chipe

This is a must-see Western if only because of the great, intricate, surprise detective- story plot. It was terrific to see Sterling piece together bits of evidence, going from one suspect and plot revelation to the next.

The cast was certainly good, filled with well-known character actors of the time. Yet the film lacked in action and direction. Sterling seemed bored and expressionless. Still the plot made up for everything.

One unimportant thing in the film seemed unnecessary, bothered me and threw me off: John Dehner, who did his usual swell performance, played the important role of Sterling's son's defense attorney, and he was drinking liquor throughout the movie. I was afraid he'd get drunk and ruin the defense, but nothing came of it.

I compliment myself for having the patience and strength to watch this entire movie. IMDb says it is 90 minutes long; it seemed like 2-1/2 hours. Much of it was well acted and written, and I give them credit for doing a decent job of melding 2 or 3 episodes of "The Virginian" together, but it moved so slowly and kept repeating itself. I grew weary and angry as I watched Charles Bronson argue, annoy, antagonize, reject and torture all the many characters (wife, son, fellow ranchers) who tried to befriend/love/reach him — over and over. Whew! The conversations between Brian Keith and the young man he mentored also became boring and repititious. Maybe it is just me, but this is another Western where it is never made clear to me what the legal rights some ranchers have in fencing off or appropriating "open free range." Avoid the movie unless you have a keen interest in some of the people who made or acted in it.

I give the movie a passing grade if you don't think too much, pleasant entertainment, nice visuals and special effects.

I'd like to make two negative observations: (1) I found it impossible to suspend disbelief regarding the action scenes. She's just a mortal (or so it seemed for most of the movie), and she manages to charge lines of armed enemy soldiers, deflecting hundreds of bullets coming at her all at once in different directions (even with her bracelets, etc). (Superman came from a different world and had super powers. Batman was human (like seemingly Wonder Woman) but handled just small crime gangs and individual criminals.) I also cringed at the fierce practice sword fighting scenes among the Amazon women: a wonder no one would get hurt. (2) I am not a prude but at one point in the movie there was continual references to nude Steve Trevor's (offscreen) genitalia -- blatant references and much innuendo. It seemed out of place in a movie like this. Surprised me. I guess we are in a new age.

Wonderful movie. I have become tired writing movie reviews, but I had to write this one when I saw that the film had only a 5.9 User Rating. How could that be?

I chose to watch the film because I am a Hopalong Cassidy fan, who is played by William Boyd, the star of this movie. I had never seen him out of the Cassidy role. My biggest delight was with the actors Lew Cody and Marion Shilling, who was adorable; I have to catch their movies. One of the best parts of the movie was the cinema-photography: the war-time explosions, smoke and noise were great for 1931, and would look likewise today. The film was relatively short time-wise, and it moved along quickly. The anti-war humanitarian theme was the major part of the film, especially the romance, impending marriage and war issues between Boyd (a non-German-American) and Lissy Arna (a German-American). See it, you won't be disappointed.

This has to be one of the worst and most unusual Hoppy movies. It has little of the features that make the Hoppy films a great Western series, like William Boyd's warm, commanding personality and the idiosyncrasies of the other characters. Instead we had to suffer through one long, tedious, convoluted, unbelievable "caper" — Hoppy's plan to incriminate and identify the bosses of the stage robbers.

Spoilers. The stage is robbed, and only a few people knew that it was carrying $30,000 in gold coins. One person who knew is the sheriff, a friend of Hoppy, and the sheriff comes under suspicion. That begins the first of the unbelievable coincidences. The sheriff's children ride to get Hoppy's help, and on the way happened to come across a usually deserted shack that some men are staying at. They mention this to Hoppy, who presciently decides to investigate the shack, and he immediately overhears the men discussing the stage robbery and their taking $800 from the money bags for their immediate needs. Instead of arresting the men, taking possession of the money and forcing the men to identify their bosses, Hoppy leaves everything as is in the hopes of smoking out the bosses. In doing so, the kids and Hoppy's sidekicks get endangered. Finally, when everyone and the money is brought together at the jail-house, Hoppy explains that two of the men still happen to have the $800 on them (lucky Hoppy). (Incidentally, I could never understand what was the use of Hoppy marking the money bags at the shack.)

