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| Andy Clyde as California Carlson and William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy, from one of their movies. |
In "The Santa Claus Rustlers", Hoppy and his sidekick California Carlson (played by the great Andy Clyde) are on their way back to the Bar-20 ranch after selling some cattle, but on the way they encounter a ranching family that's being plagued by rustling. Hoppy and California befriend the young couple and their two children, of course, and decide to stick around for Christmas and find out who's behind all the widelooping. Could it be the somewhat sinister and unfriendly ranch hand, Johnny No-Name?
There are a couple of twists in the plot, but nothing you won't see coming. However, being a Christmas episode, the whole thing is rather gentle and heartwarming, and I enjoyed it. William Boyd and Andy Clyde are top-notch as Hoppy and California, as always. One oddity is that the episode originally aired on April 15, 1952, instead of around Christmas. Why that was, I have no idea.
"The Santa Claus Rustlers" is available numerous places on-line for your listening pleasure. It might be a nice way to spend half an hour on Christmas Eve for some of you.
2 comments:
Thanks for the review, James. I think "Hopalong Cassidy" is among the best juvenile western series from OTR. The show maintains a high quality despite the difficult circumstances under which it was produced.
Jim Meals
Hey there, I was recently enjoying some great Hopalong Cassidy shows with Gabby Hayes and Edward Buchanan (my favorite sidekick by far), and guess I got kinda spoiled with those two as sidekicks, because when Andy Clyde started showing up, I almost had to turn it off. I've tried to be open-minded and embrace him, but man, he's just really annoying to me. I know lots of people adore him, so obviously it's my perspective that's in the way. I just think they could have used him more effectively if they didn't try so hard to make a slapstick routine out of him.
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