The Trail Beyond (1934)

"The Trail Beyond" is one of many low-budget western B-movies made by John Wayne during the 1930s. Rather unusually for a Western, however, this one is set in Canada. No doubt the 19th-century Canadian West offered as many challenges to settlers as the American West, and gave rise to as many adventures, but in general Hollywood tended to ignore any part of the North American continent lying north of the 49th parallel. (Apart, of course, from Alaska).

Here Wayne's character Rod Drew and his friend Wabi travel to Northern Canada searching for a long-lost gold miner and his missing daughter. A complication arises, however, when they are falsely accused of murder and pursued by the Mounties. ("Wabi" is presumably an American Indian name as the character is said to be half-Indian. As, however, the name is pronounced "Wobbie" I assumed that he was really called "Robbie" but spoke with a lisp).

The film exhibits many of the weaknesses I have come to associate with "Poverty Row" westerns, namely:-

A hackneyed, cliché-ridden plot, in this case revolving around a treasure map, a gold mine and a gang of villains out to steal the treasure from its rightful owner.

Ethnically stereotyped bad guys, in this case French-Canadians with accents as villainous as their personalities. (Well, at least it makes a change from casting Mexicans or Indians as the villains).

Dubious acting skills. Even Wayne does little to suggest a major star in the making.

Lack of attention to period detail. Most of the cast wear generic late 19th century Western costumes, but at one point we see Rod and Wabi wearing 1930s-style lounge suits while travelling in a train of distinctly 20th century vintage.

Badly choreographed fist-fights. It would appear from watching this film that an extremely effective fighting technique, and one guaranteed to knock your opponent off his feet, is to punch the air about six inches away from his nose.

Some of the stunts, however, are well done, and the film does have one feature not normally associated with Poverty Row. Most B-movie Westerns of this period were filmed on a Hollywood back lot, but this one was obviously shot on location against a background of real forests, lakes and mountains. Admittedly, filming took place around Mammoth Lakes, California, around twenty degrees of latitude further south than the film's ostensible setting, but much of the photography is in fact strikingly attractive. It is this feature which is responsible for the film getting a higher mark from me than it otherwise would have done. 5/10