This was the 64th of 66 Hoppy movies, and it was one of the worst, unfortunately. The few things to like in the movie are: (1) the neat title to the movie, "Borrowed Trouble;" I always liked that; (2) the wordless scenes at the start of the movie — the cowboys driving the cattle through the plains to the railhead; good mountain scenery; (3) Anne O'Neal's performance as the crusty, feisty old schoolmarm was at turns charming and tolerable; and (4) a surprising twist ending when the "mystery" was solved.

Those are all minor good points and are weighted down by the many many minutes of bad aspects: tedious repetitive scenes; lack of action; and California's stupid humor that would try the patience of a child. The plot was no great shakes, relied on coincidences (gifts from heaven). The main story line lacked much interest — the noise from a saloon disrupting the teaching of children in the near-by school house.

Very entertaining movie. Nice pace; moves along to something fresh as it progresses. Very pretty, well-spoken leading lady, Ruth Rogers. Russell Hayden (along with James Ellison) are my favorite young sidekicks, and Gabby Hayes is by far my favorite comic sidekick for Hoppy (Andy Clyde is like fingernails scraping a blackboard, to me). I liked the humor and banter between Ellison and Hayes. It was very funny and cute when twice Happy fired from behind when Hayes was shooting, giving the credit to Hayes. The story was interesting. All the actors were fine. I enjoyed the understated humor, like: seeing one juror at the inquest sleeping; the bar tender trying to break up a brawl by saying "I got some good liquor here; they made a mistake in the shipment this time;" and Gabby haplessly trying to be seen as an outlaw by handing out phony wanted posters with his picture on it (at one point the Marshall turned over one of the posters to use the paper for making notes!). Other good scenes involved Hoppy playing poker, and his noticing who was Talbot and who was the alibi by observing which one licked his thumb while dealing.

***spoilers***

I liked the movie even with these silly director and screenplay mistakes: (1) in one scene I noticed to myself how slow Hoppy was in drawing his gun during a poker game. An then shortly later, I almost fell off my chair when one bad guy commented that it must be Hopalong Cassidy because only three people could draw that fast: Hoppy and two others that he knew. (2) the Owner of the Lazy J Ranch (Hamilton) ordered his foreman, Talbot, to go to the ranch to work, but Talbot went to town. Shortly thereafter, Lucky brings Talbot to the ranch, and Hamilton says he and Lucky will bring Talbot to the Marshall for questioning. Why? Hardly a good reason. (3) On the way to the Marshall, the bad guys have Hamilton killed. Why? I couldn't see a good reason. (4) Unbelievable coincidence: The bad guys ride out to the range and happened to stop to talk right next to where Lucky and Hayes are camping, and the two secretly hear an important conversation! (5) Similar to the above, the bad guys happen to leave one guy behind on the range. And he secretly hears Hoppy's plan that Hoppy will mark his trail (with ribbons) so his friends can follow him. (6) at a close distance, as Hoppy is riding away, Talbot draws and fires at Hoppy, and misses!

To me this was one of the worst, most disappointing Hoppy films. Andy Clyde's never ending comic dialog was childish, unfunny and excruciating. There was hardly any action in the film, save a shoot-out at the cabin near the start of the movie.

The plot was also a big nothing: at the end of the film, bad guy Morris Ankrum gets angry when the heroine won't sell her mine to him. He starts to manhandle her, and Hoppy rescues her. That's it! Not much of a crime to jail him for.

The only fairly interesting and clever thing in the movie was the mysterious clue left behind by the killed miner ("eagle will show way to mine at sundown") and Hoppy's unraveling of it.

As one reviewer pointed out, the title "Pirates on Horseback" has nothing to do with the movie. It also implies action which the film sorely lacks. The bad guy is merely a crooked gambler and conman, some pirate on horseback!

I found this to be a mediocre Hoppy film, as compared to the two dozen or so I have already see.. Usually I find the Hoppy films with Ellison and Gabby Hayes as among the best, but not this one. The copy I saw on Cozi TV had terrible sound. The woman who played the heroine, Lynn Gabriel, was the worst sounding one I have ever seen in a Hoppy film; I see she only appeared in two films throughout her "career." And Sidney Blacker (bland and sluggish as he usually is too often) came across as the one of the worst acted and appealing villains in a Hoppy movie. The plot was decent but no shakes; same for the other supporting actors. That didn't leave too much to enjoy.

