Undercover Man (1942)

Really Surprised!

Memorable, crazy movie

Just perfect...

A lot of fun.

A United Artists release, 23 October 1942, directed by Lesley Selander.CAST: William Boyd, Andy Clyde, Jay Kirby, Antonio Moreno, Chris-Pin Martin, Nora Lane, Esther Estrella, Alan Baldwin, Eva Puig, Jack Rockwell, John Vosper, Tony Roux, Pierce Lyden, Ted Wells, Martin Garralaga, Joe Dominguez, Earle Hodgins. 68 minutes. (Available on an excellent Platinum Disc DVD). COMMENT: United Artists have now taken over from Paramount, but little else has changed in the eleven months interim. Despite its familiar plot, there are hints now and again that this could have been a really worthy entry in the series with less comedy relief from Clyde and Martin and more detailed characterization of the Mexican principals. Boyd, Moreno and always reliable Jack Rockwell do their best and the photography is often most attractively noirish, but, as said, too little is made of the dramatic moments and too much of the fatuous comic cut-ups.

The Mexican Border plays a role in a lot of B Western stories, and here's another one featuring Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) and his pals California Carlson (Andy Clyde) and Breezy Travers (Jay Kirby). In this one, a gang of outlaws is raiding both sides of the border, and the leader has found a way to implicate both Hoppy and his Mexican counterpart Don Tomas Gonzales (Antonio Moreno) in the robberies. There might have been no story here if Don Tomas heeded Hoppy's advice on speaking to him privately, but of course, the story is what we came for.I was surprised to see California actually attempting to court a Mexican senora in the story, usually he's high tailin' it in the other direction. But Rosita Lopez (Eva Puig) knew that the way to a man's heart was through his stomach, and plies California with as much food as he can handle. Correcting one misperception that a couple other reviewers mention here, California's not really in competition with Chris-Pin Martin's character, Fat Miguel, who stated that the five kids in the story were not his and he didn't want to get married. That's made even more plain when Miguel reads a letter from Mexican authorities that states Rosita's husband was not dead, and that he would be arriving home soon.As for the outlaw bunch, with some clever sleuthing, Hoppy plants a false story for Bob Saunders (Alan Baldwin) to overhear, and gets to the bottom of the phony Hoppy posing as a bandit - it was Bob's mother Donna Louise (Nora Lane)! The whole thing was a bit of a stretch but what the heck, it was a an offbeat move for the film makers and one the matinée crowd probably never saw coming back in the day. Not only that, but a sheriff's deputy (John Vosper as Ed Carson) was in on the scheme as well! As for California's play for Senora Lopez, well let's just say that he's still single as the good guy trio heads off into the sunset.

Undercover Man has Hopalong Cassidy along with Jay Kirby and Andy Clyde acting as agents to discover just who is behind a series of raids on both sides of the border. It has the Texas Rangers and the Mexican Federales stumped.As usual Andy Clyde provides the comedy, but he has a rival here in Chris-Pin Martin who was Gordito in Cesar Romero's Cisco the Kid films. Both are rivals for a large widow woman who has a bunch of kids.The outlaws seem to know everything that's going on in advance and worst of all the Texas and Mexican authorities believe that it's Hoppy who is leader of the outlaw band and Antonio Moreno a large landowner and head of the Federales who is the leader of the gang in Texas. Neat little trick which kind of slows down cooperation for a while.The answer is in some old wanted posters where Hoppy finds who the real culprit is. Incidentally his crimes extend to blackmail.Seeing this film now with all the border problems that have recently been in the news makes me wonder about if it is still possible to get that kind of cooperation that made this joint border operation possible in this film.

Set on the Mexican border, in Sonora, 1887. This is a good Hoppy movie with some interesting differences. Breezy (the young romantic substitute for "Johnny" or "Lucky") makes only a half-hearted attempt at romance, & then gives up easily. Most of the "romance" is actually provided by California, who's interested in Rosita for her cooking skills. It's refreshing to see real Latin actors portraying the Mexicans in this film, & there's much Spanish dialog, as would be expected. The film gets a little preachy a couple of times, encouraging "understanding on both sides of the border." There are several exciting night chase scenes, & a great silhouette shot of Hoppy on Topper. The funniest moment comes when California is vying with Chris-Pin Martin for the affections/food of Rosita, & California, to get the upper hand, kisses all of her children! Hoppy faithful Earle Hodgins has a very small part as a Sheriff. Hoppy is dressed all in black for most of the movie, but at one point looks ridiculous wearing a smoking jacket with his cowboy pants & knee high cowboy boots! Good mystery & good all around entertainment. I rate it 7/10.