As most of reviewers have said, this is a moderately interesting Hopalong Cassidy western, which introduces Russell Hayden as Hoppy's new younger sidekick: Lucky, replacing Hoppy's previous young sidekick : Johnny, played by James Ellison. During the last few films before the present film, comical grizzled George Hayes, as Windy, had become another clear sidekick for Hoppy. In the first few films of this series, he had been just an acquired friend, for that story.......... In this episode, the 3 have bought a ranch they call the bar 3 ranch, situated next to an Indian reservation, somewhere in Wyoming. I checked Indian reservations in Wyoming, and found only one, situated SE of Yellowstone. Residents are mostly Shoshone or Arapaho. The outdoor scenes were filmed around Kernville, CA, near the southern extent of the Sierra Nevada........The Bar3 ranch, like neighboring ranches, has been experiencing disappearing cattle. Suspicion falls on the nearby Indian village. However, later, it's concluded that only one half breed Indian, Lone Eagle(Steve Clemente) is implicated. The real kingpin is the chief deputy for the reservation: Andrews(Morris Ankrum), who tries to hinder searching by the ranchers within the reservation. In fact, he convinces Thompson, the Indian Agent for the reservation, to post a notice that whites are no longer welcomed within the reservation, and that includes the trading post, run by Ma Hutchings and her daughter Alice. They immediately complain that business with the Indians alone will be insufficient to run a profitable trading post. But, their complaint falls on deaf ears. Hoppy and his sidekicks try to defy this law, claiming that their right to search for their missing cattle on the reservation should trump this law. Andrews arrests them, but during their journey to headquarters, Hoppy springs a branch in Andrews face, causing him to drop his gun, which the disarmed Hoppy picks up, and sticks him up. ........ Andrews later shoots Lone Eagle with his rifle, fearing he might spill the beans. Andrews then blames Hoppy for the killing, since Hoppy found the body and brought it to headquarters. Chief Big Tree rallies his braves to go on the warpath against the ranchers, whom he believes killed Lone Eagle. However, Hoppy asks the chief to show him the bullet that killed Lone Eagle, and notes that it has unusual markings. Thus, he sneaks up on Andrews' horse and takes his rifle, which he brings to the chief. He shoots the rifle into a pile of hides, and extracts the bullet, noting that it has the same unusual markings as the bullet taken from Lone Eagle. This causes Big Tree to change the object of his wrath to Andrews and his cohorts. Meanwhile, Lucky and Windy have been gathering ranchers to form a posse to try to capture Andrew's bunch. This posse combines with the Indians to form quite a large group, facing only a few men judged to be guilty of rustling and murder. Strangely, next we see Andrews galloping away from his group, with only Hoppy chasing him. Andrews then hides among a boulder field, followed by a gun battle with Hoppy. Hoppy gets the drop on him, and Andrews pleads to be shot, but Hoppy instead takes him to headquarters. Presumably, the remainder of the posse chased and caught Andrews' rustling buddies. The women are glad that ranchers would, once again, be coming to their trading post.........Lucky resumed his flirtation with Alice, and Windy finally got the rifle he wanted from the trading post. The Indians, who had stolen all the rifles kept at the trading post, returned them............ The melodious title song is sung during the opening and closing credits, and once during the film. It was composed by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger, who were staff composers at Paramount. ........See the film at YouTube.