Story Stealing
When Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) arrives back in town he learns from Windy (George 'Gabby' Hayes) that Lucky (Russell Hayden) has gone on the run after the bank was robbed and the evidence points to his involvement. Hopalong smells something fishy going and suspects that Lucky being set up for a robbery may be connected to the Randall ranch and Glen Randall's (Morris Ankrum) delightful daughter Agnes (Muriel Evans) as both the local lawyer Cal Howard (Lee J. Cobb) and the Randall's foreman seems to be up to no good.
Movie deja vu, it is something a movie fan gets struck down with after they have watched a few movies from the same genre from the same period of time. Western deja vu is something I suffer from because I enjoy those old westerns from the 30s and 40s which scrape in around the hour mark as so many of them seem to recycle the same storyline. As such whilst I haven't watched "Rustlers' Valley" before but it certainly was familiar with that familiar story of a corrupt lawyer trying to get his hands on a ranch, first by marrying in to the family and then by means foul.
As such when you come across "Rustlers' Valley" now it is one of those old westerns you don't really watch for the storyline. Instead you watch this because it is William Boyd as Hopalong and because alongside Russell Hayden as Lucky this one features a whiskered 'Gabby' Hayes as Windy. And yes with Hayes in the picture that means we have some wily style comedy with Lucky getting the better of him by tricking him in to doing the cooking.
What this all boils down to is that "Rustlers' Valley" is still a pleasant little Hopalong Cassidy western but one which is only ever familiar because of the recycled story line and characters which crop up.
