The Arizona Raiders ** (1936, Buster Crabbe, Raymond Hatton, Marsha Hunt, Betty Jane Rhodes, Johnny Downs, Grant Withers) – Classic Movie Review 11,625

‘COURAGE RIDES THE RANGE! THRILLS OF THE TRAIL! Thunder hoofs…cracking whips…whistling lariats beat time for a breath-taking action drama!

Director James P Hogan’s Paramount Pictures 1936 black and white Western film The Arizona Raiders stars Larry Buster Crabbe as Laramie Nelson, who saves himself and Tracks Williams (Raymond Hatton) from hanging. They get jobs as ranch hands at the ranch of Harriett Lindsay (Marsha Hunt), and take on horse thieving bad guys Monroe Adams (Grant Withers), Harriett’s lawyer, and ranch foreman Luke Arledge (Don Rowan), who are plotting to steal Harriet’s herd of fine horses.

It is a decent, professionally handled and above-par support Western, based on Zane Grey’s story Raiders of Spanish Peaks, and filmed at the Paramount Ranch. Spanish Peaks is the name of the large, prosperous ranch owned by Harriett Lindsay (Marsha Hunt), who is trying to stop the marriage of her younger sister Lenta (Betty Jane Rhodes), to shy young Alonzo Lonesome Mulhall (Johnny Downs).

Also in the cast are Raymond Hatton, Marsha Hunt, Betty Jane Rhodes, Johnny Downs, Grant Withers, Don Rowan, Arthur Aylesworth, Richard Carle, and Petra Silva.

It runs just 57 minutes.

American reissue title: Bad Men of Arizona.

Betty Jane Rhodes sings ‘My Melancholy Baby’ (music by Ernie Burnett, lyrics by George A Norton).

Three decades on, Crabbe also appeared in Arizona Raiders (1965).

The cast are Buster Crabbe as Laramie Nelson, Raymond Hatton as Tracks Williams, Marsha Hunt as Harriett Lindsay, Betty Jane Rhodes as Lenta Lindsay, Johnny Downs as Lonesome Alonzo Q. Mulhall, Grant Withers as Harriett’s lawyer Monroe Adams, Don Rowan as henchman Luke Arledge, Arthur Aylesworth as Andy Winthrop, Richard Carle as Boswell Albernathy, Justice of the Peace, Herbert Heywood as First Sheriff at Hanging, Petra Silva as Tiny the Maid.

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,625

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