Customer Reviews

Hopalong Cassidy, Vol. 4

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the most outstanding series of westerns began in 1935 from Paramount Pictures "Hopalong Cassidy", under the guiding hand of producer Harry "Pop" Sherman...continued well into the '40s proved to be the most successful 'B' Westerns ever made...based on Clarence E. Mulford's stories, they strived in changing Cassidy's image, which was both original and influential...the hero, played by William Lawrence Boyd, was mature and a man of his word...the plots were solid with a sudden burst of climactic action in the last reel, usually a frantic chase backed by tension building music...the Hoppy series produced by Harry "Pop" Sherman is arguably the best "B" western series ever made...its production values were miles above any other and they always had the look and feel of more expensive "A" features...Clarence E. Mulford's fictional western character "Hopalong Cassidy" came to life through the producing of Harry "Pop" Sherman and the realistic performance of William Lawrence Boyd...as Hoppy aims to do some trailing for cattle rustlers, clean up a wild town and save the under-dog...always filmed in the great outdoors of Lone Pine, California at the foothills of Mount Whitney, beautiful photography is exceptional for a "B" product.

In all, Boyd made sixty-six Hopalong Cassidy Westerns, early films included Uncle Ben and Windy Halliday, both played by veteran actor George "Gabby" Hayes...was a steady favorite as a hitch rack, chosen five years in succession as one of the 10 best money-making Western sidekick stars...like most western comics, had his share of narrow escapes being thrown from his horse, burned by blanks...but that was all in a days work...his one-liners will never be forgotten..."You're dern tootin'"..."Never trust a female, they're pure poyzin"...or my all-time favorite "Persnickgordy Women"...this crusty old-timer stole many a scene from John Wayne, Randolph Scott and yes, even William Boyd.

In this Volume Four we have five films of the following:

RIDERS OF THE TIMBERLINE (1941-B&W-59 mins)
Boyd (Hoppy), Andy Clyde (California Jack Carlson), Brad King (Johnny Nelson), Victor Jory (Baptiste Deschamp), Eleanor Stewart (Elaine Kerrigan), J. Farrell MacDonald (Jim Kerrigan), Tom Tyler (Bill Slade), Hal Taliaferro (Ed Petrie).

This time Hoppy and his Bar 20 saddle pals tangle with loggers...Ed Petrie and his gang of cutthroats are bent on stopping Kerrigan from fulfilling his contract...Bill Slade advises the Kerrigan loggers to quit...when Elaine Kerrigan arrives with a new crew...Hoppy builds an overhead line to transport the logs when the flume is destroyed...Ed Petrie is convinced he must blow up the dam to stop Hoppy and Jim Kerrigan...will Hoppy be able to get there in time to stop the explosion...is there no end to what these evil villains are capable of...this is one adventure Hoppy fans won't want to miss with riders of the timberline!

RIDERS OF THE DEADLINE (1943-B&W-70 mins)
Boyd (Hoppy), Andy Clyde (California Jack Carlson), Jimmy Rogers (Himself), Frances Woodward (Sue Mason), William Harrigan (Simon Crandall), Robert Mitchum (Nick Drago), Richard Crane (Tim Mason), Earle Hodgins (Sourdough), Hugh Prosser (Sheriff Gilcrest), Anthony Warde (Gunner Madigan), Jack Rockwell (Tex).

Hoppy's friend Tim Mason (Richard Crane) gets into trouble with gamblers and runs up a gambling debt...not being able to pay, Hoppy lets him hide out at the Bar 20 Ranch...Mason has become a Ranger, but to pay off the debt Crandall forces Mason to let his group of smugglers bring guns across the border...Mason is found out and jailed for leaving his post...Crandall has him killed to keep him quiet about the smuggling operation...Hoppy is kicked out of the Rangers for aiding Mason...but don't believe that for one minute...it's a scheme between Hoppy and Captain of theRangers so Cassidy can join the gang...Hoppy traps the outlaws and discovers Mr. Crandall the local banker is the brains...the actioin scenes are something to behold...one of the best of the series..

FALSE PARADISE (1943-B&W-70 mins)
Boyd (Hoppy), Andy Clyde (California Jack Carlson), Rand Brooks (Lucky Jenkins), Elaine Riley (Anne Larson), Joel Friedkin (Prof. Alonzo Larson), Cliff Clark (Gerald Waite), Kenneth MacDonald (Bentley), Don Haggerty (Deal Marden).

