User Reviews

In case you don't know, the Argentine Pampas is a famous region for grazing livestock and growing crops. However, in this film, the scenic region near Lone Pine, CA, serves as a stand in for the real thing........ The Bar 20 sells some prime cattle to Argentine Jose Valdez, for breeding. Hoppy finds reason to return with Jose to his estancia in the Pampas. Lucky(Russel Hayden) accompanies Hoppy. There, Hoppy becomes more suspicious of Jose's brother in law: Merritt, who didn't act friendly at the Bar 20, suggesting to Jose to look at other herds..........Hoppy learns of the mysterious deaths of Jose's son and 2 daughters, one of whom was married to Merritt. Jose shows Hoppy his son's gun, said to have killed him. He also shows Hoppy the slug extracted from the body. Hoppy exclaims that the 44-40 slug is too large to have been shot from that pistol! .........Eventually, it dawns to Hoppy that all the victims were potential heirs to the estancia., ahead of Merritt. That left only Jose himself and his young grandson: Ernesto, ahead of Merritt in the line of inheritance. Thus, Hoppy was keen on substantiating his hunch that Merritt was behind these deaths, before the last 2 fell as victims. ........Merritt has a number of accomplices, the most important being Slim Schultz: his hatchet man. Merritt always arranged to be far away when these deaths occurred, thus eliminating him personally as a suspect. It was clear that Slim was an American, not a Mexican. Hoppy found a poster offering a reward for Slim's capture, he charged with murder..........Merritt currently has a girlfriend in the sexy café entertainer Chiquita(Steffi Duna, born a Hungarian but looking ethnic). She has hopes of marrying Merritt and eventually becoming the mistress of Jose's estancia. She will often figure in the subsequent proceedings, either on Merritt's or Hoppy's side. ........An amusing incident happens when Merritt tells Chiquita to try to find out what Hoppy knows about his plans, which he may have overheard. She rides her horse, until she sees Hoppy in the distance. Then, she feigns her horse suddenly becoming a runaway, which draws Hoppy. He rescues her, but she then fakes a faint. Hoppy carries her to an irrigation ditch, where he suddenly drops her, indicating he knew she was faking. In thrashing around, Chiquita accidentally trips Hoppy, and he ends up taking a bath too. After Hoppy leaves, Lucky shows up and helps Chiquita out of her predicament. She offers to show her dancing at the café, and he accepts. We see her dancing, then one of Merrill's men tries to make a scene. After Hoppy arrives, more hostility. Hoppy starts off a fisticuff, which accelerates after most of the lights are knocked out. Jose's live in, humorous Fernando, joined in on Hoppy's side, which prevails... .......Later, Chiquita approaches Hoppy, and tries to flirt with him. But, instead, he declares that Merritt has no intention of marrying her. Later, she tells Lucky that Hoppy won't respond to her overtures because she is a mere café girl. Lucky tells her to look around for a Colt 44(Would she recognize such?). When she meets Merritt, he tells her to send a note to Hoppy to meet in a place out of town, and she will tell him about a Colt 44 gun. Hoppy falls for it, but is suspicious. Thus, hides in the nearby weeds, until Merritt, Slim and Curly show up. Hoppy hears them talking, then sticks them up. But, soon, Chiquita arrives, and sticks Hoppy up. Then a curious sequence occurs. Merritt tells Chiquita to drop her gun. Sensing that this may usher in a change of loyalty for Chiquita, Hoppy tells his take on Merritt's plans. She stops to think, then gallops off toward the hacienda, with Merritt et al. chasing her. While the others are distracted, Hoppy socks Merrill's bunch and disappears into the grass, finding his horse, and gallops off to tell the gauchos to ride with him.(So, why didn't Merrill have Hoppy killed during the brief time after Chiquita had stuck up Hoppy? Also, why did Chiquita change her mind about Hoppy after he told Merrill's plan? Surely, Merrill must have told her his plans at some point.) After, Chiquita arrives at the hacienda, Jose and Ernesto are put in a wagon, along with Chiquita and Lucky, with Fernando driving. They drive off, not long before Merritt's bunch arrive and follow them. Then , Hoppy's bunch soon arrive, and are directed to follow Merrill's bunch. I will stop my summery here, except to say that Merrill dies from a distinctive gaucho weapon(I won't say what).

"Law of the Pampas" was released after George Hayes as "Windy" left the series over a contract dispute. To play the role of the comedy relief Sidney Toler took a break from his Charlie Chan series.

Buck Peters (William Desmond) is entertaining cattle buyers from Argentina. Jose Valdez (Pedro de Cordoba), his son in law Ralph Merritt (Sidney Blackmer) and his foreman Fernando Ramirez (Toler) are attending a rodeo where Lucky (Russell Hayden) is competing.

Law of the Pampas came out when the Hopalong Cassidy series had lost Gabby Hayes and was trying some different sidekicks out before settling on Andy Clyde as the old timer codger. In this case for one film only, the movie's second Charlie Chan, Sidney Toler filled the bill as Hoppy's adventures took him to Argentina.

Bill Boyd and Russell Hayden are sent by Bar 20 owner with some prize breeding bulls to Argentine rancher Pedro DeCordoba and it wouldn't be a Hoppy picture if he didn't aid somebody in distress.

That someone is DeCordoba who's had a string of tragedies. His son was accidentally shot while cleaning his revolver and a daughter was killed in a horse riding accident. Nobody thinks anything of it until Hoppy's down on the ranch.

The villain is unmasked rather early in the proceedings and its DeCordoba's American son-in-law Sidney Blackmer. In a story line taken from Richard III, Blackmer is quietly eliminating all the other heirs to the ranch. Now all that's left is DeCordoba and his grandson, little Joseph LaSavio.

Blackmer's a real slime ball as big a one as Laurence Olivier was in Richard III. He's got Steffi Duna on the side, the kind of girl you bed and don't wed. Not that she's not got visions of herself as mistress of a great estate. But that's not in Blackmer's plans.

Of course this film was shot nowhere near Argentina. The ranch hands are Argentine gauchos, skilled with the bola. But Blackmer's imported a bunch of American cowboys for his dirty work who must have looked real out of place on the pampas.

Sidney Toler is DeCordoba's foreman, but he hangs out with Boyd and Hayden as a third sidekick for most of the film. He certainly taught Hoppy skill with the bola because Hoppy uses it quite effectively in the climax with the bad guys.

Law of the Pampas was possibly a bit too ambitious an undertaking for a B western even if it is a Hopalong Cassidy product. But I'm sure William Shakespeare would never have dreamed one of his plays would turn up as the inspiration for a Hopalong Cassidy film.