The Blonde Bombshell, the Bully Boss, and the Square Deal Boy

Harry Sherman produced most of the Hopalong Cassidy cowboy adventures until 1944 when William Boyd purchased all of those movies and produced the final dozen Hopalong Cassidy adventures. William Boyd transformed the rough, almost bad-guy character into a child-friendly, laughing good-guy. After Harry Sherman lost the Hopalong Cassidy franchise, he produced only two more movies, both cowboy adventures, and this is the first one. It is a much darker, much tougher cowboy story than the Hopalong Cassidy adventures.

You need to meet three people in this fighting drama. Veronica Lake is the daughter of a cattle rancher who is supposed to marry rancher Frank Ivey, played by Preston Foster. Ivey is the biggest rancher in the valley, and he stays on top by being a forceful bully, trampling on anyone who gets in his way. No one has the guts to stand up to Ivey, . . . At least no one that lives to tell about it.

Veronica Lake’s character, who is supposed to marry Ivey, hates the big bully and refuses to marry him, and when the big, bad bully scares her fiancé out of town, she is left with her coward fiancé’s ranch. Instead of marrying the bully and merging her ranch with his, she decides that she is the only person in the valley who has the guts to stand up to Ivey and fight him.

Veronica Lake’s character can indeed match the win-at-any-cost Ivey, and the battle is on between the bully and the blonde. The dead bodies will multiply around them as they battle each other.

There is one more character in the middle of their carnage. Actor Joel McCrea is cowhand drifter Dave Nash, who is tough as nails when he needs to be, but a square-shooter who wants to do everything according to the law, with no dirty tricks. This leads to that and he promises to help the little lady in her fight against the big bully. Unfortunately, he has no idea that the little lady is as mean a fighter as the big bully, and he will be in the middle of this fight with only the law on his side. Pop a big bowl of white kernel popcorn with plenty of warm melted butter drizzled over it and enjoy the show.

Joel McCrea	Veronica Lake
Preston Foster	Arleen Whelan
Arleen Whelan	Arleen Whelan
	Charles Ruggles
Charles Ruggles, John McCrea and Donald Crisp	Charles Ruggles and Lloyd Bridges
Charles Ruggles	Chick York
Don DeFore	Don DeFore and Veronica Lake
Don DeFore as Bill Schell	Don DeFore
Donald Crisp
Donald Crisp	Donald Crisp
Houseley Stevenson, Veronica Lake and Don DeFore	Houseley Stevenson
Ian MacDonald	Joel McCrea
Joel McCrea and Preston Foster	Joel McCrea
Joel McCrea	John Powers
Lloyd Bridges	Nestor Paiva
Preston Foster and Hal Taliaferro	Preston Foster and Veronica Lake
Preston Foster	Ray Teal
Veronica Lake	Veronica Lake and Arleen Whelan
Veronica Lake and Ward Wood	Veronica Lake
Veronica Lake	Veronica Lake
Wally Cassell	Ward Wood