Movie Review: 'Neath the Arizona Skies (1934)

Synopsis: Cowboy Chris Morrell is caring for Nina, a young half Native American whose white father abandoned her now-deceased mother before she was born. When a piece of land leased in her mother's name strikes oil, Chris seeks to find Nina's father and gain guardianship of the girl to help her cash in on the newly discovered wealth and be taken care of. However, a gang of outlaws led by Sam Black are looking to steal the claim, putting Nina in danger. As a further complication, Chris is framed for an armed robbery.

Who's in it? The movie stars John Wayne, Sheila Terry, Shirley Jean Rickert, Yakima Canutt and Jack Rockwell.

Review: I must have forgotten what day it was because I overslept by nearly thirty minutes this morning. However, I have a built-in time buffer and modified morning routine for that very scenario and still had time to watch a short film before I needed to worry about heading into the office. This resulted in 'Neath the Arizona Skies being the movie choice.

This is a film that has been in my movie library for a while, mostly because every time I considered watching it, I would find a different movie instead. After finally seeing it, I have to admit it was entertaining.

As would be expected from a John Wayne movie, there is quite a bit of action. The movie barely got started before Chris (Wayne) was in a fist fight with three men before being chased by a gang of outlaws. There is very little downtime after that, just enough to give Chris an opportunity to be framed for robbery, meet the love interest, Clara (Terry) and for some exposition to be given, including Nina's (Rickert) real father being revealed. 

In fact, I was somewhat impressed with how complex the plot turned out to be in a movie that was only an hour long. There was the main story about the gang of outlaws looking to steal Nina's land claim plus the side story about Chris needing to clear his name, which would mean implicating Clara's brother, Jim (Jay Wilsey). Oh, and on top of it, Chris' desire to adopt Nina is potentially put in jeopardy when her real father turns out not to be such a bad guy.

My only real complaint about the film is the ending, which just seemed rushed, as though the filmmakers realized the film was running long and tried to cram in a whole lot in a very small amount of time. This is especially true of the final fight between Chris and Sam Black (Canutt), which is done in a way that prevents most of it from being shown. I knew who won. I didn't know how.

Final Opinion: As I said, it was an entertaining movie. I just wish the film trimmed some of the horse chase scenes and used that time to give a final boss fight that did the rest of the movie justice.

My Grade: B

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Here are some reviews of other movies from 1934:

Movie Review: Death on the Diamond (1934)

Movie Review: Babes in Toyland (1934)

Movie Review: Inside Information (1934)

Movie Review: Heat Lightning (1934)