I don't normally write reviews, but this movie really caught me up watching it on TCM. Jean Arthur, though older, is such a sympathetic character, a tough old gal whose heart is captured by a younger William Holden. I watched it for a while before checking out the credits and it struck me that the young man's voice sounded so much like William Holden but his youth had me fooled. Edgar Buchanan's Judge Bogardus was a nice change from the tool of the bad guys to a simple town drunk full of himself as the 'chosen' judge passing judgment on the streets for a drink at the bar.I just loved the plot and dialog in this movie, and the way it stuck to the actual history of Arizona through the Civil War from the goods to the weapons. After reading the Trivia section, I was surprised to see it was also later on the set for Rio Bravo, one of my favorite John Wayne westerns.Just a wonderful and authentic treatise on the early days of Arizona, everyone in it did it justice. Nothing was wrong with it, everything was right.

Those opening scenes of a bustling Arizona frontier town are evocative as heck. Old Hollywood seldom came up with staging as realistic as this—the squalid shacks, the unwashed crowds, the pall mall front street. All provide a riveting sense of laying down roots of some kind, which, of course, is the premise of the movie. In fact, staging is a real pillar of the production (catch the crude little boardwalk over a rainy runoff that passes by quickly but shows the attention to detail).The story amounts to a Jean Arthur showcase as she moves from hard-driving businesswoman to cattle ranch housewife in the pre-feminist style of the day. Still, she brings off the aggressive, dynamic side in convincing style. It's a demanding role and I came away with a newly found respect for her talents. It's a pretty good story, mainly about freight haulers out-maneuvering one another to get in at the bottom of a new territory. Holden helps Arthur, while the slippery Warren William operates behind the scenes against them. He's a delicious top-hatted villain; however, the movie loses impact by finessing the showdown off-screen. It's a bold move focusing on Arthur instead of the boys shooting it out. But that way we lose the satisfaction of seeing the oily William get his just deserts.All in all, it's an enjoyable A-western, generally underrated, but oddly lacking in memorable impact.

The more unusual thing about this movie first of all, is that it presents a female character as the lead in a Western. You don't really see that happening too often (Oh OK, now that I think about it, Johnny Guitar, Way Down East, heck even Broken Blossoms). Jean Arthur is here playing the toughest gun slinging, hell raising Pie baker in the wild west! (well, OK, Tucson). Soon a wagon train heading to California comes into town, bringing William Holden with it. Arthur immediately gets goo-goo eyes for Holden, while Holden rather interestingly makes up an excuse about wanting to see the sun go down in California and finds a convenient reason to leave. Actually, it was quite funny watching Holden come and go all the time, making me believe that he was, excuse the expression, sowing his oats somewhere else. While Holden is who-knows where, Arthur has to put up with the advances of Warren William, playing a slimeball opportunist who, in something that really wasn't made totally clear, is clearly out to ruin Arthur's enterprise. Somewhat funny in it's sexism ways (Arthur just seems to become feminine in an instant whenever Holden is around) but a grand adventure nevertheless, Arizona is a good popcorn movie.

This movie has every thing a western lover wants-shoot-out,cattle drive,Native American conflict,Calvarymen,strong leading lady character who is independent,but falls for the hero. and a hero who takes a supporting role,but grabs my attention every time he is on the screen. Different from most characters that William Holden plays, not cynical. The suspense at the end was so real; I could feel the same emotions as the character played by Jean Arthur.