Professor Larson (Joel Friedkin) buys a worthless ranch from Bentley (Kenneth MacDonald)...banker Gerald Waite (Cliff Clark) learns from Hoppy there is silver on the ranch...after learning this Bentley tries to purchase the ranch, but it fails...Hoppy takes over the mining duties, but there is trouble ahead from Bentley and his gang...plenty of action ahead, with several good gunfights...Hoppy and the Bar 20 boys have never let you down yet with this false paradise!

UNEXPECTED GUEST (1947-B&W-59 mins)
Boyd (Hoppy), Andy Clyde (California Jack Carlson), Rand Brooks (Lucky Jenkins), Una O'Connor (Mathilda Hackett), John Parrish (David J Potter), Patricia Tate (Ruth Baxter), Earle Hodgins (Joshua Colter),

California Jack Carlson has just come into some money from an estate of his late counsin...the estate is divided among seven relatives...the attorney states the ranch is complete worthless...but this doesn't add up for Hoppy, so he does some detective work...an excellent mystery is about to unfold...can Hoppy prove the lawyer is a crook and a cheat...will California make it through another night without being threatened...stand by and watch what happens with the unexpected guest!

WIDE OPEN TOWN (1941-B&W-78 mins)
Boyd (Hoppy), Andy Clyde (California Jack Carlson), Russell Hayden (Lucky Jenkins), Evelyn Brent (Belle Lantry), Victor Jory (Steve Fraser), Morris Ankrum (Jim Stuart), Roy Barcroft (Red), Glenn Strange (Ed Stark),

Belle Langtry (Evelyn Brent) and her saloon is a front for Steve Fraser (Victory Jory) and his gang of cattle rustlers...Hoppy is made sheriff after stopping a gang from wrecking the towns newspapers printing press....Hoppy with help from the Bar 20 boys vow to clean up this town and all the outlaws it protects...Hoppy comes up with a plan to trap one of the rustlers, let him escape so he will lead them to the rest of the gang and the Bar 20 stolen cattle...Victor Jory is at his nastiest with a strong supporting cast makes this B-Western almost an A!

Hoppy's interaction with Windy Halliday (George "Gabby" Hayes) and California Carlson (Andy Clyde) was always a shot in the arm with their down-to-earth humor and sentimentality, theses scenes are pure Americana! Boyd, with his silver hair, black clothes and white horse (Topper) rode into our lives and we've never been the same since...your children and grandchildren will enjoy this clean wholesome entertainment...Hoppy always wore two silver white handle six shooters, never drank or smoked, when the good guys always won and the moral to the story was fair-play...outstanding role model...gotta love it!

William Boyd was my hero, this collection of five films are perfect, clear and give me hope for the future. Our youth should have such a hero to look up to today. Must mention the fact that I still miss one of my all-time-favorite sidekicks though, George "Gabby" Hayes, you're durn tootin'!

Paramount and Clarence E. Mulford's fictional western character Hopalong Cassidy comes to life through William Boyd as Hoppy and Andy Clyde as California with films from the '40s...horse operas directed by Lesley Selander and George Archainbaud...some of the best hard riding and smokin' gunplay that ever came across the big screen from the Bar 20 boys...just the way we like 'em.

Total Time: 385 mins (5 films) DVD ~ Platinum Disc Corp 20759 ~ (7/27/2004)

