The Arizona Raiders (1936)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

James P. Hogan

Writers:

Zane Grey (novel)
John W. Krafft (screenplay)

Release Date:

28 June 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Plot:

Laramie Nelson (Buster Crabbe as Larry "Buster" Crabbe), falsely accused of horse-stealing, is about...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Cast

Buster Crabbe	...	'Laramie' Nelson (as Larry Crabbe)
Raymond Hatton	...	'Tracks' Williams
Marsha Hunt	...	Harriett Lindsay
Betty Jane Rhodes	...	Lenta Lindsay (as Jane Rhodes)
Johnny Downs	...	'Lonesome' Alonzo Q. Mulhall
Grant Withers	...	Monroe Adams, Harriett's lawyer
Don Rowan	...	Henchman Luke Arledge
Arthur Aylesworth	...	Andy Winthrop
Richard Carle	...	Boswell Albernathy, Justice of the Peace
Petra Silva	...	Tiny - the Maid
Augie Gomez	...	Cowboy
Ken Cooper	...	Cowboy
Spike Spackman	...	Cowboy

Also Known As:

Bad Men of Arizona (USA) (reissue title)

Runtime:

57 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The plot has the Arizona Rangers tracking down Confederate Civil War guerrilla William Quantrill's raiders. The Arizona Rangers weren't formed until 1902, more than 30 years after the Civil War ended.

Quotes:

Harriet Lindsay: Please be careful! As of my father's death, that horse developed a bad reputation.
Laramie Nelson: A lot of us that have that don't deserve it. Maybe he's one of them.

Soundtrack:

My Melancholy Baby

For Marsha Hunt Fans

"The Arizona Raiders" (1936) is what I call an "uneven film". They took a pretty good Zane Grey story and then assembled an excellent ensemble of actors; but Paramount Pictures tried to bring the thing in on a shoestring. Even by the low budget standards of the one-hour "B" westerns of its day this one stands out as a cheap production. Lots of lame stock footage poorly matched with studio close-ups and coupled with clumsily staged action sequences made even weaker by having key portions of the action happening off screen.

Fortunately there are enough good performances that overall the film ranks pretty high on the pecking order of these Saturday matinée features. Larry "Buster" Crabbe of Olympic swimming and "Flash Gordon" fame plays the standard wondering cowpoke western hero. Like a lot of famous non-actors who got work in the movies he pretty much plays himself in every part, but he has a nice relaxed screen presence that fits this particular character especially well. Character actor and Johnny Mack Brown sidekick Raymond Hatton provides a lot of comic relief as Buster's sidekick (what a surprise) who is a weird combination of Doc Holiday and Uncle Joe from "Petticoat Junction". And Johnny Downs nicely underplays one of his earnest young men characters; named Alonzo "Lonesome" Mulhall.

The prize of the cast is a very young Marsha Hunt in one of her first roles. Hunt was the Janet Leigh of her era; there is quite a physical resemblance in addition to which both actresses were a little too intelligent looking for the movie business. Which did have the advantage of giving almost all the characters they played a subtle kind of dimensionality. The film would have benefited from a few more shots of Marsha (especially some better close-ups) but she is in enough scenes and there is enough excellent acting demonstrated to make the film mandatory viewing for her fans.

The three male stars are essentially a mismatched version of the "Three Mesquiteers" who assist the female owner of the Spanish Peaks Ranch to foil a plot to steal her herd of horses. The film gets unintentionally hilarious in its climatic stampede scene as the stock foot projection transforms a modest size herd into enough horses to outfit a dozen regiments of cavalry.

The Lions Gate DVD is not an especially good print but its Special Features are a real treasure. These include two documentary style films made by Zane Grey and a third documentary about the author himself who was a very interesting character.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.