Just perfect...

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I found this to be an average Hoppy movie. The first half bored me for the most part. It showed the bad guys rigging the election for Sheriff, defeating Hoppy! In various ways they discourage pro-Hoppy voters from voting, and finally they stuff the ballot box! Hoppy turns in his badge but is confident that the Governor will sense foul play and order a new election within a week. …. The second half of the movie is better, filled with a number of good scenes. ***Spoilers.****Among the good scenes: ¶ after Hoppy "loses" the election, there is a great noir-like scene in the saloon. The main bad guy, Hammond, who is out to kill Hoppy for sending him to prison, is dealing poker hands to his outlaw friends. The one who receives the highest hand is to collect the pot and agree to kill Cassidy. Hoppy walks in on the "game" in its early stage, and he forces them to complete the deal. He dares the winner to draw on him. There are no takers. He orders them all out of town within 12 hours. Hoppy turns his back on the group and observes them in the bar room mirror as he exits. He sees some reach for their guns. He spins around and kills a number of them, shoots out the lights and gets away. ¶ to make good on his threat that the outlaws all leave town, Hoppy alone, on foot, faces them (all mounted on horseback) on the street. They charge him. See the movie to see how he survives! ¶ it was clever of Hoppy to figure out how the ballot box was stuffed — he examined the ballots and noticed that the non-Hoppy ballots had some different type font for certain letters. different than the legitimate ballots. ¶ at the end of the movie there is a terrifically filmed scene of Hoppy in a fistfight with Hammond on a suspension bridge over a ravine. Some other observations: ¶ the heroine (who lacks a sweet voice) is surprisingly silent throughout the second half of the movie. She is shot at while in a stagecoach, kidnapped and tied up, rescued, watches Hammond fall to his death from the suspension bridge, etc — and never says a word! ¶ California Carlson's (Hoppy's comic sidekick) often turns me off with his inane antics. Here he tries to eat an eight inch high sandwich. In fact, the other actors (both sidekicks, the heroine, even Buck Peters) were poor compared to other Hoppy movies. ¶ I was surprised to see Hoppy pull this deadly ploy on the harmless inept newly-elected sheriff: as noted above, the heroine is kidnapped by Hammond, and Hoppy is instructed to come alone to retrieve her. Sure death is waiting him. So Hoppy changes clothes with the Sheriff and forces him to accompany Hoppy to the rendezvous with Hammond. So Hammond mistakenly shoots dead the Sheriff, giving Hoppy the opportunity to rescue the girl, etc. Not very good-guy heroic of Hoppy.

If you love action, this episode is for you. Hopalong Cassidy is of course played by William Boyd, who does an impeccable job as usual. Outside of a few nice appearances by a few regular bad guys and California, there's not much to say about the acting which is fairly standard. The appearance of Andy Clyde as California Carlson is always a plus, but unfortunately Jimmy Rogers as "Deputy Jimmy Rogers" isn't one of Hoppy's better sidekicks. The story is also pretty standard fare.In my mind, what sets this episode apart from many of the later Hoppy movies is the action. There are several gun and fistfights and Hoppy and company manage to dispatch of many of the "forty thieves" on camera. The final fight on the bridge scene is one of the better ones out of all 66 movies, and there's also a classic gunfight in the saloon along with other more standard gun play.Overall, its fairly standard in most respects except for lots of action. The other elements prevent this from being up there with the very best, but it stands out among some of the weaker later episodes.

This episode of the series hits the ground running from the first scene as Hoppy cleans up the territory while newspaper proclaim this with banner headlines.It's a shoe-in that Hoppy will be re-elected town sheriff, that is until parolee, Tad Hammond rides into town. Still smarting from been sent up the river by Hoppy years earlier, he vows revenge and with the help of the local gangs, he rigs the election. Saloon owner, Doyle is installed as puppet sheriff and the crooks think they've won. Up to the point where Hoppy gives them an ultimatum to leave town and gives the warning of what will happen if they don't in the summary above.Hoppy has his black duds on and his steely gaze is full on too. Even California proves he isn't quite the bumbling comic relief when he saves Hoppy from a back-shooter. Sadly, Jimmy Rogers is useless and just gets tied up at any occasion.Good action all the way through with a big shoot out at the finale and a classic fight on a swaying rope bridge above the river. All of which may be clichés now but still entertaining just the same.

"Forty Thieves" was the 54th and final Hopalong Cassidy series western produced by Harry "Pop" Sherman. It is nonetheless an above average entry in the long running series. It was directed by long time series director Lesley Selander. The production values remained high and the supporting cast was filled with a cast of veteran players.Hoppy (William Boyd) is the sheriff who has driven out all of the bad elements from the town with the help of his trusty deputies California Carlson (Andy Clyde) and Jimmy Rogers (Jimmy Rogers). The film starts out with several hard ridin' chase sequences of Hoppy chasing down the baddies. One day an old nemesis Tad Hammond (Douglas Dumbrille) rides into town. It seems that Hoppy had been responsible for Hammond's recent imprisonment.Hammond vows revenge. Since Hoppy is running for re-election as sheriff, Hammond plans to run his own candidate for the office with a little help from his friends. His candidate is the spineless gambler Jerry Doyle (Kirk Alyn). So Hammond calls in the forty thieves of the title to ensure that Doyle wins. The forty thieves include such "B" western veteran heavies as Glenn Strange, Hal Taliaferro, Bob Kortman and Jack Rockwell.The heroine and love interest of Rogers is Katherine Reynolds (Louise Currie) the daughter of upstanding citizen Judge Reynolds (Robert Frazer).Hammond fixes the election and Doyle is proclaimed sheriff. Hoppy then decides that it is time to clean up the town once more. He is aided by his former boss Buck Peters (Herbert Rawlinson) and the boys of the Bar 20. After a classic climatic gunfight justice prevails and California provides the standard "leave 'em laughing" ending.This would be the last Cassidy feature for two years. Boyd would take over production of the series in 1946 and crank out a further 12 installments before moving on to TV in the early 50s.Kirk Alyn (Doyle) is best remembered for playing Superman in two Columbia serials (1948 & 1950)."Pop" Sherman could hold his head up high as he signed off from the series for the last time.