L'Héritage du chercheur d'or

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.