The Eagle's Brood (1935)

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Ace Cassidy western. It's only Boyd's second of the series, so many of the later trademarks are not yet in place. Instead of "Hoppy", for example, he's called "Bill". Plus his first horse, a black one, tosses him into a swamp of quicksand of all places! Good thing he soon gets the trustworthy Topper. Familiar cohorts Hayes and Ellison are on hand to help, but not yet as a team. There're also a number of uncharacteristic twists I didn't expect, along with great mountain scenery you haven't seen a hundred times before. Plotwise-- Cassidy is trying to get little Pablo back to his sometimes outlaw granddad, El Toro, before baddie Big Henry kills him. After all, little Pablo's seen Henry's gang kill his parents, so now he's hiding out in the mountains, thanks to saloon dancer Delores. But can she evade the killer gang before they find out, and can little Pablo survive in the wilderness.Speaking of Delores (Woodbury), her opening scenes put her in the tightest bustle this side of Mae West. And catch Cassidy's many hard-eyed stares, proving he could go toe-to-toe with Eastwood any time. In fact, even though he's still a force for good, our hero shows a shifty side that soon disappears from standard Hoppy. Anyway, I'm still not sure what Bartender Spike (Hayes) kept trying to do with one hand. I think it was a roll-your-own cigarette, old style. See if you can figure it out.Anyway, it's an unusual Hoppy, well staged and well worth catching up with, including more surprises than usual.

This is a superior B westerns from the early career of cowboy superstar William Boyd, AKA Hopalong Cassidy. "The Eagle's Brood" was released in 1935. By the early 1950's when I was growing up, Hoppy had become an institution. As a child I often wore a Hoppy hat, a Hoppy neckerchief with a steer's head as a clasp, black cowboy clothes, a Hoppy holster and toy guns (with steer heads on the handles), and a pair of Hoppy boots. For some odd reason, I had a Roy Rogers lunch box for school. Maybe Hoppy's merchandising agent unintentionally left that money maker off his list. Hoppy who was twenty years older by 1955 than he had been in his first Hopalong Cassidy films, still looked the same. How did he do that? "The Eagle's Brood" has a fairly simple story. Yet it is so well-written and directed that it holds the viewer's attention all the way. This early entry came out before the era of the singing cowboys. So there's no music to slow down the action. By 1935 background music was being used to enhance the action. In the first talky westerns, no music was used because the movie moguls didn't think the audience would accept hearing an orchestra playing in the middle of a wild chase or fight. Yet a live orchestra (or a piano player) was used during the silent years to increase the impact of the action taking place on the screen.This outing, Hoppy and his sidekick Johnny (Jimmy Ellison) are out to rescue a Mexican lad hid out by Delores, a friend of El Toro, the boy's grandfather, who just happens to be a notorious outlaw, played with gusto by silent film star William Farnum. The boy witnessed the murder of his parents. Thus the ringleader, Big Henry (Addison Richards), is out to silence the lad permanently if he and his gang can find the hideout. Delores is shot by Big Henry when she refuses to divulge the hiding place. Hoppy and Johnny step in leading to a wild shootout in the hills.Gabby Hayes was still just plain George when he appeared in "The Eagle's Brood," playing sort of a good bad guy as a bar tending lackey to Big Henry. He goes by the moniker Spike. Fortunately he decided in later films to use the name Gabby. Somehow Spike Hayes just doesn't sound right.The early Hoppy had a romantic streak. When he meets a soiled dove named Dolly, Delores' friend, he flirts with her using the line, "You're a cute little trick," and buys her not one but two drinks while he quenches his thirst with sarsaparilla.

Pablo Chavez watches his parents killed by a band of outlaws who are after the elder Chavez' gold. Pablo runs away from the scene of the murder to get help and runs into Dolores, a dancer in the town's saloon, who hides Pablo in her cabin, and then goes to town for help from her boss, Big Henry, but when she arrives, she overhears that Big Henry was responsible for the Chavez murders. Dolores hides Pablo in a more secluded place and writes a letter to Pablo's grandfather, Pedro, who lives across the Mexican border as a notorious bandit known as El Toro,who rides to the saloon where Dolores works, En route he saves the life of Hopalong Cassidy (a county deputy), who was searching for the outlaw. El Toro begs Hoppy to let him go after his grandson, but Hoppy won't let the outlaw go across the US border. Instead, Hoppy agrees to go after the boy himself and rides (with fellow deputy Johnny Nelson, who have both turned in their badges) to meet with Dolores. Meanwhile, Big Henry learns that Pablo is still alive and can recognize the bandits and that Dolores is hiding him. Dolores is killed by Big Henry, right after promising Hoppy information on the boys' whereabouts. Hoppy gets a job as one of Big Henry's gun hands, thinking he can prevent Big Henry from making anymore attempts against Pablo, but the outlaws believe that Hoppy might be double crossing Big Henry and decide to take him out. A very gritty entry in the Hoppy series, with the character being less noble and more meaner than in the subsequent entries. Farnum is excellent as the former outlaw El Toro, evoking a lot of sympathy from the audience. Hayes gives another great performance as Big Henry's bartender who is trying to help Hoppy, behind his boss' back. Bretherton creates loads of action and suspense in this worthy entry. Many nuances Hoppy shows in the film (buying drinks for the ladies, rolling a cigarette, and his stern disposition) would disappear in the later films in the series. Rating, based on B westerns, 8.

"The Eagles Brood" was the second feature in the long running Hopalong Cassidy series produced by Harry "Pop" Sherman. Directed by Howard Bretherton, it gives us some spectacular outdoor photography and several exciting action sequences including the good guys riding to the rescue in the nick of time at the film's climax.The story opens with the notorious Mexican bandit El Toro's son and his wife being brutally murdered. Their young son hides and is taken in by saloon girl Dolores (Nana Martin aka Joan Woodbury). El Toro (William Farnum) vows revenge and sets out to find his grandson. Along the way he rescues "Bill" Cassidy (William Boyd) from quicksand. Cassidy then offers to find the grandson in payment for El Toro's saving of his life.Cassidy and his pal Johnny Nelson (Jimmy Ellison) set out to find the murderers. Dolores meanwhile, is the girl friend of the head bad guy Big Henry (Addison Richards) and learns that it was his men who murdered El Toro's son and his wife. Big Henry finds out that the grandson is alive and has witnessed the crime. So he and his gang which includes Frank Shannon, Paul Fix and John Merton, also search for the missing youngster.Big Henry learns that Dolores is harboring the child and in a scene unusual for a series western, murders her in cold blood. Cassidy in the mean time, finds the boy and shields him from the outlaws. A shootout ensues followed by the aforementioned ride to the rescue and concludes with a cliffside fight to the finish between Cassidy and Big Henry.Boyd was still playing the lead character with a rough edge. He is called "Bill" throughout except for one instance where Ellison calls him "Hoppy". Heck, Hoppy even has an eye for the ladies in this one. George "Gabby" Hayes had not yet settled into his Windy Halliday character. He played several character roles in the early films of the series, much as he had done in the John Wayne Lone Star series. Here, he plays a good bad guy Spike, Big Henry's bartender who spends most of the picture trying to roll a cigarette. Hayes doesn't have his tell tale whiskers in this one, only a drooping moustache with short hair.This is a good action packed series western which maintained its excellent production values throughout. The Hopalong Cassidy series was in my opinion, the best "B" series ever made.