An action-packed slog

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

"Arizona Legion" is another of the George O'Brien westerns for RKO.Boone Yeager (O'Brien) is engaged to the Judge's daughter and seems to have everything. However he suddenly becomes wild, shooting up the town and associating with the riff raff in the saloon. His fiancé, Letty Meade (Larraine (Day) Johnson) soon becomes unsure and breaks their engagement. An old friend Lt. Bob Ives (Carlyle Moore) arrives in town after the stagecoach he was riding in was robbed by a gang headed by Whiskey Joe (Harry Cording). He is willing to identify the assailant in court.But Boone and Judge Meade (Edward LeSaint) have a secret. You see, Boone has been working undercover trying to infiltrate the gang to learn the identities of the gang leaders. The governor has formed a group of lawmen to be known as The Arizona Rangers to bring law and order to Arizona.Remaining undercover, Boone gains the confidence of Whiskey Joe and his bosses Saloon owner Jim Dutton (William Royle) and Kirby the express agent (Glenn Strange). He learns that there is a higher up known simply as "The Chief". Whiskey Joe is brought to trial but is acquitted with Boone and his sidekick Whopper Hatch (Chill Wills) sitting on the jury.This puts Boone in solid with the outlaws who give him an assignment to rob a gold shipment. Along the way Boone learns the identity of the Chief and a showdown in town ensues and.................................................This entry in the series must have had a larger than normal budget as there are many, many extras portraying cavalry soldiers, outlaw gang members and the rangers. It's full of action and plenty of gunplay.Also in the cast are Tom Chatterton as Commissioner Teagle, Bob Kortman as Sgt. Clarke and old timer Lafe McKee as the Sheriff.And, oh yes, George gets his girl back.

Director: DAVID HOWARD. Screenplay: Oliver Drake. Story: Bernard McConville. Photography: Harry J. Wild. Film editor: Frederic Knudtson. Music director: Roy Webb. RCA Sound System. Producer: Bert Gilroy.Copyright 20 January 1939 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. U.S. release: 20 January 1939. No recorded New York opening. Australian release: 15 June 1939. 6 reels, 58 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Bandits take over a town.NOTES: McConville's original story was called "The Stagecoach Stops at Pinyon Gulch". Lorraine Johnson is better known as Laraine Day.COMMENT: Director David Howard gets plenty of pace and action into this one, even though the story is pretty routine. O'Brien himself daringly stunts on the speeding stagecoach during the routing-the-heavies finale. The young Miss Day makes a most agreeable heroine. All told, a very entertaining minor league western, on a par with "The Renegade Ranger".

George O'Brien is recruited to head a secret Service for the State of Arizona by the Governor and to woo a very young Laraine Day in this middling episode of his long-running series for RKO.It starts out well enough with a young Chill Wills as 'Whopper' telling a tall tale, before settling into more standard B mode. It is constricted a bit by the poor print that Turner Classic Movies has available. O'Brien is good, as always and the plot has its moments of excitement, as well as some good cinematography, including some nice stunt work and fighting atop a stage coach. But the short length of the film -- just under an hour -- and its abrupt ending emphasizes its B nature. While it's fine for what it is, you'd be better off starting your addiction to the series with another of O'Brien's westerns. Try the previous year's RENEGADE RANGER or PAINTED DESERT.