I found this to be an average Hoppy movie. The first half bored me for the most part. It showed the bad guys rigging the election for Sheriff, defeating Hoppy! In various ways they discourage pro-Hoppy voters from voting, and finally they stuff the ballot box! Hoppy turns in his badge but is confident that the Governor will sense foul play and order a new election within a week. …. The second half of the movie is better, filled with a number of good scenes. ***Spoilers.****Among the good scenes: ¶ after Hoppy "loses" the election, there is a great noir-like scene in the saloon. The main bad guy, Hammond, who is out to kill Hoppy for sending him to prison, is dealing poker hands to his outlaw friends. The one who receives the highest hand is to collect the pot and agree to kill Cassidy. Hoppy walks in on the "game" in its early stage, and he forces them to complete the deal. He dares the winner to draw on him. There are no takers. He orders them all out of town within 12 hours. Hoppy turns his back on the group and observes them in the bar room mirror as he exits. He sees some reach for their guns. He spins around and kills a number of them, shoots out the lights and gets away. ¶ to make good on his threat that the outlaws all leave town, Hoppy alone, on foot, faces them (all mounted on horseback) on the street. They charge him. See the movie to see how he survives! ¶ it was clever of Hoppy to figure out how the ballot box was stuffed — he examined the ballots and noticed that the non-Hoppy ballots had some different type font for certain letters. different than the legitimate ballots. ¶ at the end of the movie there is a terrifically filmed scene of Hoppy in a fistfight with Hammond on a suspension bridge over a ravine. Some other observations: ¶ the heroine (who lacks a sweet voice) is surprisingly silent throughout the second half of the movie. She is shot at while in a stagecoach, kidnapped and tied up, rescued, watches Hammond fall to his death from the suspension bridge, etc — and never says a word! ¶ California Carlson's (Hoppy's comic sidekick) often turns me off with his inane antics. Here he tries to eat an eight inch high sandwich. In fact, the other actors (both sidekicks, the heroine, even Buck Peters) were poor compared to other Hoppy movies. ¶ I was surprised to see Hoppy pull this deadly ploy on the harmless inept newly-elected sheriff: as noted above, the heroine is kidnapped by Hammond, and Hoppy is instructed to come alone to retrieve her. Sure death is waiting him. So Hoppy changes clothes with the Sheriff and forces him to accompany Hoppy to the rendezvous with Hammond. So Hammond mistakenly shoots dead the Sheriff, giving Hoppy the opportunity to rescue the girl, etc. Not very good-guy heroic of Hoppy.

If you love action, this episode is for you. Hopalong Cassidy is of course played by William Boyd, who does an impeccable job as usual. Outside of a few nice appearances by a few regular bad guys and California, there's not much to say about the acting which is fairly standard. The appearance of Andy Clyde as California Carlson is always a plus, but unfortunately Jimmy Rogers as "Deputy Jimmy Rogers" isn't one of Hoppy's better sidekicks. The story is also pretty standard fare.In my mind, what sets this episode apart from many of the later Hoppy movies is the action. There are several gun and fistfights and Hoppy and company manage to dispatch of many of the "forty thieves" on camera. The final fight on the bridge scene is one of the better ones out of all 66 movies, and there's also a classic gunfight in the saloon along with other more standard gun play.Overall, its fairly standard in most respects except for lots of action. The other elements prevent this from being up there with the very best, but it stands out among some of the weaker later episodes.

It's a pretty routine Hoppy until we get to that great suspension bridge. What an inspired piece of action, well staged and photographed. It's Hoppy and bad guy Hammond (Dumbrille) trying to stay on the life line high above the chasm, while knocking the other guy off. It's the movie's centerpiece, and I'm wondering if the tightrope was built for this film, or more likely, left over from a big-budget production. Either way, it's a visual treat.Anyway, Hoppy's a sheriff mixed up in a crooked election master-minded by that fine arch- villain from many a costume epic, Douglas Dumbrille. To oust Hoppy, Hammond assembles forty thieves just like a frontier Ali Baba. Now Hoppy has his hands full, especially in the main street showdown. Not much hard riding or good scenery, however.Several notable features. Screenplay is by ace writer Michael Wilson who later penned a number of prestige films, including Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). Watch for Kirk Allyn as Hammond's feckless sheriff. So how does the screen's first Superman become a "do nothing" sheriff! Speaking of feckless, poor Jimmy Rogers comes across like a big zero and even looks a little like a young jimmy Durante, of all people. Not so, the luscious looking Louise Currie. Too bad they gave her so little to do—just count her lines. Anyway, Bill Boyd is his usual great Hoppy, making the whole thing an entertaining 60 minutes

Set in Buffalo Buttes, the opening is exciting as the film starts with a gunfight on horseback. Hoppy starts off dressed all in black, which usually indicates a hit more than a miss, but then changes to a gentleman's outfit before changing back to black near the end. On the positive side, Earle Hodgins has a (too short) role as a drunk, California is in two real (not comic) fistfights, & gets beat up in both, & there are four gunfights. On the negative side, Jimmy Rogers appears as Hoppy's young sidekick & as always, he can't act (unless you consider "slouching" to be "acting"), is not handsome (as many of the young sidekicks were), & gets beat up in the one fist fight he engages in. Great scene: Hoppy puts guns in the holsters of the baddies, but they're afraid to use them; as Hoppy walks away from them, they shoot. Another great scene: a dozen men in a saloon advance at Hoppy all shooting; as he hides behind the bar, he shoots the lights out, then surprises them from the side of the bar. Despite these highlights, this was disappointing for Sherman's last Hoppy film. I rate it 5/10.