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For me, the movie was (a) poor but (b) fun.

"Poor" because the directing was lame, the dialogue was hard not to chuckle at, the fight-scenes were definitely proto, and the plot meandering.

But still it was "fun" because here was young John Wayne giving it his all, jumping off cliffs, diving into every body of water he could find, and fighting Bad French Guys. And it's fun to see such a young, naive movie, so endearingly but sincerely lame, trying hard to do nothing but entertain. And for me, a lifelong lover of Mammoth Lakes, it was fun to see Crystal Crag, and a shot down at Twin Lakes from below Lake Mamie described as "a bend in the river."

I just wish it had been color!

John Wayne heads to Canada to find the niece of his father's best friend and bring her home to him. On the train north he meets an old college buddy (Noah Beery, Jr.) who gets into trouble, so the two wind up leaping from a speeding train. This is in the first four minutes! Later, they find the girl but get mixed up with mounties, villains with bad French accents, and a fight over a goldmine.

Of all the cheapie westerns John Wayne made early in his career, this is one of the best I've seen. The stunts, by the great Yakima Canutt and Eddie Parker, are outstanding. Cool to see Noah Beery Sr. and Jr. in the same movie together. The Mammoth Lakes area location shooting is a HUGE plus. They usually shot these cheapies in the same old bland ordinary places. The change of scenery makes a world of difference. The Archie Stout photography helps a lot, too. It's a simple but entertaining oater. At just under an hour, I see no reason you shouldn't check it out.

Stuntman Yakima Canutt, in a 1978 interview,had no problem recalling 1934's "The Trail Beyond." He recalls it as... "the one where John, Eddie Parker(stuntman) and I stayed wet more than we were dry" and said he told producer Paul Malvern to count him out of any more films where people spend most of the time paddling canoes up and down a river, and just call Buster Crabbe instead.

"The Trail Beyond" was easily the most water-logged Wayne film until he lost encounters with an octopus/octopii in "Reap the Wild Wind" and the later "Wake of the Red Witch." Within "The Trail Beyond", Canutt, Parker or Wayne(and sometimes all three because of close-ups)leap off a train into a lake;paddles up the river in a canoe; leaps off a bluff and swims to a canoe; paddles up the river a second time and jumps in the water to swim back and upset LaRocque's canoe; jumps in the water from a bank to prevent a canoe from going over the falls and, in general, is wet more often than dry.

In the department of Be Careful What You Wish For, an IMDb commentator writes an informed and loving piece about the California locale of this movie, and then wishes it had just been shot in color. One viewing of the colorized video version may have left him him thinking his beloved countryside looked very well and better in Archie Stout's b&w original photography.

A distraction may have been the reward poster on John Wayne, as "Gat Ganns" from his earlier "West of the Divide" that shows up on the wall of Beery's "Waninosh House" trading post (which also shows up in "The Man from Utah"), but a much larger distraction was Robert Frazer's and Earl Dwire's attempts at French accents, or whatever accent they tried to employ.

And the reward posters aren't a "goof." Monogram and resident-art director E. R. Hickson didn't go in much for redecorating standing sets. Those posters showed up for years in later Monogram westerns post 1937.

Within the first 10 minutes of The Trail Beyond, John Wayne gets a chore from a friend to locate the friend's friend and his daughter in the Canadian woods, meets another friend Noah Beery, Jr. from college, gets innocently involved in a murder and is fleeing up to Canada with Beery.

There's almost as much canoe paddling as horseback riding in The Trail Beyond for our intrepid heroes. They've got to keep on the move from the Mounties who are looking to extradite both of them to America and Wayne's still got his mission on his mind.

And if that ain't enough they get involved in a feud between the Hudson Bay Company local trading post owner, Noah Beery Sr. and some French Meti trappers. They're the bad guys and as another reviewer remarked their accents are pretty bad. Like Pepe Le Pew.

Other than Island in the Sky, I believe this might be the only John Wayne film with a Canadian location. Even though they got no farther to Canada than the Sierras in California.

What this film does give, is an opportunity to see both Noah Beerys, senior and junior in the same film. I saw that they have about seven screen credits jointly and this I believe is the only one available on VHS and DVD. Furthermore for once the senior Beery is not playing a bad guy.

So while this one won't even make the top Fifty of John Wayne's films for all those reasons it might be worth a look.

