Paradise Canyon

For fans of Lone Star-Wayne only. It's a pretty slender installment from our friends at Paul Malvern's production company. Wayne's an undercover G-man on the trail of counterfeiter Yakima Canutt. On the way he hooks up with medicine man Doc Carter (Hodgins) and his sloe- eyed daughter (Burns). We see a lot of the medicine show and some of it is a hoot—The Texas Two whose down-home ditties are memorably corny. But reviewer Chance is right: Hodgins takes up too much screen time for a brief 50-minute feature. Too bad producer Malvern didn't pop for a location shoot at scenic Lone Pine. That would have compensated for a lot. Instead, the boys have to ride around the scrubby un-scenic outskirts of LA. He did however pop for a well-staffed chase scene at the end. Then too, there is the usual hidden hideout that fascinated Front-Row kids like myself, along with a dramatic plunge off a cliff. But the sum-total is rather plodding and not up to the usual high-action standard. (In passing— sorry to say I counted 3 "trip-wire" induced falls, which make for a dramatic tumble of horse and rider, but is unfortunately often fatal to the horse. Happily, these stunts were eventually banned. On a more upbeat note-- for a really entertaining look at how these Saturday afternoon specials were made, catch Hearts of the West {1975}.)