Paradise Canyon (1935)

An absolute waste of money

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

John Wyatt is a government agent tasked with investigating the activities of a counterfeiting gang operating near the US/Mexican border. In the course of his investigations, Wyatt gets caught up with Doc Carter's travelling medicine show. Although Doc is an obvious fraud the film treats him as a lovable rogue, much less of a threat to society than the counterfeiters. Doc's attractive daughter Linda provides Wyatt's love interest. (Yes, Linda Carter. I thought of "Wonder Woman" too, even though that actress spelt her first name "Lynda"). The date at which the action takes place is never made clear. Wyatt wears standard cowboy gear suggesting a traditional late nineteenth century setting, but Doc travels round in a motor vehicle, the design of which suggests a date of at least 1920, as do the clothes worn by some of the other characters, especially Linda. My theory is that the action is supposed to take place during Prohibition and that Doc's supposed "medicine" (which we learn is 90% alcohol) is really only a ruse to get around the Volstead Act. This was one of many cheaply-made "Poverty Row" Westerns made by John Wayne in the years before he found stardom in "Stagecoach". Few of these were any good, and "Paradise Canyon" is not one of the exceptions. Apart from Wayne, the only well-known member of the cast is Yakima Canutt as the chief villain, and he was better known as a professional stunt man than as an actor. Wayne's acting is poor, giving little hint of the major star he was soon to become, and none of the other actors are any better. The plot is trite, the dialogue often ludicrous, the action scenes unconvincing and the fight scenes (a common fault on Poverty Row) badly choreographed with obviously pulled punches. Even confirmed John Wayne fans should steer clear of this movie. Or perhaps I should say, especially confirmed John Wayne fans should steer clear of this movie. Unless they want their illusions about their idol to be shattered. 3/10

Posses on horseback chasing after Model T Fords has never been my idea of a Western. Though I tolerated it from Roy Rogers (as a child of the 50s) I can't take it as an adult fan of The Duke. If there are cars in the picture 'it ain't a western'.We do have the obligatory hide out in a cave and John Wayne diving in to river-he must have been a heck of a swimmer because he sure jumped in to lakes and rivers a lot in these B films of the 30s. It actually is not a bad story line as far as these old b&w movies go-but I go back to my previous point-cars and horses don't mix in my mind as to what a western should be. I'm not asking for my money back though-just my least favorite of the 30s western genre that helped launch the Duke's career.

This film is structured like the formulaic Republic westerns to come from 1937 on. Too much talking, not enough action, unfunny comic relief, bad songs, and too many stationary locations. We can bid goodbye to the fast paced action of the earlier 'Lone Star' films.Here, while John Wayne is again a 'Federal' agent sent to track down a gang of, in this case, counterfeiters, the action gets bogged down in too many side characters and slow story. Wayne joins up with 'Doctor Carter's Medicine Show', which was somehow involved in the appearance of fake money. Finally he catches Curly Joe (Yakima Canutt), the head of the evil gang, who had captured and tied up Doctor Carter (Earle Hodgins) and his daughter Linda (Marion Burns). It's always great to hear Yakima Canutt as the villain, though, with that gravelly voice of his! Marion Burns and Reed Howes (here a 'henchman') helped to make 'The Dawn Riders' (1935) a much better film than this, since it was about a love triangle between her, Howes, and John Wayne. Everything in this one just plods along until it's action time going towards the end.One highlight is the extensive screen time given to Earle Hodgins as Doc. In one too long scene he goes on and on as a barker. The director, not R.N. Bradbury, probably said, "Let him go on! He does it so well!" Sure enough, he turned his carnival barker style of acting schtick into most of his over 300 movie and TV appearances! Although I love music, the duo singing here is strictly Republic (that is, highly forgettable). I give the film a 3.

I really liked this little film. It has to be one of the best of the early John Wayne b movies. The writing isn't to bad as Wayne is a lawman who joins a traveling medicine show to sniff out a suspected counterfeiter. He meets a really cute girl and its obvious that Wayne was enjoying himself a lot while making this movie. The actor that plays the "doctor" was a real hoot, a very fine job he did indeed. He reminded me a lot of Walter Houston. Very similar acting style. There are several nice touches with this film. In one scene a posse chases down the medicine show crew. What makes this unusual is the fact that the posse rode horses and the medicine show bunch were traveling by truck!!!! Course it was a pretty sorry excuse for a truck mind you! Another cool thing were the songs played by the medicine show performers. Pretty cool old tunes there. Course i had to laugh when Wayne was doing trick pistol shots like snuffing out candles that were inches from the girls head. I'm sure a real father would have gone for that, ha. Supposedly the "doctor" was her dad. Overall, this is a very fun old movie and i got a kick out of it. Oh yeah, there is also an exciting chase and shootout at the end between the bad guys and a Mexican posse. Pretty darn well staged i must say. Great movie, a classic old b western with da duke!!!! Much better than Randy Rides Alone or Star Packer which were also on the DVD.