Masterful Movie

Fantastic!

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Another of John Wayne's cheapie westerns made for Lone Star. This one has him protecting a half-Indian girl while he searches for her father and fights off an outlaw (Yakima Canutt) who wants the girl and her father for reasons of his own. As is typical with these westerns, the best parts are the stunts. It's a fairly standard oater with not a whole lot recommend to those who aren't big fans of the Duke. The little girl is clearly a white kid with a terrible black wig on. She's a pretty bad actress, too. Hearing her repeatedly call Duke "Daddy Chris" is enough to turn your stomach. If you've seen any of the low-budget westerns Duke made in the '30s, you pretty much know what to expect here. If you haven't, go ahead and watch it but be prepared that there is nothing challenging here. It's a very simple cardboard story that runs less than an hour. Harmless but unsatisfying.

I recently saw several John Wayne films shown on the Encore Channel. I was shocked when I heard the soundtracks on these public domain films. Instead of the original music, the films all featured modern electric music--stuff that sounds really out of place with films from the 1930s. In addition, the music and new sound effects are just too loud and out of place during much of the film--making it pretty annoying viewing. My advice is to instead follow the IMDb link and download these films and watch them the way they were meant to be viewed.This finds Wayne playing nursemaid to a small girl who is heir to a fortune in oil. He's taking care of her until he can locate her missing father, but baddies want to kidnap her and steal her claim. The child is supposed to be half American Indian, but frankly aside from the silly black wig, she looks and sounds just like a typical Hollywood child actor--a.rather poor one at that, as she often flubbed her lines or delivered them very unconvincingly. Perhaps I should cut her some slack, as she was pretty young. But teaming any cowboy with a kid like this is a recipe for disaster or, at best, mediocrity. Even a small appearance by an uncredited Gabby Hayes wasn't enough to overcome this. Now this isn't because it's a bad film--it just isn't all that great either.

This Lone Star Pictures feature from 1934 doesn't seem to hold up as well as many of John Wayne's other early pictures. The technical quality is a little less pristine, and the plot is a little less enjoyable. 'Neath Arizona Skies a little different from many westerns in that a child lies at the heart of this story. John Wayne is "Daddy Chris" Morrell to a little Indian girl named Nina; Nina's mother is dead, and no one knows where her white father is or if he is dead or alive. Thanks to the discovery of oil on Indian lands, little Nina is suddenly worth fifty thousand dollars; this fact does not go unnoticed by desperadoes such as Sam Black (Yakima Canutt) and his gang. Morrell manages to escape town with Nina, but he is forced to send her ahead in order to slow down Black and his gang. The place of safety he sends her to ends up putting her in even more danger, and Morrell's troubles only increase when another bad guy tries to frame him for robbery. There is a decent amount of action, but it is your basic shoot-out, fisticuffs, and horse chase scenario that plays out. There is nothing really wrong with 'Neath Arizona Skies, but it just fails to excite me the way some of The Duke's other early

"Neath the Arizona Skies" was one of the series of Lone Star Westerns that Wayne made between 1933 and 1935. It contains plenty of action and stunts. Wayne was looking more comfortable and less awkward as the hero. Sheila Terry, who had worked with Wayne at Columbia and in one of his serials is the heroine. Yakima Canutt is the chief heavy and George Hayes appears unbilled playing a character very close to the "Gabby" character that he would play exclusively from about 1936 onward. In this series Hayes played a variety of roles from sidekick, to father of the heroine, to the villain.The best that can be said of Canutt's performance is that as an actor, he made a great stuntman. He performs a number of his trademark stunts in this film from the horse and rider going over over the cliff, to numerous horse falls and fights. The chase sequences were well photographed and staged. the plot involving the protection by Wayne of a little girl who stands to inherit oil wells, moves along and is believable. All in all, 'Neath the Arizona Skies is a competent little actioner.