It was interesting for me to see this first of the Hopalong Cassidy movies last night. I saw a distinctly different Hopalong than those later movies I have seen. This one had a hard look in his eye that was most menacing and at one point, he was about to draw his gun on his own man, which made for a completely different Hopalong than the one which emerged in time. He actually resembled men of the REAL OLD WEST instead of the watered-down, lip-stick sissy version most of Western characters in the movies had--such as Gene Autry.

I remember last year I got to see the very first episode of Bonanza--the TV Western series. I noticed the same thing there how the Cartwrights were hard, rough and even deadly (the way men were in the REAL WEST) and, having watched the series over several years, I noticed they too mellowed with time.

Otherwise, I certainly enjoyed this first issue of Hopalong Cassidy. He was certainly my HERO as a small boy of 5-6 back in 1953-1954 when I first started watching him on TV. And it was good to view this one.

I won't bother with the plot. Others have already done that. But the point I made is one that clearly stood out to me about this very first movie in the series.

I thought the movie had the "feel" of western life..the cattle grazing in the opener..the dust on the outfits (except Johnny's!)You could even see the dust flying in several scenes....good characters, except the foreman (just didn't fit)..Ellison excellent as Johnny..and Hayes, McGlynn as Red and Middleton as Buck--all good...how about the scene where Hoppy appears riding Topper (I guess it was Topper,then) down that steep hill? I like the silent film "leftovers", like Hoppy's steely glare and the gathering of the ranchers scene near the end...Just a very well-done, enjoyable film! This movie borrows plot elements from the book Hopalong Cassidy (1910)-- Meeker, the H2 spread, Thunder Mesa..to name a few. I'm still reading the book, so I don't know all the details..! Interesting note-- the two well-known western character actors--Boyd and Hayes-- are from Eastern locales: Marion, Ohio and Wellsville, NY, respectively. Once again--a top rating for this film! John Field

"Hop-Along Cassidy" (aka "Hopalong Cassidy Enters") was the first of 66 features starring William Boyd as Hoppy. One of the most successful and best written of the "B" western series, it was to run from 1935 to 1948.

As written by Clarence E. Mulford, Cassidy was a crude, crusty ranch hand and definitely not intended as a Saturday Matinee hero. In fact, character actor James Gleason, who looked nothing like a hero was apparently first offered the part.

Boyd, who had been around Hollywood since the early 20s and had fallen from grace, ultimately was cast in the part. It was decided between himself and producer Harry "Pop" Sherman that Boyd would not play the character as written.

In this first entry in the series, Boyd plays the character with a few rough edges, all of which would disappear in future films. He starts out as "Bill" Cassidy but acquires his nickname "Hopalong" when is wounded in the leg and is forced to hop along with the aid of a cane.

The story involves two competing ranchers, Buck Peters of the Bar-20 (Charles Middleton) and Meeker (Robert Warwick) arguing over the open range land for their cattle. Meeker's foreman known as Pecos Jack (Kenneth Thompson) is behind a plot to set the two ranches against each other while stealing their cattle, changing their brands and selling them off for himself.

In this first entry in the series the traditional trio comprises Hoppy, Johnny Nelson (James Ellison) and Red Connors (Frank McGlynn Jr.). George Hayes by this time had evolved into the character he would play for the rest of his career. In this picture he plays a ranch hand named "Uncle Ben". Although still not using the name "Gabby", he would appear later in the series as the grizzled sidekick "Windy Halliday".

Also in the cast are Paula Stone as Mary Meeker, Ellison's love interest, Willie Fung as the Meeker's Chinese cook, who provides most of the comic relief, and veterans John Merton and Franlyn Farnum in other roles.

Charles Middleton would achieve some measure of fame as "Ming the Merciless" in the Flash Gordon serials. The character of Red Connors would be resurrected in the Hopalong Cassidy TV series of the 50s with Edgar Buchanan playing the part.

A range war is brewing between the Bar 20 and Meeker ranches, which is being caused by Meeker's foreman Anthony (who is in reality, an outlaw called the Pecos Kid), whose method is to have each ranch be accused at acts of rustling cattle or murder, then the two ranches will start a war against each other. In the meanwhile, Anthony's gang will round up all the cattle from the two ranches, change brands, and sell them at market. It's up to Hoppy, Red, Uncle Ben, and Johnny Nelson (who is a target for Meeker's hands since Johnny is sweet on Meeker's daughter Mary) to clear the Bar 20's name and round up the outlaws. The film is a very good entry in the opening film of the Hopalong series, but far from the best, since the action doesn't really begin past the halfway point of the film. Then on it's gets better building up to a great climax. Good performances by the cast (especially by Hayes as Uncle Ben, in a pre Windy Halliday role), but Thomson is miscast and ineffective as Anthony. Rating, based on B westerns, 6.

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.

