Prolabas Deeper than the descriptions

SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

weezeralfalfa A more extreme version of the numerous westerns in which a 'town boss' is brought down, or a cattle baron is pitted against a group of small operators. In the present case, the greedy James Reavis (Vincent Price) doctors various old documents relating to a large land grant(the Perlata grant) by the Spanish crown that includes most of present Arizona, to make it look like his young wife, Sophia, is sole heir to this grant. Thus, James wants to charge the residents a rent for using his resources. It was the policy of the US government to honor grants given by the former Mexican or Spanish owners of the lands ceded to the US. James even spend 3 years in a Spanish monastery to access an important document, then worms his way into the home of a Spanish nobleman, who has another important document. .....James and Sophia are based upon historic people, but the details are mostly fictional. The real James did spend nearly 2 years in prison: a totally inadequate punishment for the magnitude of his crime. In the film, a hanging mob had a more appropriate punishment in store. But, he talked his way out of it, pleading that they couldn't get a clear title to their properties unless he was found guilty of fraud and forgery in the courtroom.....Tina Pino played a gypsy girl who pleaded for James to take her away from her gypsy group, while Margia Dean played the Marquesia in Madrid who also fell for James during his brief stay, in which he found another important document. Like these women, Sophia really was little more than decorative through most of the film, although she eventually had an important influence in causing James to give up his charade. Beulah Bundi played Loma, who acted as governess for Sophia to teach her how to be a lady. Reed Hadley played Griff, a government agent, who played the major role in tracking down James' activities. Edward Keane played the surveyor,who became suspicious of the validity of the Perlata land grant, and called for Griff. Vincent probably portrayed a less menacing James than the historic one. .......In all, a modestly interesting western. See it on YouTube

TheLittleSongbird Vincent Price, who I'm a fan of, and the interesting story The Baron of Arizona is based on were the main draws into watching. And while it is a case of the lead performance being better than the film, it is still pretty good and worth watching.Some of the last act is not as good as the rest of the film, The Baron of Arizona does get draggy here and the writing goes rather soft and sentimentalised. The love scenes are clunkily written with more of a sense of unease than affection, Tina Pine's agreed faring worst. There are a couple(big emphasis on couple) of parts where the editing's sloppy, particularly in the otherwise quite suspenseful climax, and one does wish that there was more of Beulah Bondi, a great character actress whose talents are not put to full use due to little screen time.The Baron of Arizona is a good-looking film though, mostly well photographed and the sets are handsome, while the score is rousing and Sam Fuller's direction is wisely straightforward and always dependable. The film is well scripted in at least two thirds of the film, with a lot of detail without being too bogged down in it. The story is briskly paced and every bit as intriguing as the true story, with a number of scenes having genuine energy and tension. All the performances are solid enough but only one is great and that's from Vincent Price. It's not his best performance by all means but it was great to see him so subtle while always commanding, his character change coming across believably and movingly.In conclusion, a pretty good film carried by a great lead performance. 7/10 Bethany Cox

RanchoTuVu Vincent Price plays James Addison Reavis, a government clerk in a land office in Arizona, who tries to swindle his way to owning the entire territory through forged documents and an elaborate plan which is enlivened by another superb Price performance. He sets up his plan by establishing a false identity for young Sofia (who becomes beautiful Ellen Drew) which makes her the Baroness de Peralta, essentially the heiress to the whole Arizona Territory. Reavis returns to the Arizona Territory and implements his plan first by marrying her and then by evicting all the landowners. However, the plan unravels when the U.S. government starts to get on to his forgery. The film tells an historically interesting story of Price trying to reestablish the Spanish Empire in the Wild West.

skallisjr Vincent Price is so well-known for his role in horror films that his appearance in other kinds of film is mostly forgotten. This is one of the films that illustrates he had far more range than he's often credited for.Likewise, Lippert Films is mostly known for a lot of quickie-cheapy kinds of films; this is a quality exception, even much ahead of its time as a crime caper film.I saw the film when it was first released, and although I was rather young at the time, the story stayed with me for decades. I finally located a copy on a VHS taped, and snapped it up. The film still works, and I'm viewing it from a far different perspective.That the story is mostly based on historic fact is interesting, but like many caper films, what really catches the viewer's interest is the setup of the caper, with all the research, painstaking care, and the like that goes into a committing a brilliant crime. James Reavis was an incredible con man, and watching him set up each forgery is extremely interesting. Effectively, for a brief time, he effectively stole the whole state of Arizona.(Major Spoiler) What's really nice about the film is that the change in Reavis' character is believable, showing that even the most cold-blooded plan can be warmed by affection. That's even reflected as he teeters on the brink of being hanged: his "defense" is that if he's killed, the lynchers would be cheated out of their lands; i.e., that killing him will validate his forgeries! A very memorable film, rather obscure, and highly recommended.