Tim Holt became a western star, just like his dad, and took great delight in his own abilities with the quick draw and precision with a bull whip. He worked with great directors, from King Vidor and John Ford, to Orson Welles and John Huston. After striking it big in B westerns, Holt got a dream role in RKO's prestige production of Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons in 1942 but thanks to problems between Welles' and the studio's editors and a little promoted release schedule, the movie didn't do much for Holt's career. Still, it proved he was capable of doing a lot more as an actor than most people knew. Later, in 1948, he starred in another masterpiece, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, this time directed by John Huston and co-starring Humphrey Bogart and Walter Huston. The film was a huge critical and commercial success but, again, didn't do much for Holt's career in prestige productions. He immediately went back to starring in B westerns and that very year, teamed up with his father for the first time. Well, first time not counting his dad's cameo in Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The result was The Arizona Ranger.
The movie starts in 1898 as Rawhide Morgan (Jack Holt) and his ranch hand chase cattle rustlers off their Arizona ranch. Rawhide tries to find the leader of the gang, Quirt Butler (Steve Brodie), but loses the trail. Morgan's son, Bob (Tim Holt), is coming home again after spending time serving with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, and encounters Butler in town roughing up his wife. Bob and his friends defend her and a fight breaks out. Afterwards, Rawhide learns that Bob has joined the Arizona Rangers, a group of lawmen who will keep the peace in the western territory. Rawhide thinks the idea of people defending themselves works just fine and wants Bob to come home and work on the ranch but Bob is adamant about his responsibilities for bringing law and order to Arizona.
In The Arizona Ranger, Jack and Tim Holt got to play father and son for the first and last time. They did well together and had the kind of relationship that allowed them to be at odds onscreen since they were rarely at odds in real life. Jack had a reputation for being difficult to deal with if you were a producer but easy to work with if you were an actor. Tim didn't have any reputation for difficulty at all, nor did he have his father's strong jaw and masculine bravado and perhaps that's why they worked together so well; neither ever threatened the other's persona.
The movie was directed by B-action master John Rawlins, a man who understood every aspect of filmmaking and knew how to put together a B-picture better than most any A-list director could ever put together a big picture. He spent his career doing everything from script work to acting to stunt work to editing to gag writing. If there was a job at a Hollywood studio that needed to be filled quickly, chances are, Rawlins could do it. He makes The Arizona Ranger the enjoyable movie it is, as he did with everything he directed.
The movie also had some great talents helping out in the cast. Nan Leslie, who would become famous for The Californians, plays Quirt Butler's wife while Paul Hurst, who actually had real life experience in the old west, played Rawhide's ranch hand Ben.
Jack and Tim Holt didn't work together again. Jack died three years later and Tim's career took a downward turn once television took away most of the audience for B-westerns. He spent most of the remainder of his life doing rodeo work and managing a radio station. By the time they made The Arizona Ranger, they didn't know it, but neither had much time left in the movies. It's a lucky break for all of us that they made it when they did.
By Greg Ferrara
