although i be a u history teacher and i would never hear about james reavis and his claim to be the baron of arizonia ( most of modern arizona ) . so i be fascinate to see a film about this huckster who have the audacity to try to claim this huge chunk of territory a his own private land in the late 19th century . so fascinated that i do a bit of research on reavis after i finish the movie . it seem that when the u get this land from mexico and it promise to honor all exist land grant . reavis and a talented forget and swindler and concoct a complicated scheme to take this land a claim that almost work . the film star vincent price in one of his early star role . while he would be in hollywood for about a decade and most of the time he be relegate to support role . here in the baron of arizona and he be clearly the star and the film benefit from his fine acting . however and you may be surprise to see price act a bit more like an action hero at time in the film and a he be much more macho than his usual persona occasionally resort to kick the snot out of his enemy . the film be one of the early directorial effort of the legendary sam fuller . while i do not like how the story be fast and loose with the real fact of the case and fuller must be commend for make such a professional look film with only 15 day shoot . usually such a quickly make film would be a cheap horror film along the line of an ed wood movie and but this one have all the polish of an a picture . a for the plot and despite the fact that so much of the script be wrong and it still be a very captivating movie and at least it capture the essence of who reavis be even though the detail be more than a little wrong . this playing fast and loose with detail be fairly common in hollywood film of the era and so i do not hold this against the film that much . overall and the film be fascinate and tough to stop watching and a quality production throughout most of the film . however and despite full reputation for not be a sentimentalist and the last 15 minute of the film be indeed heavy on sentiment and actually be about the bad part of the film . plus and in reality reavis only get a 2 year sentence ( not 6 ) and his wife do indeed leave him and the way the film end and how he be catch be pure fiction . for a much more correct version of the real case and see http represent or or jeff . scott . tripod . com or baron . html . it have a link to a very exhaustive site by michael marinacci . oddly and the true fact of the case be in many way much more interesting than this film .