Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

James Hitchcock John Wyatt is a government agent tasked with investigating the activities of a counterfeiting gang operating near the US/Mexican border. In the course of his investigations, Wyatt gets caught up with Doc Carter's travelling medicine show. Although Doc is an obvious fraud the film treats him as a lovable rogue, much less of a threat to society than the counterfeiters. Doc's attractive daughter Linda provides Wyatt's love interest. (Yes, Linda Carter. I thought of "Wonder Woman" too, even though that actress spelt her first name "Lynda"). The date at which the action takes place is never made clear. Wyatt wears standard cowboy gear suggesting a traditional late nineteenth century setting, but Doc travels round in a motor vehicle, the design of which suggests a date of at least 1920, as do the clothes worn by some of the other characters, especially Linda. My theory is that the action is supposed to take place during Prohibition and that Doc's supposed "medicine" (which we learn is 90% alcohol) is really only a ruse to get around the Volstead Act. This was one of many cheaply-made "Poverty Row" Westerns made by John Wayne in the years before he found stardom in "Stagecoach". Few of these were any good, and "Paradise Canyon" is not one of the exceptions. Apart from Wayne, the only well-known member of the cast is Yakima Canutt as the chief villain, and he was better known as a professional stunt man than as an actor. Wayne's acting is poor, giving little hint of the major star he was soon to become, and none of the other actors are any better. The plot is trite, the dialogue often ludicrous, the action scenes unconvincing and the fight scenes (a common fault on Poverty Row) badly choreographed with obviously pulled punches. Even confirmed John Wayne fans should steer clear of this movie. Or perhaps I should say, especially confirmed John Wayne fans should steer clear of this movie. Unless they want their illusions about their idol to be shattered. 3/10

JohnHowardReid Not copyrighted. A Lone Star Western, released through Monogram in the U.S.A.: 20 July 1935. No New York opening. U.K. release through Exclusive: November 1936 (sic). 52 minutes. Alternative title: PARADISE RANCH.SYNOPSIS: On the trail of counterfeiters, a government agent joins a medicine show.NOTES: This was Wayne's last official Lone Star. In his next film "Westward Ho" - made for Republic - he continued to play the character "John Wyatt".COMMENT: The last and least interesting of Wayne's Lone Star westerns. True, it has a bit of action but all of it is thoroughly undermined by unimaginative staging and poor direction. A dive by horse and rider over a cliff should have been a highlight, but it is shot from such a pedestrian angle that all the impact of the stunt is lost. There are no running inserts at all, with every chase filmed from uninteresting fixed-angle positions. Even the background scenery is drab and there is no music whatever to generate excitement. The opening chase after the medicine show wagon is ho-hum bland the first time around. But then it is repeated with but a slight variation. The constant cutting between weak sound effects of horses' hooves pounding along and the fuzzy motor roaring is nothing short of irritating. And yet it's given a second run! Incredible!Yakima Canutt has a major role. He's the chief heavy in fact. But good to see him though it is, he doesn't do any stuntwork to speak of. In fact his fist fights with Wayne are among the weakest and phoniest we've ever seen.The real star of the film is not Wayne at all. Here he takes a back seat to the voluble, endlessly verbose, uninterruptedly garrulous Earle Hodgins. No wonder Wayne seems somewhat reticent and even lackluster. Miss Burns is a moderately attractive heroine, but the rest of the players are a write-off, particularly Gino Corrado, a most unconvincing Italian-accented Mexican rurale captain, who sports the most ridiculous prop hat imaginable.I was wrong when I said no music. There are in fact two songs, sung by the Texas Two. It says much for the excitements of the rest of the movie when I say with confidence that these two songs are the most entertaining parts of the whole film. In fact, if Paradise Canyon is fair sample of Mr Pierson's work, he is most definitely a director to avoid at all costs.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . so PARADISE CANYON is a pretty static story. This flick is one of TWO DOZEN--that's right, you can count them up on this site's "John Wayne" filmography: there are 24!--movies Wayne made during the 1930s alone in which he's pretending to be a "John." (Of course, in Real Life, he was in and out of so many Mexican bordellos during the mid-1900s that he got his days and nights mixed up, and "accidentally" MARRIED at least one of these hookers!) As Gertrude Stein famously said, "A john is a john is a john." Though America's self-appointed Snitch-in-Chief later reduced Humphrey Bogart to a sniveling coward during the Great U.S. Witch Hunt, at least Bogie did not feel the need to play "Humphreys" in all of HIS films. (Somehow, it seems that THE MALTESE FALCON may have flopped if its P.I. were named "Humphrey Spade;" ditto a CASABLANCA centered around "Humphrey's Gin Joint.") The other key visitor to PARADISE CANYON is "Linda Carter." Though Linda throws herself at John-John, there's not much chemistry here, since she's clearly not a high-end Mexican courtesan. Those hoping to see Linda don Star-Spangled Tights also will be disappointed, because she lacks Wonder Woman's super powers (and this flick is filmed in Black & White, to boot!).

keith-hubbard-49-995134 Posses on horseback chasing after Model T Fords has never been my idea of a Western. Though I tolerated it from Roy Rogers (as a child of the 50s) I can't take it as an adult fan of The Duke. If there are cars in the picture 'it ain't a western'.We do have the obligatory hide out in a cave and John Wayne diving in to river-he must have been a heck of a swimmer because he sure jumped in to lakes and rivers a lot in these B films of the 30s. It actually is not a bad story line as far as these old b&w movies go-but I go back to my previous point-cars and horses don't mix in my mind as to what a western should be. I'm not asking for my money back though-just my least favorite of the 30s western genre that helped launch the Duke's career.