for the first time. Why the whacky title order on the discs? Sadly, because the first 8 discs are identical to the previous Platinum releases. In fact, they ARE the old Platinum discs, right down to the disc labelling (Platinum became Echo Bridge Entertainment). As such, they suffer from the same over-compression, cramming 5 titles per single sided/single-layered disc. Wish I could say that the "new" discs were any different, as they are not. If you watch these on a standard-def TV and the screen is not too large, then they might look OK. Otherwise, look forward to blurring and other motion artifacts. They are quite watchable, but certainly not up to the standards seen on the Image DVD transfers.

Sadly, this will probably be the only "complete collection" available of the feature films. Recommended only for big-time Hoppy fans.

As an interesting footnote....these same guys at Echo Bridge DID try to do right by some of these films by releasing a 4-disc set with only 3 films per disc about a year ago. They looked great...no compression artifacts! Why this step back???

Great idea packaging all 66 feature films of William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy together in one set! Nice extra of housing them in a small reprduction metal lunchbox for that 1950's feel.
As for the films themselves, DVD reproduction is excellent as they are the same masters the Platinum Disc label (now owned by Echo Bridge Entertainment) released over a period of years in separate packages consisting of one disc containing 5 features in each, randomly chosen from the Cassidy catalog. And there's the rub!
If this set were a budget priced DVD package, I could understand, but it's not at an $80.00 list price, so why has Echo Bridge merely reproduced the Platinum Disc releases with new labels but the same format. Randomly picked films in no particular original release order?
This in my opinion would be a 5 star review if only Echo Bridge had taken the time to organize the films in their original order of theatrical release, starting from the earliest to the last productions. As it is, one has to jump around to different discs to view them that way. And I wish to! This was a big letdown for me when I received the package. So the 3 stars is strictly for the quality of the masters used on the DVD's, but it should and could have been a 5
star set!

The customer reviewers who rated this product highly based on its contents are right; those who gave it a poor rating based on the fact that Amazon listed it before being able to provide complete information on it may well have had a point to raise with Amazon, but hardly a reason to give the product itself a bad rating. What would have raised my own rating from four to five stars would have been to present the movies IN THEIR CORRECT CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER instead of the pretty much random order they appear in here. Would it really have been that much more troublesome or expensive to do that?

I only vaguely recall watching Hopalong Cassidy as a young child, but in the photographs I had seen of William Boyd since then, dressed in black with gray hair, caused me to have no desire to ever view his movies or TV show on DVD as an adult. Recently, however, I discovered a couple of his movies packaged with those of three other Western stars in a DVD set at a store and decided to make the five-dollar purchase. I enjoyed the two Hopalong Cassidy movies very much and wanted to see more. The lunch box containg DVDs of all of his movies appeared to be the best deal. As far as Hoppy himself is concerned, he always appears to be willing to come to the aid of those asking for his help, and if one of his pals goofs in some kind of way, the stern look on Hoppy's face turns into a big smile as he's always very forgiving. He's respected by those on both sides of the law, and he's a man with a slow drawl, but quick draw. As a bonus, a couple of my heroes from other series (Superman's George Reeves and Charlie Chan's Sidney Toler) appear in some of the movies. After having been mistaken for so many years, I can now say that Hopalong Cassidy has become one of my favorite Western characters.

I had always hoped to get all the Hoppy Movies on DVD. This package is my dream. I can watch Hoppy and Topper whenever I want with out the fear of a tape being ruined. This collection is for every Hoppy fan. You won't be disappointed.

From Paramount's original idea of a one shot feature version of Hopalong Cassidy back in the mid-1930's to have starred James Gleason, Clarence E. Mulford's two-gun hero dressed in black was saved from a quick death when Silent and early sound movie star William Boyd won the role. From 1935 until 1948, Boyd starred in a series of 66 theatrical features, bought rights to the films to market to TV, produced half hour Hoppy adventures for radio and TV, and solidified his image as the character by marketing Hoppy products. The Cassidy films were always a notch or two above all the series westerns mass produced by Republic, Columbia, Universal and Monogram, both story and acting wise - and the series co-starring George "Gabby" Hayes and Andy Clyde as comic relief were some of the best. I had searched for years trying to find DVD copies of all the features and finally found the entire collection at Amazon. Although the collection was not pressed in order the films were produced and released, I went to the Internet Movie Data Base, punched in William Boyd and got the titles of all in ascending order, printed them on five pages and then added the proper discs and volume numbers - and that is the way I have been watching them. Although Hoppy hit the silver screen two years before I made my debut, I did catch the last releases from 1944 on in my local theater, and then caught the first releases when they played in our foot-square TV late Saturday afternoons. Now, over 60 years later, I again enjoy Hopalong's adventures - and they are still a notch or two above the other surviving western series. Oh yes, I watch them Saturday afternoons. All of the films have been digitally restored with audio-visual enhancement making the daylight scenes bright and shiny and the night scenes rich black and white. I recommend the collection for all my contemporaries and youngsters who just love good western movies.

I HAVE PURCHASED THE PLATINUM / ECHO BRIDGE ITEMS SEPERATLY. ALONG WITH THE EXCELLENT IMAGE TV PRINTS AND EARLY DAYS MOVIES. THE QUALITY IS EXCELLENT EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE NOT IN CHRONALOGICAL ORDER, AND THE PRICE IS FAR LESS EXPENSIVE.

If all you need are the first 12 movies then I give this 1 star, as I only need the first 12. I hope some viewer out there can attest to the fact these first 12 movies are from U S Television Office. For you that don't know, U S Television Office has the master negatives from Hoppys estate. They are first rate. You have rarely seen a western this old as sharp as these prints. There are a few splices from re-releases and theater releases to complete a few of the prints but this is to be expected for films this old. If you're not a Hoppy fan, but like westerns, you'll like these shows.
Update Feb 2 2011. 8 of the first 12 are out on a two disk set. "A true American Icon"

HopaLong the quintessential cowboy what can you say! His earlier films with Windy aka Gabby Hayes had a better story line than later films with California Carlson aka Andy Clyde also the costumes in the early ones are more authentic. These are films that can be watched over and over, great for a Saturday morning. This is a must buy for any Hoppy fan.