Evening star., 1941-02-15

1t is on Sepla film and your first 81
down there in the desert, Is enough
to leave your throat parched, your
lips dry and cracking, for hours.
Arizona" is concerned only in
secondary way with the problems
which faced that State back in the
sixties, when the Union troops, last
outpost of law and order, were re-
called to the more civilized East
by the Civil War. The major prob
lens with which the picture deals
are those of one Phoebe Titus,
tWo-fsted lass who can flash a
horsewhip to hold the barroom boys
at bay or bake tasty pie with equal
ease and elan. 1t is Phoebe's most
earnest desire to own the largest
ranch in all Arizona, one it Will
take two days to ride across, and woe
be. woe in fact is, unto those who
stand in her way.
What happens to Phoebe shouldn't.
but apparently did happen, to every
girl who tried to do mans work
in the Old West. Comes love and
Phoebe discovers she is a Woman.
One day from Missouri there rides
a Lochinvar out of the East, whose
interest is aroused by Phoebe's slick
stvle with both the whip and the
pie pans. Seeing beyond those dusty
dungarees, he serenades this soot-
smudged virago to the strains OF
JEANNE With the Light Brown
Hair" possibly mistaking her for
Jean Arthur, and she is a done
duck after the first chorus, deciding
then and there that he is the lad
to share her ranch. After that it
is only question of time, a matter
of doing away with the villains
one by one.
Jean Arthur, for it really is she
who is the first belle of Tucson, plays
Miss Phoebe with a fighting spirit
which makes it quite believable that
she could have been the only white
woman in Arizona and still have
held the boys at bay until her hero
found her at her bake oven. This
lad is William Holden, who also fares
passing we'll amidst all the turmoil,
even unto seeming to be just the sort
of a dream child who would airily
ride on to California Immediately
after coming upon such an oasis as
Miss Arthur amidst all the cactus
plants
Against the nobility represented
bv Phoebe Titus honest plan to
start an honest freight line so she
can turn an honest several grand
to buy her ranch, Arizona" opposes
villainy so dreadful you wouldn't
believe it if you hadn't seen its like
in every other motion picture which
forged westward with our frontiers.
This is present in the persons OF
Warren William and Porter Hall,
oily and shifty-eyed lads who sneer,
snarl, leer and whip out a six
shooter at the drop Of a virtuous
purpose. They are, of course, no
match for Phoebe.
And, as matter of fact, none of
these above-named people, nor D1-
rector Wesley Ruggles, has turned
out to be any sort of match for
the script. That has overpowered
them all. BY various devices, Mr..
Ruggles has given his picture a
certain air of impressiveness, to be
sure, and by melting the Indians
to warfare at periodic intervals he
has achieved occasional semblances
of action. But, brother, this is the
biggest and most eXpensively
mounted stack of cliches you ever
saw.
There is. however, one cliche
which ARIZONA" has avoided and
1t is no end startling when it hap
pens. The Army does not come
over the hill in the nick of time
when the Indians fall upon the
cattle Miss Arthur and Mr. Holden
are chasing to the ranch. No Mr..
Holden just gallops ION horse, of
course to the head of the stamped
ing herd, turns the stampede
around in the savages' teeth. The
sight of 700-odd placid-faced cows
loping after a tribe of fleeing In
dians. just as if his radio audience
had turned on Orson Welles that
time and chased him back to Mars,
is something we will not soon forget.
AS another of those brief and