JohnHowardReid A United Artists release, 23 October 1942, directed by Lesley Selander.CAST: William Boyd, Andy Clyde, Jay Kirby, Antonio Moreno, Chris-Pin Martin, Nora Lane, Esther Estrella, Alan Baldwin, Eva Puig, Jack Rockwell, John Vosper, Tony Roux, Pierce Lyden, Ted Wells, Martin Garralaga, Joe Dominguez, Earle Hodgins. 68 minutes. (Available on an excellent Platinum Disc DVD). COMMENT: United Artists have now taken over from Paramount, but little else has changed in the eleven months interim. Despite its familiar plot, there are hints now and again that this could have been a really worthy entry in the series with less comedy relief from Clyde and Martin and more detailed characterization of the Mexican principals. Boyd, Moreno and always reliable Jack Rockwell do their best and the photography is often most attractively noirish, but, as said, too little is made of the dramatic moments and too much of the fatuous comic cut-ups.

classicsoncall The Mexican Border plays a role in a lot of B Western stories, and here's another one featuring Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) and his pals California Carlson (Andy Clyde) and Breezy Travers (Jay Kirby). In this one, a gang of outlaws is raiding both sides of the border, and the leader has found a way to implicate both Hoppy and his Mexican counterpart Don Tomas Gonzales (Antonio Moreno) in the robberies. There might have been no story here if Don Tomas heeded Hoppy's advice on speaking to him privately, but of course, the story is what we came for.I was surprised to see California actually attempting to court a Mexican senora in the story, usually he's high tailin' it in the other direction. But Rosita Lopez (Eva Puig) knew that the way to a man's heart was through his stomach, and plies California with as much food as he can handle. Correcting one misperception that a couple other reviewers mention here, California's not really in competition with Chris-Pin Martin's character, Fat Miguel, who stated that the five kids in the story were not his and he didn't want to get married. That's made even more plain when Miguel reads a letter from Mexican authorities that states Rosita's husband was not dead, and that he would be arriving home soon.As for the outlaw bunch, with some clever sleuthing, Hoppy plants a false story for Bob Saunders (Alan Baldwin) to overhear, and gets to the bottom of the phony Hoppy posing as a bandit - it was Bob's mother Donna Louise (Nora Lane)! The whole thing was a bit of a stretch but what the heck, it was a an offbeat move for the film makers and one the matinée crowd probably never saw coming back in the day. Not only that, but a sheriff's deputy (John Vosper as Ed Carson) was in on the scheme as well! As for California's play for Senora Lopez, well let's just say that he's still single as the good guy trio heads off into the sunset.

bkoganbing Undercover Man has Hopalong Cassidy along with Jay Kirby and Andy Clyde acting as agents to discover just who is behind a series of raids on both sides of the border. It has the Texas Rangers and the Mexican Federales stumped.As usual Andy Clyde provides the comedy, but he has a rival here in Chris-Pin Martin who was Gordito in Cesar Romero's Cisco the Kid films. Both are rivals for a large widow woman who has a bunch of kids.The outlaws seem to know everything that's going on in advance and worst of all the Texas and Mexican authorities believe that it's Hoppy who is leader of the outlaw band and Antonio Moreno a large landowner and head of the Federales who is the leader of the gang in Texas. Neat little trick which kind of slows down cooperation for a while.The answer is in some old wanted posters where Hoppy finds who the real culprit is. Incidentally his crimes extend to blackmail.Seeing this film now with all the border problems that have recently been in the news makes me wonder about if it is still possible to get that kind of cooperation that made this joint border operation possible in this film.

Spondonman Yet another good b Western from William Boyd and the team – but Hoppy and California have a new partner for the next half a dozen movies in Breezy – a proto-Audie Murphy in 1942.A gang of mysterious raiders is robbing and looting on both sides of the US-Mexican border, seemingly getting plenty of information of where the next rich pickings will be. Hopalong & Co. come along to stop awhile at the Gonzalez hacienda, their mission to stop the hold ups and find out who's leaking the information to the baddies in the first place. Breezy's brief fling with Gonzalez's daughter is flung out of the script early while California supplies the comedy by proving yet again he has an enormous appetite, his love-life depending on it though! There's some nice countryside to be seen even when full of horses and men, and the general production was good for the type of film. The WW2 Good Neighbour policy was heavily pushed, but surely better than todays To Hell With The Neighbours policy? Favourite bits: Hoppy and Gonzalez (I wonder if one of them won the chess match) and their coteries chasing one another confusedly each thinking the other was the guilty party; following Bob to the bandits nest on a lovely evening.It's my kind of undemanding low to middlebrow fun - one I can watch till the cows come home.