Like most B-movie heroes, Hopalong Cassidy jumps back and forth in time. His movies are always set in the Wild West, but the exact years in which they take place can jump around a bit. In Texas Trail (1937), for instance, the year is 1898, with the U.S. having just declared war on Spain.
It's supposedly based on one of the original Hopalong novels written by Clarence E. Mulford--Tex (1922). I haven't read this one, but I will soon and review it here. The plot description is completely different from the plot of the movie, so I'm curious to see if I can spot whatever similarities might exist between the two versions of the story. I suspect Jack O'Donnell--the screenwriter--simply took the title, expanded it to Texas Trail, and wrote an original story around it, but I'll find out for sure soon.
Anyway, Hoppy and companions are eager to sign up and serve with the Rough Riders. But the Army has another job for him first. Every attempt to round up enough horses for the Riders has been foiled by rustlers. So Hoppy is asked to bring in 500 wild horses quickly. He's disappointed that he's not immediately being sent out to fight the Spanish, but Hoppy accepts this responsibility anyways.
The mastermind behind the rustlers is a local rancher named Black Jack Carson (Alexander Cross). Why no one suspects the guy named "Black Jack" to be the villain is beyond me. His scheme is actually a pretty clever one. Let others do the work in rounding up horses, then steal them and quietly sell them to a buyer who isn't too particular about where they came from.
What follows is a very straightforward film with a simple plot. This, though, is part of what makes it such a fun film. William Boyd's typically boisterous portrayal of Hoppy continues to make him one of the most purely likable movie heroes ever and director David Selman makes magnificent use of scenery for the location filming.
Carson has some of his men staked out watching Hoppy round up the horses. They move in the night before the animals would have been taken to the army base, capturing Hoppy's crew and gaining control of the herd. Carson had a few horses with his brand mixed in with the herd, so he proceeds to accuse Hoppy of being a horse thief and plans to hang all the good guys from the nearest tree.
Fortunately, Hoppy is currently being hero-worshiped by "Boots," the young son of an army major. Boots has been concerned when Hoppy doesn't show up at the fort as scheduled, so the little scamp skips school and rides out to find out what's going on. This allows him to show up in time to free Hoppy and the other good guys.
The good guys, though, only have a few guns between them. So Hoppy proceeds to weaponize the herd of wild horses, then uses what little ammo he has to hold off the outlaws until the cavalry can put in their obligatory last-minute arrival.
It's all good fun, with Gabby Hayes providing the comic relief this time as a would-be bugler who is less than adept at playing the bugle and putting everyone to sleep with endless stories about riding with Teddy Roosevelt.
I was a little disappointed that the movie didn't come up with a way to give Roosevelt a cameo. Any movie, no matter how entertaining it might be, can only benefit from an appearance by the most awesome president we ever had.
Anyway, the movie ends with Hoppy and his crew now in uniform, riding off to war. Of course, the real-life irony here is that the Rough Riders' horses were never shipped to Cuba. When they went up San Juan Hill, Roosevelt was the only one on horseback. T.R. always was a bit reckless in his bravery. The other Rough Riders crawled up. They took the hill, though, and this movie implies that Hopalong Cassidy was there with them. I always suspected that. But I wonder if, while Spanish machine gun bullets whizzed overhead, if he wondered why he went through all that effort to get those darn horses.
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