William Boyd was an excellent cowboy, but earlier he had been a good actor in all kinds of roles. I thought he stole "King of Kings," the silent version of the Christ story. Boyd had a cameo appearance, coming out of the crowd to help Jesus carry His cross.
As many times as I have seen that short bit, I still get tears, and chills of admiration for Boyd's ability to express his emotions with no words. It's a beautiful example of silent movie-making.
In "Hidden Gold," he has a more prosaic role, Hopalong Cassidy.
The Hoppy movie character is very different from the book Hoppy, and a better one, in my opinion.
The book Hoppy was a Bar-20 cowboy, but in the movies he was other things, too, including a bit of a detective, as in "Hidden Gold."
He is aided by a very capable cast, including Russ Hayden, an extremely likable young man with some funny dialog here.
A very lovely Ruth Rogers underplays the unhappy leading lady, and I wonder why she didn't make more movies.
That marvelous singer Eddie Dean makes a small appearance, and we get another chance to see the great Roy Barcroft, and Jack Rockwell, and the veteran Walter long, among a long list of talented performers.
Lesley Selander might have been brushed off as "capable" or "dependable" but those are important qualities, and in his hands, this B western shines.
It is also helped by a bouncy score, apparently put together by Irvin Talbot from stock music from such greats as Victor Young and George Antheil, and others, all uncredited, except, of course, here at IMDb.
This is another Hopalong Cassidy feature from Paramount, which means it's enjoyable entertainment, and it's one I highly recommend -- except: The excellent version at YouTube is marred by commercial interruptions, sometimes right in the middle of a scene, rather than between scenes, which would have been bad enough.
Ordinarily I refuse to watch movies interrupted by commercials. Here I make an exception. If you can't watch "Hidden Gold" elsewhere, see it at YouTube. You'll be glad you did.
