Hopalong Cassidy: Trail Dust & Borderland (1936)

Trail Dust (1936, 77 min.) - Hoppy, mindful of the famine threatening the country, persuades other ranchers to combine their herds and offer them at a fair price to a relief committee sent to buy cattle to feed a starving population. Cassidy leads a collective cattle drive, but greedy profiteers set out to sabotage his efforts, and they'll kill any man brave enough to stand in their way. "Borderland" (1937, 82 min.) - A mysterious bandit, known as The Fox, has been leading raids on both sides of the Mexican border and Hoppy is asked by the United States and Mexican officials to penetrate the criminal's operations by posing as a bandit himself. Hoppy pretends to be evil, and even does bad things to his sidekicks in order to accomplish his objective. Later joining the Fox's gang, Hoppy is able to blow their cover, reveal the Fox's identity and, although badly wounded, capture him at gunpoint.

High Quality Series

The accompanying reviews state what I feel about this terrific series. I found something curious about the dvd vs. cassette copy of Trail Dust.(I have this title in both formats). They are both restored however the dvd copy has the original Paramount logo and the credits over a scene of a trail drive (obviously the original release print). The cassette copy has no Paramount logo and, in place of the action scene, has the drawn character of a cowboy (a re-release copy no doubt). I ran the same scenes side by side (dvd and cassette)for awhile. While the dvd copy is clean, the cassette tape copy is even cleaner and brighter. However the dvd copy shows the richness of the grey tones; the shadings contrast better. They are much less apparent in the otherwise cleaner cassette copy. I still recommend the dvd copy because it looks visually richer if a little less clean, only by comparison. It's still a quality print. April 4, 2006

"Hoppy is here to stay"

William Lawrence Boyd, better known as Hop-A-Long Cassidy never wears any outfit except his charactertistic black shirt, trousers, boots and Stetson...Hoppy rode, fought and grinned his way into our hearts on the silver screen, and then into our living rooms on the small tube.

Hoppy and his trail buddies ~ Johnny Nelson (Jimmy Ellison) always hot tempered and ready for action before it gets here...Windy Halliday (George "Gabby" Hayes), with "Those Persnickordy Women"...and "Women are Pure Poyzen"...my favorite saying has to be "You're Dern Tootin'", Hayes was the comedy sidekick who always knew the answer before the question, taught Hoppy everything from gunplay to hardriding, many times stole scenes right from under the entire cast.

Always filmed in the natural setting of Lone Pine, California that was a plus for westerns at that time...Boyd became very skilled as a horsemen, his acting and eye contact was never surpassed when coming across clues or realizing the guilty party...this was due to his days on the silent screen.

This had to be the best western series around during the '30s, strong performances by Boyd, Hayes and Ellison...with producer Harry "Pop" Sherman at the helm, behind the scenes with quality the uppermost in mind for Paramount Pictures...the Bar-20 gang with Windy Halliday (George "Gabby" Hayes) backing Hoppy's play whenever trouble enters the picture...when good guys wore black, rode a white horse and assured all his fans ~ HOPPY IS HERE TO STAY!

Total Time: 76 Mins (Trail Dust-1936)
Total Time: 82 Mins (Borderland-1937) October 16, 2001

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