Sous le ciel d'Arizona

... from Monogram/Lone Star and director Harry Fraser. In the barely-there plot, Wayne plays Chris Morrell, the caretaker of young half-breed Native girl Nina (Shirley Jean Rickert). Nina is owed nearly $50,000 from oil leases on her family's land, and since the girl's mother is deceased, Chris has to track down the girl's father and get his signature on some paperwork, or else prove that the man is dead, for the girl to get her money. Naturally, some bad guys led by Sam Black (Yakima Canutt) overhear the situation and decide to try and kidnap the girl and get the money themselves. For the remainder of the movie's 52 minute running time, Chris and Nina try to outwit the baddies, with help from nice lady Clara (Sheila Terry) and old coot Matt (George "Gabby" Hayes).

This is largely indistinguishable from most of the other Lone Star westerns Wayne was in at the time: cardboard sets, bare-minimum scripting, poorly staged fist fights, and a foregone conclusion. Hayes was appearing in many of these westerns at the time, but for some reason he received no on-screen credit for this one. Wayne is slowly learning his craft, and seems just a tiny bit more natural than in previous outings.

Neath The Arizona Skies finds John Wayne as the guardian of little Shirley Jean Rickert who is a half Indian little tyke who stands to inherit some really big bucks because property her Mother left before she died has oil on it. Dad's been out of the picture for some time and most believe he's dead. The Duke thinks otherwise and sets off to find him.

He's got Yakima Canutt and a gang he's leading for competition who would like nothing better than to snatch the girl, kill the father if he's alive and get guardianship of the fortune.

Remember this is 1934 and kidnapping stories were very commonplace in films because of the Lindbergh kidnapping a few years earlier.

I wish this film had been done by a major studio with production values of same. There is a good nugget of a plot idea here and it could have been developed a lot better than it was.

Still it's not bad for a Lone Star production for John Wayne and I think more than Duke devotees might like it.

Another of John Wayne's cheapie westerns made for Lone Star. This one has him protecting a half-Indian girl while he searches for her father and fights off an outlaw (Yakima Canutt) who wants the girl and her father for reasons of his own. As is typical with these westerns, the best parts are the stunts. It's a fairly standard oater with not a whole lot recommend to those who aren't big fans of the Duke. The little girl is clearly a white kid with a terrible black wig on. She's a pretty bad actress, too. Hearing her repeatedly call Duke "Daddy Chris" is enough to turn your stomach. If you've seen any of the low-budget westerns Duke made in the '30s, you pretty much know what to expect here. If you haven't, go ahead and watch it but be prepared that there is nothing challenging here. It's a very simple cardboard story that runs less than an hour. Harmless but unsatisfying.

I'm not necessarily a fan of the 'Duke' but I do enjoy a good Western - and this one isn't. Technically, it's rough and ready and I suppose typical for an unrestored print that's nearly 80 years old.

At least there's some action - quite a lot of it but is essentially Wayne either singly on horseback, chasing after someone, or having fisty-cuffs with someone. And, yes, there's a shoot-out.

The other reviewer of this title did a fine job pointing out the plot, for what it is.

The half Native American girl is quite sparky, the Duke speaks in monotones and is rather wooden but the love interest (she finds him wounded by a river) Clara, (Sheila Terry) is more natural and a welcome diversion.

However despite all this, it's quite watchable, in a rudimentary sort of way and if it wasn't John Wayne, we wouldn't even be watching it and nor would have TCM bothered to air it, which is where I saw the movie.

Cowboy John Wayne goes in search of the long-lost father of a half-Indian girl in order to for her to cash in on her late mother's oil rich property, while a nasty gang of cutthroats plan on snatching her for their own enrichment. Complicating things is a gang of armed robbers who attempt to frame Wayne.

Despite a few good stunts and the presence of Yakima Cannut and George "Gabby" Hayes the first two-thirds of this entry in Lone Star/Monogram Pictures' John Wayne films is mediocre and bland. Fortunately, the last third brings it all out of the muck with probably some of the best suspense and action in all of the series!

Overall, it's worth watching.