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One of the most violent entries in the long "Hopalong Cassidy" series -- two women are brutally murdered and a young child is almost assassinated -- The Eagle's Brood scrapped most of Clarence E. Mulford's sprawling original story and that is probably for the best. A pedantic writer steeped in Victorian sensibilities, Mulford's narrative is usually all over the place, but screenwriters Doris Schroeder and Harry Jacobs manage to cut the story to the bone. The warm, almost filial friendship that would eventually emerge between Hopalong and his young sidekicks is still only in its embryonic stage and the third member of the future trio, the comical old coot, is killed off near the end of the film. That this character was played by a (pre-Gabby) George Hayes boded well, however, and Hayes delivers a finely tuned performance despite being all but unrecognizable behind a ridiculous-looking wig and walrus mustache. Although not the best of the initial "Hopalong" Westerns -- that distinction belongs squarely with the following entry Bar 20 Rides Again (1935) -- The Eagle's Brood remains an exemplary B-Western.