Arizona

Fun but overlong western with a dynamite turn by Jean Arthur as a feisty pioneer gal that's as rough and tumble as any man you'll meet. She fights corruption and villainy in the form of Porter Hall and Warren William. She also finds time for romance with handsome (and considerably younger) leading man William Holden.

Arthur's the primary reason to see this. She dominates every scene. Also some good performances from Edgar Buchanan as a drunken judge and Warren William as a slimy crook. Holden's fine but he wasn't quite ready to be an A-lister yet. The romance element is one of the weaker parts of the film. Victor Young's Oscar-nominated score is excellent. It's an enjoyable western but, like I said, it goes on too long for such a simple story.

This is a refreshing western saga with well-defined performances of some unique characters. Adding to the overall quality, there is a strong current of authenticity in the staging, with both the gritty desert west (the scene is 1860's Tucson) and the settlers of that land making a strong showing. William Holden plays against type as an aw-shucks, boyish adventurer who is smitten with a bold, outspoken pioneer businesswoman played with gusto by Jean Arthur. Both characters have clearly-defined development arcs. While the plot is generally typical western fare, the narrative tends to bounce out of those well-worn ruts, including being mostly true to the period depicted and in the motivations of characters and groups. The video I watched was crystal-clear black & white. This is a western tale with a rich flavor.

"Arizona" is a very enjoyable movie about pioneer settlement of the West. Without giving away the plot, let's just say that it has enough twists and angles to make it stand apart from the normal grind of Westerns. It gives us a little bit of all the various stock parts of Westerns - Indians, cowboys, cavalry, good guys, bad guys, guns and shootings, robbery and romance, sagebrush and scenery, horses and a stampede, a wagon train and cattle drive. But it's the way those bits are put together and woven into a nice story that sets "Arizona" apart and gives it the feel of an epic film.

Jean Arthur is excellent as Phoebe Titus. She's a self-assured, decent, hard-working, and tough Western gal with big dreams. We never learn why or how she got to Tucson on her own. But viewers are taken with her sincerity and toughness which has just a touch of humor. The men in the movie are also won over by her pies. I can't think of another Western that has a pie shop or stand in it.

William Holden is a delight as Peter Muncie. This is only the fifth movie in which he was listed in the credits. It's one of his early starring roles and his very first Western. Holden's character has a very likable, easy-going and pleasantness about him. A pity we didn't see more of that persona throughout his career. For most of his roles later on, Holden had a more straight or serious demeanor - even dour at times.

Another reviewer commented on Warren William's excellent role as Jefferson Carteret. He played the villain very well. William was a very accomplished actor who might have done some great films in the 1950s and 1960s. But he died in 1948 from cancer. He was just 53. He had played suave, sophisticated and intelligent leading men, and fiends and conniving crooks and scoundrels, equally well. I especially enjoy him as Perry Mason in the original movies about that fictional detective- lawyer.

A number of other character actors gave banner performances in this film. Edgar Buchanan, Porter Hall, Paul Harvey and Regis Toomey stand out. The direction and cinematography were excellent, and the musical score for this film was a delight. It received two Academy Award nominations, one for musical score.

Others have commented about the setting and feel of reality about the movie. "Arizona" was made in 1940, when it was possible to find space to shoot a film around Tucson that wasn't invaded by utility poles and lines, paved highways and other signs of modern times. The ramshackle settlement of the early town sure gives it a feel of reality. I'm not so sure, though, how accurate a picture that is of Tucson at the time of the story. It's taking place around the Civil War years. The town of Tucson wasn't incorporated until 1877, but the town got its start a hundred years earlier. Hugh Oconor is the founding father of Tucson. He was the military governor of northern Mexico and authorized a fort to be built there in 1775. Even before that, the very first development was the Mission San Xavier del Bac in 1700. The mission is still operating today and is a historic site south of Tucson.

Columbia Pictures built the set for the film, with a sound stage, a few miles west of present-day downtown Tucson. It sat idle for a number of years after the movie was made. Then, in 1960, it was fixed up and opened as an active movie set and tourist park. In time, more streets were added and some amusement events were staged - gunfights and bank robberies. Nearly 70 movies have been filmed in part or in whole in Old Tucson, as it is called. Most were Westerns, but a number of mysteries and dramas were made there - even a comedy or two. John Wayne filmed four of his Westerns in Old Tucson - "Rio Bravo," "McLintock," "El Dorado," and "Rio Lobo." A 1995 fire destroyed much of the set and sound stage; but the community rebuilt the movie set town and it is still open in 2013.

In Arizona Jean Arthur repeats her Calamity Jane character from the earlier DeMille classic, The Plainsman. She's a tough pioneer woman, one of the founders of early Tucson.

Her dream man comes by way of a wagon train in William Holden who was making his first western with this film. Originally the part was offered to Gary Cooper who turned it down. I suspect that Cooper clearly saw that Arthur had more screen time. Holden who was under dual contract to Paramount and Columbia had no choice in the matter.

But by far the best one in this film is Warren William who is the suave villain of the piece. In The Big Country, Burl Ives describes Charles Bickford as a 'high toned skunk'. That phrase so very aptly describes what Warren William is all about here.

Previous to his arrival, the local bad guy was Porter Hall. But William with guile and cunning bullies Hall into a partnership who in turn sets him up with the local Apaches. Nobody can quite prove what's going on, but Holden says William has the odor of polecat about him.

There's a nice battle scene with the Apaches before the final showdown with Holden and William. Their final battle is a combination of the shootouts from both Stagecoach and High Noon.

Paul Harvey has a nice part as the Scottish merchant who is Arthur's business partner and Edgar Buchanan does one of his patented reprobate judge parts that he would do over and over in his career.

And we even get to hear William Holden sing I Dream of Jeannie. Nothing special and it's no accident he had no career in musicals.

Arizona is still a nice film tribute to our western pioneer spirit and it's one of Warren William's best screen characters.

At the risk of sounding jingoistic, this film shows in microcosm how the greatest nation the world has ever known, the United States of America, came into being. It was literally carved from the wilderness by brave frontier men and women who are played as archetypes of those heroes and heroines by screen legends William Holden (one of my favorites) and Jean Arthur (Mr. Deeds, Only Angels Have Wings, The Talk of the Town). The very precarious existence of America's pioneers is presented with stark realism in this entirely plausible film. For those who only celebrate the Fourth of July by enjoying the fireworks, let them understand the hardships (and triumphs) their ancestors faced . Terrific period drama. 7/10.