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Paradise Canyon

Play trailer Poster for Paradise Canyon Released Jul 20, 1935 55m Western Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 1 Reviews 27% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
Rough-and-tumble federal agent John Wyatt (John Wayne) receives an unusual undercover assignment: He must infiltrate the ranks of an Arizona-based medicine show. Wyatt's boss suspects the show's shifty-eyed proprietor, ex-convict Dr. Carter (Earle Hodgins), of running a massive counterfeiting operation. With the full cooperation of the local authorities, Wyatt poses as a sharpshooter and begins his investigation -- only to fall for Carter's beautiful daughter, Linda (Marion Burns).

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Paradise Canyon

Critics Reviews

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Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews This routine Western was John Wayne's last official Monogram film. Rated: C May 27, 2018 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Good John Wayne movie right here highly recommend it, James Welch, Henderson, Arkansas, July 1, 2023 Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/02/23 Full Review Audience Member Carter's Great Medicine Show John Wyatt is a vigilante of sorts tracking down a counterfeiter. He decides to join a traveling "medicine show" in his search to serve as their protection. Meanwhile, the owner of the show runs into a man who wronged him some years ago, Curly Joe. Curly Joe tries to run the show out of town again; but when John discovers Joe is the counterfeiter, he will put a halt to Joe's plan. "The show always goes on." Carl Pierson, director of The New Frontier and The Singing Vagabond, delivers Paradise Canyon. The storyline for this picture is fun and unique in some ways but the action sequences are dated, the dialogue is mediocre, and the acting is average. The cast delivers mediocre performances and include John Wayne, Gino Corrado, Yakima Canutt, and Marion Burns. "I'm just a cowboy drifting from place to place." This was recently recommended to me by Fios so I DVR'd it off Encore Western. This was okay and I did enjoy watching the film unfold. The action scenes were comically not fluid and dated but I did enjoy the settings and premise. This is only worth viewing for diehard western genre fans. "I don't like complications." Grade: C Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Audience Member A government agent (John Wayne) goes undercover as part of a traveling medicne show to stop a counterfeiting operation. For awhile, he believes the head of the show, "Doc Carter" (Earl Hodgins), is the head of the operation. His belief is backed up with the fact that "Carter" spent the last decade in jail. Now, he has to go after the real criminals into Mexico and bring them to justice. I have seen some John Wayne movies via Hulu in the last couple of weeks, and this is easily one of the better ones the site currently has. The acting in this movie is very decent, and pretty believable all around. Not one performance was weak in fact. You had good chemistry between the main players, and none of them looked as if they were just there to get paid. Wayne stands out as the leading man in this film. His presence is one of the strongest in the film. This was his last movie for Monogram Pictures, and it's a very good send-off for "The Duke." As for other performers, they all did pretty good performances for the amount of screen time they had. Some of the supporting cast were poorly written in this movie. There are two members of the traveling medicine show who basically were there to perform a couple of songs, and deliver a few lines. They were there mostly for show, and not much else. There is quite a few action scenes in this movie, but nothing too spectacular. You get one horse chase, and some gunfighting, but nothing memorable. One thing that limits this movie is the length of it. This makes some subplots rushed. There is a taste of a romance between Wayne and Marion Burns, who plays "Carter's" daughter and performer in the medicine show. It didn't have time to blossom because the main plot had to be advanced. When the story moves over the border into Mexico, I felt the characters introduced at that point were not used well. They added little, if anything, to the plot. One big problem was the audio. Due to the movie being 75 years old, the audio just didn't hold up. The audio makes it hard to understand what is being said at times. At some points, the people were pretty muffled for a few seconds. You could understand what was being said, but you had to strain to hear what they were saying. I would say that this could be something to watch if you can catch it online on sites like Hulu, or on television. Only rent the movie if you are a diehard John Wayne fan. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member For a '30s western, it wasn't bad, actually rather interesting and humorous. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Without a doubt John Wayne's best 'B' western. It's unique and different unlike the rest due to a unique storyline of an undercover Duke part of a medicine show. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Audience Member A government agent (John Wayne) goes undercover as part of a traveling medicne show to stop a counterfeiting operation. For awhile, he believes the head of the show, "Doc Carter" (Earl Hodgins), is the head of the operation. His belief is backed up with the fact that "Carter" spent the last decade in jail. Now, he has to go after the real criminals into Mexico and bring them to justice. I have seen some John Wayne movies via Hulu in the last couple of weeks, and this is easily one of the better ones the site currently has. The acting in this movie is very decent, and pretty believable all around. Not one performance was weak in fact. You had good chemistry between the main players, and none of them looked as if they were just there to get paid. Wayne stands out as the leading man in this film. His presence is one of the strongest in the film. This was his last movie for Monogram Pictures, and it's a very good send-off for "The Duke." As for other performers, they all did pretty good performances for the amount of screen time they had. Some of the supporting cast were poorly written in this movie. There are two members of the traveling medicine show who basically were there to perform a couple of songs, and deliver a few lines. They were there mostly for show, and not much else. There is quite a few action scenes in this movie, but nothing too spectacular. You get one horse chase, and some gunfighting, but nothing memorable. One thing that limits this movie is the length of it. This makes some subplots rushed. There is a taste of a romance between Wayne and Marion Burns, who plays "Carter's" daughter and performer in the medicine show. It didn't have time to blossom because the main plot had to be advanced. When the story moves over the border into Mexico, I felt the characters introduced at that point were not used well. They added little, if anything, to the plot. One big problem was the audio. Due to the movie being 75 years old, the audio just didn't hold up. The audio makes it hard to understand what is being said at times. At some points, the people were pretty muffled for a few seconds. You could understand what was being said, but you had to strain to hear what they were saying. I would say that this could be something to watch if you can catch it online on sites like Hulu, or on television. Only rent the movie if you are a diehard John Wayne fan. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Paradise Canyon

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis Rough-and-tumble federal agent John Wyatt (John Wayne) receives an unusual undercover assignment: He must infiltrate the ranks of an Arizona-based medicine show. Wyatt's boss suspects the show's shifty-eyed proprietor, ex-convict Dr. Carter (Earle Hodgins), of running a massive counterfeiting operation. With the full cooperation of the local authorities, Wyatt poses as a sharpshooter and begins his investigation -- only to fall for Carter's beautiful daughter, Linda (Marion Burns).
Director
Carl Pierson
Producer
Paul Malvern
Screenwriter
Lindsley Parsons, Robert Emmett Tansey
Production Co
Monogram
Genre
Western
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jul 20, 1935, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 1, 2012
Runtime
55m
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