Enjoyable Hoppy outing. This one stresses the camaraderie, love and respect between the Hoppy and his two sidekicks, old-timer Windy (now sheriff) and young Lucky. It also stresses Hoppy's great reputation for decency and competence. There is very little action (OK with me) in the first half of the movie. It is fun to hear Windy brag to a young boy how great Hoppy is and how Windy taught Hoppy and Lucky everything worth knowing. Fun also to hear the banter as the three josh each other. Hoppy shows up, but the young boy and his mother don't know it is Hoppy. The mother even tongue lashes Hoppy, not realizing who he is. Finally, there is some good humor between Windy and Lucky about the chances of the mother getting Hoppy to marry her.

The second half of the movie has the requisite action, and all ends well

Wow, the other reviewers here were not exaggerating. This was unlike every other Hoppy film. Some 90% of the movie was dialog with and about the new pretty female teacher. We were repeatedly told how important education is and how many ways the cowhands of the Bar 20 could love her — as a husband, brother, father, etc. Constantly fawning over her. It's OK to devote SOME time to things like this; they add local color, character development, flesh out the characters, etc. But it was way overdone here. The movie became a domestic family light comedy. Only ten percent or less of the film was devoted to the cattle rustlers. My advice is: skip the movie.

One observation: I don't know why the leader of the rustlers caused his doom by planning two events at the same time/day: (1) marrying and leaving the West with the school ma-rm, and (2) rustling the Bar-20 cattle with his gang. He couldn't be with the gang, so they exposed him.

There were 66 films from 1935-1948, all starring William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy. "Strange Gamble," released in October 1948 was the very last Hoppy FILM made.

Boyd also made some 52 half-hour Hoppy TV episodes between 1952 and 1954. Forty of these were fresh (original) shows co-starring Edgar Buchanan as Red Connors. The others were condensed/edited movies converted into half-hour TV episodes, usually with Boyd narrating parts to aid the editing and condensing. "Strange Gamble" happens to be one of the films which was turned into a half-hour episode; it is episode 3 of TV season 1.

I've seen both the TV episode and the feature film, both by the same name "Strange Gamble." Maybe I am too influenced by the TV episode, but the movie seems like cheap, formula TV. That's my review. Nothing positive to say.

I thought this —the first Hoppy movie— was excellent and entertaining. It could have had more action and a better mystery-detective-like plot, but so what? It was rich in character exposition, plus the fine acting, scenery, etc. James Ellison was the best young Hoppy sidekick in my opinion. I also enjoyed the acting and dialog from Uncle Ben (Gabby Hayes), Buck Peters and Red Connors characters. I was touched by the qualities expressed by the whole Bar 20 family: honor, loyalty, friendship, love, respect, competence, etc. Best,of course, is William Boyd's acting/persona. There is no need to repeat plot here as it is done in other user reviews. Key memorable scenes were (1) Hoppy's first introduction to Johnny Nelson, who had only heard heroic tales about Hoppy and had resented them; and (2) Uncle Ben's almost mystical communication with Hoppy to relay clues about the rustlers.

I found this to be an average Hoppy movie. The first half bored me for the most part. It showed the bad guys rigging the election for Sheriff, defeating Hoppy! In various ways they discourage pro-Hoppy voters from voting, and finally they stuff the ballot box! Hoppy turns in his badge but is confident that the Governor will sense foul play and order a new election within a week. …. The second half of the movie is better, filled with a number of good scenes. ***Spoilers.****

Among the good scenes: ¶ after Hoppy "loses" the election, there is a great noir-like scene in the saloon. The main bad guy, Hammond, who is out to kill Hoppy for sending him to prison, is dealing poker hands to his outlaw friends. The one who receives the highest hand is to collect the pot and agree to kill Cassidy. Hoppy walks in on the "game" in its early stage, and he forces them to complete the deal. He dares the winner to draw on him. There are no takers. He orders them all out of town within 12 hours. Hoppy turns his back on the group and observes them in the bar room mirror as he exits. He sees some reach for their guns. He spins around and kills a number of them, shoots out the lights and gets away. ¶ to make good on his threat that the outlaws all leave town, Hoppy alone, on foot, faces them (all mounted on horseback) on the street. They charge him. See the movie to see how he survives! ¶ it was clever of Hoppy to figure out how the ballot box was stuffed — he examined the ballots and noticed that the non-Hoppy ballots had some different type font for certain letters. different than the legitimate ballots. ¶ at the end of the movie there is a terrifically filmed scene of Hoppy in a fistfight with Hammond on a suspension bridge over a ravine.