Rod Drew is sent by a friend to locate his long lost daughter Marie, who he believes is in Northwest Canada. En route by train, Drew meets his old friend, a half breed named Wabi, who immediately becomes involved in a murder frame up and the two jump from the train wanted men. Tracking down clues to Marie's whereabouts, Drew and Wabi make their way to an abandoned cabin and find a map that Drew's friend and a partner made, showing the location of a treasure. Wabi takes Drew to a trading post run by Newsome and assisted by his daughter Felice (whom Wabi loves). Benoit, who works as a clerk in Newsome's store, tries to grab the map so he can get the treasure for LaRocque, a trapper and the film's bad man. Noting that Drew and Wabi are wanted men, LaRocque has one of his men kidnap and impersonate a Mountie, and get the map when they arrive back at the cabin, however Drew gives them a fake map, and he, Wabi, and Ryan (the Mountie) go after the treasure, while LaRocque and his men close in on Newsome's cabin to get the map. A very enjoyable B film with what seems like better directing and production values than seen in previous Bradbury films, which probably due to the fact that its based on the Curwood novel, rather than being an original Bradbury story. Nice cinematography highlight the film and overshadow the wooden acting by the entire cast, especially by Frazer and Dwire as the villains. Much of the start of the movie has character introduction which gets the film off on a wrong foot, but the film settles in and becomes enjoyable. Rating, based on B westerns, 7.

"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.

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!

... in this dull, cheap western from Monogram and director Robert Bradbury. Wayne stars as Rod Drew, a nice young man who agrees to head up to Canada to find the long-lost niece of a family friend. Along the way, Drew runs into old school chum Wabi (Noah Beery Jr.), and the two get mistakenly accused of murder. Now on the run from the Mounties as well as still searching for the girl, the two land in a small town where various bad guys are after a map to hidden gold. Also featuring Noah Beery Sr., Verna Hillie, Robert Frazer, Iris Lancaster, Earl Dwire, and Eddie Parker.

This is dumb and boring, even by poverty row western standards. The less-than-an-hour runtime is heavily padded with travel footage and horse chases/falls that seem to go on forever. The shootouts are poorly staged, but not as badly as the fistfights, with punches clearly missing the target by a foot or more. This is a rare chance to see both Noah Beery and John Wayne acting together, and the location scenery in Mammoth Lakes, California is nice.

"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

This is a terrific Monogram-Lone Star western from 1934 which for some reason has me quite enchanted. I find the whole look and tone of the film like a comic book from my childhood; and it is the imagination struck from this that has me remembering scenes for days later. I know it is not a lot different from a zillion other 55 minute westerns of the 30s from poverty row, but this one has several compelling factors: A tall, young and handsome John Wayne in really groovy jeans and shirts, Noah beery Jr whose modern hair style sees him look like a young Warren Beatty, astoundingly glorious photography of mountains streams mighty waterfalls and incredible jaw-dropping horse-over-the-cliff stunts, hilarious PepeLePew French Canadian baddies, a great scene with 2 skeletons at a table; and very inventive camera angles and clear- lake water photography. THE TRAIL BEYOND is a real time travel western and the viewer can really feel the time and place. I show this surprise gem to many modern friends who are equally astonished. If there are many more of this caliber I want to see them. THE TRAIL BEYOND is worth the journey.

With a bigger budget than other movies of John Wayne's of this period, this 55 minute programmer has a more interesting story and higher production values than those others.

The version I saw, on TCM had a very clean and crisp transfer and even looked like it had been restored.

The story goes something like this: John Wayne travels to Canada in search of a missing miner and his daughter, but ends up a fugitive when he helps a friend who has been framed for murder to escape the law. In a deserted mountain cabin, complete with skeletons, they stumble on a treasure map. Deciding to go after the loot, they're on the run again, until a devious trapper plans to get his hands on it by posing as a mountie.

There's some wonderful scenery (pity it's not later and in Technicolor) that rather takes over from the story but that's no bad thing and is a nice change from the dust and Indians of your usual western.

The Duke's delivery of his lines are stilted and rather wooden but he's unsurpassed at mounting a horse whilst running - and from the back of the animal, which arguably is far more important than eloquent dialogue!

Though hardly a classic and probably a bit pretty for young boys wanting 'cowboys'n'indians' action, The Trail Beyond remains quite watchable.

