Firebrands of Arizona

When Republic Pictures truncated the brief John Paul Revere series and re-designated it as Smiley Burnette Productions, no attempt was initially made to create out-and-out comedy westerns, despite Mr. Burnette's great success as a singing comic sidekick to Gene Autry and Roy Rogers...until British scenarist Randall Faye came up with the whimsical farce released by Republic as FIREBRANDS OF ARIZONA. The multi-talented Smiley Burnette, then voted by exhibitors as one of the foremost box office attractions in westerns, is cast in a dual role: that of Frog Millhouse, here presented as a pill-gobbling hypochondriac, and that of the despicable outlaw, Beefsteak Discoe - who looks exactly like Frog.

The outlandish adventure draws our hero into one hilarious situation after another, as a preposterous sheriff (Earle Hodgins) seeks to hang either Frog or Beefsteak, to advance his own political career and please the bloodthirsty townsfolk. Performances are uniformly excellent, with Tom London as a bewildered old codger who wanders into the proceedings; Roy Barcroft as a comic deputy; Peggy Stewart as Frog's exasperated young employer; Sunset Carson as Frog's pal and defender; LeRoy Mason as an irate rancher and Fred "Snowflake" Toones as a ranch cook sympathetic to the imaginary invalid.

Contemporary trade notices were very favorable, Motion Picture Herald's reviewer calling the film far superior to the average western, and adding that the audience at the screening chuckled all the way through the presentation. When filming ended on July 3, 1944, Smiley Burnette's agent, Mitch Hamilburg, obtained for him a heftier salary at Columbia. FIREBANDS OF ARIZONA thus became the final entry in the Smiley Burnette Productions series, and Smiley's last Republic film. The series ended on a highly entertaining note.

Republic's self-satire. An unusual western, played tongue-in-cheek by the Republic repertory players and apparently released without fanfare. Smiley plays a dual role, Frog and a totally evil bank robber. At the end, there is a fist fight between Sunset and Smiley's double. All this may have been missed by the kids, but as an adult who grew up on westerns, it's one of my top 10.