Some other observations: ¶ the heroine (who lacks a sweet voice) is surprisingly silent throughout the second half of the movie. She is shot at while in a stagecoach, kidnapped and tied up, rescued, watches Hammond fall to his death from the suspension bridge, etc — and never says a word! ¶ California Carlson's (Hoppy's comic sidekick) often turns me off with his inane antics. Here he tries to eat an eight inch high sandwich. In fact, the other actors (both sidekicks, the heroine, even Buck Peters) were poor compared to other Hoppy movies. ¶ I was surprised to see Hoppy pull this deadly ploy on the harmless inept newly-elected sheriff: as noted above, the heroine is kidnapped by Hammond, and Hoppy is instructed to come alone to retrieve her. Sure death is waiting him. So Hoppy changes clothes with the Sheriff and forces him to accompany Hoppy to the rendezvous with Hammond. So Hammond mistakenly shoots dead the Sheriff, giving Hoppy the opportunity to rescue the girl, etc. Not very good-guy heroic of Hoppy.

A very different, but enjoyable, Hoppy outing. The movie has a slow pace with less action than the usual Hoppy film. There are no epic bad guy plans. Just a corrupt bunch of saloon denizens who learn of Buck Peters having cash from Johnny Nelson's (Hoppy's young sidekick) youthful blabbering in the saloon. Johnny gets blamed/framed for the outlaws'misdeeds. Most of the film concerns Johnny's self-loathing for ignoring Hoppy's warnings and associating with the bad saloon crowd.

What impressed me most about the film is that is was it was so skillfully written. Each scene led believably to the next scene.

As noted by others here, the film was also unusual in that Gabby Hayes was one of the bod guys here, though he reformed by film's end. In subsequent Hoppy films, Gabby played the comic sidekick.

This is one of the worst Hoppy films. The plot was unbelievable and weak. The comic sidekick (Frank Darien as Pappy) was also among the worst in the series. ***Spoliers.***

Hoppy is out to help his girl friend whose ranch is being rustled and preyed upon by local rustlers-land grabbers, led by Clay Allison. For no good workable reason (from my viewpoint) Hoppy lets himself get arrested and imprisoned for trespassing (or whatever), and then he convinces Allison to put Hoppy on parole and work his time out at Allison's ranch. In short order, Hoppy sees Allison's men maybe rustling Nora's cattle. So Hoppy rides off to see Nora. (What about his parole agreement?) Meanwhile, Fred is the only witness to see Allison shoot Nora's partner (or foreman) dead. For no real good reason that I could see, Fred's mom suspects her son as involved in the murder and has the son placed in jail! None of this really matters because Allison finally decides to have his gang descend on Hoppy and everyone else at Nora's ranch, but they are beaten back and Allison is killed.

Not much of a good plot.

To my pleasure this was a different kind of Hoppy film, but it retained the best elements of the series — Hoppy's sterling, steely character, and his friendship towards his associates.

The British owners of the L-D Ranch, where Hoppy is the foreman, are visiting the ranch on their way to California. The chief owner is snooty, imperious, self-absorbed Lorna Drake. What is unusual is how Hoppy's love-hate relationship with her dominates the length of the film. In fact, in the first half of the film there is absolutely no bad-guy activities. In the second half of the film, Scar Lewis, who had been sent to jail by Hoppy, finally makes his move: he convinces the spurned lover of Lorna to help him get Hoppy into a remote cabin where they can blast the dam to flood Hoppy to his death. That's it — no robbery, rustling, counterfeiting ring, etc — just a plan to kill Hoppy.

Hoppy's movie-long bickering with Lorna got tiring at times, but for the most part was enjoyable. It's always fun to watch Hoppy's character withstand all adversity and forgive the temporary failings of his friends.

The movie is a double treat because it offers plenty to those (usually me) who like to nit pick at the flaws in a movie, and it also offers plenty to those who want to sit back and relax and enjoy the movie's complex plot, enjoyable characters and happy family ending (as I do for the film). To enjoy the many fine qualities of the movie, you have to shrug-off the many small absurdities and filler in the plot. For example the story tells us that the two leads are expert experienced outdoors-men and trackers, so I believe it. Thus, it doesn't bother me when I see some amateurish moves on their part — like letting some bad guys walk away from an encounter in a saloon; and being shot at in the open so many times and surviving unhurt. There are a lot of unlikely plot coincidences that I just brush off.

