Tim McCoy Movies
An authentic cowboy from the age of 15, Timothy McCoy moved to a large Wyoming ranch next to a Sioux Indian reservation after some college studies; he became an authority on Indian languages, customs, and folk history, and mastered Indian sign language. He served in World War I, and was then appointed Indian Agent for his territory. In 1922, he was employed as a technical advisor and co-ordinator of Indian extras for the film The Covered Wagon (1923); McCoy may also have done some trick riding for the film. He later he resigned his government post, having been offered a key supporting role in the western The Thundering Herd (1925). MGM signed him to a film contract in 1925; he was to star in westerns and action movies based on historical anecdotes of the American frontier. By the early '30s he was among the most popular western stars; he always appeared dresed in black, with an oversized white Stetson hat and a pearl-handled gun. McCoy interrupted his screen career in 1935 to travel with the Ringling Brothers circus. In 1938 he started his own Wild West show, but it was unsuccessful. He returned to the screen in 1940, and for two years he co-starred in the low-budget Rough Rider western series; the series ended when Buck Jones, another of its stars, died in a fire. He served in World War II (in which he was awarded the Bronze Star), then retired to his ranch; from 1949, however, he worked on TV and in occasional film cameo roles. He won an Emmy for his TV program The Tim McCoy Show. Until 1976 McCoy continued working 300 days a year as the headliner of Tommy Scott's Country Music Circus. In 1974 he was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame. He authored an autobiography (assisted by his son Ronald), Tim McCoy Remembers the West (1977). ~ All Movie Guide- 1924
Jailed for a robbery he didn't commit, Bullets Bernard (Art Acord) enlists an alcoholic jailhouse lawyer (Paul Weigel) to defend him. The lawyer sobers up just enough to be effective, and Bernard is set free -- not a minute too soon. It turns out his girlfriend Shirley (Vane Truant) has been kidnapped and the villain, in cahoots with a crooked attorney, proves to be none other than the man who framed Bullets in the first place. The "Vane Truant" listed in the cast of this obscure silent Western is most likely Acord's real-life wife, actress Louise Lorraine, moonlighting from her steady job at Universal Studios. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Weigel, Art Acord, (more)
- 1925
Zane Grey's 1925 story of the great Buffalo hunts became a sprawling silent Western produced by Paramount and starring the studio's stalwart Jack Holt as a trader who uncovers a scheme to blame the Indians for a Buffalo massacre. The film's highlight, a breathtaking shot of wagons careening across a frozen lake, was used again in the studio's equally fine 1933 remake. To match the old footage, director Henry Hathaway employed some of the same actors and stunt performers. The original Thundering Herd has gained the reputation, along with the same year's Wild Horse Mesa (also starring Holt), as the finest Grey adaptation ever produced. Both Tim McCoy and Gary Cooper earned bit parts in this epic Western filmed on locations at Lone Pine, California. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Holt, Lois Wilson, (more)
- 1926
Colonel Tim McCoy had worked as an advisor on Indian sign languages and other things western during the making of James Cruze's The Covered Wagon in 1923. The newly founded MGM was the only major studio without a western line-up and tested the well-known war hero for a proposed series. McCoy proved just as good an actor as he was handsome, and the studio signed him to a star in a series of medium-budgeted westerns beginning with War Paint. W.S. "Woody" Van Dyke, a genial director who could create exciting screen fare without fuss and on time, helmed the inaugural McCoy feature which naturally dealt with Indians vs. the White Man. McCoy often expressed deep sympathy for Native Americans, and there are both good and bad Indians in his films. In this instance, a brave is humiliated in a fight with McCoy and vows vengeance on the White Man in general. McCoy saves the day, however, and without the usual stereotyping of his Native American cast. The film was made back-to-back with the second entry in the McCoy series, Winners of the Wilderness. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Pauline Starke, (more)
- 1927
