Pretty brutal for a Saturday-matinee 'oater.'

The fist fight between Hoppy and the chief villain (Victor Jory) is pretty rough and tumble, and the two actors go all-out like they're really trying to beat each other's brains out. Sure, there's some stunt-men involved, but in some scenes it's clearly Boyd and Jory giving it everything they've got. And the scene where the bad guys beat up California (Andy Clyde), Hoppy's garrulous- oldtimer sidekick struck me as unusually savage for a series that has been (perhaps unfairly) seen as kid's fare.