Purely Joyful Movie!

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

"The Baron of Arizona" was Samuel Fuller's second film after the forgettable "I Shot Jesse James" from 1949. While it's no masterpiece and nowhere nearly as good as the films Fuller would make when he really hit his stride as a filmmaker, it shows marked improvement over his first movie.Fuller as a director was never much interested in following genre conventions even when making genre films, which is one of my favorite things about him. That quality begins to emerge in "The Baron of Arizona," in which Fuller is much more interested in the idiosyncrasies of this based-on-actual-events drama than he is in making his audience happy. I agree with another reviewer that he himself seems bored by the love story, and those scenes seem to only exist because Fuller knew his audience expected them to. The movie is at its best when it's following the details of the devious plot masterminded by a deliciously villainous Vincent Price, who seems perfectly at home with the role when he's asked to be a conniver but not so much when called upon to be a tough guy. The film is visually more interesting than Fuller's first, as if he figured out what to do with his camera or was given more money to do it. Indeed, while this isn't a big-budget film by any stretch of the imagination, it does have better production values than "I Shot Jesse James," released by the same studio.Both "Jesse James" and "Baron" are worth your time if you are a Samuel Fuller fan, because they give us a peek at Fuller as an emerging artist. But only "Baron" is worth watching for general film fans. It's not a great movie, but there are things to enjoy.Grade: B

A very interesting and something completely different for Vincent Price. Although he has that same ruthless character that did him so well in so many films during his career, he is a leading man here and he actually shows some humility by the film's end.A true story of a man who spent a life-time forging documents, traveling to Spain and concocting all sorts of stories and taking a plain girl and claiming that papers in the 1700s granted by the king made her ancestors owners of the entire land encompassing Arizona. Naturally, he marries the young lady.Interesting to view how this scheme unraveled and with it all, the love that his wife had for him and how he was ultimately able to survive. Ellen Drew is very good as the wife, who showed such faithfulness to her husband when his dishonesty was finally unmasked.

In one of the boldest land grabs in US history Confederate vet Samuel Reavis through energetic and ambitious duplicity managed to claim and convince the government and the land's occupants that Arizona Territory belonged to him through his wife by way of recognized Spanish decree who supposedly deeded the rights to her family. In the Baron of Arizona Sam Fuller does an effective job of briskly and clearly detailing the convoluted and exhausting efforts of Reavis but his threadbare production values and awkward handling of tension inducing moments fails to do the audacious act itself justice and the film fails to ignite.After his quirky directorial debut in I Shot Jesse James Fuller follows up with another offbeat Western legend in Reavis and while Vincent Price has the sinister chops and countenance to smugly bamboozle those that need to be he fails abjectly when called on to wield weapon or punch it out with the locals. In a sloppily edited climax, Price with a rope does save his best for last but the film's solid story begs ( and deserves) a bigger budget with more of a two fisted huckster (Douglas or Lancaster) in the lead displaying more energy and guile, less contempt and condescension.

The idea that someone can come along and make a claim to major land holdings today is far fetched. But, If you go back 100 years or so, when systems in place literally accept any claim filed within reason, it then becomes a fascinating story to be told. Add Vincent Price a very fine actor who is able to hold your attention with ease and you have a good movie on your hands. I like true stories and many a story got its start in some truth. One thing that kept gnawing on me was that if this guy James Rivas who the story is based on didn't get so greedy, he could have done quite well for himself. All he had to do is quit while he was ahead. Then, make a gesture to grant the remaining parcels to the government and forever take a different part in the history of Arizona. I bet it got addicting to see with ease how the plan took root and was honored especially when the big monies started coming in and important people validated the claims with their support. But then, we would have had a different movie too. As the story enfolds and you get pulled in, right around the middle of it you are so glad that it is not over because it is so entertaining. You just have to wonder where it was all going and how it will turn out. Its a snack-able movie with a good drink. Get comfortable and enjoy this one..I have seen it 3 times and it holds well...