Hatfield's Story

It never really is stated plainly what Hatfield's secret is, but the three clues do lead to a probable general conclusion: First is when he tells a cowboy he wouldn't know what a great lady looks like. Second is when Dallas recognizes the silver drinking cup as coming from a certain manor, which Hatfield denies knowing about claiming he only won it in a wager, possibly only using his seedy reputation as a gambler to cover his true upper-crust lineage. When he is dying, he doesn't get to finish his final request, only asking them to give a message to Judge Renfield. It suggests that Hatfield's real name was Renfield all along, but that he changed it perhaps to avoid tarnishing the family image with the turns that his life had taken. Maybe the movie's better in that it leaves some mystery behind the specifics.

But if that is the case, that would mean that preceding John Carradine's later Dracula portrayals, he also played Renfield. Just not THAT Renfield!