Pirates on Horseback (1941)

A Masterpiece!

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Britt Wood who was a sidekick of Hopalong Cassidy for a few films makes a return to the series in Pirates On Horseback. But it's only a brief return as Wood is killed for the location of his hidden gold mine.The location of which is something that Eleanor Stewart his niece would also like to know. The only clue is a cryptic message left by Wood that Hoppy, Johnny, and California have a time getting a hold of.Sad to say for our cowboy hero he and the sidekicks have to tell a white lie to get dealt in on this game. Andy Clyd pretends he's a relative. When they're caught at it by the real villain, smooth gambler Morris Ankrum it's almost the end.The cryptic clue is something along the lines that both Glenn Ford and William Prince were trying to decipher in Lust For Gold. Let's say Hoppy had better success.Hoppy fans will like this.

By the time this Hopalong Cassidy film came out, Britt Wood had already appeared in a few of them as Speedy McGuiness, one of Hoppy's sidekicks along with Russell Hayden as Lucky Jenkins. There was "The Showdown" and "Stagecoach War", both from 1940, so it was interesting to see him show up here as an unrelated character, only to have him take a bullet at the hands of the outlaws after being a bit too loose lipped about discovering a gold mine. That was kind of curious actually, because it was referred to as the mythical El Dorado Mine that no one knew the location of, but later when California (Andy Clyde) mentions he found some nuggets, there's a virtual stampede to the exact location. All for naught though, the 'Golden Nuggets' were a brand of giant mushrooms!Well never let it be said that these old time oaters had to make any sense. Another case in point would have been California's claim that he was Ben Pendleton's (Wood) forty-second cousin. How do you go about figuring that out? All in good fun though, as Andy Clyde had this believable quality about him even when he was making it up as he went.Another frequent player in Hoppy's films was the villain of the piece here, Morris Ankrum as Hawkeye Bar owner and Rim Rock town boss Ace Gibson. Normally creepy enough as an outlaw, as another reviewer points out, he outdoes himself as a potential suitor for Pendleton's legitimate heir, niece Trudy (Eleanor Stewart). He's so dastardly that for a brief time, he's got Hoppy and the boys on the outs with the heroine. It doesn't last long however, especially after Ace makes a take it or leave it offer of five grand to Trudy for the gold mine.With a clue left by Ben Pendleton before he died - 'Eagle will show way to mine but only at sundown' - the cowboy heroes eventually figure out that a shadow cast by a rock formation points to the location of the hidden gold. Battling the bad guys, Hoppy and his crew save the day for Miss Trudy, and in one of those rare instances in a Hoppy flick that I've managed to catch so far, this time Lucky Jenkins actually winds up with the girl!

The Hopalong Cassidy movies and television show are fond childhood memories. This is the first Hoppy movie I have seen in more than five decades. While I certainly hope I watch B Westerns with a different eye than I did when a child, I still enjoy them and this one was superb. Hoppy's comic sidekick, California (Clyde) receives word that his distant cousin, a prospector named Ben, has been murdered. Ben had recently struck gold at the El Dorado mine and unfortunately talked about it in the saloon. Ankrum wonderfully plays the cold and vicious gang leader Ace Gibson whose henchmen murder Ben. The ambush of Ben at his cabin is a gripping scene worthy of being in an A Western. Hoppy, California and Lucky (Russell Hayden) head out to Rim Rock to find Ben's mine. Upon arriving at the cabin, they find Ben's niece Trudy (Eleanor Stewart) already there. Pretending to be an old friend of Ben's, Ace has befriended Trudy and later turns her against Hoppy, California and Lucky. Unraveling a cryptic clue Ben left, the three do discover the mine. I much enjoyed the comic moments, particularly the scene where Hoppy and California tease Lucky over his falling so quickly for Trudy. I know Ankrum often played the bad guy in Westerns but every time I see him, I think of his role as a judge on the Perry Mason television show. At any rate, this is a superior oater whose only flaw for me is the ending, which makes no sense in terms of any succeeding Hoppy films.

Producer Harry "Pop" Sherman, originator of the Hopalong Cassidy film series that stars William Boyd, is responsible for this well-devised work, released through Paramount, that recounts of gold miner Ben Pendleton, viciously gunned down by henchmen of gambler Ace Gibson (Morris Ankrum) during an unsuccessful endeavour to force Ben into revealing the location of his newly found rich strike. Since Cassidy's friend California Carlson (Andy Clyde) is a distant cousin of Pendleton, he, Hoppy, and their sidekick Lucky Jenkins (Russell Hayden) attempt to locate the concealed lode while simultaneously seeking Ben's killers, but when the trio comes to the cabin of the deceased, they find it occupied by his niece Trudy (Eleanor Stewart). When the evil Ace succours the young woman, in the process turning her head against Hoppy and his friends while planning to defraud her of her legacy, Hopalong and his pals face tough sledding and many anxious, danger fraught moments. Shot in the rugged high country of eastern California's Inyo County, the brief (69 minutes on VHS) film is replete with finely wrought detail and naturalistic dialogue, trademarks of director Lesley Selander who had benefited from his close friendship with Buck Jones, gradually developing into a top drawer helmsman of low-budget Westerns. Additionally apparent is the hand of assistant director Glenn Cook, one of the best at deployment of extras. The work showcases humour as often as it does action and melodrama, all smoothly blended by Selander, while crisp editing and effective sound mixing, especially of the scoring, are noteworthy, and skillful cinematographer Russell Harlan is consistently inventive. All of the featured players perform capably, the beautiful Stewart a nifty rider to boot, with brief but effective turns from Dick Simmons, as a cheated gambler, and lanky Wen Wright as a Gibson lackey; acting laurels go to Dennis Moore, cast as Gibson's principal henchman, who eventually joined cinema's Forces of Good as a Range Buster but still frequently fulfilled roles as a member of the Forces of Evil.