Taking time out from his fine series of historical westerns, Colonel Tim McCoy starred in this action melodrama set in China during the Boxer Rebellion. He plays Captain Robert Kelly, an attaché at the American Embassy in Peking, who falls for a pretty Englishwoman, Lady Patricia Rudledge (Claire Windsor). Foolishly visiting a local temple in the midst of the rebellion, the latter is attacked by an enemy priest (Sojin), whom Kelly manages to keep at bay until the girl is safely back with the allied forces. The brave captain then goes on to basically fight and destroy the enemy forces all by his lonesome. As the title implies, this melodrama was rather typical of the mindless racism of 1920s Hollywood. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Claire Windsor, (more)
- 1927
The Tim McCoy western Winners of the Wilderness was shot simultaneously with McCoy's War Paint, using the same locations for both. Boasting a larger budget than the average "B"-western, the film casts McCoy as a courageous Indian scout, determined to negotiate an honorable peace between the white settlers and his Native American friends. Though his efforts are undercut by various villains pursuing their own agendae, our hero finally prevails. The film's most startling sequence finds a nude male prisoner being burned at the stake by hostile tribesmen -- hardly the sort of thing one might expect in a film essentially designed for preteen moviegoers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Joan Crawford, (more)
- 1927
Colonel Tim McCoy continued his string of successful historical Westerns with The Frontiersman, a muscular adventure set in 1813. John Dale (McCoy) and Abner Hawkins (Tom O'Brien) are members of Andrew Jackson's Tennessee Militia, assigned to make peace with the Creek Indian tribe in general and the treacherous White Snake (Frank Hagney) in particular. Dallying with the beauteous Athalie Burgoyne (Louise Lorraine), Dale is forced into dueling a rival (John Peters). Jackson (Russell Simpson) calls him in for a reprimand, and Dale falls instead for the general's pretty ward, Lucy (Claire Windsor). Jackson once again disapproves, but he changes his mind when Dale rescues the girl from the marauding Indians. Both Windsor and Lorraine had been elected WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1922 by the Hollywood publicists. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Claire Windsor, (more)
- 1927
Colonel Tim McCoy's third western for MGM starred the former Indian sign language interpreter as an army captain facing demotion until successfully defeating a gang of Mexican cutthroats. Set in old California, the film depicted several real-life American heroes, including Kit Carson (Fred Warren) and Brig. Gen. Stephen Kearney (played by Romaine Fielding who, for now obscure reasons, billed himself Edwin Terry). The only series western star MGM ever had, McCoy enjoyed five releases in 1927 alone. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy
- 1927
An average Tim McCoy Western, this film benefitted from the sumptuous production values that only MGM would lavish on what essentially was a series oater. McCoy, a former real-life Native American language translator, played Lieutenant Lang, charged with keeping the peace with the Indians by ridding the territory of white squatters and trappers. Only trading-post operator Marjorie Daw, refuses to leave, necessitating the inevitable rescue from the stalwart Lieutenant Lang. Charles Thurston appeared as real-life General Sherman and an unidentified actor portrayed General Custer. Although profitable, the MGM McCoy Western melodramas were discontinued at the changeover to sound and the studio never again produced series Westerns. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, William Fairbanks, (more)
- 1928
Filmed back-to-back with Spoilers of the West (1928) at Lander, WY, this MGM production was the eighth in a series of 14 superior Tim McCoy Westerns produced between 1926 and 1929. McCoy played Jack Colton, who as a boy grows up alongside Big Cloud, the son of Chief Chapulti (Goes in the Lodge). As the boys reach maturity, their roads separate and they become enemies. Violating a treaty, Big Cloud (Charles Bell) and his warriors raid a wagon train led by Colton, now a lieutenant in the cavalry. The latter has his hands full with Samantha Farrell (Dorothy Sebastian), a headstrong woman who is traveling west to stake her claim and has no patience with "trivialities" such as Indian raids. Colton manages to both tame the girl and repel the attack. In the end, the renegade Indians are defeated when Chief Chapulti, to prevent a massacre, shoots his own son. The production supervisor on both Wyoming and Spoilers of the West was studio chief Louis B. Mayer's ambitious future son-in-law, David O. Selznick. It was Selznick's idea to produce the two films simultaneously, thus saving the company around 30,000 dollars. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1928
