VALLEY OF THE SUN (1942)

Tucson, 1868. Frontier scout James Craig is court-martialed for aiding in the escape of some Indians he feels were unjustly jailed. Craig, who is trusted by the local tribes, manages to escape with the help of some sympathetic soldiers. He hitches a ride in a coach with Indian agent Dean Jagger who we eventually learn has been cheating the Indians in his jurisdiction out of cattle. The unfriendly Jagger boots Craig out of the coach and proceeds to the small town of Desert Center where he is to marry Lucille Ball, proprietor of the Busy Bee Cafe--though her assistant (Peter Whitney) warns her that he knows she doesn't love Jagger. (Whitney is a simple, overgrown manchild so we know he's right.) In town, Craig eventually shows up and throws a wrench into the wedding plans, first by bathing naked in a barrel of water in front of Ball (whom he quickly falls for) and later by getting in a wild fistfight with Jagger who winds up bruised and battered. An Englishman (Cedric Hardwicke) who despises Jagger helps Craig recover from an ass-whooping carried out by Jagger's men and the two of them joined by Whitney ruin the wedding by dropping red ants onto the congregation from the second floor. Jagger and Ball go to Tucson to marry, but Craig follows, and they all wind up captured by Apaches who are aware of Jagger's cheating ways. Craig engages Geronimo in a battle of skills which Craig wins. But when they get back to Desert Center, Ball breaks her engagement to Jagger, who then gets revenge by carrying out various double-crosses and riling up the Indians to attack the town. Can Craig, with his small band of buddies, save the day and get the girl?

Though not really a classic, this does have an unusual feel. On the surface, it’s a B-western made by an A-studio (RKO). Underneath, it's a romantic comedy with very little romance and some nice action sequences. Craig (pictured), a B-lead who usually had a light touch, is quite appealing as the hero; the villainous Jagger also gets away with a light touch--he always seems a little too much of a doofus to be truly dangerous, and we even feel a bit sorry for him at times. Ball doesn't have much to do; as I noted above, there's very little romance in the movie, and we have to take the fact that she falls for Craig on faith. Whitney (in a kind of Andy Devine role) and Hardwicke are fine, and Billy Gilbert gets most of the outright laughs as a befuddled justice of the peace. The wedding day fight is well staged as is the Indian raid at the end. When Craig picks up a cricket bat belonging to Hardwicke, he is amazed: "You must have awfully big crickets around here." The best line, spoken by familiar character actor George Cleveland: "There's only two ways to handle a woman--and nobody knows what they are!" At over 80 minutes, the mix of comedy and western wears a bit thin, but I enjoyed this and would recommend it as something a little off the beaten Hollywood path. [TCM]