John Wayne's sixteenth and final picture for Lone Star Films was the only one directed by Carl L. Pierson. In the story, Wayne's character John Wyatt joins a traveling medicine show to expose a band of counterfeiters; one suspects that the phony money men might be part of Doc Carter's (Earl Hodgins) bunch. Instead, it's a crew run by Curly Joe Gale (Yakima Canutt), who was once the Doc's partner before Carter got busted for the counterfeit scheme.
You'll get a kick out of the coach at the center of 'Carter's Greater Medicine Show', I can just picture similar get ups heading from town to town to ply the local rubes. Carter has a pretty but naive young daughter Linda (Marion Burns), who doubles in the show as Princess Natasha. However the entire affair is pretty much a vehicle for selling 'Doc Carter's Famous Indian Remedy', and at ninety percent alcohol, it's pretty potent stuff.
As for the real bad guys, government agent Wyatt eventually gets the drop on Curly Joe, with a posse of Mexican rurales chasing down Curly's gang in the finale. It's all wrapped up quickly in just about fifty three minutes, perhaps the shortest of all the Lone Star pictures.
Having now seen all of the Lone Star's, a quick recap reveals that stunt man extraordinaire Yakima Canutt appeared on screen in twelve of the sixteen films in various roles, sometimes as John Wayne's sidekick and often as a henchman. On three occasions, as in this film, he portrayed the main villain. The others were "Sagebrush Trail" and "'Neath Arizona Skies". Even though he didn't appear in "Paradise Canyon", George Hayes showed up in eleven Lone Star's; back then he wasn't known as 'Gabby' yet. Earl Dwire tied Hayes with the same number of roles, however he was one up on Hayes with an uncredited bit part as an Arizona sheriff in this one, but you'll really have to keep your eyes peeled to spot him.
All of Wayne's Lone Star films were filmed between 1933 and 1935, and are quite easily available today, most if not all in the public domain. They can be had rather inexpensively, either alone or in compilations, and they're a great way to see one of movie's greatest stars before he became a household name. Your first viewing will probably give you the same impression I had, marveling at how young and handsome Wayne appeared while learning his craft. By the time of his breakout characterization as the Ringo Kid in John Ford's "Stagecoach", Wayne had appeared in a little over fifty films, starring in most, while patiently awaiting the role that would make him an overnight success.
You'll get a kick out of the coach at the center of 'Carter's Greater Medicine Show', I can just picture similar get ups heading from town to town to ply the local rubes. Carter has a pretty but naive young daughter Linda (Marion Burns), who doubles in the show as Princess Natasha. However the entire affair is pretty much a vehicle for selling 'Doc Carter's Famous Indian Remedy', and at ninety percent alcohol, it's pretty potent stuff.
As for the real bad guys, government agent Wyatt eventually gets the drop on Curly Joe, with a posse of Mexican rurales chasing down Curly's gang in the finale. It's all wrapped up quickly in just about fifty three minutes, perhaps the shortest of all the Lone Star pictures.
Having now seen all of the Lone Star's, a quick recap reveals that stunt man extraordinaire Yakima Canutt appeared on screen in twelve of the sixteen films in various roles, sometimes as John Wayne's sidekick and often as a henchman. On three occasions, as in this film, he portrayed the main villain. The others were "Sagebrush Trail" and "'Neath Arizona Skies". Even though he didn't appear in "Paradise Canyon", George Hayes showed up in eleven Lone Star's; back then he wasn't known as 'Gabby' yet. Earl Dwire tied Hayes with the same number of roles, however he was one up on Hayes with an uncredited bit part as an Arizona sheriff in this one, but you'll really have to keep your eyes peeled to spot him.
All of Wayne's Lone Star films were filmed between 1933 and 1935, and are quite easily available today, most if not all in the public domain. They can be had rather inexpensively, either alone or in compilations, and they're a great way to see one of movie's greatest stars before he became a household name. Your first viewing will probably give you the same impression I had, marveling at how young and handsome Wayne appeared while learning his craft. By the time of his breakout characterization as the Ringo Kid in John Ford's "Stagecoach", Wayne had appeared in a little over fifty films, starring in most, while patiently awaiting the role that would make him an overnight success.