Arizona (1940)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Wesley Ruggles

Writers:

Clarence Budington Kelland (story)
Claude Binyon (screenplay)

Release Date:

25 December 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Plot:

Phoebe Titus is a tough, swaggering pioneer woman, but her ways become decidedly more feminine when she falls for California bound Peter Muncie...

Plot Keywords:

Pioneer | Explosion | Whipping | Wagon Train | Saloon

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Jean Arthur	...	Phoebe Titus
William Holden	...	Peter Muncie
Warren William	...	Jefferson Carteret
Porter Hall	...	Lazarus Ward
Edgar Buchanan	...	Judge Bogardus
Paul Harvey	...	Solomon Warner
George Chandler	...	Haley - Ward Henchman
Byron Foulger	...	Pete Kitchen
Regis Toomey	...	Grant Oury
Paul Lopez	...	Estevan Ochoa
Colin Tapley	...	Bart Massey
Uvaldo Varela	...	Hilario Callego - Phoebe's Young Helper
Earl Crawford	...	Joe Briggs
Griff Barnett	...	Sam Hughes (as Griff Barnette)
Ludwig Hardt	...	Meyer

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Finland:S | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #6272)

Filming Locations:

Old Tucson - 201 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The set still stands outside Tucson Arizona and is an active studio and Old West theme park called Old Tucson. Since it was built in 1939, Old Tucson has served as the set for many famous Westerns such as Rio Bravo (1959) and Tombstone (1993). "Little House on the Prairie" (1974) also used the studios.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the scene where the Apache raiders are fleeing the cattle stampede, modern tire tracks can be seen (possibly those of the camera vehicle driving ahead of the riders).

Quotes:

Peter Muncie: A wagon train come in headin' for California and I'm joinin' up with it.
Phoebe Titus: When?
Peter Muncie: Sundown.
Phoebe Titus: Well, sundown is a good time to leave. Indians don't hanker much for night fightin'.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Last Round-up (1947)

Soundtrack:

Gwine to Rune All Night (De Camptown Races)

This film is doubly synonymous with its location.

The story line in this film is basically fictional, but real names of people who lived in Tucson, Arizona Territory, in the late nineteenth century are given to members of the cast, and the set that was created specifically for its production still exists just over the hill from the real Tucson of today. As someone who remembers visiting that set during filming in 1940, I am still impressed by the place and by this film. Jean Arthur's character was indeed a prototype of the independent frontierswoman . But even more important from the perspective of today as I stand among the remnants of the old set (still used, together with a sound stage on the property, to produce "Westerns") and look back sixty years just as the producers looked back sixty years for their story, I think of it as a story within a story. Anyone visiting Arizona today would do well to think of the film "Arizona" as a true picture of 1880 and, in another context, of 1940, and let their imaginations wander. The social attitudes and mores of both periods stand in great contrast to those of the 21st century.