L'agguato

"Trail Dust" is a pleasing example of how a simple "formula" western can, with a bit of imagination and a good cast, can be turned into a first-rate adventure. Hopalong Cassidy, together with his usual sidekicks Windy and Johnny Nelson, volunteer to sell their herd at a reasonable price during a food shortage. This does not set well with some greedy cattlemen (led by Morris Ankrum, who was to become a familiar staple in later Hopalong adventures, usually as an unctuous villain). The bad guys set out to sabotage the cattle drive at every turn, and the action scenes are vintage Hopalong Cassidy. There are some pleasant diversions along the way - including an understated Beth Clark - and the climatic denouement seems a natural to the scenes which precede it. There is a little singing along the way, but - as in most of the early Cassidy movies - the music is pleasant, authentic to its genre, and does not interfere with the plot or action. Also, Trail Dust contains some good scenes of cattle-droving, using some real-life cowboys. Quite Enjoyable.

This is the one Hopalong Cassidy adventure that really stands out in my mind as being the best. It's a little more gritty than some of the later ones, and more like a real western than an episode of a tv show. Later on Hoppy would get a bit more corny and more like a wandering doo-gooder, but here he's just an ordinary cattle-man, trying to get his herd on down the trail. Gabby Hayes is, as usual, excellent as Windy, while the rest of the cast make great cowboys. My dad taped a whole bunch of these off PBS for us, and this is what I watched growing up, instead of cartoons or other things, and I think I'll always love these classic adventures. This is definitely the best of them all.

"Trail Dust" from the Hopalong Cassidy series is a real duster in every sense of the word. Most of the story takes place on a dusty and dry cattle drive.

Unscrupulous cattleman Tex Anderson (Stephen Morris) is withholding his cattle from a hungry market in order to drive up prices. The cattle buyers prevail upon some smaller ranchers including Hoppy (William Boyd)to form a drive and bring their cattle to market. Hoppy takes on the job of trail boss and is joined by his two pals Johnny Nelson (Jimmy Ellison) and Windy Halliday (George "Gabby" Hayes). Along the way the pick up the heroine Beth Clark (Gwynne Simpson)who is searching for her father. Unbeknownst to the group is that the evil Tex Williams has hired on in order to sabotage the drive and his cattle to reach the market first.

This is a better than average entry in the series. Produced by Harry "Pop" Sherman and directed by Nate West, this adventure takes place on the trail and leaves the viewer as thirsty as the cattle from all of the dust and long days along the trail. At 77 minutes this picture is longer than most series westerns but benefits from the extra running time. The outdoor photography is breathtaking and gives the viewer the feel of being on the trail too. In fact Boyd's traditional black costume is covered in dust through most of the film, unheard of for most "B" western heroes.

Boyd plays Hoppy the trail boss with an edge unusual for a series western hero. He takes no guff from anyone including his friends. This is what set the early Hoppys above most of the competition of the day. Hayes had still not adopted the "Gabby" nickname at this point. He was still being billed as George Hayes. Ellison was nearing the end of his tenure on the series, wanting to go on to "A" features. Morris became better known as Morris Ankrum later in his career.

As usual at the end, Ellison dumps the heroine and Hayes makes a remarkable recovery from a leg wound to ride after Hoppy and join him for the next adventure.

It's a Depression time in the old west just as it was for the movie going public when Trail Dust came out in 1936. The price of beef cattle is sky high and a greedy rancher played by Morris Ankrum wants to keep the price high. So he looks askance when a relief committee seeks to buy cattle for relief purposes, including the herd from the Bar 20 Ranch where Hopalong Cassidy is the foreman.

Hoppy and the gang have to drive the herd to the railroad terminal to be paid. Ankrum's one ruthless dude however. He joins the trail drive under an alias and continues any number of nefarious schemes to prevent Hoppy's herd from arriving.

Of course Bill Boyd, Jimmy Ellison and Gabby Hayes are up to the challenge. Trail Dust is a bit unusual in that Hoppy is for once dealing with a plot that involves his chosen profession, ranch foreman. Most of the Cassidy features involve him getting in all kinds of circumstances that have nothing to do with being foreman of the Bar 20. Perhaps this one sticks to the trail because it is taken directly from one of Clarence Mulford's novels.

The plot involving a depression and relief certainly struck the right note with a 1936 movie audience. Trail Dust holds up fairly well today for B western film of the time.

William Boyd seemed to be having too much fun in this one. Why shouldn't he with a cast like this. Of course Gabby was in top form as was his co-sidekick, James Ellison. I only wish there would've been more verbal jousting between them as they were pure gold together. One great scene was when Gabby was showing Ellison the proper way to court the gorgeous leading lady, Gwynne Shipman. The best in the business Morris Ankrum and Ted Adams head up the malicious gang trying to stop the huge cattle drive on the way to Plainsville. Al St. John, George Chesebro, Al Bridge and Kenneth Harlan round out a great cast.