User Reviews

The bandit leader 'The Fox' , who was put behind bars largely because of the efforts of Hoppy and Mexican Col. Gonzales, has escaped. One of his first goals now is to enact revenge on Hoppy and the Col.. Thus, he sends identical letters to each, signed as the other, telling them to meet at the Gonzales hacienda, owned by the Col.'s father Don(Al Garcia), at a certain time, hoping to ambush them before they arrive. This succeeds with the Col., who seems remarkably accepting of his fate just before his is assassinated. However, Hoppy, along with his friends Lucky (Russell Hayden) and Windy(George Hayes), arrive at the hacienda unscathed, wondering where the Col. is. They decide to scout around the nearby roads and find his body. Hoppy finds a letter on his body identical to the one he supposedly received from the Col., signed by Hoppy, who did not send it. Thus, Hoppy surmises that someone wants to kill both him and the Col.. Hoppy notices the letters ZOR scrawled in the sand near the body. He asks Don if this means anything to him. Don replies that it might be the first part of the word Zorro, which is the Spanish word for fox. This rang a bell. He could understand why The Fox would want to kill himself and the Col.. They returned to the hacienda, where Hoppy sought out Janet, a houseguest he had an intuition might be involved in this scheme, as he remembered The Fox had a sister. He spent some time talking to her, and noticed she was a wearing an unusual ring similar to the one stolen from a friend. Meanwhile, Don's daughter, Anita(Jan Clayton), does a beautiful job singing the song "Muchachita", then cries, as she is jealous of Hoppy's attention to Janet. Janet suggests to Hoppy that they take a ride around the estate, looking for possible signs of The Fox. Actually, she is leading him to a cabin where The Fox and associates are hanging out. As they get close to the cabin, they stop and talk. Hoppy suddenly changes his demeaner, and accuses her of being The Fox's sister. She pulls out a small gun and sticks Hoppy up. I will stop here, and let you see the film to find out the rest of the story.........This was Jan Clayton's second film, the first being the previous Hoppy film "Sunset Trail". She sang a song or 2 in each, as she was a talented singer. Interestingly, she still had a 'little girl' speaking voice, which I found endearing, but you might find irritating. After this film, she would soon marry Russell Hayden(Lucky). Those of you who watched the '50s TV series "Lassie" will remember her as Tommy Rettig's mother. She left the series after a few years, partly because she missed participating in theatrical musicals.........Aside form the 2 songs Jan sang, there is nothing particularly memorable amount this film. The Fox was played by 2 different actors in this film vs. "Borderland"

"in Old Mexico" has Hoppy (William Boyd), Lucky (Russell Hayden) and Windy (George Hayes) are summoned to Mexico by a note purportedly sent by an old friend and ally Colonel Gonzolez (Trevor Bardette) asking Hoppy to come on an urgent matter. Col. Gonzolez has also received a similar note. They are to meet at the Gonzolez Rancho where Don Carlos, Col. Gonzolez' father, who also received a note is waiting. The only problem is that none of these men sent the notes.

The originator of the notes turns out to be an old nemesis known as "The Fox" who had been sent to jail by Hoppy and Gonzolez but has since escaped and has vowed revenge upon the two men. "The Fox" captures Col. Gonzolez and murders him. Before he dies the Colonel scrawls three letters: ZOR in the dirt. Hoppy learns that the letters stand for the Spanish word "Zorro" which means "The Fox".

At the Rancho, our friends meet Don Carlos' young daughter Anita (Jan Clayton) and her friend Janet Leeds (Betty Amann), an American. Hoppy seeing a recognizable ring on her finger gets suspicious and begins to play up to her. Lucky becomes unhappy because Hoppy seemingly has given up the chase for the Colonel's murderer.

Hoppy lures Janet out for a ride where they are confronted by "The Fox". Before he can gun down Hoppy, he is overwhelmed and captured by him. As they are taking "The Fox" in they hear gunfire. Apparently Lucky and Anita were going to an abandoned Adobe shack to watch over Hoppy. They are attacked by henchman Burke (Glenn Strange) and his men. Windy, who had been following close behind Hoppy and Janet is seriously wounded in the conflict. Overwhelmed and running out of ammunition Hoppy and Lucky send Windy back to Don Carlos for help. Windy collapses upon arriving at the rancho, Hoppy and Lucky try to hold off the bandits and..........................................

Another rousing finish to end this adventure. A lot of great scenery is evident throughout the story. Jan Clayton is best remembered for playing the mother on the "Lassie" TV series of the 1950s.

Hoppy, Lucky and Windy are all in fine form as they are brought to Mexico under false pretenses. Lucky, as usual, falls for the pretty girl but in this case, it was for real and he married her in real life. The girl is Jan Clayton from the TV Lassie series and she is very very young (and she sings, too).

The Uber-villain is very well played by Paul Sutton. His voice seemed familiar and IMDb shows that he was the voice of Mounty Sgt. Preston on "olde timey" radio! The evil henchman is Glenn Strange, later employed as the bartender at The Longbranch Saloon in Dodge City where he mostly got to talk to Miss Kitty.

This time we get to go to "Old Mexico" and see the impressive scenery of Joshua Tree, CA. It's rather fun finding out just where these older westerns were filmed and more so when one has actually been to the locations.

Good plot. No cattle rustlers (yep, spoiler checked !), funny side story with Windy and a much married lady at the hacienda.

Recommended.