In the 1950s, lots of old B-westerns from the 30s and 40s were chopped to pieces in order to get these films to fit into an hour-long time slot. Fortunately, in the case of Hopalong Cassidy's films, he had the foresight to save the originals....and recently these beautiful original-length movies have been downloaded to YouTube. The abbreviated films ran about 54 minutes....but this copy I saw runs 62. Now IMDB says the film is originally 66 minutes...but likely this is a mistake and the film was 62 originally. All I know for sure is that this is NOT the television version!
Often in the 1930s, Chinese and Chinese-American characters are played by white folks. While I am not the most politically correct guy, I hate this as so often these characters seem about as Chinese as a taco! Because of this, I found myself pleasantly surprised when I saw "Secrets of the Wastelands", as all the characters playing Chinese-Americans were Asians and looked Chinese. Additionally, the parts were written well...with none of the often seen stereotyping of these folks. I have noticed that OFTEN in these B-westerns, all different ethnic groups are portrayed very honestly...as Hoppy has made a few nice films with South American and Mexican-Americans as well.
The story is odd...quite unlike the usual Hopalong Cassidy film in some ways but also quite familiar. It's unusual because Hoppy has been chosen to lead an archaeological expedition!! Not unusual in that a bad boss-man is trying to cheat folks, in this case the Chinese-Americans, out of what is rightfully theirs. I could say more but really don't want to spoil it.
Overall, a very good film...well worth seeing and a bit better than you'd expect from a series western.
