Rustlers' Valley (1937) User Reviews

Shorter and simpler than its predecessors, but still good

[rmccolle · 8/10 · 22 March 2013]

Born in 1933, I began watching B westerns frequently in 1941, and therefore missed most of the Hoppy westerns when they were at their best. Because Rustlers' Valley (1937) is not as long and complex as several that preceded it, connoisseurs should not be blamed for giving it middling reviews, but compared to most mass-produced westerns of the 1930s it is still quite good, if not among the very best. It is a pleasure to correct an otherwise fine review in this list: the name of the tree-lined town may be inferred from two signs: Griggs Valley General Store and Griggs Valley State Bank. Trees also abound in the scenery through which the good guys and bad guys gallop and the cattle, so prominent in these early Hoppy movies, move along. Lucky, a fugitive from the law through most of this story, has no opportunity to flirt with the only pretty girl in the cast, but, as in some of these early flicks, Hoppy does. She is unusually cheerful, even when it appears someone is trying to kill her.

Hoppy abandons the Bar 20 for the Randall ranch, and a pretty, young, worshiper

[weezeralfalfa · 7/10 · 24 January 2019]

This is an unusual Hopalong Cassidy film for its era in that Hoppy, rather than the younger Lucky or Johnny, becomes the object of flirtation by the pretty young thing in the film. It's also unusual in that Hoppy, and friends Lucky and Windy decide to stay close to this young woman rather than moseying off into the sunset, after they have taken care of the bad guys. Muriel Evans, as Agnes Randall, certainly was a cute rancher's daughter. At the beginning of the film, she is engaged to lawyer and badman Cal Howard(Lee Cobb), who also wants to marry her to get his hands on the Randall ranch, as part of a package of local ranches for a far off syndicate that wants to turn the region into an irrigation dam and reservoir. However, when Hoppy shows up, she takes an immediate liking to him and his pure white horse, Topper. This makes Howard jealous, and he forbids her to talk to Hoppy any more. Her response was to give him back his ring, thus voiding his plan.(Besides, it's her father, Glen Randall(Morris Ankrum), not she, who owns the ranch. So he would have to be bumped off first). At a party, Agnes mostly wants to dance with Hoppy. This film is also unusual in that Ankrum plays one of the good guys, rather than his usual role as a kingpin of the bad guys. Randall's foreman, Taggart, is also one of the villains. In fact, he later shoots the presumed Hoppy, on Topper, in the distance. It's a hit, but he doesn't bother riding over to check out how the person(presumably Hoppy) is.. Attracted by the nose, Hoppy rides near to check out the disturbance. He finds Agnus on the ground, with a relatively minor arm wound. They switch horses, as Agnes just wanted to try out Topper. Incidentally, Taggart felt obligated to help Howard since, a while back, he got Taggart acquitted on a murder charge........Hoppy is doing some investigating, trying to clear his friend, Lucky, from a charge of Bank robbery and associated murder. At the beginning of the film, Lucky is hightailing it away from a sheriff's posse, for this reason. He comes to a dead end: a high cliff over a lake. After hesitating, he jumps. The posse doesn't see any sign of him, so assumes he died. Survive he did, and somehow remained hidden from the posse. He spends much of the film in hiding, with help from Windy and Hoppy...........Having failed in his bid to acquire the Randall ranch by marrying Agnus, Howard comes up with another scheme: He will get banker Clem Crawford to refuse to extend a load to Randall to buy a herd of pedigree stock. Randall is shocked when he hears this. Howard then plans to rustle these cattle, moving them to Lost Canyon, then claim that Randall moved them there to avoid having them taken by the bank. Somehow, by these moves, Howard figures he can get ownership of the ranch. Taggert, who had quit as foreman of the Randall spread, replaced by Hoppy, takes charge of moving the cattle. During this operation, Howard and Taggert retire to a hideout, where they discuss plans and talk about the bank holdup, which netted Howard $20,000. Unfortunately for them, Hoppy sneaked up to the shack and heard all of this. Then, Hoppy sticks them up. Unfortunately, one of their cowboys comes outside the shack, and sticks Hoppy up in the back. I don't understand why they don't then kill Hoppy, whom they thought they had already killed. Meanwhile, Lucky and Windy are leading a posse to tangle with Howard's rustlers A shootout follows, in which the posse captures the rustlers. Now, they want to get the boss men in the shack. They don't know Hoppy is also in there. They might set fire to the shack and smoke them out. But Lucky has another idea, which I won't divulge. This is the neatest part of the film! As a result, Hoppy grabs his guns back and sticks up the others in the shack, until the posse arrives. We are spared the details of what happens to Howard and Crawford.........See it at YouTube.

What?! The lawyer in the film might be evil?! Say it isn't so!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 2 October 2020]

When the story begins, a posse is chasing Lucky (Russell Hayden). To evade them, he jumps, along with his horse, off a cliff into the water. The folks assume he's dead...but they also don't bother to wait for him to emerge from the water...which is sloppy writing.

Later, Hoppy arrives in town and learns why the posse was chasing Lucky....a witness says he saw him robbing the bank. Now of course this makes no sense...and it's up to Hoppy to investigate. And, the most likely place to start is with an obnoxious lawyer (Lee J. Cobb) who simply oozes nastiness!

This is a pretty good film, though redundant when you think about it...such as having an evil lawyer! Overall, not a great installment of the Hopalong Cassidy franchise...but a very good one despite the opening scene. Plus, like many of the best, this one also co-stars Gabby Hayes as 'Windy'.

