By this time in his movie career, Audie Murphy finally outgrew his boyish good looks and actually managed to look the part of either an outlaw or a hero, which in this case he was both. A surprise for me was catching Buster Crabbe this far into his career and appearing well matured beyond his Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers days as a matinée idol.The story opens with a rather long fourth wall narration by an uncredited Booth Colman portraying a newspaper editor, setting the stage for a tale dealing with the last days of Quantrill's Raiders. Audie Murphy's character is Clint Stewart, who along with partner Willie Martin (Ben Cooper), are members of Quantrill's bunch and are captured during a Union assault and sentenced to twenty years hard time. Their release from a Texas prison is engineered by Captain Tom Andrews (Crabbe), who offers them eventual pardon if they cooperate in bringing the remainder of the gang to justice.I have to say, for an otherwise rather mundane western I was impressed by a couple of scenes, the first of which had a Quantrill renegade named Montana (George Keymas) pull the old Luca Brasi trick of putting a knife through the hand of a card playing opponent who beat him with a full house.The other occurred when Clint's identity as a Union undercover agent is about to be blown and his friend Willie tries to cover for him and is shot by Montana in the process, virtually committing suicide so the mission wouldn't be undermined. Of course, he was about half dead already after being beaten by the outlaws, so he might have figured it was for a worthy cause.Oh yeah, can't forget the cactus torture by the Yaqui's. Nice touch there as well.Over all a decent Audie Murphy Western for fans of the war hero and movie star, with excellent cinematography and location shooting for the Arizona backdrop. Brief intermittent scenes of Gloria Talbott as a Yaqui Indian should add to your viewing pleasure.

Despite an unnecessary prologue in which we are treated to a history of the life and career of William Quantrill, Arizona Raiders concerns us with the efforts of former Quantrill members Audie Murphy and Ben Cooper to capture a large band of former Quantrill men led by Michael Dante and George Keymas who are now operating in Arizona.The man who captured Murphy and Cooper is Buster Crabbe former Army captain and now in charge of the new Arizona Rangers. He's offering Murphy and Cooper a Dirty Dozen like mission, get them and there will be a pardon awaiting. What Crabbe doesn't know is that Murphy is both one unreconstructed rebel and he's got a younger brother in the Rangers already played by Ray Stricklyn. That fact cuts several ways before the film is over.Arizona Raiders is a decent enough western. Murphy was still going strong in doing these second feature B films. But it was certainly nothing you couldn't see on television where westerns ruled at that time on the small screen.

This movie is a remake of the 1951 movie "The Texas Rangers", same plot, same storyline, same lines. Only the locale and the actors are different. I take that back, this time it wasn't just a couple of men who were removed from prison, they were moved from state to state.Having said that, I did enjoy the movie. There were enough changes to make it interesting. Audie Murphy did a wonderful job in the lead role. The location was beautiful. The director did a good job in making this movie stand on it's own. If you liked the earlier movie, you will enjoy this remake. Audie Murphy fans should enjoy seeing him in this.

It was really great watching it being filmed. I was lucky enough to meet and get autographs from AUDIE MURPHY, BEN COOPER, GLORIA TALBOTT, GEORGE KEYMAS. Lucky enough to get my picture taken with BEN COOPER. I rate this movie 1000% I also have a bought copy and watch it quite often. Gidget [Lilly