FightingWesterner John Wayne makes a promise to an old family friend to find his long absent brother and niece in the wilds of Canada and ends up on the run there when his traveling companion (Noah Beery Jr.) shoots a man in self defense. To make matters even worse, Wayne finds the man he's looking for's skeleton along with a treasure map that he has to protect from some ruthless French-Canadians!A nice entry in Lone Star/ Monogram Pictures' John Wayne series, The Trail Beyond looks like one of those twelve-chapter serials whittled down to just under an hour. It's absolutely loaded down with adventurous action and great stunt work, including a breathtaking jump from a moving train and a slow-motion horse-leap from a cliff into the water below. However, some of the falling horse stunts were easily recognizable from earlier films and kick up a lot of sand, or is it supposed to be snow?Excellent, well photographed northern California locations double for the Canadian wilderness. I don't know how faithful they are to the real Canada, but they look good.

classicsoncall By now I've seen most of John Wayne's Westerns for Lone Star Productions, and this one so far ranks just above "The Lawless Frontier" as the poorest of the bunch. Interestingly they were made back to back in 1934 in about the middle of the run, both directed by Robert North Bradbury. Plot points and continuity didn't seem to mean much back then, but you know what, they're still pretty much fun to take a look at every now and then.The story has a Canadian setting for a change, featuring place names like Fort Minnetaki and Wabinosh, along with the prerequisite French accents of the villains. The two main heavies are LaRocque (Robert Frazer) and Benoit (Earl Dwire), and they even have a nasty female accomplice named Marie (Iris Lancaster), who might have been a red herring in Rod Drew's (Wayne) quest to find the missing daughter of a man who died years ago. In the movie's opening scene, the man who sets Drew on his mission surmised that his long lost niece might have been named Marie after her mother.Missing from the credits this time around are Gabby and Yak, so Noah Beery Jr. fills in as Rod Drew's buddy from college, teaming up with each other after Wabi (Beery) is framed for a murder aboard a train. Once on the run, the pair have everything they can do to remain on dry ground. Wayne's character winds up jumping into a river no less than three times including once on horseback.This is the only time I've seen Noah Beery Jr. and Sr. together in a film, though it happened a few times in their careers. The elder Beery runs a trading post in the story, along with his adopted daughter Felice (Verna Hillie). It made me wonder why Newsome (Beery Sr.) offered Marie LaFleur a job to straighten out his books instead of having Felice do it. Just one of those story points that wasn't thought out too well.Another was when Drew and Wabi find the cave with the gold from the map they found in a deserted cabin (complete with skeletons of two former partners who killed each other - nice touch!). One of the dead men from the cabin was Felice's real father, brother of the man who asked Drew to look for his niece. Along with a small sack of gold the men find, there's a photo of an adult Felice just as she appears in the story. How would her father have gotten that picture if he died before she grew up???Keep an eye on the canoe scene when Drew and Wabi leave the cabin with the rescued Mountie. When the Mountie is shot by one of the villains, he falls backwards toward Wabi, but in the very next scene he's lying in the other direction toward Drew.By the time the good guy and bad guy posses head for the finale, I wound up scratching my head as to where all those riders came from. Most of the time LaRocque had only Benoit and another henchman around, but during the shootout he had at least a half dozen. While the Mountie outpost in the middle of the Canadian wilderness only had a handful of men on hand, by the time they rode off with Drew in the lead there were probably a couple dozen riders on the chase.Well I guess that's why it's such a blast watching these early John Wayne oaters, it's fun just to catch all the goofy stuff going on, in addition to the often exciting chase scenes and horse dives off a cliff. This one also boasted some pretty impressive scenery, most notably that mountain valley view when Wabi points out the way to Wabinosh. If you stay alert, you'll also catch some pretty interesting product placement for Buffalo Lager Beer and industrial size Karo Syrup - I wonder if they had to pay for those?

Spondonman This has always stood out from the (star) pack for me, almost wholly because of the scenery and the sympathetic photography. The screenplay storyboard is plain to read as you're watching, stilted dialogue ending abruptly at scene ends, trip wires pulling down horses galore, a rope yanking a shot baddie offa his horse, reflecting mirrors directing light at the subjects etc.The usual Golden Age convention leftovers from Edwardian times are also apparent - suspicion of murder falling naturally upon the head of a person of mixed parentage, the handy ethnic minority (French) ready to be the bad guys to a man, beautiful heiresses innocent and untarnished by money etc. Plenty of chasing about, silent fight scenes, an undeveloped love affair, hair-raising stunts with various stuntmen and stunthorses and a confusing climax.OK - but I still love and recommend this one!

bsmith5552 "The Trail Beyond" is another in the series of Lone Star westerns John Wayne starred in between 1933 and 1935. Most were directed by Robert Bradbury (father of Bob Steele). This one is significant in a number of ways: 1) George (Gabby) Hayes is NOT in the cast; 2) It is beautifully photographed (Archie Stout is credited); 3) It features Noah Beery Sr. and Jr. 4) It has "French Canadian" Trappers in the "wilds" of Canada. The best thing about this film is the spectacular outdoor scenery which is supposed to be Northern Canada but actually is probably some place in California since the poverty row studios of the day simply would not have the resources to film in a distant location. The plot involves Wayne headin' north to find the long lost niece of a friend and bring her back. Along the way he meets up with an old college chum (Beery Jr.) who just happens to be going the same way. They soon get accused of murder, discover a lost gold mine and are pursued by the Mounties. Being a Canadian, I've always had a problem with Hollywood's depiction of the "wilds" of Canada. This film is no exception. The chief villains of the piece (Robert Frazer, Earl Dwire) are garbed in the stereotypical plaid shirts, checkered pants, sashes and brimmed caps (What no toques?). Their French accents are hilarious. We see log cabin "settlements" instead of towns and canoes and snowshoes abound everywhere. On the positive side, Yakima Canutt's stuntwork is outstanding as usual. He performs a leap from a moving train off a bridge into a river, rides two horses in succession off of a cliff (I'm sure I've seen this stunt in other pictures in the series) and performs several horse falls during the film's climax. He can be clearly seen doubling Wayne when he vaults onto a horse and gallops away. The acting in this film is just plain awful. Wayne was still learning his craft at this time and it shows. Berry Jr. was just starting out too. The less said about heroine Verna Hillie the better. I had higher hopes when I saw Berry Senior's name in the cast. But unfortunately, he is wasted in a bit part as a the owner of a trading post. (They didn't have stores in Canada you see). Berry Sr. might have lifted this picture a notch had he played the villain instead of the inept Frazer and Dwire.