User Reviews

My review title relates to an incident near the end of the film. Hopalong Cassidy and the workers from Jim Jordan's ranch are furiously trying to complete a fence across their end of Black Valley before ranch neighbor John Trumbull can get his 800 largely rustled cattle through the valley. Hoppy and Jordan's workers hear the thundering of hoof beats, as they continue work. They fear for their lives and their fence, when Hoppy gets the idea of setting off their dynamite, meant to blast rocks, just in front of the lead cattle. They light the fuses and throw them well in front of the fence posts. Very fortunately, they go off just before the lead cows contact them, and the blasts do their job of stopping the cattle. Hoppy and the others now shoot off their pistols, causing the lead cows to turn around, then herd them in that direction, trampling Trumbull and probably some of his workers trapped in the narrow valley. Realistically, I doubt whether a dynamite explosion up front would cause the bulk of the cattle behind to turn tail, although I could be wrong.........The tale begins with Hoppy and Johnny(James Ellison), rescuing Jordan ranch hand Windy(George Hayes) from being swept down the raging river of Dry Creek River! Seems a pair of thieves had taken over his wagon of supplies and Jordan's anticipated breeding bull, and tossed him into the river. The 3 returned to where the wagon had been, and found it still there, as one thief had been gored by the bull, and was unconscious, while the other was pilfering some materials(Why didn't they just drive the wagon away?). The one thief escaped, before Windy resumed driving the wagon and bull to it's destination. Hoppy and Johnny then rode on to the town of Yucca, where they were told they might find Trumbull, whom they had agreed to join. They found him engaged in a court battle with Jim Jordan: his neighboring rancher. Trumbull claimed Jordan had no right to fence the range he considered his own from use by Trumbull. The judge ruled in favor of Jordan. However, Trumbull countered that he didn't care about the judge's decision, the range should be open, and he would drive his cattle through the range claimed by Jordan. Trumbull should have been charged with contempt of court, in my opinion...........Hoppy and Johnny had come to this area to work for Trumbull. However, having become somewhat acquainted with him and his foreman, they decided he wasn't the sort of man they wanted to work for, and began to associate themselves with Jordan's bunch........Very soon after the trial, Jordan began preparing to build the fence. Windy took his wagon to bring back some fence posts. However, at one point, he left his wagon unattended, and someone set his wagon and posts afire. Luckily, Johnny saw it and drove it into the edge of the river, dosing the flames before they had done much damage.(The fire looked worse than that, to me).........Meanwhile, Trumbull rides to the Jordan ranch house, and confronts Sally: Jim's sister about his marriage proposal. He argues that if they wed, that would end that animosity between the 2 ranches, as it would become one big ranch. We aren't told anything about the ownership details of the 3J ranch. However, Jim and Sally are brother and sister. Hence, there is a good possibility they have a joint ownership, in which case, Jim would have something to say about joining the 2 ranches. With Sally's hesitancy to say yes, Trumbull forces a kiss from her, and lurches for more. Sally breaks free and locks herself in another room........Trumbull then orders his men to ambush the fence workers. Unfortunately for him, the workers rout the ambushers, and continue their work. This is where I started, with Trumbull deciding to try to force his cattle through the narrow valley before the fence was completed. See it at YouTube