Mystery Man (1944)

the audience applauded

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

I wanted to but couldn't!

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Say, did you get a good look at the Trilling Gang during the opening of the story when all those newspaper headlines blared the gang's robberies? In between stories, the gang looked like it had over twenty riders! That's a lot of bad guys to divvy up the loot with. If I were Bud Trilling (Don Costello), I think I'd have cut a few of those guys loose.The story starts out with a bank robbery in the town of Holbrook, with Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) and his pals Jimmy (Jimmy Rogers) and California (Andy Clyde) on hand as part of a Bar-20 cattle drive. Hoppy and a few of the town locals pull a move I don't think I've seen before - they block the exit out of town with a couple of wagons in the middle of the street. This made me wonder why the outlaws didn't turn around and go the other way, but just as well. They're put in the calaboose by Marshall Blane (Jack Rockwell), and Hoppy can return to the trail with his men.Meanwhile, Bud Trilling himself remains incognito as a well dressed businessman, and hangs around to help spring his top henchman Bert Rogan (Francis McDonald) and the rest of his men out of jail by passing him a weapon. From there on in, it's a see-saw game of the baddies and the Bar-20 crew gaining the upper hand. Trilling even impersonates Cassidy by warning Sheriff Sam Newhall (Forrest Taylor) that Hoppy and his men intend to steal his cattle! Well no need to tell you how this thing turns out. With the help of the sheriff's daughter (Eleanor Stewart), this time Hoppy's guys make a jailbreak and take it to the bad guys for a final showdown among the Alabama Hills of Lone Pine, California. It's a tribute to Hoppy's skill and ingenuity that after so many adventures, he's able to come out on top while all during the story, he spent a good deal of time with both hands tied behind his back.

This Hopalong Cassidy film Mystery Man has Hoppy dealing with the Bud Trilling gang. The title of the film comes from the fact that while we know that Trilling is actor Don Costello he's not known to anyone other than his gang. No wanted posters with likeness are circulated so consequently he can move around pretty freely.Bill Boyd, Jimmy Rogers, and Andy Clyde at the beginning of the film happen to be in town when the gang pulls a holdup at the bank and in a very thrilling gun battle they're captured and hauled away to jail. Costello frees them however and the rest of the movie is a running battle between the Bar 20 crew and the Trilling gang. Costello is a resourceful foe, but you know comes out on top.Costello certainly regretted he and the gang decided to diversify from holdups to cattle rustling.

It's a fascinating comment on "B" Westerns, and possibly on films in general, that one of the reviews on this site plugs this simple Western film as one the "better Hoppy films," while one of the other five cites it as "lesser Hoppy." Both reviewers are right, of course, and each took the time to comment from separate viewpoints. In a world as big as the Wild West, there should be plenty of room for both opinions. Too bad the world isn't so big any more!Black-clad, cool-headed Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) must track down lawbreakers and get the guys in the slammer--and wouldn't it be a surprise to all of us if he failed to do so? Most Hoppy films have a distinguishing hallmark, and perhaps this one's is a Movable Herd and the men who move it.Mystery Man is a low-key, genial cowboy movie with only one song tossed in for good measure, and the sheriff's daughter picking on whatever attractions Hoppy's second- hand man has to offer. For action fans, there is a good deal of gun-play behind boulders and dust-raising in Lone Pine, and' as is often the case, the cinematography by Russell Harlan is a major bonus point, taking what could show as dull chases and enhancing California desert landscape with background mountain majesties and banks of clouds. Harlan turns the ordinary into memorable--lucky us!

Although Mystery Man is no contender for the best Hopalong Cassidy movie ever made, it is definitely among the better movies in the series. The action moves from one city to the next as Hoppy drives a herd of Bar 20 cattle to its destination. This parallels the story as it moves steadily toward its climax.The villain, Bud Trilling (Don Costello), is introduced to the viewer early on, but Hoppy and the law do not expose Trilling until the end. During the course of the movie Trilling is a faceless villain who is able to enter towns and encounter sheriffs without fear of recognition. During a bank holdup by Trilling's gang, Hoppy, California, and Jimmy join the fight against the bank robbers. Jimmy's life is saved by a visiting young lady named Diane Newhall (Eleanor Stewart). She explains that her father taught her how to shoot and that he is the sheriff in the same town where Jimmy will be at the end of his cattle drive. This brief meeting pays off later in the movie. Trilling works up a scheme to steal both the Bar 20 herd and the money at the end of the trail while leaving Hoppy and his men at the mercy of the law. No one stays put in Mystery Man. As soon as there is enough action in the first town, the story moves on to the cattle drive. During the cattle drive there is one musical performance which is rare in a Hopalong Cassidy movie, but it fits the scene well. Events along the way keep the story interesting then move to the last destination. There is no tired feeling from too much action in one place.With a bigger budget this could have been a great movie.