Copyright 16 December 1938 by Paramount Pictures, Inc. No New York showcase. U.S. release: 16 December 1938. Australian release: 22 June 1939. 6,656 feet. 74 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Hopalong Cassidy sets out to trace down a cattle rustler, known as Dan Rowley, and to tame spoiled Artie Peters, the ten-year-old nephew of Buck Peters, the owner of Bar 20. When the local school teacher, a battle-axe of a woman, quits her post in protest against the behavior of the kids, Hoppy imports a beautiful new teacher, June Lake, without consulting Mayor Thorpe, whom Hopalong suspects is really Rowley. Miss Lake's beauty precipitates a violent competition for her attentions, into which everyone but Hoppy enters. Disappointed, the girl turns to the suave mayor.
NOTES: Number 20 of the 66-picture series. Locations in the San Jacinto Mountains. From 1937 through to 1941, William Boyd was 2nd only to Gene Autry on the North American exhibitors' list of money-making "Western" stars.
COMMENT: It wasn't until television was launched in Australia in October 1956 and his old films suddenly hit the airwaves, that Bill Boyd/Hopalong Cassidy became a household name in that country. True, these movies had originally played in cinemas, but "B" westerns were never highly regarded in the land of Oz and were used almost exclusively in Saturday matinees designed wholly for kids. Even here, Hoppy was not well thought of, the moppets preferring Gene Autry or Wild Bill Elliott or even Roy Rogers as second league cowboy heroes. (The first league was dominated by Randy Scott and John Wayne).
The Frontiersman (or Frontiersmen - both titles were used in the movie's publicity hand-outs) - is not exactly a typical Hoppy anyway, produced on a far more lavish budget than usual, using a really novel and off-beat script. Unfortunately, despite the interest generated by the originality of the story, combined with Russell Harlan's most attractively photographed exteriors, the movie fails the vital action test. The action eps are not only pretty tame but the villains are uncommonly dull. And there's too much tiresome, tedious (and sometimes downright nauseating) talk all around.
OTHER VIEWS: Bill Boyd was the strangest person I ever worked with. It's hard to say who he hated most - kids or horses. He despised actors and acting too, and hated producers, directors and newsmen as well. He believed his success was entirely due to his ingratiating personality. It's hard to say who disliked who the most: Boyd, Sherman, or Sherman, Boyd. It was all Boyd's idea to radically change the Cassidy character. Instead of the hard, scrappy gunslinger of Mulford's novels, Boyd played Hoppy as a dandy, dressed all in black - "a monkey suit," Pop Sherman called it. But Boyd was established in the role, the series was making money, so Pop let Boyd have his way... As for The Frontiersman which to my shame I directed, that was just plain bad. - Lesley Selander.
SYNOPSIS: Hopalong Cassidy sets out to trace down a cattle rustler, known as Dan Rowley, and to tame spoiled Artie Peters, the ten-year-old nephew of Buck Peters, the owner of Bar 20. When the local school teacher, a battle-axe of a woman, quits her post in protest against the behavior of the kids, Hoppy imports a beautiful new teacher, June Lake, without consulting Mayor Thorpe, whom Hopalong suspects is really Rowley. Miss Lake's beauty precipitates a violent competition for her attentions, into which everyone but Hoppy enters. Disappointed, the girl turns to the suave mayor.
NOTES: Number 20 of the 66-picture series. Locations in the San Jacinto Mountains. From 1937 through to 1941, William Boyd was 2nd only to Gene Autry on the North American exhibitors' list of money-making "Western" stars.
COMMENT: It wasn't until television was launched in Australia in October 1956 and his old films suddenly hit the airwaves, that Bill Boyd/Hopalong Cassidy became a household name in that country. True, these movies had originally played in cinemas, but "B" westerns were never highly regarded in the land of Oz and were used almost exclusively in Saturday matinees designed wholly for kids. Even here, Hoppy was not well thought of, the moppets preferring Gene Autry or Wild Bill Elliott or even Roy Rogers as second league cowboy heroes. (The first league was dominated by Randy Scott and John Wayne).
The Frontiersman (or Frontiersmen - both titles were used in the movie's publicity hand-outs) - is not exactly a typical Hoppy anyway, produced on a far more lavish budget than usual, using a really novel and off-beat script. Unfortunately, despite the interest generated by the originality of the story, combined with Russell Harlan's most attractively photographed exteriors, the movie fails the vital action test. The action eps are not only pretty tame but the villains are uncommonly dull. And there's too much tiresome, tedious (and sometimes downright nauseating) talk all around.
OTHER VIEWS: Bill Boyd was the strangest person I ever worked with. It's hard to say who he hated most - kids or horses. He despised actors and acting too, and hated producers, directors and newsmen as well. He believed his success was entirely due to his ingratiating personality. It's hard to say who disliked who the most: Boyd, Sherman, or Sherman, Boyd. It was all Boyd's idea to radically change the Cassidy character. Instead of the hard, scrappy gunslinger of Mulford's novels, Boyd played Hoppy as a dandy, dressed all in black - "a monkey suit," Pop Sherman called it. But Boyd was established in the role, the series was making money, so Pop let Boyd have his way... As for The Frontiersman which to my shame I directed, that was just plain bad. - Lesley Selander.