The ancient tale of brothers, separated at birth, who grow up on opposite sides of the law, is given yet another working-over in this lavish MGM western starring Tim McCoy. A former Indian language translator, McCoy was the studio's first and only attempt at creating a series western star. Sound interrupted what seemed to have been a lucrative series, but Metro nevertheless stayed away from series westerns for good, the only major Hollywood studio to do so. Rex Lease, a personable actor being groomed for a stardom that never really materialized, played McCoy's bad-seed younger brother, and the two meet without knowing each others identity. Having learned the truth (they possess identical tattoos!), Lease redeems himself by sacrificing his own life for the sake of brother McCoy's. If not exactly The Law of the Range, the noble gesture was certainly the law of Hollywood, where crime must always be punished. A young Joan Crawford, who was being punished herself by the studio for being too opportunistic both on and off the screen, earned a few moments in the film as McCoy's love interest. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Joan Crawford, (more)
- 1928
The team behind MGM's Tim McCoy unit went "down under" for their inspiration for this silent "Western" about a British nobleman who kills a man in a duel and is banished for life to a penal colony in faraway Australia. McCoy breaks out of prison to become a sort of Robin Hood of the Bush, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. That is, until his father Russell Simpson, the district's new High Commissioner, gets in trouble with a gang of real bandits who have kidnapped McCoy's foster sister Marian Douglas. Filmed in and around New Hall, California, this "Eastern" enjoyed the usual high standard of the MGM McCoy oaters. Formerly known as En Gregory, leading lady Marian Douglas actually did hail from Australia. Future Universal director Arthur Lubin plays McCoy's weakling brother. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marian Douglas, Russell Simpson, (more)
- 1928
MGM's only series western hero, Tim McCoy, played a Texas Ranger lieutenant in this well-made but less than inspiring silent oater. The son (Rex Lease) and daughter (Dorothy Dwan) of a slain newspaper editor team up with Lieutenant Crane in order to catch their father's killer. When Molly accidentally shoots one of the suspects, Crane takes the girl into protective custody, falling in love with her along the way. The bandits attack the jail, but they are defeated by Crane and the arrival of the cavalry. A former technical advisor on Indian lore, McCoy went on to star in scores of low-budget westerns in the '30s and '40s. But not for MGM. Alone among Hollywood studios, the Culver City film factory never again attempted to produce series westerns, the bread-and-butter of most of its competitors. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Dorothy Dwan, (more)
- 1928
MGM's only ever series Western hero, Tim McCoy, starred in this handsomely mounted production, which drew heavily on the Zorro legend. McCoy played the Masked Stranger, a stalwart U.S. Ranger going undercover to flush out a greedy Yankee (Roy D'Arcy) in Olde California. As always, McCoy was surrounded by a first-class supporting cast which this time included mustachioed D'Arcy, fondly remembered for his overripe performance as Gilbert's lecherous rival (and Erich Von Stroheim look-alike) in Von Stroheim's The Merry Widow (1925). Also featured were bucktoothed comedienne Polly Moran and the always menacing Richard R. Neill. Although the McCoy series was profitable, it was discontinued after the changeover to sound. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Roy D'Arcy, (more)
- 1928
This romantic adventure is set in South America and tells the story of a Yankee mining engineer who falls in love with the beautiful daughter of a president whose administration has just been overthrown. His devoted daughter attempts to help her father return to power and the engineer becomes deeply involved in the revolution and risks his life to help her. Eventually they succeed and the grateful girl finally returns the love of the engineer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Charles Delaney, (more)
- 1929
