The Arizona Raiders finds Buster Crabbe and Raymond Hatton as a pair of western characters no better than they ought to be. In fact Hatton is wanted in all kinds of places for various non-violent offenses. But in their travels they also come upon young Johnny Downs who has tried to elope with his sweetheart Betty Jane Rhodes. Downs has pursued Rhodes and her older sister Marsha Hunt from Kentucky where they've come to take possession of a horse ranch that belonged to their late father, but is now run by lawyer and estate executor Grant Withers.
Years ago my mother was given sound advice concerning my father's estate which was never to have the executor be a lawyer, too many opportunities to milk the estate. Which is what should have happened here because Grant the Snidely Whiplash like shyster has been dipping in the till. And he plans to steal the ranch herd from Hunt and Rhodes with the connivance of foreman Don Rowan.
So in this film adapted from a Zane Grey novel it's up to these three unlikely heroes to stop the villainy and put things right. Do we have to ask whether that's done in this B western?
Like his fellow swimming Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller, Buster Crabbe had gotten used to the camera and was handling a great deal more dialog and variety of parts than Weissmuller was. Crabbe avoided the jungle trap of Tarzan that Weissmuller couldn't. He's a more than credible cowboy hero for B westerns, in fact later on he essayed a few villain parts.
Raymond Hatton is very funny in his role and he's matched by Richard Carle as the Justice of the Peace who winds up throwing Johnny Downs in jail on Withers complaint after the elopement fails. But one of the best bits I've seen in a B western comes when Crabbe breaks Downs and Hatton out of jail by use of some firecrackers to stampede a herd of cattle going through town. The cattle in the stampede destroy the rickety jail and the three companions are united.
Definitely this was one film the juvenile audience on Saturday afternoon would thoroughly have enjoyed along with their parents.
Years ago my mother was given sound advice concerning my father's estate which was never to have the executor be a lawyer, too many opportunities to milk the estate. Which is what should have happened here because Grant the Snidely Whiplash like shyster has been dipping in the till. And he plans to steal the ranch herd from Hunt and Rhodes with the connivance of foreman Don Rowan.
So in this film adapted from a Zane Grey novel it's up to these three unlikely heroes to stop the villainy and put things right. Do we have to ask whether that's done in this B western?
Like his fellow swimming Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller, Buster Crabbe had gotten used to the camera and was handling a great deal more dialog and variety of parts than Weissmuller was. Crabbe avoided the jungle trap of Tarzan that Weissmuller couldn't. He's a more than credible cowboy hero for B westerns, in fact later on he essayed a few villain parts.
Raymond Hatton is very funny in his role and he's matched by Richard Carle as the Justice of the Peace who winds up throwing Johnny Downs in jail on Withers complaint after the elopement fails. But one of the best bits I've seen in a B western comes when Crabbe breaks Downs and Hatton out of jail by use of some firecrackers to stampede a herd of cattle going through town. The cattle in the stampede destroy the rickety jail and the three companions are united.
Definitely this was one film the juvenile audience on Saturday afternoon would thoroughly have enjoyed along with their parents.