Pirates on Horseback (1941) William Boyd, Russell Hayden, Andy Clyde, Eleanor Stewart Movie Review

Pirates on Horseback (1941)   3/53/53/53/53/5


William Boyd, Andy Clyde and Russell Hayden in Pirates on Horseback (1941)

A Miner, Murder, Mystery

Having struck it rich miner Ben Pendleton (Britt Wood) can't help but tell others and it leads to Ace Gibson (Morris Ankrum) sending his men after Ben to find the location of the money. Unfortunately Ace's men end up killing Ben before they get to question him. When Hoppy (William Boyd) sees in the press about Ben's death he realises it's his friend California's (Andy Clyde) 42nd cousin and as California would be entitled to a share in the mine Hoppy, Lucky (Russell Hayden) and California head to Rimrock to try and find any clues Ben may have left to its whereabouts. But Ace and his men are still looking for the mine and will do anything to get it including taking Trudy Pendleton (Eleanor Stewart) and anyone else prisoner.

"Pirates on Horseback" starts with a bit of action; a crooked card player shooting the guy he swindled dead and then we get the chase scene as Ben is killed heading back to his hut. There is nothing special about this action but if you watched "Pirates on Horseback" hoping for western action this is about it as following on from that we get plenty of comedy. That comes in the form of Hoppy, Lucky and California meeting Trudy and fixing up the old shack with Lucky flirting with Trudy whilst California is full on quirky and of course Hoppy trying to keep some sense of order to things.

Of course there is more action which comes later on in "Pirates on Horseback" when the mine is found and Ace has his men try and steal it but for the most this is one of the more light hearted westerns. The thing is that if you are in the mood for a western comedy then "Pirates on Horseback" might work as Andy Clyde is a lot of fun as California.

What this all boils down to is that "Pirates on Horseback" is still okay and as old western comedies go that is a compliment. But you have to be in the mood for western humour and quirky characters to really enjoy this as that is what it is heavy on.


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