CAST: William Boyd, George Hayes, Russell Hayden, Charlotte Field, Earle Hodgins, Billy King, Kenneth Harlan, Glenn Strange, James Craig, Bruce Mitchell, Willie Fung, George Morrell. 55 minutes. (An excellent Platinum Disc DVD). COMMENT: For this one, Paramount has come right out and told us: "Based on characters created by Clarence E. Mulford." This is the formula used on all subsequent entries, unless otherwise noted. Probably the shortest of all the Hoppies, this one runs only 55 minutes. Typically, all the action is saved for the last reel. Nate Watt, who directed six earlier entries, wrote the screenplay, while Lesley Selander held the megaphone here, assisted by Derwin Abrahams and Theodore Joos. The production is certainly polished, but excruciatingly dull. Even Russell Harlan's photography fails to generate much excitement, even though a title card bravely informs us: "Filmed at Lone Pine, California, in the majestic shadow of Mt. Whitney."

This has to be one of the worst and most unusual Hoppy movies. It has little of the features that make the Hoppy films a great Western series, like William Boyd's warm, commanding personality and the idiosyncrasies of the other characters. Instead we had to suffer through one long, tedious, convoluted, unbelievable "caper" — Hoppy's plan to incriminate and identify the bosses of the stage robbers.Spoilers. The stage is robbed, and only a few people knew that it was carrying $30,000 in gold coins. One person who knew is the sheriff, a friend of Hoppy, and the sheriff comes under suspicion. That begins the first of the unbelievable coincidences. The sheriff's children ride to get Hoppy's help, and on the way happened to come across a usually deserted shack that some men are staying at. They mention this to Hoppy, who presciently decides to investigate the shack, and he immediately overhears the men discussing the stage robbery and their taking $800 from the money bags for their immediate needs. Instead of arresting the men, taking possession of the money and forcing the men to identify their bosses, Hoppy leaves everything as is in the hopes of smoking out the bosses. In doing so, the kids and Hoppy's sidekicks get endangered. Finally, when everyone and the money is brought together at the jail-house, Hoppy explains that two of the men still happen to have the $800 on them (lucky Hoppy). (Incidentally, I could never understand what was the use of Hoppy marking the money bags at the shack.)

Pride of the West features a lot less action and a lot more plot than is usual for a Hopalong Cassidy feature. In fact Hoppy doesn't even come on the scene until the story is underway.While Hoppy's away, presumably tending to Bar 20 ranch business, his sidekicks, Windy and Lucky are making a few extra bucks driving a stagecoach. The film opens with them arriving in town after a holdup with Russell Hayden shot in the right arm. For the rest of the film Hayden has his arm in a sling. My guess is that Russell Hayden actually hurt himself and the wound was written in so production wouldn't slow down.Banker Kenneth Caldwell and land agent James Craig are real unhappy with sheriff Earl Hodgins and bring in their own detective to solve the case. To save dad's reputation, Hodgins's two kids Billy King and Charlotte Field ride for Hoppy who as we know never turns down a request for help.The rest of the film is a rather intricately plotted plan that Hopalong Cassidy devises to trap the real crooks who he has a pretty good idea who they are. Hayden and Hayes get involved and Billy King and Chinese cook Willie Fung also play a part. It almost doesn't come off, but in true B western tradition it all comes together in the end.Even the Citadel Film book about the films of Hopalong Cassidy says this is slow moving. I like to think of it as having a better script and better plot than most films of this type. It's a thinking man's Hoppy we see in this and I rather liked him. There is however some gun play and a nice fist fight with Hoppy and henchman Glenn Strange to satisfy the action seekers in all of us.I think even non-Hoppy fans might like this one.

This Hopalong Cassidy movie is #18 or 19 in the series of 66 movies. It's one of the last to feature Gabby Hayes as "Windy." Hoppy doesn't appear until 9 minutes of film have passed, which tends to make his first appearance a bit more dramatic. The scenery, filmed near Mt. Whitney, is beautiful, especially for a B western. There is one exciting fight scene where Hoppy gets head-butted & knocked down (one of the best fight scenes that William Boyd ever did), but the excitement is lost a little bit at the end of the scene, when Hoppy is knocked down again but reaches up to adjust his hat so that it doesn't fall off his head! Other than that, this is probably the poorest of the Hoppy movies that featured Gabby. It's an oddly slow moving western, so slow moving & painstaking in it's detail of "no action," that the slow pace almost seems to have been purposeful. There's lots of following, observing, waiting, watching, & even a very long shot of Hoppy while apparently "thinking." Very short on action, there's only one chase scene, & although Hoppy does shoot his gun a couple of times, he shoots it in the air & not at anybody. The director was so intent on "wasting time" that we actually watch Gabby & Lucky (who oddly wears an arm sling throughout the entire movie, which doesn't even figure into the plot!) count out $30,000 in $20 gold pieces for a good period of time. Bizarre! Even the usually hilarious Gabby is more serious than usual & his humor doesn't quite hit the mark. This movie was apparently a "filler" while they were waiting for the next one to come along. I'm a Hoppy fanatic, but I can only rate this 5/10.