Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

JohnHowardReid A Paramount Picture, relased 23 May 1941. Director: Lesley Selander. Players include William Boyd, Russell Hayden, Andy Clyde, Eleanor Stewart, Morris Ankrum, William Haade, Dennis Moore, Henry Hall, Britt Wood. 69 minutes. (Available on an excellent Platinum Disc DVD). This one starts off with a bang, but unfortunately that initial promise is slowly whittled away when Hoppy and his comrades make their belated entrance. True, it still has its moments (thanks mostly to villainous Morris Ankrum and the lovely Eleanor Stewart), and its real locations are superbly photographed. Unfortunately scriptwriters Ethel La Blanche and J. Benton Cheney obviously decided to pander to the Saturday matinee audience by making our genial Hoppy helpful enough, but rather slow on the uptake. A ten-year-old could work out the clue to the gold mine right from the very moment it's presented. On the other hand, it takes the slow-witted Hoppy almost the entire movie - and even then he achieves the solution only by accident. Naturally, Russell Hayden is too bewitched by Eleanor to be of much help (we don't blame him!), while garrulous Andy Clyde of course is both too stupid and too self-absorbed.

chipe To me this was one of the worst, most disappointing Hoppy films. Andy Clyde's never ending comic dialog was childish, unfunny and excruciating. There was hardly any action in the film, save a shoot-out at the cabin near the start of the movie.The plot was also a big nothing: at the end of the film, bad guy Morris Ankrum gets angry when the heroine won't sell her mine to him. He starts to manhandle her, and Hoppy rescues her. That's it! Not much of a crime to jail him for.The only fairly interesting and clever thing in the movie was the mysterious clue left behind by the killed miner ("eagle will show way to mine at sundown") and Hoppy's unraveling of it.As one reviewer pointed out, the title "Pirates on Horseback" has nothing to do with the movie. It also implies action which the film sorely lacks. The bad guy is merely a crooked gambler and conman, some pirate on horseback!

classicsoncall 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!

wrbtu The silly title is a put off, but of course there are no real "pirates" in this film, which at 69 minutes, is one of the longest in the Hopalong Cassidy series. It starts off very well, with lots of action & a goldmine plot. Based on the way it started, I thought this would be one of the best Hoppy films; it was realistic, conveyed a good old-fashioned western feeling, & the gunfight between a prospector & the baddies was brutal. Hoppy first appears 10 minutes into the film, wearing a black hat, tan shirt, & light-colored pants. If you've read my other Hoppy reviews, you'll know that the lighter the colors he wears, the worse the film is. I thought this film would be an exception to that rule, but sadly, I was wrong. The comedy starts soon after Hoppy appears, which is to be expected anytime Andy Clyde is on screen, & that's OK, but in this film, the comedy went on & on & on, & eventually caused the film to lose all the momentum it had gained before Hoppy had even appeared. There were some good comedy segments to be sure; one that stands out is California's assumption that he's speaking to a dumb Indian & therefore resorts to pantomime, only to find out that the Indian speaks English in a more educated manner than any of the cowboys! Another humorous segment involved jokes about Lucky's propensity for immediately falling in love with any young lady he meets. But five to ten minutes of the film is wasted on a long, drawn out gold nugget joke situation. Amazingly, Hoppy is not involved in even a single gunfight, & fires his gun only once during the film (but at the ground). The first 10 minutes of the film were certainly the best part of this film, & it could have been so much better than it was, a disappointing effort overall.