Great alpine scenery. Yes, I know, there's a story too, but who needs it with all the terrific vistas to marvel at. Lone Star didn't just ride around California's Owens Valley on this one. No sir, they got right into some of the best mountain panoramas of the Southern Sierras. Nearly every frame has something picturesque to look at.

Maybe you can follow the plot. I couldn't. Something about a gold mine and some baddies who speak Frenchified English about as well as I can. Poor Verna Hillie, she has about ten lines in the whole movie. Still, it does get tiresome looking at all those ugly guys. Then too, watch Noah Beery Sr., who has the look and voice of a first rate villain. Definitely, he should have played the lead bad guy. Still there are some good touches-- the broken bottle (how clever), the race down the river (scope out that waterfall), and the great Earl Dwire (no actor, but with a face that would scare Frankenstein).

The only advantage most A Westerns have over this lowly programmer is script quality. Sure, that's a biggie, but otherwise this little V W can hold its own against the sleeker Cadillacs of the day.

In western gear, brawny John Wayne (as Rod Drew) is asked to find a missing woman. Donning modern dress, he takes a train to Canada. On board, Mr. Wayne meets similarly-suited college pal Noah Beery Jr. (as Wabi). Mr. Berry's participation in a crooked poker game gets the two men off the train. They change into western outfits, and are on the run from the law.

In an abandoned cabin, Wayne and Berry find a map to some gold, along with the skeletal remains of some unfortunates. They go to hide the map in a store run by pretty blonde Verna Hillie (as Felice) and papa Noah Beery Sr. (as George Newsome). The prospects of gold and a pretty woman attract the attention of dastardly Robert Frazer (as Jules LaRocque) and his gang…

This "Lone Star Productions" film has a simple plot that keeps you forgetting where they've been and why they're going wherever they're going. The focus is on Wayne and "half breed" (huh?) sidekick Berry Jr., with the latter's real-life father in a few scenes. A very mild subplot involves their competition for the lovely Ms. Hillie. The film gets by on stunts and scenery.

*** The Trail Beyond (10/22/34) Robert N. Bradbury ~ John Wayne, Noah Beery Jr., Verna Hillie, Noah Beery

Getting this John Wayne early film on DVD as a gift was one that brought back pleasant memories from my childhood. I realize that it's not "Oscar" quality but it was the kind of thing a six year old kid took pleasure in. John Wayne shows a strong hint of the super stardom to come.

This one stays afloat for a while due to nice cinematography, a nice preppy performance by Noah Berry Jr. and wonderful scenery passing for Canada. Some fine stunts at the end are ruined by poor soundtrack work.

The modern clothes on the female lead, typical of this series, this time was matched by modern clothes on the men in the train. The viewer isn't sure if its a Western or 1930's gangster film for a few minutes.

The funniest thing in the film is a mistake. When Wayne and Berry find a gold mind, it is quite dark inside. Wayne lights a small candle and about 10,000 watts of light floods the set.

There is one nicely directed scene. Wayne and Berry come upon two skeletons. They looked genuinely surprised. Its an unexpected and suspenseful moment.

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.

Though this is not a hidden gem, I really enjoyed it, enough to take the time to comment. There is still a lot of "plot", not all of which is readily understandable, but the story sets up a number of interesting touches. Such as a lot of canoeing rather than merely horse chases. There is even a canoe chase! And a lot of jumping into streams, sometimes on horseback. There is a deserted cabin which is eerie of not explainable other than as needed for the plot. Most of the film is set in Canada, so we have Mounties rather than Rangers, and nefarious Frenchmen as the villains rather than Mexicans.

Of necessity, there are a couple of females, but thankfully not much time is devoted to romance. All of this is packed in a one-hour film. It was not art, but it was never boring, and much more enjoyable than I'd expected. As an extra bonus, John Wayne does not sing.

An American Western; A young college-leaver cowboy travels north to find missing persons in Canada and finds himself in a fight over a goldmine. This is the second film adaptation of the 1908 novel The Wolf Hunters by James Oliver Curwood. It's a weakly scripted B-movie melodrama with dialogue that is often on the nose. For a short feature it doesn't waste any time getting to the action which is near relentless towards the end, which is welcome respite from some pretty ropey acting at times and a corny narrative. John Wayne carries himself with some youthful, energetic panache and Verna Hillie provides the glamourous love interest. All in all, convoluted, but it has some nice wilderness scenery.