There's bad blood between railroad vice president Tom Smith (Stanley Andrews) and son-in-law Lee Garvin (John Kellogg), who married the executive's daughter against the man's wishes. With a series of accidents affecting the railroad company, Smith sends for old pal Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) to investigate, assuming that Hoppy will find Garvin responsible.
The story opens with an element I've never seen before in a few hundred Westerns. Hoppy and his pals Lucky Jenkins (Rand Brooks) and California Carlson (Andy Clyde) come upon the Garvin homestead quite by chance, and wife Jessie (Elaine Riley) is suffering the effects of loco weed tainted water! Following Hoppy's quick diagnosis, Jessie recuperates in record time and feels well enough to cook dinner for the boys; I don't think I've ever heard of a recovery that quick - amazing!
I got a kick out of the ruse the railroad employee and Hoppy pulled on California when they sent him out to look for red lantern oil and a bucket of steam. It reminded me of my ancient Boy Scout days when we would send out a new tenderfoot scout to a neighboring campsite to bring back a smoke shifter or a left handed screwdriver. Hey, maybe that idea came from a Hopalong Cassidy movie too!
Well it doesn't take long for Hoppy to ferret out Smith's secretary Harmon Roberts (Don Haggerty) as the villain of the piece, framing Garvin for forgery and murder to gain control of Smith's oil land deeds. Other viewers on this board pointed out the fact that Hoppy made it through the whole story without the use of firearms. To tell you the truth, I didn't even notice. I was thinking about how you could capture a bucket of steam.
The story opens with an element I've never seen before in a few hundred Westerns. Hoppy and his pals Lucky Jenkins (Rand Brooks) and California Carlson (Andy Clyde) come upon the Garvin homestead quite by chance, and wife Jessie (Elaine Riley) is suffering the effects of loco weed tainted water! Following Hoppy's quick diagnosis, Jessie recuperates in record time and feels well enough to cook dinner for the boys; I don't think I've ever heard of a recovery that quick - amazing!
I got a kick out of the ruse the railroad employee and Hoppy pulled on California when they sent him out to look for red lantern oil and a bucket of steam. It reminded me of my ancient Boy Scout days when we would send out a new tenderfoot scout to a neighboring campsite to bring back a smoke shifter or a left handed screwdriver. Hey, maybe that idea came from a Hopalong Cassidy movie too!
Well it doesn't take long for Hoppy to ferret out Smith's secretary Harmon Roberts (Don Haggerty) as the villain of the piece, framing Garvin for forgery and murder to gain control of Smith's oil land deeds. Other viewers on this board pointed out the fact that Hoppy made it through the whole story without the use of firearms. To tell you the truth, I didn't even notice. I was thinking about how you could capture a bucket of steam.