Paradise Canyon ** (1935, John Wayne, Marion Burns, Earle Hodgins, Yakima Canutt, Reed Howes, Perry Murdock) – Classic Movie Review 7151

Director Carl L Pierson’s 1935 Monogram movie Western Paradise Canyon is an earlyish visit to Wayne’s world, in which the youngish Big John (though he was now 28) plays government agent John Wyatt, who goes undercover posing as John Rogers and joins Doc Carter’s medicine show to find a gang of counterfeiters whose boss is Curly Joe Gale, played by Yakima Canutt, the king of the stunts. Wyatt foils Curly Joe’s attempts to kill Doc Carter (Earle Hodgins) and goes after Curly Joe when he discovers he is the counterfeiter.

Paradise Canyon is a humble, conveyor belt poverty row, double feature, B movie western and, with its unsurprising characters and predictable plot, minor and unremarkable in every way, but of course it is still of interest to diehard fans of the Duke.

But it was Wayne’s final Lone Star Production / Monogram Pictures Western, and Wayne’s world was about to get better and larger as he moved to Republic Pictures for Westward Ho (1935).

The original theatrical poster for Paradise Canyon.

Also in the cast are Marion Burns as Linda Carter aka Princess Natasha, Reed Howes as Henchman Red, Gino Corrado as Rurales Captain, Perry Murdock as Ike – singer, Texas Two, Gordon Clifford as Mike – singer, Texas Two, as the second Sheriff, Earl Dwire as the second Sheriff, Henry Hall, Bob Burns, Chuck Baldra, Horace B. Carpenter, Herman Hack, Wally Howe, Tex Palmer, Tex Phelps, James Sheridan, Wally West and Fred Parker.

Paradise Canyon is directed by Carl L Pierson, runs 52 minutes, is made by Lone Star Productions and Paul Malvern Productions, is released by Monogram Pictures, is written by Lindsley Parsons (story) and Robert Emmett Tansey (screenplay), is shot in black and white by Archie J Stout and is produced by Paul Malvern.

In 2008, Legend Films colorized the film and renamed it Guns Along The Trail as part of a DVD collection also containing other poverty row-era Wayne films.

It is remade as The Rangers’ Round-Up (1938).

It was released on 20 July 1935 and premiered on TV on 27 March 1949.

The failure of the copyright holder to renew the film’s copyright resulted in it falling into public domain.

Paradise Canyon is available for free download at the Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/details/ParadiseCanyon

Paradise Canyon [1936] – The Classic John Wayne Collection by Marion Burns DVD £2.70.

Blue Steel/Paradise Canyon/ The Desert Trail [DVD] [1936] by John Wayne DVD £11.99.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7151

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com