Arizona Raiders

This mid '60s western has the look of a mid '50s release. After being sentenced to 20 years hard labor for crimes while riding with the Quantrell's Raiders, a young confederate hero(Audie Murphy)is offered an unconditional pardon if he will help round up the remnants of the notorious gang that is still terrorizing Arizona Territory. The gang has kidnapped an attractive daughter of an Indian Chief. The Chief and some of his braves help Murphy capture and break up the renegade Raiders. With the mission completed, Murphy rides away continuing his new career as an Arizona Ranger.

No real surprises, just feel good cowboy shoot 'em up. And its good to see the Indians team up with the good guys this time out.

Supporting cast includes veteran actor Buster Crabbe along with the attractive Gloria Talbot, "Red" Morgan, Ben Cooper, Michael Dante and Fred Graham.

This movie is a remake of the 1951 movie "The Texas Rangers", same plot, same storyline, same lines. Only the locale and the actors are different. I take that back, this time it wasn't just a couple of men who were removed from prison, they were moved from state to state.

Having said that, I did enjoy the movie. There were enough changes to make it interesting. Audie Murphy did a wonderful job in the lead role. The location was beautiful. The director did a good job in making this movie stand on it's own.

If you liked the earlier movie, you will enjoy this remake. Audie Murphy fans should enjoy seeing him in this.

The Over-Saturation of Movie and TV Westerns in the 1950's caused the Genre to Fade Fast around 1962.

With the Notable Exception of Sergio Leone's Imports the Western became a Box-Office Gamble. So this 1965 Audie Murphy Western was Bucking the Trend.

Not that Critics paid much Attention to Murph beforehand. He was always Overlooked and Ignored during His Career.

So this one was given the Usual Dismissal, came and went Without Fanfare as was Par for the Course for Most of the War Hero's Movies.

But it's an Above Average Western with an Epic Feel some Brutal Action, with Complex Alliances and Characters.

It's also a Treat for Movie Buffs to See Buster Crabbe, Looking Rugged and Fit during the Late Stage of a Long Career in the B's. He Played Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Tarzan.

Gloria Talbot is Good as a Yaqui and Her Tribe's Action weighs in Heavily and Adds some Native American Flavor to the Film.

This one will Not Disappoint Western or Audie Murphy Fans. It is one of His Better 1960's Movies.

Note...Don't let the Tacked-On for TV opening of a dull presentation turn you off. Just wait 7 minutes and it will be gone. Thank Heaven.

Despite an unnecessary prologue in which we are treated to a history of the life and career of William Quantrill, Arizona Raiders concerns us with the efforts of former Quantrill members Audie Murphy and Ben Cooper to capture a large band of former Quantrill men led by Michael Dante and George Keymas who are now operating in Arizona.

The man who captured Murphy and Cooper is Buster Crabbe former Army captain and now in charge of the new Arizona Rangers. He's offering Murphy and Cooper a Dirty Dozen like mission, get them and there will be a pardon awaiting. What Crabbe doesn't know is that Murphy is both one unreconstructed rebel and he's got a younger brother in the Rangers already played by Ray Stricklyn. That fact cuts several ways before the film is over.

Arizona Raiders is a decent enough western. Murphy was still going strong in doing these second feature B films. But it was certainly nothing you couldn't see on television where westerns ruled at that time on the small screen.

His raiders are broken up and Quantrill dies in an army hospital. Audie Murphy is sentenced to death, but the sentence is commuted to 20 years on the recommendation of Buster Crabbe, who led the attack on them. Crabbe winds up leading the Arizona Rangers. There the remnants Quantrill's forces have retreated, to become outlaws. The government can't figure out where they are, where they will strike, but he comes up with a plan: release Murphy, induct him into the Rangers and set him after the bad guys.

Audie Murphy had moved surely into westerns after he became the most decorated American soldier in the Second World War and had prospered. He was getting on in years, and the genre westerns were beginning to disappear. This movie was an attempt by him and director William Witney to produce something epic and mythic. It begins with a recitation of Quantrill's history, and moves in action. There are many nice touches: Murphy's conflicted position, the beautiful Indian girl played by Gloria Talbott, the importance of oaths, the stalwart Crabbe, and the savage Indians who carry their victims away like demons. It's a B western on a grand scale, and Witney was the man who ld bring it off if anyone could. Ford had abandoned the trappings of B productions four decades earlier. Witney had begun in the Bs, the youngest director around when he began, and he had reformed the genre, the fights, the stories, always constrained by short budgets and shooting schedules. Now, with a color camera and three decades of experience, could he save the traditional western?

Alas, no. The western was passing out of the mythscape of the world, gradually being replaced by the new frontier of science fiction. But he makes a good try here, and there are some lovely moments that recall when the west was the endless frontier, before civilization closed in. Now the West was a landscape in which everyone was corrupt, where the good, the bad and the ugly fought endlessly without any sense of right or wrong.

But Witney certainly gives it a shot. There are some lovely moments and good, canny work here. It's just that not enough people cared any more.