Arizona Days (1937)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

John English

Writers:

Lindsley Parsons (story)
Sherman L. Lowe (screenplay)

Release Date:

30 January 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Plot:

Tex and sidekick Grass join McGill's traveling show. When Price has McGill's wagons burned, Tex becomes the county tax collector to earn money...

Plot Keywords:

Tax Collector | Wild West Show

Cast

Tex Ritter	...	Tex Malinson
Syd Saylor	...	Claude 'Grass' Hopper
William Faversham	...	Professor McGill
Eleanor Stewart	...	Marge Workman
Forrest Taylor	...	Harry Price
'Snub' Pollard	...	Cookie (as Snub Pollard)
Glenn Strange	...	Henchman Pete (as Glen Strange)
Horace Murphy	...	Sheriff Brown
Earl Dwire	...	Joe Workman
Budd Buster	...	Sheriff Jed Higginbotham (as Bud Buster)
Salty Holmes	...	Salty Holmes (harmonica player)
Oscar Gahan	...	Wagon Show Performer

Runtime:

57 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #1878)

Company:

Boots and Saddles Pictures

Trivia:

William Faversham's last movie.

Quotes:

[Professor McGill's theatrical troupe billboards bill Tex prominently]
Tex Malinson: You're layin' it on kinda thick ain't you, professor? Them are pretty big letters... do you think I can live up to all that?
Professor McGill: A mere bagatelle, my boy. With myself as impresario, your success is assured.
Claude 'Grass' Hopper: Them's mighty big words, Professor, but you know Tex, he's a cowhand. He ain't no actor.
Professor McGill: My good man, I am a thespian. To one who has trodden the boards with the immortal Booth, nothing is impossible.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs (2000) (TV)

There Isn't Much on Display Here

A second disappointing follow up to Tex's first film, 'Song of the Gringo' (1936). Tex and his side kick, 'Hopper' (Syd Saylor, as a not so annoying comic relief) join a minstrel show in Arizona. This is the best part of the film, as it shows Tex on stage singing and then dealing with the villain Harry Price (the great badman Forrest Taylor) and his henchmen who enter the theater without paying.

Unfortunately, the only prints I've seen then cut out about the next ten minutes of the film, and suddenly Tex is a tax collector in a showdown with Price to get him to pay his taxes! There isn't much on display here. The prairie flower love interest is a cypher; we are also subjected to a too long ambush shoot out behind rocks. The only other 'high point' is a tense little bit of editing as the evil looking Price waits in the cantina to shoot Tex.

Tex does sing three co-written songs, one of which 'Tombstone, Arizona' has a four bar melody section taken directly from his version of 'The Big Rock Candy Mountain.' But that's okay! He also admitted in later years to how he 'stole' Leadbelly's melody for 'Goodnight Irene' and wrote new words recording it as 'I've Done the Best I Could.' He also borrowed 'Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay' for another of his hits. But all is forgiven Tex, because you did so many great songs, sang 'High Noon,' gave us John Ritter, and made some fairly decent westerns! But 'Arizona Days' is not one of them. I give it a 3.