I know IMDb has its own method to get a rating average, but I think this film should have a higher average. I see that about 150 voters gave 6 or better, and about 75 gave it 5 or worse — so how did it end up with a 5.7 average? For me the movie is an unexpected pleasure. I agree with those who laugh at the stupid title to the movie, that has nothing to do with anything in the movie — "Desolation Canyon."

This is a fair Hoppy movie. I bother to review it to point out one unusual thing. Virtually all of the Hoppy movies entail some kind of mystery or some clever way to flush out the bad guys, get the goods on them. ***Spoilers*** This Hoppy movie is very different! In this oater, after Hoppy helps capture the Trilling gang (but not Trilling himself, who is unknown outside of his gang) at the start of the movie, from there until the conclusion of the movie it is one long caper: the bad guys getting out of jail to rustle Hoppy's 1000-head of cattle being driven for sale at the Circle J, and Hoppy recapturing and losing the herd, etc.

(1) The Trilling gang rustles Hoppy's herd by sneaking up to the cowboys' downtime camp, scattering the cowboys' horses and making off with the herd.

(2) Hoppy and his men gather their horses, follow the herd, chase off the rustlers and regain the herd.

(3) The rustlers pretend to be a posse of lawmen, get the drop of Hoppy, tie up Hoppy and his men at their hideout, and go off with the herd.

(4) Hoppy and men escape the hideout, but before they can regain the herd, Trilling has pretended he is Hopalong, owner of the herd, and Trilling sics the local Sheriff on the real Hoppy and company, who are thrown in jail.

(5) The Sheriff's daughter knows the truth, so she breaks the real Hoppy and crew out of jail, and they finally apprehend the Trilling gang.

This is one of the better Hoppy movies, with a clever, intricate plot. It is also unusual in that Steve Reeves (TV's Superman) and Robert Mitchum (who went on to super star status), both of whom had minor (mainly outlaw) parts in earlier Hoppy movies, have meaty co-starring roles here.

***Some spoilers. *** The plot revolves around Mitchum's stolen jewels that are worth about $10,000, but the thieves, led by Victor Jory, will take a $3000 ransom for them. Both good-guy Hoppy and bad-guy Jory have an interest in helping Mitchum raise the $3000 to get the jewels back. Hoppy has $4000 cash to buy 100 head of cattle for the Bar 20 Ranch. The cattle are owned by Mitchum's fiancé' who will end up with the jewels as a wedding gift, so $3000 could be used to ransom the jewels. On the other hand, Jory wants to buy some of Mitchum's land, the proceeds of which would ransom the jewels.

Hoppy's $4000 is stolen by Jory's gang, and $3000 of it is given to Mitchum by Jory as part of the land deal mentioned above. Mitchum then takes the $3000 to meet the outlaws and ransom the jewels back. In some complicated maneuvers, Hoppy goes along to help, and he recovers both the money and the jewels. But Jory has poisoned Mitchum's mind into believing that Hoppy is the jewel thief. You'll have to see the movie to see how Hoppy convinces Mitchum that Jory is the bad guy and how Hoppy captures the bad guys.

This Hoppy film seems to have more IMDb "user reviews" than any other Hoppy movie I have seen. No sense repeating the info in those seven reviews. I'd like to add these comments: The story is very simple and straight-forward. For the first 30 minutes it moves very slowly; in fact nothing much happens except that Hoppy is sent off by the Mexican authorities to find out what happened to missing Mexican laborers sent to work in a particular US town. Once at the town, Hoppy and sidekicks are "arrested," find out the misdeeds of the local crime boss, escape, and round up the bad guys.

I noticed three particularly poorly produced action scenes: As noted in one of the reviews here, "Hoppy lassos an outlaw's feet some twenty feet above him on a giant boulder" and threatens to pull the outlaw off unless he confesses.

Hoppy and sidekicks are locked in the local jail awaiting their hanging, but are "saved" by the heroine sneaking a gun into the food of their "last meal." However, the gun turned out to be unnecessary as Hoppy, in effect, simply overcame the "lawman" as Hoppy and crew were ushered out of the cell, something he could have done with or without the gun.

Finally, Hoppy sets a ridiculous trap to catch the 10 bad guy horsemen charging Hoppy and his sidekicks. Hoppy has some wagons, driven by some outlaws (but loaded with freed, armed Mexican laborers), charging the 10 outlaws who are riding towards the wagons. Hoppy and his sidekicks are riding behind the wagons. Well, the 10 outlaw horsemen ride past the wagons, but for some inexplicable reason, retreat when Hoppy and his few sidekicks fire on the 10 outlaws. So they, then, end up encircled by the wagons and give up! The 10 should have continued charging Hoppy and wiped him out.

