Song of Arizona (1946)

Memorable, crazy movie

Good concept, poorly executed.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Other reviewers on this board have noted the picture's similarity to Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney's 1938 film "Boys Town". I had the thought quite independently myself as the story unfolded, which introduced Gabby Hayes as the 'best friend a homeless boy ever had'. He's the proprietor of the Half a Chance Ranch, taking in troubled youngsters and providing a safe environment in which they can grow up and be productive. Gabby's most famous graduate happens to be Roy Rogers, understatedly described as 'the guy who sings on the radio'. Roy's returning to the ranch to lend his support and winds up solving a bank robbery that involves one of Gabby's troubled kids, the son of the outlaw the local sheriff is after.I have to say, Dale Evans spices things up quite a bit here as a night club singer at the Golden Spur who's the step daughter of outlaw King Blaine (Lyle Talbot) and the unknown sister of Chip Blaine (Tommy Ivo). She's not an actress that immediately comes to mind when considering the term sexy, but she's got all the right stuff here to turn Roy's head. They weren't married yet at the time of this movie, but there's no denying they made an attractive screen couple. Dale also proves to be quite the singer in this story with a few entertaining numbers on her own and in duet with Roy. She really had quite a pleasant singing voice.With all the song and dance, there's not a lot of room for your standard Western action. The finale involves a chase on horseback somewhat obscured in darkness on the print I viewed, but Roy gets the bad guys to be sure with the help of Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers. With the money recovered from the local bank, tough old bird Dolly Finnucin (Sarah Edwards) softens up just enough to invite Gabby over to dinner to show her appreciation. Considering the potential romantic entanglements for Roy and Gabby, one wonders if either of them could have come out of the picture with even half a chance.

This is one of those Roy Rogers films that, if not the best, has absolutely all of the right components.Roy is great, as always, as are the wonderful Sons of the Pioneers. Then there's Gabby, being Gabby, simply the best comedy sidekick in western movies, Dale doing some pretty swish song and dance routines, a terrific snarling villain in Dick Curtis - was that really his own face or just an evil mask? - and just the right amount of Boys Town type sentiment with the Robert Mitchell Boy Choir as the wayward boys living on Gabby's Half-A-Chance Ranch. The title song is good and, shame on me, I nearly forgot Trigger: he looks stunning! There are those who say the West was never like this,that no-one dressed like Roy, that the story lines were thin or far-fetched, and who am I to argue? That's what makes these old Republic movies so irresistible!

I can't agree with a previous reviewer who wrote that the story here is better than most Rogers films of the period; in fact there's almost no story here at all. Most Rogers films are breezy entertainment with not much meat on the bones, but them's sometimes pretty bones, to be sure; meaning that often we get the skeleton of the story without having to look for any depth, but the action, the music, the general sense of good natured fun makes the typical Rogers film an easy way top blow an hour or so without regret.But this film is a mess. One give-away to this is Dale Evans. Her character is introduced to sing a song, disappears, reappears to try to plug a plot hole, and then pretty much disappears until the end. She has little to do but wring her hands and look concerned.The basic plot - an outlaw wants to leave his stolen money to the orphanage/ranch taking care of his son - never amounts to much. There's no strain to finding the loot, a couple bad guys chase around after it, daddy dies and son is redeemed, and along the way a couple songs get sung. But there's never any tension or suspense, and Rogers, who should appear in command of the material, looks lost, like the director skipped out when the filming began or something. Gabby Hayes is his typical self, but since he's trying to play Pat Obrien in "Boy's Town," there's nothing much for him to do, since that sort of thing isn't in keeping with his usual schtick. The Sons of the Pioneers appear briefly, singing a song of course, but for no other reason - usually they also double as Rogers' ranch-hand gang of friends, here they too disappear.All in all, the worst I've seen Rogers in - not unwatchable, but little else you can say for it.

In Song of Arizona Gabby Hayes runs a ranch for wayward boys with the same underlying premise that Spencer Tracy operated Boys Town with, that there's no such thing as a bad boy. Not even Tommy Cook who's the son of notorious outlaw Lyle Talbot. It seems that Talbot had deposited Tommy with Gabby and resumed his outlaw ways.Not even the most successful of Gabby's graduates, western radio singer Roy Rogers, can deal with Tommy. In fact Lyle never even told Tommy about an older sister he has who's played by Dale Evans. How the two never knew each other might lead to some interesting speculation about Lyle's love life that the Saturday kiddie matinée crowd wasn't ready for.Gabby's got a big debt to pay a $25,000.00 loan on the ranch that's due. But he's sitting on some treasure because Tommy's got all of his father's stolen loot that Talbot's been sending him bit by bit. Of course after Talbot's been killed by a posse, his henchmen led by perennial western villain Dick Curtis naturally want the money themselves.It's a tangled mess, but Roy Rogers solves all the problems, financial, emotional, and romantic by the final reel. Song of Arizona although I saw a really horrible VHS tape of it has some nice western songs in it. In fact during a Halloween type number, Gabby Hayes got to show off some of his old vaudeville shtick from when he was young. That is if you can ever believe Gabby was young.The Robert Mitchell Boys Choir played the ranch kids and in fact they were the wayward kids that Bing Crosby turned into a choir of little angels in Going My Way. Just a change of setting in this film from urban to rural.It's not a bad story actually, a bit better than a lot of Roy's films if you discount the G rated silliness in the plot situation.