User Reviews

This movie is better than most would expect, thus my review. I'd have liked to have rated it 6.5, but you can only vote in whole numbers (1 to 10).

The movie fits many genres, and doesn't do too bad a job in any: ¶ family-oriented (kids, orphans, etc.) ¶ action and violence, and decent color cinematography. ¶ personal, character-driven, sad story of Harry Morgan's character (see below). ¶ Vaughn Monroe's singing. ¶ good supporting cast: Harry Morgan (of Mash and Dragnet fame), Joan Leslie, Edgar Buchanan, Victor Jory, Jean Parker and Ian MacDonald (played Frank Miller, the main bad guy in High Noon). Vaughn Monroe was quite stolid/uncharismatic as the hero, but you just have to assume that is the kind of guy the marshal is.

What I most liked about the movie is that it was relatively believable, not the usual flamboyant over-the-top B western. It stuck to its tidy, little story. Most interesting was the part played by Harry Morgan -- **spoilers** the weak, complaining, cowardly husband, who was thought dead, then was forced to aid the bad guys with his telegraph operator skills, and who then was mistreated by and then turned on his tormentors and rescuers.

The only way to survive director R.G. Springsteen's western "Toughest Man in Tombstone" is to mute the heavy-handed musical numbers that crooner Vaughn Monroe warbles throughout this wholly ordinary oater. Happily, he only belts out three songs, but these three songs are still too many for this hybrid sagebrusher. Not only is Monroe utterly miscast as straight-up, good guy lawman, Marshal Matt Landry, but also he is a widower with a young son and a teenage daughter. They all live together in sumptuous surroundings with an African-American butler who does a little soft-shoe himself, and Landry has a piano in his residence just for those moments when he wants to serenade the women and the children. Springsteen and "Gallant Legion" scenarist John K. Butler are saddled with the thankless task of having to graft a family-oriented soap opera onto a hell-bent-for-leather horse opera, and they do not fare well thanks to the uneven quality of the two genres. Action-adventure fans will be drawn closer to the movie's villain, notorious Frank Girard (Victor Jory of "Gone with the Wind"), than the clean-scrubbed Tombstone badge-toter. A subplot about the survivors of an Apache Indian wagon train massacre and a husband and wife that managed to elude the savages adds a modicum of tension to this mild melodrama. Nevertheless, the bad guys don't have a chance against super-square Landry. Fleshing out the cast in one of his early roles is future "Dragnet" and "Mash" star Harry Morgan as a tenderfoot telegrapher who falls in with the wrong company and a saintly Edgar Buchanan as an older lawman. Former Warner Brothers' contract actress Joan Leslie isn't as effervescent as she was in "Sergeant York," but she is still attractive enough to turn eyes as the telegrapher's wife. This RKO release looks considerably less than seamless with the action in long shots occurring on location while the close-ups and medium shots were clearly lensed faraway on an indoor sound stage. The bogus looking backdrops on those sound stages are a dead giveaway. Only western completists should squander their time on this saga, just to say that they have seen it.

"Toughest Man in Tombstone" opens with dutiful Marshal Landry riding out to round up gun-running desperado Frank Girard who has been selling guns illegally to the Native Americans. Meanwhile, a couple of freighters pick up two covered wagons with a mother/father and two children as well as a husband and wife. The wagon that Verne Kimber (Harry Morgan) is driving with his wife Mary (Joan Leslie of "Sgt. York") breaks down, and the freighters reluctantly set up camp to repair the wheel. The U.S. Cavalry rides into their camp and warns the settlers and the teamsters about the imminent threat of an Apache attack. Matt demands that the Cavalry officer-in-charge (Sheb Wooley of "Man without A Star") provide them with safe escort from the wilderness. The officer leaves them two men in blue with a Gatling Gun. Predictably, even though they could have mown down every last redskin with the Gatling Gun, our heroes perish at the hands of the Indians. Vern's wife Mary and two children from another murdered couple escape and are rescued later. Vern who was supposed to stay behind to fight off the Indians gives the cavalrymen and the freighters the slip and survives the massacre. Later, the Tombstone Epitaph editor prints that Vern died in the raid. Marshall Landry and Girard ride up to their smoking remains of the wagon train moments later and bury the dead. After he puts Girard in the hoosegow, Landry makes room in his humble abode for Mary and the two children. One taste of Mary's home cooking only serves to remind Landry about what he has been missing since his missus died.

The best scene with the worse logic of all time that still looks pretty cool concerns Frank Girard's escape from Landry. As it turns out, Vern staggers into the Girard brothers' clutches and they put his telegrapher's expert to their advantage. They want to know when Landry is going to move Girard and the details. They tap into the telegraph line and Vern provides the details. It seems that the authorities are going to sneak Girard out of town in a hearse. This information is strictly confidential. The brothers stop the hearse outside Tombstone. They free Frank, and lock the driver and Landry up inside the hearse. Girard pumps round after round from his Winchester carbine into the close confines of the hearse, and we see the driver die and Landry receive terrible wounds that put him out of action for a while. Of course, it would have been easier if Girard had gunned them down face to face, but instead he crams them back into the hearse and seems Devil-may-care into the vehicle. Since the villain cannot kill the hero, this enables Landry to look like he is dead in the villain's eyes. Naturally, neither Girard nor his brothers look back, so Landry has a legitimate chance to survive and does.

"Toughest Man in Tombstone" qualifies as a tolerable run-of-the-mill western. There is a good shoot-out in the saloon at the end, but the last exchange between Landry and his daughter about Mary is enough to make you hang your head with its implication of a happily-ever-after finale. Springsteen never overcomes the uneven nature between the musical numbers and the six-gun savagery. Victor Jory as the evil villain and Harry Morgan as the sniveling, back-shooting coward compete for best acting accolades. Sadly, Joan Leslie seems more subdued than usual. Vaughn Monroe may have been a popular singer, but he isn't convincing at all as a marshal.

