The Baron of Arizona

Samuel Fuller's film, drawn from a real case of fraud. James Reavis works as a clerk with access to state archives. It occurs to him to produce documents showing that a large part of Arizona was granted to a family by the King of Spain, and to prove himself that family's sole heir. The plan takes years. Reavis goes to Spain, works in a monastery, interferes with old records, alters a gravestone and raises a girl as the heiress. Then he marries her. What is interesting is that it happened. Reavis was real, claimed most of Arizona at the end of the nineteenth century, and the case ran for years. The narrative is less a crime film than a story of patience: all the man's power lies in producing documents and waiting. Vincent Price plays Reavis. Fuller made it very fast and on a low budget, his working method in that early period. James Wong Howe is the cinematographer and the visual level of the film is far above its budget. An interesting discovery for anyone who likes classical American cinema and real cases of fraud. For a viewer expecting action, the film is built entirely on planning and paperwork.