Filmed on location at scenic White River near Landers, Wyoming, End of the Trail has been criticized for being overly preachy. And Tim McCoy does speak fervently, and often, against his country's longtime abuse of its native population by breaking treaty after treaty. But these sentiments had never before been aired in a sound film and Columbia Pictures took a big chance in producing the film in the first place. Not since Indian brave Richard Dix returned to the reservation from college in the silent The Vanishing American (1925) had Native Americans had a better ambassador than Tim McCoy, a former Indian language translator in real life. Unfortunately, producer Irving Briskin could not leave well enough alone, but had to tinker with the film's heartbreaking ending. The cardinal sin of killing off a cute child actor (Wally Albright) was one thing, a climactic battle in which the hero perishes quite another. To the film's detriment, director D. Ross Lederman was forced to shoot a new and more palatable ending in which McCoy's wounds proved to be mere scratches. But despite the tacked-on ending and some irrelevant comedy relief by Wade Boteler, End of the Trail remains a fine, stirring little Western and a credit to the memory of Tim McCoy.
by Hans J. Wollstein
review