So.... Who is the toughest man in Arizona?

This film doesn't seem to care or even try to answer that question, leaving the audience to decide it's sheriff I suppose. The film trods through plot points with tepid action or little suspense. The sheriff himself is no John Wayne...more of a middle aged Hoss Cartright type who has lost some weight. The cinematography consists of a lot of "green screens" for close up action scenes. The wide and long shots are acceptable but not great.

The dialogue is stilted and not well acted; but not horrible. The acting of the women in the film is good. Why are the females in these old westerns always way out of the league of the male actors with little to no chemistry? Much of the movie is dedicated to banal family scenes to build up the relationship between the widow and the "tough guy." and his family like a newly created brady bunch.

By the way, nobody seems to miss the dead daddy very much-who at this point they believe was killed, giving the widow and their two children time to escape. Oh well, a girl's gotta eat I guess. The children's dialogue is embarrassingly over-written and cutesy. The toughest guy in Arizona has a nice singing voice but the unnecessary songs are dreadful (one accompanied by an invisible orchestra rather than a cappella) and there are some jigs by the butler.

To be fair, there is one scene near the beginning of the film with some well written banter when the sullen coward of the movie (played flatly by Harry Morgan) shows up at a local hotel and gets bullied by the owner and two no-good regulars. He's the dead dad who actually escaped (how dare he?) The bullies turn out to be allies of the bad man in the movie.

The bad guy's gang helps the bad guy escape from the sheriff, who they shoot up but fail to kill. Back home the widow is very concerned he hasn't come home. So that's what an upset wife looks like. She goes looking for the sheriff and finds he has returned to town severely injured. The sheriff's children grieve appropriately even though he will be ok.

At this point, the first sigh of "when will this movie be over?" sets in. Introduce a new barmaid at the hotel saloon who giggles coyly like an insane teenager when the ugly bad guy shows interest. Finally, the final plot is set up as there is a shipment of silver scheduled by the local mining company that the bad guy and his gang-along with the coward dad-plan to rob. Fortunately, the sheriff has already recovered and is using a cane. Now time for a third unnecessary song!!!!

Every song in this movie is worse than the one before it (along with the invisible orchestra! Yeah!)

The suddenly mouthy widow orders the sheriff to stay inside and the sheriff jokingly calls her a "typical nagging wife." Oops. She doesn't like that. But the sheriff follows with a quick marriage proposal as romantic as a baboon's backside. She reveals that she was never in love with her "dead" husband (do say!) but can't move on because she feels guilty for treating him like white collar trash.

Next scene, it becomes clear the big heist has already happened as the sheriff reads about it in the newspaper. Riveting!!!

SPOILER: Now the movie becomes a procedural - WHO gave the robbers the information about the shipment?! (We already know from almost the beginning of the movie that the dead dad is a telegrapher who gives the information to the bad guys.) But instead of following these super detectives through the streets like an episode of Law and Order, everything is solved around the sheriff's desk complete with a Perry Mason type scene, around the desk, where a woman who helped the bad guy reveals all! The wires were tapped! But BY WHOM???

"His wife is living at your house!" DUM DUM DUM!!!!

I won't "spoil" the ending because ... if I had to watch it, then so do you.

Overall, this is not an unwatchable movie, but it's not good either. It's an ok waste of time if you are in the mood to watch an old western you haven't seen yet. Peace.

TOUGHEST MAN IN ARIZONA is an interesting "A" western from the folks at Republic Pictures. Since the production code is still in effect, the main characters, who deeply love one another, cannot be together at the end. This is because the woman (Joan Leslie) is still married to someone else.

Miss Leslie made five feature films with Republic after leaving her home studio Warner Brothers. Not all of these assignments were westerns, but the actress does rather nicely in this genre. Her wholesome persona is a good match for singer Vaughn Monroe who stars opposite her.

As for Mr. Monroe, he didn't appear in many movies since his music career kept him quite busy...but he has a strong presence. In the story he plays a marshal who aids the sheriff (Edgar Buchanan) of an Arizona town. The lawmen collaborate to bring a vicious criminal mastermind (Victor Jory) and his gang to justice. However, Jory is too smart and manages to evade them with help from two people who fly under the radar.

One is a dance hall queen (Jean Parker) who's seen better days. The other is a telegrapher (Harry Morgan) who intercepts wires. Morgan's character is married to Leslie. The opening sequence had him seemingly die when a group of Apaches attacked a wagon train traveling through the desert. But he ran off, leaving his wife and some poor orphan children behind. He's been hiding out, helping Jory while wifey's gone to stay with the marshal.

Leslie and Monroe do well in charming scenes that involve music and the kids in their care. Shades of a Disney movie to be sure. But the code prevents them from outwardly falling in love, as it would make her an adulteress since she's still technically married to Morgan.

I thought Morgan would be conveniently killed off in a climactic standoff between Monroe and Jory to facilitate a traditional happy ending. Surprisingly, that does not occur. Instead, Leslie vows to stand by Morgan who will be put on trial. This leaves Monroe with the kids and his job, but not the girl.

The best performances are the ones rendered by Joan Leslie and Jean Parker. They both seem to understand their characters' limitations. Meanwhile, Edgar Buchanan provides his usual charm; and Victor Jory is always an interesting baddie. If you've never heard of Vaughn Monroe before, you're missing out. This film provides a chance to enjoy his unique talents as a western folk singer.