Arizona (1931)

   Ever see a movie for which you had low expectations but was actually better than you hoped? This old black-&-whitey looked to be another in a long line of college football flicks the Duke played in during his early career. John Wayne gets second-billed under Laura La Plante as Bob Denton, a West Point-bound ball player for whom she's fallen. The scene in the locker room gives us the chance to see the young Duke's slim & powerful pecs.
   I think they may have used actual footage from an Army-Navy game in the opening sequence. Oldie movies in some ways are like a time machine, where you can glimpse the ways people viewed the world in that time. Those turn of the century football uniforms for instance had none of the padding we've grown accustomed to today; and god, the helmets are no protection at all, just skullcaps fitting close over their head and ears.
   La Plante plays Evelyn Palmer, a lady who's the latest in a long line of lady friends for Denton (Duke). She wants marriage but he's not interested; in fact he tells her, "My women understand me--they take one look and know they can expect nothing." So how does she respond to this rebuff? Well, just as Denton's about to be transferred to Arizona, she romances and marries his mentor, Colonel Frank Bonham, who regards Denton almost as a son.
   The pair were bound to meet again, and for him it's a very stiff and awkward moment. The first thing he tells Evelyn once they're alone is, naturally, "what a rotten thing to do." In a way it's his own damn fault, but he finds a more compatible partner in Evelyn's batty sister Bonnie (June Clyde). You may notice if you ever watch this that the players are all talking a bit too loudly. Film hadn't quite broken from the stage traditions, and besides, it's doubtful that in 1931 they had very good microphones to work with. Still, we have an opportunity to hear Duke sing with Bonnie in his own voice, which wasn't so bad after all; better than the dubs they inflicted on him in his later singing cowboy movies.
   Duke & Bonnie marry in secret. Unfortunately he plays Good Samaritan to a drunken Hispanic girl (yep, it begins that early, the drunken Mexican cliche). Evelyn is right behind him in another car and draws all the wrong conclusions. In an act of spite she rips her own dress and practically accuses Duke of rape in front of his Colonel. He's either too stunned or hurt to defend himself and is forced to resign from the Army.
   I've lost all sympathy for Evelyn at this point; bad enough she drags my mother's name through the dirt. But that conniving wench justifies herself on the grounds that she was protecting sister Bonnie from Duke, totally unaware that they're already married. By the time she realizes this and fesses up to Col. Bonham, he doesn't believe her. The tangled web of lies does fall apart in the end,and the Colonel becomes the better man by forgiving both Duke and his errant wife.
   Good use was made of the play by Augustus E. Thomas that this movie was based on. It's also a pretty good example of  one where the Duke doesn't dominate the film with his sheer presence. At times a heartbreaker, it's not easy to sit through at times but it all works out by the end.