Good story, Not enough for a whole film

As Good As It Gets

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

. . . watching Fox "News," with BEYOND's trios of guys shooting at each other during Great Canoe Chases and packs of gunmen firing a whole War's worth of bullets as their horses bite the dust left and right. Frequent references to "half-breeds" are thrown around, and the Dead keep popping back into the Land of the Living during BEYOND. But viewing Fox "News" before and after BEYOND, things are equally mashed up in its version of Real Life, 2016. First, one cop is dead, and some guy wearing a young D. "Rock" Johnson mask is identified as the shooter at large. Then, two officers have expired, done in by a couple of guys who fled in a Mercedes. Next, three Men in Blue have passed, and there's a lady in the ring of DPD attackers. Fox then says four policemen are fatalities, and a cornered rifleman has shot himself dead. Finally, Fox reports that ONE Veteran Gone Bad exterminated FIVE police, who blew him up with a robotic bomb! During BEYOND, the "half-breed" is a killer, but at least he has a girl. Then Mr. Multi-Racial's "victim" miraculously revives, but John Wayne steals his chick because she's inheriting a gold mine AND a cattle ranch! After the Mountie they're holding at gunpoint is fatally shot, Wayne prevents his corpse from going over a huge waterfall, so it revives (unlike BEYOND's main villain, who rolls off a cliff after a cop shoots him for picking up a rock!). Ask yourself, WWRD? (That is, What Would Rambo Do?)

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

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.

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.