The inaugural issue of 66 feature films from 1935-'48, followed by numerous made-for-TV adventures. Bill Boyd, a former matinee idol in the silent era, begins the film as Bill Cassidy. About halfway through, he is shot in the leg, and limps around with a cane for a while, dubbing himself as Hopalong Cassady. Eventually, he is no longer see limping or hoping. Thus, he differs considerably from his pulp fiction namesake, who had an ill-fitted wooden leg that made him hop a little. He also differed radically from Clarence E. Malford's Hopalong in his personality. Whereas the book Hoppy was characterized as crude and vulgar, Boyd's Hoppy was a perfect gentleman, as far as a cowboy could be. In contrast to other cowboy stars, Hoppy dressed in all black, including his hat, which otherwise usually denoted a villain. Thus, his outfit contrasted sharply with his pure white horse(Topper), and his white hair, on B&W film. His very prematurely white hair made him look considerably older than he was, apparently not being a detriment to his popularity. Hoppy's custom of traveling with 2 sidekicks is established by the end of the film, when he combined with Bar 20 friends James Ellison(as Johnny Nelson) and Frank McGlynn(as Red Conners) to abandon the Bar 20 ranch and look for a ranch in Wyoming. Thus, typically, they leave a ranch sweetheart of the youngest of the trio behind to cry(in this case, it's Mary Meeker(Paula Stone). Boyd also established the custom of filming near the base of the Sierra Nevada, usually near Lone Pine, or in the unique rocky Alabama Hills, which provided plenty of hiding places and obstacles..........The plot concerns 2 neighboring ranches: Jim Meeker's ranch, and the Bar 20 ranch, which is owned by a Kansas City syndicate, administered by Buck Peters. Recently, they have been having issues over water rights, as the one ranch has all the water. Also, they've been having cattle rustled, fingering the other as the probable culprit. Somebody busted the dam, causing a pasture to be flooded, drowning some calves. Again, they assumed it was somebody from the other outfit. Also, the Meekers discovered 50 of their cattle dead, having been stampeded over a cliff. Who did that? ........An answer begins to emerge when Uncle Ben(Gabby Hayes) figures out that somebody has been altering the brands of both ranches into a common brand. They surmise that the various irregularities have been perpetrated to diffuse attention from themselves, as they rustle cattle. Hoppy thinks they must have somebody working at one of the ranches to orchestrate their misdeeds. It's not until very late in the film, that Hoppy figures out that the contact is: the foreman of the Meeker ranch : Jack Anthony(Keneth Thomson), known to the rustlers as Pecos Jack. Now, Uncle Ben happens to meet up Pecos Jack while looking for the rustlers' hideout. Unaware that Jack is one of that gang, he tells him that he suspects they are holing up at Thunder Mesa, which we see in the distance. Just how he came to this conclusion is not evident to me! In any case, Jack knows he guessed correctly, and when Ben rides off to tell Hoppy, Jack shoots him in the back, mortally wounding him, but he doesn't expire until after Jack leaves, failing to finish him off. Hoppy happens to come along to find Ben dead. But, Ben had scrawled a map of the hideout location in the sand before he expired. Hoppy is especially angry that Ben was murdered, and aims to extract justice from whoever did it. The combined forces of the 2 ranches now head for Thunder Mesa. They find the culprit's horses at the bottom and scatter them. But the men are all at or near the top of the precipitous mesa. Hoppy and a few others manage to scale the cliff, using a rope. He encounters one of the outlaws and asks him who uses a Sharpe rifle. The answer is Pecos Jack. Just how Hoppy surmised that Ben was killed by a Sharpe rifle bullet is beyond me! In any case, he went looking for Jack, while Jack's compatriots were gradually being picked off. Unfortunately, Hoppy was denied the pleasure of directly killing Jack, who had fallen off a cliff in his haste to avoid Cassidy.......See the film at YouTube.

William Boyd made his screen debut as Hopalong Cassidy in Hop-ALong Cassidy. He was really William known as Bill Cassidy when he does arrive, but he gets wounded in a gunfight and limped a bit for the duration of the film. The guys in the bunkhouse called him Hopalong after he gave himself that nickname. Throughout the rest of the 66 films and TV shows we rarely heard his Christian name.

The plot is a standard western one, an outlaw gang stirs up a feud between the Bar 20 and a neighboring outfit owned by Robert Warwick. But it takes Bill Boyd to come up with the solution, aided and abetted by James Ellison whom he acquires as a sidekick.

Gabby Hayes is in this as Uncle Ben and he's the usual Gabby Hayes. He proved so popular that Paramount just resurrected him for the next few years before he left the series. Here as the chief villain guns him down it shows the Saturday matinée kids just how dastardly he is. Rather stupidly he leaves him to bleed out rather than finish him off. I guess Paramount did not want to shock the kids whose dimes to see the film and the subsequent series planned.

So Hopalong Cassidy becomes an American institution. Curiously enough Bill Boyd did a few non-Hoppy films after this before settling down into this character permanently.

It was a good beginning for an American institution.