Heart of Arizona (1938)

Belle Starr has returned from time in prison only to face a hail of bullets, along with rescue by Hoppy and the Bar 20 gang.

Director:

Lesley Selander

Writers:

Norman Houston, Clarence E. Mulford (original story)

Stars:

William Boyd, George 'Gabby' Hayes, Russell Hayden

Cast

Complete credited cast:
William Boyd	...	Hopalong Cassidy
George 'Gabby' Hayes	...	Windy (as George Hayes)
Russell Hayden	...	Lucky
John Elliott	...	Buck Peters
Billy King	...	Artie
Natalie Moorhead	...	Belle Starr
Dorothy Short	...	Jackie Starr
Stephen Chase	...	Dan Ringo (as Alden Chase)
John Beach	...	Sheriff Hawley
Lane Chandler	...	Trimmer Winkler
Leo J. McMahon	...	Twister (as Leo MacMahon)

Storyline

Belle Starr has just returned from prison to take over her ranch where her foreman Ringo who is rustling cattle. He is after the herd and has planted his man Twister there. When Hoppy finds the cattle stampeded by Twister, he secretly marks them hoping this will lead him to the rustlers and their buyer.

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Plot Keywords:

cattle | rustling | ranch | rustler | herd | 

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Taglines:

Roaring Romance! - Thundering Action! (original print ad)

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Genres:

Action | Romance | Western

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 April 1938 (USA)

Also Known As:

Gunsmoke

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Harry Sherman Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

68 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Wide Range System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The 17th of 66 Hopalong Cassidy movies.

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Connections

Follows Cassidy of Bar 20 (1938)

User Reviews

Where's Hoppy?

First, a trivia question for those of you who have seen this film already: what was the name of the horse Hoppy rides throughout most of this movie? This is a fairly good Hopalong Cassidy movie with too little of Hoppy. He's known for being off-screen more & sharing more of the footage with his side-kicks & other characters than his main rivals, Gene Autry & Roy Rogers. And indeed, one of the reasons the Hoppy movies were better than the others is that he was not center screen at all times. But in this movie, he "underdoes" it, & there's just too little seen of him during the film. The main character of this film almost seems to be Lucky, & he may well have more on-screen minutes than Hoppy. We do learn some interesting things, though, about the main film characters. If we're to believe George "Gabby" Hayes (in his character of Windy), he says to Hoppy "I learned you how to ride" (& Hoppy accepts the statement as if it were true). We learn that a "California collar" is slang for a "noose" (so why was Andy Clyde known as "California" in the later Hoppy movies?). We learn how Windy lost his teeth ("A Cheyenne chief knocked all my teeth out in a hand to hand duel...That happened at the Battle of Bull's Tail" (ha! Get it?). We learn that Lucky has been at the Bar 20 Ranch less than 5 years at the time of this story. This film is more violent than later Hoppy movies (Windy is seemingly shot, Lucky is grazed in the head with a bullet, Hoppy is wounded in the arm, & the character of Belle Starr is shot twice). After a few moments, I noticed how beautiful the rock scenery was (but the story is set in Arizona, near Nogales, Mexico); little did I know how significant the rocks would be to the story. Hoppy is dressed all in black (a good sign, see my other Hoppy reviews), but he lends Topper to someone else, & rides a plain brown horse for most of the movie. How odd! And (answer to trivia question) the name of this horse was Yuma. Strange that Hoppy should mention that horse's name but never mentions that his own horse is named Topper. Uncharacteristically, Hoppy really loses his temper in one scene where he slaps a baddie silly, & says "Say something, or I'll smash your brains in!" My, what violence! Mistake: Gabby Hayes trips over William Boyd's foot while trying to mount his horse. Since there was no comment on this, & no laugh, I'd have to assume that it was accidental. Second problem: Natalie Moorhead (a decent actress) plays Belle Starr as if she were on the Broadway stage. Her mannerisms & speech are too refined for a wild west rustler who just spent time in jail. Unlike most movies, everyone in the listed cast had a part big enough to be readily identifiable when the end credits came on. Despite all the shooting, Hoppy himself was involved in only one of the gunfights. I rate it 6/10.