Hopalong Cassidy (1952-1954)

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  • Thanks for the advice concerning the VHS versions, Richard. I may just give up on the movies altogether and keep trying to find reasonably-priced books.


    Stumpy,


    I have an extra copy of Borderland from SinisterCinema.com that I will send to you if you're stateside, but the quality isn't much better than the VHS. As an alternative, you might splurge on this box-set:


    http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ…tails?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=


    which has gone out of print before the supply runs out and the price skyrockets.


    Another edition, without the lunch box, is also going out of print:


    http://www.amazon.com/Hopalong…TF8&qid=1315395635&sr=1-2


    You get all 66 Hopalong Cassidy films restored, uncut and in excellent quality. Try to watch them in chronological order. The 1930s films are the strongest. By the early 1940s the scripts are pretty weak and the productions are shot too fast to carry much gravitas, although they maintain their decency and charm. I Know you'll like them.


    Richard





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    Edited 3 times, last by Richard--W ().



  • Thanks much, Rick, for pointing me in the right direction. I just splurged. Still wish I could locate reasonably-priced versions of the books.

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    Edited once, last by Stumpy ().

  • "The 1930s films are the strongest. By the early 1940s the scripts are pretty weak and the productions shot too fast to carry much gravitas, although they maintain their decency and charm."


    I've learned that this seems to hold true with about every writer who ever lived. They ALL seem to lose their sense of imagination and creation as time passes, unfortunately.

    De gustibus non est disputandum

  • "The 1930s films are the strongest. By the early 1940s the scripts are pretty weak and the productions shot too fast to carry much gravitas, although they maintain their decency and charm."


    I've learned that this seems to hold true with about every writer who ever lived. They ALL seem to lose their sense of imagination and creation as time passes, unfortunately.


    Actually, I was referring to the scripts for the movies. They started out above average and actually achieve something special by the late 1930s. By the 1940s the screenplays got worse and worse as they strayed further and further away from Clarence E. Mulford and the films got cheaper and cheaper until they were hardly better than grade Z fare.


    On the other hand, the novels kept getting better and better until the author stopped writing them. He started out with Bar 20, published in 1906. Hopalong Cassidy is one of several cowboys in this story of ranch life in the American west. This novel help to invent what we now know as the western. It defined the western for the 20h century. I believe it was more influential and of more value than The Virginian, which gets more credit than it deserves. Anyhow, Bar 20 was an excellent book, and the following Hopalong Cassidy novels got progressively more brilliant from there.


    The novels are a lot more realistic than the films. Cassidy is more fleshed-out, more down-to-earth on the page. He bears no resemblance to William Boyd, who basically re-invents the character for the films. Warner Brothers is tinkering with the idea of reviving the series. Ethan Wayne is just the man to play Hopalong Cassidy. But they'll never even think of him.

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  • On the other hand, the novels kept getting better and better until the author stopped writing them. He started out defining the western for the twentieth century with his first Hopalong Cassidy novel, called Bar 20, published in 1906. I believe it was more influential and of more value than The Virginian, which gets more credit than it deserves. Anyhow, Bar 20 is excellent book, and the following Hopalong Cassidy novels got progressively more brilliant from there.

    The novels are a lot more realistic than the films. Cassidy is more fleshed-out, more down-to-earth on the page. Warner Brothers is tinkering with the idea of reviving the series. Ethan Wayne is just the man to play Hopalong Cassidy. But they'll never even think of him.



    Which Bar 20 are we thinking of? Apparently Mulford wrote a group of stories with Bar 20 in the title.

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  • I enjoyed reading the Mulford books about Hopalong Cassidy. Louis Lamour also wrote a few just a few years before he died that I read and they were also very good.



    I never could understand Lamour's popularity with Western readers. I just never could get that interested in his books.

    In Western writers, I started out reading Luke Short, then went to Will Henry and Clay Fisher (same guy with different pseudonyms). I thought Will Henry's "No Survivors" and "From Where the Sun Now Stands" were two of the best Western stories I ever read. For years, I was convinced that Costner's "Dances With Wolves" was made from "No Survivors" but then learned it was another writer.

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  • Over the years, I've read 10 - 12 Louis L'Amour books, have enjoyed them,
    none about Hopalong Cassidy. Hoppy was my 'bread and butter' during my formative years, along with the Lone Ranger, Cisco Kid, and Roy Rogers.
    How many remember, Saturday morning, sitting in front of the TV watching those exciting adventures?


    Chester :newyear:

  • Is the moderator certain he wants to lump the feature films together with the TV program? The features started life on the big screen 17 years before the TV program happened. Related but separate entities. My posts were about the feature films. I've never seen an episode of the TV program.


    Richard

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  • Is the moderator certain he wants to lump the feature films together with the TV program? The features started life on the big screen 17 years before the TV program happened. Related but separate entities. My posts were about the feature films. I've never seen an episode of the TV program.


    Richard


    Yes, I think it is best that all things related to Hoppy
    are better served by one thread.
    It must be remembered, although there is life on the thread now,
    this is not always the case, the last time being two years ago!!
    In any case the conversation is better placed here,
    rather than where it was in What Was The Last Western You Watched?
    where the discussion had drifted off-topic from the subject,
    to a discussion about the writer and Hoppy.