One of the worst Hoppy films. Hoppy and his sidekicks take leave of their Bar 20 duties to help an old friend whose ranch is suffering rustlers.

The supporting cast was uninteresting. I never cared for Brad King as Hoppy's young sidekick. It seems he was hired mainly for his singing; his acting was bland. I like it when the heroes go undercover to solve the crime. Unfortunately here, their acting as inept British detective dudes got tiring and silly fast. Finally the mystery solving was pretty unimaginative: the bad guys try to kill Hoppy and sidekicks, giving themselves away.

I hate to complain. I actually like the Hoppy films a lot, mainly for William Boyd's appealing personality and acting, the good production values, and the fine outdoor location scenery. I'll make two complaints, though. One, I find the comic sidekicks (other than Gabby Hayes) grating. Here, California Carlson got on nerves with his never-ending chatter. Same goes for the double talk routine of the cook. The other thing that bothers me is the slender, chancy, coincidental thin reeds of the mystery-solving. In this movie, there are two main forces arrayed against each other, each accusing the other of rustling their cattle and other misdeeds. Hoppy, for some good reasons, thinks a third party is guilty. And he thinks, for no real good reason, a member of that party is an insider at Ma Woods ranch. Ma Woods had blabbed all over town that Cassidy was coming with money to buy her cattle so anyone could have heard of this. Then, the first night Cassidy spends at Ma's ranch, one of the bad guys happens to sneak out in the middle of the night, and Hoppy decides to follow him. To me it seems difficult to follow a horseman over wide open plains and not be detected. Likewise, to me it seems impossible for Hoppy and friend to scale a mountainous peak to subdue a lookout, and the lookout does not hear or see the guys. And so it goes.

Poor entry in the Hoppy series — seems out of place for a Hoppy film. Reminded me of Tarzan leading an expedition through sacred ruins to old Egyptian remains. It was confusing for most of the time. We didn't know —till the end— what the disparate groups wanted and how they knew so much about each other.

**Spoilers*** There was the scientific expedition Hoppy was leading to old Indian ruins. There were Chinese who we later learn were interested in protecting their "Shangri La" community hidden in the desert, waiting to file legal claim to it. And there were American gunmen believing that there was a hidden gold mine in the Indian ruins that the Chinese were hiding. Added to that was the Sheriff and his posse wondering what to do.

The mystery was confusing and boring. There was little action (gunplay). The sets at the ruins were phony looking. Mostly there was boring talking. I love Hoppy movies generally, but find it hard to take his comic sidekicks (California Carlson here). Hoppy's young romantic sidekick here was the worst of the lot (Brad King as Johnny Nelson); he was a stiff, uninteresting actor.

Pleasant Hopalong Cassidy outing. The basic story is about Cal Howard (played by Lee J Cobb), who has learned that Congress has approved an irrigation project in the area, a key part of which is the Randall ranch. To acquire the ranch, first he gets engaged to the owner's daughter, then when that falls through he convinces the local banker to call in a Randall note on some prize cattle, and finally he has his men rustle the cattle further trying to ruin Randall. In between all this, Howard also has the local bank robbed.

What I liked about the movie is it's mysterious leisurely start. The first thing we see in the movie is about a dozen horsemen chasing someone through nice usual Hoppy movie scenery. We don't know who or why. Then we see that the horseman being chased is Lucky Jenkins, Hoppy's sidekick, who is forced to leap off a cliff into the river below, perhaps to his death. Back in town Hoppy learns that Lucky is accused of robbing the bank. Then we meet the other characters at a square dance party. Finally the plot develops bit by bit.

Things I noticed:

I was satisfied with the action, mainly the chase at the start and a wonderful shootout at the end at the outlaws' hideout, highlighted by Lucky and Windy dislodging huge boulders to roll down on the bad guys' cabin.

I am always annoyed by this staple of Hoppy movies: some weird, persistent, obnoxious woman is always romantically pursuing Hoppy's old comic sidekick.

It seemed so unlikely that the heroine (Randall's daughter) would ever become engaged to rude Lee J Cobb.

A minor complaint: it seemed silly and unrealistic to me that the posse on horseback chasing Lucky would be holding onto their pistols as they were riding, when they were so far from Lucky they could never successfully fire a shot.