Colonel Tim McCoy, M-G-M's only series Western star, played a Pony Express rider in this well-produced but otherwise average silent Western. In the course of his duties, McCoy gets acquainted with a beautiful Spanish landowner (Raquel Torres), whose property is besieged by a gang of land grabbers headed by the always nefarious Harry Woods. The studio released McCoy from his contract at the advent of sound and despite the solid box-office results of the McCoy series never again involved itself with the B-Western genre. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raquel Torres, Bert Roach, (more)
- 1929
Filmed on magnificent locations at Glacier National Park, this MGM western starring Tim McCoy came at the very end of the silent era when the medium had reached its zenith. McCoy became MGM's only series western star, and although his films were regularly dismissed as potboilers, they benefited from the usual MGM showmanship. McCoy plays an army captain who heads off an impending Indian attack by using the newfangled telegraph. Leading lady Dorothy Janis had little to do as the daughter of McCoy's commanding officer. The brunette Janis earned a brief vogue in the late 1920s starring opposite Ramon Novarro in The Pagan (1929) and Ben Lyon in Lummox (1930). Appearing among the Native American extras in this film was one Chief White Calf, the man who had modelled for the 5-cent coin. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Dorothy Janis, (more)
- 1929
Separated during an Indian raid, childhood pals Tim McCoy and Robert Frazer grow up on each side of the Indian Wars in this fine silent Western produced by M-G-M. McCoy becomes an Indian Scout working for the cavalry, while Frazer stays with the tribe and takes the name Lone Eagle. The two meet when the father of McCoy's girlfriend is taken prisoner by the Indians. At first at logger heads, the boyhood friends finally put down their weapons and Lone Eagle rejoins the white man's world. McCoy's leading lady in this film, Australian-born Marian Douglas, had previously worked under her real name, Ena Gregory. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Marian Douglas, (more)
- 1929
Even as his parent studio MGM was gearing up for talkies, popular western star Tim McCoy ground out four silent vehicles during 1929. The second of the four was Morgan's Last Raid, in which McCoy's romantic vis-a-vis was busy MGM contractee Dorothy Sebastian. Conscripted into the Union army during the Civil War, Tennessee-born Capt. Clairbourne (Tim McCoy) is branded a coward when he refuses to fight opposite his friends and neighbors. This puts Clairbourne on the outs with his Yankee sweetheart Judith Rogers (Sebastian). But when Clairbourne joins a Confederate guerilla group called Morgan's Raiders and saves Judith's life, she sings a different tune. Allan Garcia, best remembered as the snooty butler in Chaplin's City Lights, plays Morgan, while another City Lights supporting player, Hank Mann, provides comedy relief. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Sebastian, Wheeler Oakman, (more)
- 1930
This western serial chronicles the adventures of a young girl whose uncle has discovered gold out West. Accompanied by her father and a friend of her uncle, she journeys to her uncle's gold mine, encountering bandits, Indians on the warpath and other adventures. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- 1931
In his first Western for Columbia, Tim McCoy played one of his favorite characters, the reformed professional gambler. Returning home to visit with brother Terry (Carroll Nye), Tim Allen (McCoy) finds Terry mortally wounded by a man he identifies as the supposedly honest gambler George Beck (Charles "Slim" Whitaker). At the Lone Star Saloon, owner Coldeye Carnell (Al Ferguson) offers him a dealer position, which he declines. He does, however, accept a job from George Beck, his brother's presumed killer, whose daughter, Helen (Doris Hill), he earlier rescued from a gang of potential muggers. As it turns out, Terry's killer is not Beck, but Coldeye who had assumed his rival's identity in order to ruin him. Beck forgives Tim for his suspicions and the reformed gambler in turn asks for Helen's hand in marriage. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Doris Hill, (more)
- 1932
