Zeus

Stagecoach War (1940)

• Director
  • Lesley Selander
• Writers
  • Norman Houston
  • Harry F. Olmsted
  • Clarence E. Mulford
• Stars
  • William Boyd
  • Russell Hayden
  • Julie Carter

  A lesser entry in the long-running Hopalong Cassidy Western series, Stagecoach War features veteran character actor J. Farrell McDonald as Jeff Chapman, a stage-line owner about to lose a lucrative Wells Fargo contract after his driver is shot in a holdup. The crime opens a door for Neal Holt (Harvey Stephens), who is not only a rival stage-line operator, but also the former boyfriend of Jeff's daughter, Shirley (Julie Carter). Hoppy (William Boyd), meanwhile, discovers that Neal's foreman, Twister Maxwell (Frank Lackteen), knows more about the holdup that he cares to admit and when Holt begins to question the merit of Jeff's equipment, Hoppy enters a race for the contract with Lucky Jenkins (Russell Hayden) driving Jeff's Bar 20 mustangs against Neal's team. Lucky, however, is forced to throw the race to avoid harming Shirley, and, dejected, joins Smiley (Rad Robinson) and his gang of highwaymen. But does Lucky stay "bad" for good? As a nod to the popularity of musical-Westerns, producer Harry Sherman corralled baritone Rad Robinson, Eddie Dean, and the King's Men, who perform Phil Ohman and Foster Carling's "Lope-Along Road," "Westward Ho," and "Hold Your Horses." Surprisingly, the musical specialty acts all appeared as villains.