When the story begins, Hoppy and his two pals have come to town where they meet an old friend, Bud. But a short time later, some unknown gunman kills Bud...and this occurs shortly after Bud named Hoppy and his two sidekicks (California and Jimmy) as his beneficiaries. Now, the three own 2/3 interest in Bud's childhood home...a huge ranch in a different town. So, the three head there...only to witness a man SAYING he's Bud arriving in this town!! Apparently, someone has found a guy who looks much like Bud...and since the guy hasn't been in town for a decade, the plan was to have him substitute...and then sell the ranch to a local baddie (Douglass Dumbrille) so he can control all the water rights. Then, this bad man can effectively destroy all the other ranchers unless they pay him for the water...and it won't come cheaply!
Now you MIGHT think Hoppy would immediately expose this faux Bud, but he doesn't. This is because he wants to know who is behind this scheme...who orchestrated the murder of Bud and who trained the fake one to double for Bud. It's actually really obvious who is behind all this....especially since Dumbrille played evil baddies in about 95% of his movies!!
So is this film any good? Well, yes and know. It's handled very well and is interesting...though the notion of a bad guy trying to muscle out all the local ranchers is hardly an original one. Fortunately, HOW he would do this was pretty original...if a bit strange! It's also very fortunate that the Cassidy family estate apparently kept original copies of his westerns...because, like so many B-western stars, his movies were hacked to pieces to make them fit into TV time slots in the 1950s. But recently, restored originals were posted to YouTube...and you can see this one there at its original length and form.
As you watch this film, it's interesting to see Robert Mitchum as one of the baddie's hired guns. In fact, 1943 was the first year he appeared in films....and he made several Hopalong Cassidy's movies that year. Along with Mitchum is Glenn Strange...and Strange ALWAYS played bad guys in B-westerns! So much for being type cast! It wasn't until he began playing Frankenstein in the mid-1940s that he began doing something different! And, when he was a regular on TV's "Gunsmoke" he was able to finally consistently play a nice guy...not a monster nor hired gun slinger!
By the way, in the scene where Kit Moyer confronts the boss near the end of the film, note that as he and Hoppy enter the doorway that you can clearly see the shadow from the microphone!