If you want to see this and other Hoppy westerns, try YouTube, as the very best and most complete copies were uploaded to the site some time ago.

What's the Name of That White Horse?

[wrbtu · 20 May 2003]

There's an exciting opening sequence where Lucky is chased by a posse & jumps off a steep cliff with his horse into a river. The heroine ("Agnes," played by Muriel Evans) looks like a cross between Claudette Colbert & Loretta Young (I guess this was a popular look in 1937), but isn't as pretty as either. Agnes & Hoppy have a conversation about his horse (oddly, Hoppy says "I don't know much about his past"), whose name is not mentioned (& later, "I shouldn't have let you ride that white horse"). Which makes me wonder, what was the first time Topper was called by name? I'll bet that other horse owners would be able to say more about their horses, like Tarzan, Duke, Trigger, Buttercup, Champion, etc. Often in Hoppy films, the name of the town is made known, but not in this case, & that's a shame also, because this film's set in one of the more unusual western towns, a town with a tree lined dirt main street, where there are no hitching posts, but the horses are tied to metal rings set in the trees. Question for old west historians: is this detail realistic or complete fantasy? A good film & mildly interesting, but a little slow. I rate it 6/10.

Lucky's in a jackpot

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 12 December 2015]

Rustler's Valley finds Hopalong Cassidy trying to help his young friend Lucky Jenkins out of a real jackpot. The young man has been accused of a bank robbery and evidence planted at the bank against him.

The villains are the usual, a banker, a crooked ranch foreman, and a shyster lawyer all conspiring to get a hold of Morris Ankrum's ranch. The lawyer has his own plans, he's going to marry Ankrum's daughter Muriel Evens.

Ankrum this early in his career is billed as Stephen Morris. But our lawyer is played by none other than Lee J. Cobb, billed here with the traditional western sounding name of Lee Colt. Under any name Cobb is a nasty and crafty villain who has a real mean on for Hoppy.

There's a real nice shootout between the outlaws and Ankrum's men. And Russell Hayden and Gabby Hayes find a really unique way to bring a sudden halt to the shootout.

Hoppy's fans should be pleased like I was.

pleasant Hoppy movie

[chipe · 6/10 · 12 February 2015]

Pleasant Hopalong Cassidy outing. The basic story is about Cal Howard (played by Lee J Cobb), who has learned that Congress has approved an irrigation project in the area, a key part of which is the Randall ranch. To acquire the ranch, first he gets engaged to the owner's daughter, then when that falls through he convinces the local banker to call in a Randall note on some prize cattle, and finally he has his men rustle the cattle further trying to ruin Randall. In between all this, Howard also has the local bank robbed.

What I liked about the movie is it's mysterious leisurely start. The first thing we see in the movie is about a dozen horsemen chasing someone through nice usual Hoppy movie scenery. We don't know who or why. Then we see that the horseman being chased is Lucky Jenkins, Hoppy's sidekick, who is forced to leap off a cliff into the river below, perhaps to his death. Back in town Hoppy learns that Lucky is accused of robbing the bank. Then we meet the other characters at a square dance party. Finally the plot develops bit by bit.

Things I noticed:

I was satisfied with the action, mainly the chase at the start and a wonderful shootout at the end at the outlaws' hideout, highlighted by Lucky and Windy dislodging huge boulders to roll down on the bad guys' cabin.

I am always annoyed by this staple of Hoppy movies: some weird, persistent, obnoxious woman is always romantically pursuing Hoppy's old comic sidekick.

It seemed so unlikely that the heroine (Randall's daughter) would ever become engaged to rude Lee J Cobb.

A minor complaint: it seemed silly and unrealistic to me that the posse on horseback chasing Lucky would be holding onto their pistols as they were riding, when they were so far from Lucky they could never successfully fire a shot.

Lucky to be alive?

[hines-2000 · 10/10 · 20 March 2022]

It all starts when Lucky ( Russell Hayden) escapes from the posse chasing him for a bank robbery with a spectacular horse diving scene. Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) wants to get a good lawyer but Gabby quips, "Don't get that Cal Howard ( Lee J. Cobb) I wouldn't trust him any further than ya can throw a bull by the horns." The next scene enlivens things considerably with Muriel Evans the west's favorite "prairie flower" and her father (Morris Ankrum). Don't miss the sidesplitting scene with Gabby and Dot Farley at the square dance. Also notable work by Howard's partner in crime, mainstay performer Ted Adams.

What Happened to the Bar 20?

[bsmith5552 · 5/10 · 17 January 2004]

"Rustler's Valley" is a routine entry in the long running Hopalong Cassidy series produced by Harry "Pop" Sherman. There's little action save for the finale and no fights to speak of.

It does have a couple of interesting footnotes though. First Stephen Morris (aka Morris Ankrum), a regular villain in the early entries in the series, plays a good guy for a change...the heroine's father. Second, Lee Colt who plays the chief villain, became better known as Lee J. Cobb and enjoyed a long and distinguished career.

The story has crooked lawyer Cal Howard (Cobb) and his cronies trying to force rancher Randall (Morris) and daughter Agnes (Muriel Evans) off their ranch. Hoppy (William Boyd), Lucky (Russell Hayden) and Windy (George "Gabby" Hayes) come to their aid.

Curiously enough, Hoppy hires on as Randall's foreman. There is no mention of the Bar 20 (Hoppy's home base)whatsoever in the picture. Hayes had now developed his "Gabby" character although he is called Windy in this series. He continued to be billed as George Hayes until he moved over to Republic to co-star with Roy Rogers.