Tim McCoy is falsely accused of killing his own father in this typical low-budget oater directed by the generally efficient but unexciting D. Ross Lederman. Framed in the killing of his own father, Tim Benton (McCoy) escapes from prison along with brutish Red Larkin (Matthew Betz). The fugitives head for the former Benton mine now operated by the villainous John Sebastian (Ethan Laidlaw), where Tim plans to rob the payroll. En route, they are discovered by Bob Dinsmore (William A. Howell), the new marshal of Silver City, who is killed by Red. Tim, who believes the marshal to be merely knocked unconscious, decides to impersonate him in order to get the goods of the two men, Stevens and Ainsley, who framed him on behalf of Sebastian. Accepted by the townspeople in general and the sheriff's daughter Alice (Gulliver) in particular, Tim's scheme is endangered by the arrival of both Stevens (Bob Perry) and Ainsley (Dick Dickinson). After quickly arresting the two henchmen, Tim tells Red that he no longer wishes to go through with the planned payroll robbery. Red, in anger, frames his former partner for Dinsmore's murder. In the ensuing shootout, Red is mortally wounded, but manages to clear Tim's name before he expires. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Dorothy Gulliver, (more)
- 1932
A typical low-budget but competently made Columbia Western, The Riding Tornado featured Tim McCoy as a famous rodeo champ who, incognito, wins a supposed killer stallion, Pal, and a purse of 500 dollars in a small town race. Having amicably lost the money in a poker game, Tim is hired by Pal's prior owner, rancher Hiram Olcott (Lafe McKee), to track down a gang of cattle rustlers headed by Hetch Engle (Wheeler Oakman). In between fighting hothead ranch foreman Dick Stark (Wallace MacDonald) for the attention of lovely Patsy Olcott (Shirley Grey), Tim manages to track down Hetch and his gang before they can do more damage. Stark, meanwhile, is heroically killed attempting to stop a stampede, leaving Tim and Patsy free to plan a future together. Vernon Dent, who later menaced the Three Stooges in countless two-reelers, played Hefty, the bartender, a role he had originated in an earlier McCoy effort, Texas Cyclone. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Grey, Wallace MacDonald, (more)
- 1932
Although based on a story by William Colt McDonald, the creator of The Three Mesqueteers, this Tim McCoy effort from Columbia was a conventional Western at best. McCoy played Tim Madigan, a cowpoke coming to the aid of Jerry Norris (Alberta Vaughn), whose father (Murdock MacQuarrie) is in trouble with a gang of cattle rustlers. The leaders of the rustlers, Hugo Distang (Robert Ellis) and Bull Bagley (Richard Alexander), prove to be the very same villains Madigan was trailing. Aided by a new friend, Jughandle (Wallace MacDonald), Madigan manages to catch the rustlers red-handed. The bandits are carted off to jail and Jughandle proves to be an agent for the Cattlemen's Association. McCoy offered a competent and believable performance but this time the material was not quite up to his usual high standard. Future Three Stooges menace Vernon Dent appeared as an ill-fated bartender. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alberta Vaughn
- 1932
Directed by the mediocre J.P. McGowan, Tim McCoy's second Western for Columbia was a rather tedious affair in which McCoy played a cattle rancher who has leased grazing land from his girlfriend's (Virginia Lee Corbin) father (Dick Stewart). The Mitchell brothers, Spider (Joe Marba) and Jake (Monte Vandergrift), claim the land to be theirs and demand a toll for passage. The brothers then try to get rid of the rightful owner but fail and instead start erecting a fence. McCoy's sidekick, Sagebrush (Frank Rice), sets a charge of dynamite at the base of the barricade but Sally (Corbin) accidentally rides into the line of fire. She is saved in the nick of time by Tim and stampeding horses frightened by the explosion trample the last remaining Mitchell brother to death. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Virginia Lee Corbin, (more)
- 1932
An average entry in Columbia Pictures' Tim McCoy Western series, The Western Code features perennial Bad Guy Wheeler Oakman as Nick Grindle, a crooked saloon keeper who marries lovely Polly Loomis' mother for her money. The woman dies leaving everything to Grindle while Polly (Nora Lane) and her brother, Dick (Dwight Frye), remain penniless. Texas Ranger Tim Barrett (McCoy), however, suspects the will to be a forgery. When Grindle is found dead, both Polly and Dick confess to the crime, each believing the other to be guilty. Assuming both to be innocent, Tim follows Grindle's henchmen, Worden (Matthew Betz) and Chapman (Mischa Auer), to the gang's hideout where he finds Grindle still very much alive. The dead man was in fact Frank Newport, a missing ranger whose face Grindle had disfigured to hide his identity. Worden confesses to the murder of the ranger, Chapman admits to having forged the will, and Grindle himself is killed in a climactic gun battle. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
