AllMovie

Like so many of the later Hopalong Cassidy entries, this rather dour programmer only barely qualifies as a Western. Filmed at Chatsworth, CA, rather than the majestic Lone Pine locations of previous entries, The Marauders is a static affair enlivened slightly by a couple of good performances. Although an obvious red herring, Mary Newton is properly mysterious as the heroine's solemn mother, and the ascetic-looking Ian Wolfe is well-cast as the deacon with a secret. A former dancer who had garnered some fame as Gene Stratton Porter's The Girl of the Limberlost (1945), Dorinda Clifton is adequate as the leading lady and director George Archainbaud makes the most of the film's main set, the abandoned church. But although there is plenty of gunplay, fans of Hopalong Cassidy Westerns may be turned off by Charles Belden's morose screenplay and the film's overall lack of action. William Boyd only had himself to blame for the less than stellar reception of his later entries, however; by 1947 he had become his own executive producer. The Marauders was reissued to television under the rather generic title of King of the Range.