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Paradise Canyon<\/a> (1935)<\/b> Lone Star, Dir: Carl L. Pierson, b\/w, 52mCast:<\/strong> John Wayne, Marion Burns, Reed Howes, Earl Hodgins, Gino Corrado, Yakima Canutt<\/p>\n
The only difference between \u201cParadise Canyon\u201d and the many other previous films in which JW worked secretly for the government is that this time he also ends up working down Mexico way. This can only be a good thing for Duke seeing as he was always fairly partial to the ladies from that part of the world.<\/p>\n
Although the film is firmly anchored in the modern-day West, which I figured out by noticing that the medicine show vehicle is actually a large lorry, the script by Lindsley Parsons, who also wrote scripts for \u201cDesert Trail<\/a>\u201d and \u201cThe Man from Utah<\/a>\u201d, introduces more of a comedy element than usual.<\/p>\n Earle Hodgins as Doc Carter, who runs the medicine show, is a real standout character, accompanied by his daughter Linda, played on an immediate return visit from the previous film by by Marion Burns.<\/p>\n The medicine show personnel are rounded out by Mike and Ike, who comprise an act of questionable talent called the \u201cTexas Two\u201d. Rather inexplicably, JW as John Wyatt seems to want to work under a pseudonym, introducing himself to the crooked medicine show participants as \u2013 wait for it \u2013 John Rogers.<\/p>\n So we have John Wayne playing John Wyatt aka John Rogers. He\u2019s a secret agent for Heaven\u2019s sake. He doesn\u2019t need a pseudonym.\u00a0 <\/span>The clue is in the word \u201csecret\u201d.<\/p>\n Doc Carter offers JW a job after he helps the crooked medicine show crew get over the state line where they can\u2019t be pursued for unpaid bills by the sheriff.<\/p>\n My blood froze for a moment when Doc asks JW if he can sing or dance, on account of unchecked memories of Singin\u2019 Sandy<\/a> still causing me to cry out in my sleep. Luckily JW admits he can only shoot and ride, after which I crossed myself and thanked the Lord for a lucky escape.<\/p>\n It soon becomes clear that all the hornswagglin\u2019 low-down dirty counterfeiting work was committed by Doc\u2019s former partner, stone-cold badman Curly Joe Gale, played by stone-cold bad actor Yakima Canutt.<\/p>\n Yak sends some of his henchmen off in pursuit of Doc but they\u2019re foiled by John Wayne Wyatt Rogers who rather strangely let\u2019s them off when he\u2019s told they were just playing a trick on the medicine show people. I say rather strangely because the bad guys were actually trying to shoot everyone dead. If that was just a trick, I\u2019d hate to see what they\u2019d have done if they meant business.<\/p>\n Everyone ends up at the same time in a town in which the Mexican border runs right through the middle.<\/p>\n Just in case anyone loses their bearings, a number of the hombres in the Mexican part of the town wear sombreros, as only Mexicans can.<\/p>\n Yak, on the Mexican side, tells JW that he and the medicine show should stay on the American side of the border, otherwise there\u2019ll be trouble, see?<\/p>\n Mike and Ike turn out to be singers, although I use the term loosely, who serenade the townsfolk with a song called \u201cWhen We Were Young and Foolish\u201d that features the memorable last line, \u201cYou can never trust a woman from six to sixty-three\u201d.<\/p>\n They also sing another song entitled \u201cSnap Those Old Suspenders Once Again<\/a>\u201d. I must see if they\u2019re available for streaming on Spotify. If so I\u2019ll add them to a new folder called \u201cFeminist Songs for the Unenlightened\u201d.<\/p>\n JW decides to see if he can get Yak arrested by the Mexican police. On the Mexican side of the border he approaches the sheriff, played by a Gino Corrado, an actor who makes no attempt at all to disguise the fact that he\u2019s actually Italian.<\/p>\n In very quick succession JW tries to arrest Yak, two Mexican policemen arrest JW instead, Yak goes to his hideout and knocks out another Mexican policeman who has stumbled on his hideout, the Italian Mexican police chief releases JW, JW then finds the policeman who was knocked out by Yak at the hideout, and JW then goes after Yak.<\/p>\n The federales take on Yak\u2019s gang, shooting most of them in the back, whilst JW punches Yak into submission before taking him back across the border to be arrested by the American authorities. All that border crossing and not one great big wall in sight.<\/p>\n Right at the very end, JW and Linda wait in vain for Doc to turn up for their wedding, but he\u2019s been too busy helping himself to the medicine he\u2019s been selling, which is labelled as 90 percent proof.<\/p>\n This would be deemed quite sad if a scene like this were to appear in a contemporary film, but in \u201cParadise Canyon\u201d it\u2019s treated as a comedy sequence. Different times, my friends, different times.<\/p>\n Didn\u2019t turn out as good as I was hoping it would. Medium John Wayne fare at best.<\/p>\n Available on Amazon<\/strong><\/a>![\"John](\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Gino-Corrado.jpg\")
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