AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

JohnHowardReid A Paramount Picture, relased 23 May 1941. Director: Lesley Selander. Players include William Boyd, Russell Hayden, Andy Clyde, Eleanor Stewart, Morris Ankrum, William Haade, Dennis Moore, Henry Hall, Britt Wood. 69 minutes. (Available on an excellent Platinum Disc DVD). This one starts off with a bang, but unfortunately that initial promise is slowly whittled away when Hoppy and his comrades make their belated entrance. True, it still has its moments (thanks mostly to villainous Morris Ankrum and the lovely Eleanor Stewart), and its real locations are superbly photographed. Unfortunately scriptwriters Ethel La Blanche and J. Benton Cheney obviously decided to pander to the Saturday matinee audience by making our genial Hoppy helpful enough, but rather slow on the uptake. A ten-year-old could work out the clue to the gold mine right from the very moment it's presented. On the other hand, it takes the slow-witted Hoppy almost the entire movie - and even then he achieves the solution only by accident. Naturally, Russell Hayden is too bewitched by Eleanor to be of much help (we don't blame him!), while garrulous Andy Clyde of course is both too stupid and too self-absorbed.

chipe To me this was one of the worst, most disappointing Hoppy films. Andy Clyde's never ending comic dialog was childish, unfunny and excruciating. There was hardly any action in the film, save a shoot-out at the cabin near the start of the movie.The plot was also a big nothing: at the end of the film, bad guy Morris Ankrum gets angry when the heroine won't sell her mine to him. He starts to manhandle her, and Hoppy rescues her. That's it! Not much of a crime to jail him for.The only fairly interesting and clever thing in the movie was the mysterious clue left behind by the killed miner ("eagle will show way to mine at sundown") and Hoppy's unraveling of it.As one reviewer pointed out, the title "Pirates on Horseback" has nothing to do with the movie. It also implies action which the film sorely lacks. The bad guy is merely a crooked gambler and conman, some pirate on horseback!

dougdoepke Aces all around except for the rather tame climax. Credit producer Harry Sherman for the general superiority of the Hoppy matinees. Here, he pops for scenic Lone Pine locations, expertly filmed by Harry Stradling— hard to beat that desert-mountain-big rock combination. Hoppy and the boys are trying to find a lost gold mine before the baddies led by the sneaky Ace Gibson (Ankrum) do. Note the movie's many extra touches—the well-staffed barroom, the busy street, the detailed shack interior. These show attention to background unusual for programmers. Also, catch that expensive line of gold-rushers heading for the mine, though the scene appears shot in the cost-saving LA area.For me, the scariest part is when the oily Ace looks like he's getting romantic with the winsome heroine (Stewart). Now, in his stellar career, the lordly Ankrum defeated A-bomb mutants, aliens from outer space, commanded armies, advised presidents, and also made a convincing baddie. But for some reason, the thought of his snuggling up to the girl ran a shudder right through me.Hard to say enough about Bill Boyd in his Hoppy role. He's easily the most charming and affable of the matinée heroes, but can also do the hard-eyed stare when necessary-- as he does here. He, Clyde, and Hayden make a winning team, as their amusing fireside byplay shows. Anyway, there's enough hard- riding, straight-shooting, and story interest to make this a generally superior Hoppy entry.

wrbtu The silly title is a put off, but of course there are no real "pirates" in this film, which at 69 minutes, is one of the longest in the Hopalong Cassidy series. It starts off very well, with lots of action & a goldmine plot. Based on the way it started, I thought this would be one of the best Hoppy films; it was realistic, conveyed a good old-fashioned western feeling, & the gunfight between a prospector & the baddies was brutal. Hoppy first appears 10 minutes into the film, wearing a black hat, tan shirt, & light-colored pants. If you've read my other Hoppy reviews, you'll know that the lighter the colors he wears, the worse the film is. I thought this film would be an exception to that rule, but sadly, I was wrong. The comedy starts soon after Hoppy appears, which is to be expected anytime Andy Clyde is on screen, & that's OK, but in this film, the comedy went on & on & on, & eventually caused the film to lose all the momentum it had gained before Hoppy had even appeared. There were some good comedy segments to be sure; one that stands out is California's assumption that he's speaking to a dumb Indian & therefore resorts to pantomime, only to find out that the Indian speaks English in a more educated manner than any of the cowboys! Another humorous segment involved jokes about Lucky's propensity for immediately falling in love with any young lady he meets. But five to ten minutes of the film is wasted on a long, drawn out gold nugget joke situation. Amazingly, Hoppy is not involved in even a single gunfight, & fires his gun only once during the film (but at the ground). The first 10 minutes of the film were certainly the best part of this film, & it could have been so much better than it was, a disappointing effort overall.