Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) personally sees to it that a herd of
cattle is delivered to his friend Senor Valdez (Pedro De Cordoba), not
just because Hoppy is such a good cowhand, but also because he suspects
foul play in the deaths of Valdez' son and daughter - and soon enough, ha
gathers some evidence that at least the son has by no means died in an accident,
since the gun he accidently shot himself with does by no means match the
bullet found in his body ...
Soon, Hoppy thinks he has found the culprit too - and he's right of
course -, Merritt (Sidney Blackmer), Valdez' sinister son-in-law, who
obviously wants to get Valdez' ranch in his hands and who spends way too
much time with US-American thug Slim (Glenn Strange) to be innocent - but
Merritt soon realizes that Hoppy is after him and uses his fiancée
Chiquita (Steffi Duna), a naive but essentially good girl, against him
until she successfully lures Hoppy into a trap ... at which point Merritt
decides to not only shoot Hoppy but the girl as well.
Somehow though, Hoppy and the girl escape and in the finale it's
Merritt and his henchmen against Hoppy, Valdez and Valdez' men fighting
over Valdez' ranch, with the good guys winning of course, and Hoppy
personally seeing to it that Merritt gets his just desserts ...
Russell Hayden plays his usual role as Lucky, Hoppy's sidekick, while Charlie
Chan Sidney Toler provides the comic relief as ever-worrying
gaucho (he actually made this film between two Charlie
Chans).
Routine but not too bad B-Western with a routine but not too
bad murder mystery plotline. Nothing great, but entertaining enough. The
only question that remains is why this film was set in Argentinia when
plot and locations are quite similar to pretty much any other Western and
remarkably little effort is made to make the film look at least remotely
exotic. Maybe someone just liked the title Law of the Pampas, which
I think is pretty great by the way.
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