Western Wednesdays: Heart of the West (1936)

     Released on July 24th, 1936,  Heart of the West is the 6th Hopalong Cassidy film. Produced by Harry Sherman and directed by Howard Bretherton from a script by Doris Schroeder, it is an adaptation of Mesquite Jenkins, Tumbleweed by Clarence E. Mulford. In this film, Hoppy and Johnny Nelson (played, as usual, by William Boyd and James Ellison) are hired by a rancher named John Trumbull (Sidney Blackmer), only to find that he is harassing local rancher Jim Jordan (Charles Martin), who wants to keep Trumbull from trespassing on his land. 

     Of course, once they find this out, Hoppy and Johnny turn down Trumbull's job offer and go to work for Jordan instead. Johnny, predictably, falls for Jim's sister Sally Jordan (Lynn Gabriel) on whom Trumbull has designs of his own. Meanwhile, Jordan's foreman Windy Halliday (Gabby Hayes) is resentful of the newcomers, feeling that he can handle things himself. Things are brought to a head when Trumbull's cohort Barton (Fred Kohler) arrives with a herd of cattle he intends to drive through Jordan's range. 

     Heart of the West is fairly light on action until the climax, involving a shootout and a stampede which Hoppy and the boys turn around using some dynamite. Other then that we get Hoppy wrestling a runaway bull (mostly off-screen) and a rather limp fight between Johnny and some of Trumbull's goons. The pacing is a little erratic as well, with the conflict between Jordan and Trumbull progressing in fits and starts. The film is almost half over before Hoppy finally decides to throw in with Jordan.

      The regular cast members are all in fine form, though Boyd doesn't have much to do and Ellison is reduced to being the butt of the joke more-often-then-not in this installment. Interestingly, Gabby once again plays a character named Windy but this time it's Windy Jenkins instead of Windy Halliday. Sidney Blackmer, best known for playing Theodore Roosevelt both on stage and in Hollywood movies, is a little lacking as the heavy this time around (he would do a much better job in the later entry Law of the Pampas (1939)). Charles Martin is just fine as Jim Jordan, who in many ways is the film's real protagonist. Lynn Gabriel isn't much more then a pretty face but she has good enough chemistry with Ellison to carry their few scenes together. 

     In the end, Heart of the West is a middling Hopalong Cassidy movie. It delivers the goods, but with less finesse then normal, and it lacks any really stand-out scenes or characters to distinguish it from a myriad of other B-westerns. 

 

Score: 7/10