This film presents an extremely rare opportunity to see Wallace Beery’s brother and nephew appear together in a movie. Noah Beery, Jr., who played “Rocky” in The Rockford Files forty years later, has an extremely large role as John Wayne’s character’s best friend and appears alongside Wayne in almost every scene, while the senior Beery enjoys only a few minutes of screen time despite his higher billing. Wayne was 27 years old when The Trail Beyond was shot, while Beery, Jr. was 21.

Stunning location backgrounds filmed around Mammoth Lakes, California, set this film firmly apart from most of the other Poverty Row westerns in which Wayne found himself trapped between masterpieces The Big Trail (1930) and Stagecoach (1939).

Cast

• John Wayne as Rod Drew
• Verna Hillie as Felice Newsome
• Noah Beery, Sr. as George Newsome
• Noah Beery, Jr. as Wabi
• Robert Frazer as Jules LaRocque
• Iris Lancaster as Marie LaFleur
• James A. Marcus as Felice’s uncle
• Eddie Parker as Ryan, the Mountie
• Earl Dwire as Henchman Benoit