    The feature films were:-

    1952 The Greatest Show on Earth (uncredited)
    1948 Strange Gamble
    1948 False Paradise
    1948 Borrowed Trouble
    1948 Sinister Journey
    1948 The Dead Don't Dream
    1948 Silent Conflict
    1947 Hoppy's Holiday
    1947 The Marauders
    1947 Dangerous Venture
    1947 Unexpected Guest
    1947 Fool's Gold
    1946 The Devil's Playground
    1944 Forty Thieves
    1944 Mystery Man
    1944 Lumberjack
    1944 Texas Masquerade
    1943 Riders of the Deadline
    1943 False Colors
    1943 Bar 20
    1943 Colt Comrades
    1943 Leather Burners
    1943 Border Patrol
    1943 Hoppy Serves a Writ
    1942 Lost Canyon
    1942 Undercover Man
    1941 Secret of the Wastelands
    1941 Outlaws of the Desert
    1941 Twilight on the Trail
    1941 Stick to Your Guns ..Hopalong Cassidy posing as Tex Riley
    1941 Riders of the Timberline
    1941 Wide Open Town
    1941 Pirates on Horseback
    1941 Border Vigilantes
    1941 In Old Colorado
    1941 Doomed Caravan
    1940 Ranger Guns West
    1940 Stagecoach War
    1940 Hidden Gold
    1940/I The Showdown
    1940 Santa Fe Marshal
    1939 Law of the Pampas
    1939 Range War
    1939 Renegade Trail
    1939 Silver on the Sage
    1939 Sunset Trail
    1938 The Frontiersmen
    1938 In Old Mexico
    1938 Pride of the West
    1938 Bar 20 Justice
    1938 Heart of Arizona
    1938 Cassidy of Bar 20
    1938 Partners of the Plains
    1937 Texas Trail
    1937 Hopalong Rides Again
    1937 Rustlers' Valley
    1937 North of the Rio Grande
    1937 Hills of Old Wyoming
    1937 Borderland
    1936 Trail Dust
    1936 Hopalong Cassidy Returns
    1936 Three on the Trail
    1936 Call of the Prairie
    1936 Heart of the West
    1935 Bar 20 Rides Again
    1935 The Eagle's Brood
    1935 Hop-a-long Cassidy

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 6 times, last by ethanedwards ().

  • I never could understand Lamour's popularity with Western readers. I just never could get that interested in his books.

    In Western writers, I started out reading Luke Short, then went to Will Henry and Clay Fisher (same guy with different pseudonyms). I thought Will Henry's "No Survivors" and "From Where the Sun Now Stands" were two of the best Western stories I ever read. For years, I was convinced that Costner's "Dances With Wolves" was made from "No Survivors" but then learned it was another writer.



    And I've always enjoyed Lamours books. Probably read at least 90% of his stuff, and more than once. I've also read William Johnstone, Ralph Compton, Matt Braun, Terry Johnston, Owen Wisters The Virginian, Alan Lemay, Elmore "Dutch" Leonard, and Elmer Kelton.

  • Keith, in your list you forgot


    1937 Borderland


    one of the top five, which comes after Trail Dust (1936) but before Hills of Wyoming (1937).


    Also, Ranger Guns West (1940) is better known as, and only released on DVD as, Three Men From Texas. It is the last really good Hopalong Cassaidy film. After that the series turns into static poverty-row low-grade B movies.


    Richard

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  • Keith, in your list you forgot


    1937 Borderland


    Richard


    Thanks Richard for pointing this out.
    The way IMDb posts it's lists these days, makes for lots of editing
    before it is presentable here.
    It is obviously there as you say,
    and can only assume I deleted it whilst editing.

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited once, last by ethanedwards ().

  • I began watching some of these old Hopalong Cassidy movies from the early Forties and who should appear as one of the bad guys in several of 'em but Robert Mitchum himself. Guess even the biggest stars had to start somewhere.

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  • Another surprise this evening - I watched this Hoppy film (which, believe it or not, wasn't all that bad.)

    When the bad guy came along, I said to myself "That looks like Lee J. Cobb" but I had familiarized myself with the movie's cast and the cast list had him as "Lee Colt", so I wasn't sure whether it was Cobb or not. Well, when the film ended, I naturally logged onto IMDB to see whether it was or not and sure enough, it was old Lee J. himself.

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  • Hey Richard,
    I'm amazed at the restoration quality of these Hoppy movies. I've been watching the ones filmed in the Thirties and early Forties and they're as clear of defects as modern films.

    Couldn't believe it - this afternoon I've been watching 1940's "Santa Fe Marshal" (where he joins the medicine show as cover) and Hoppy shows up dressed like a dude and with a WHITE hat. :biggrin:
    Jim

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  • I must confess that I've found the old Hoppy movies (at least those made in the Thirties) thoroughly enjoyable. He was a straight shooter, just like the Duke, and there was no cussing, no sex (not even double-entendres), no extraneous violence - in short, they were 180 degrees apart from the garbage that passes foe entertainment nowadays.

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