’NEATH THE ARIZONA SKIES, Monogram Pictures, 1934 (B&W).
Dir. Harry Fraser. Perf. John Wayne, Sheila Terry, Yakima Canutt.
Review by Dominic

This is one of the so-called Lone Star Westerns, a throng of B-grade horse operas John Wayne did for Monogram (later Allied Artists). ’Neath the Arizona Skies, a remake of Circle Canyon from just a year earlier, is the loosely plotted but fast-moving tale of a half-Native orphan whose guardian Chris Morrell (Wayne) stands to inherit $50,000 in Indian reserve oil money owed to the girl’s deceased mother, if he can find her real father.

Or something like that. An extended chase scene within the film’s first few minutes indicates the pointlessness of quibbling over details. There’s money at stake, and there’s a kid in the middle—enough said. The highlights here are the fast pace, Wayne’s indomitable charisma, a side-order of lasso slapstick, and the rootin’ tootin’ cheeseball score. Solid B-grade shoot-em-up where it all goes up in smoke and the deaths don’t matter. The downside of course being the deaths don’t matter.