Marvelous! Five,yes 5, Hopalong Cassidy B Westerns for less than half the price that one could reasonably expect to pay for one. Image Entertainment's 'Hopalong Cassidy - The Early Years' are priced at around $22.00 for just two movies. So, these get five stars for value, five stars for quality (all movies are digitally remastered) and an average three and a half stars for production values of the movies themselves. (I rate most B Westerns between One and a half and three and a half stars as all are low to medium budget; at best) These are the later years, 1940 plus, and have stars like Robert Mitchum in the early stages of his career.
I've not a lot to say about the movies themselves with the exception of 'Wide Open Town' (1941) because you know what to expect with regards to this type of film and none of these will disappoint. 'Wide Open Town' is a remake of 'Hopalong Cassidy Returns' (1936) and has some interesting observations which I shall share.
1) Evelyn Brent the saloon owner and boss of the villians, she plays the same role in both, even some of the dialog is word for word identical; which means the producers must have reworked and borrowed heavily from the same script.
2) In 'Hopalong Cassidy Returns' Morris Ankrum (aka Stephen Morris) plays Evelyn Brent's henchman 'Blackie' and he foully murders the local crippled newspaper editor. In 'Wide Open Town' Morris Ankrum plays the part of the newspaper editor and is on the side of "Hoppy". Comedy relief is ably carried out by Andy Clyde as California instead of George 'Gabby' Hayes 'Windy Holiday'.
In spite of the above, these two movies are not entirely the same and the remake has some different twists in the story. The ending is a little happier!
I've purchased all of the first four volumns and have received two to date, Vols 1 & 4. I expect delivery of vols 2 & 3 any day now. I have also ordered, from Amazon, vols 5 to 8; 40 movies for $82.00 including postage and packing to Australia; unbelievable!!!
I would like to point out that these aren't Region 1 encoded as stated by Amazon. They are ALL REGIONS and can be played anywhere in the world. No matter where you live you can purchase these with confidence.

Hoppy let's us move from the west to the tall timber country in "Riders of the Timerline". He and California Carlson help catch a band of crooks who want to cut down and destroy precious mountain ridges full of trees.

Anyone who is not only a Hoppy fan, can also enjoy the early career of Robert Mitchum. He got his start in the early Hoppy movies and appears always as one of the bad guys in these western classics.

If you like shoot outs, horseback chases through beautiful locations, heros who understand values and principles, funniest side kicks to have ever been filmed, and just plain good American West fun, then you must have this classic collection of Hopalong Cassidy movies. You can let your children watch them and be a kid with them in these clean wholesome movies.

Platinum did a great job digitally re-mastering these five black & white movies from the 30's and 40's. Sound and picture quality is very good.

The quality is so good that you will think you are watching brand new prints in the best theater on Main Street in the 1940s. Actually it's probably better than that. The intro says these digital re-masters were done by a company named "US Television Office, Inc.". For goodness sake, every person or studio who has old prints TAKE THEM TO "US TELEVISION OFFICE, INC." AND GET THEM RE-MASTERED. Platinum has released 8 volumes of these Hoppy feature films and I own all 8. But for some strange reason, probably only known to some "power lunch" executive, they did not number the volumes...so you will just have to tell the difference by the numbers Amazon gives them. They are worth twice or 3 times the price. There were 66 Hopalong Cassidy films made starring William Boyd, and you can own 40 of them with these 8 volumes at a slim price.

What you have to remember is that the Paramount films from the 1930s and 40s were superb in every detail, but the earliest were already released through Image Entertainment as double features (those are also on Amazon for purchase). These are the second best, ignoring the last twelve that William Boyd produced himself, which drag and are very slooowww. So slow in fact that when he edited them into TV features in the 1950s, they work better as 25 minute episodes. But overall, the picture quality is superb and so is the sound. These used to sell on VHS as single features at $14.95 each so five of them for a little more than a buck a piece is a bargain and worth the price. This company released eight DVDs, by the way, for a total of 40 of the 66 movies. I recommend you buy all eight of them.

If you are like me, and you like westerns, gunfights, horses, and cowboys, you will be sure to like any of Hopalong Cassidy's movies. From his horse Topper, down to halarious sidekicks, disappointment should be out of the question.

This item arrived quickly and in good condition. The good guys always win and ride off into the sunset. Thanks to whoever restored these movies.

This review covers all 8 volumes of this Hopalong Cassidy Collection. First, I should admit that I have been a "Hoppy" fan since I first saw his television show in the 50's. I was lucky enough to go to Hoppyland Amusement Park and shake his hand. I had not seen most of these films before ordering this volume.
I was very hesitant to order, because there are 5 films on each disc. I figured they must be lousy transfers, so I just ordered this one at first. I was pleasently surprised by the quality of the transfers, and went on to order the other seven volumes. By the way, I'm watching these on a 65 inch HDTV, and they look very good.
At $6.99 for each volume, how can you go wrong? Hoppy was my favorite because he set the example of how to conduct yourself. Clean living, honest, friendly and fearless. When he does get angry, there isn't another western star that can look as intense and ready to swing into action. He was also the only "good guy" to wear all black. He had the most infectious laugh of any actor I can recall.
These are great sets, and are a bargain not to be missed if you are a fan of Hopalong Cassidy.