Tuesday, November 1, 2016

OVERLOOKED FILM: THE ARIZONA KID

This 1939 oater stars Leonard Slye and George Hayes as Confederate scouts in 1861 Missouri.  The Civil War has broken out and Missouri, although a Union state has a lot of Southern sympathizers.  Roy and Gabby's job is to stop Val McBride (Stuart Hamblin) and his gang of mercenaries.  Hamblin has been using his Confederate uniform to pillage the countryside for his own gain and the Confederate army has disavowed him.

One sticking point:  Roy's friend Dave Allen (David Kerwin) is part of McBride's gang.  Roy tries to talk Dave into leaving the gang but the lure of easy money is too much of a temptation to Dave.  Complicating the relationship are 1)  Dave has saved Roy's life, and 2) Dave and Roy are both in love with the same girl, Laura Bradford (Sally March).  The subplot of Roy and Dave ends when Roy has to make a terrible decision.

Guns blaze.  Roy sings.  Gabby is Gabby.  What more can you ask for?

One nagging question remains.  Why the "Arizona " Kid?  99.99% of the movie takes place in Missouri, where Roy is supposed to hail from.  Yes, the movie opens with Roy and Gabby driving horse from Arizona to Missouri but that's about the only Arizona reference in the film.  I'll admit that Arizona sound more westerny than Missouri, but what the heck?

This one was directed by Joseph Kane and scripted by Luci Ward and Gerald Geraghty.

Enjoy.


https://archive.org/details/arizona_kid

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