Buck Jones Movies
Born in Indiana, Charles "Buck" Jones was raised in Montana, where he trained himself to be an expert rider and roper. After serving in the U.S. Cavalry, he joined the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show as a trick rider, and later performed with the Ringling Bros. circus. Entering films as a stunt double in 1917, he was promoted to his own starring series at Fox Studios two years later. Appearing onscreen with his horse Silver, Jones quickly became one of the most popular Western stars of the 1920s. When Westerns went into a brief eclipse in the early talkie era, he was "demoted" to low-budget Columbia Pictures, where he continued appearing in high-grossing horse operas and occasional "straight" dramatic films until 1936. He then spent a few seasons at Universal as star, producer, and occasional director. At the peak of his popularity in the 1930s, when his Buck Jones Rangers club boasted five million youthful members, at one point he was receiving more fan mail than Clark Gable. When his career began slipping again in 1940, he signed with Monogram, where he co-starred with Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton in the money-spinning Rough Riders series. On November 30, 1942, Jones was guest of honor at a party given by his producer/manager Scott R. Dunlap at the Cocoanut Grove night club in Boston when a fire broke out in the kitchen. According to some reports, Jones attempted to escape along with all the others when the fire spread to the main room; other sources claim that he valiantly insisted upon reentering the blazing inferno to rescue the guests still trapped inside. Whatever the circumstances, the end result was the same: Jones perished in the Cocoanut Grove fire along with nearly 500 others. Married to the same woman for 27 years, Buck Jones was the father of a daughter named Maxine, who married actor Noah Beery Jr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1926
One of American Western star Buck Jones' finest silents, A Man Four-Square is a screen version of William McLeod Raine's popular tale of a rancher who finds himself falsely accused of murder while attempting to help a friend in need. Jones, needless to say, not only saves his friend (two-reel Western lead William E. Lawrence), but vindicates himself and gets the girl (Marion Harlan). This fast-paced Western marked the first of many screen encounters between Jones and the always hissable Harry Woods. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1924
The Fox company's number two cowboy star (Tom Mix was, of course, top of the heap) Buck Jones starred as a cowboy who comes to the aid of a friend (Ben Hendricks, Jr.) falsely accused of murder. As always, Buck prevails, clears the friend, and wins the girl (Dolores Rousse). Jones sandwiched this commonplace western (based on the prolific Max Brand) between several modern-dress vehicles in which he joined a circus (Circus Cowboy (1924)) and entered a boxing ring (Winner Take All (1924). He was always more believable in western garb, however, and would cease experimenting with straight dramatics in the early 1930s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles "Buck" Jones, Delores Rousse, (more)
Monogram Pictures launched its lucrative "Rough Riders" western series with 1941's Arizona Bound. Producer Scott Dunlap hoped to attract new customers by teaming two of the most popular cowboy stars in the movies, Buck Jones and Tim McCoy, throwing in another old favorite, Raymond Hatton, as grizzled comedy relief (ironically, Hatton was actually younger than his two costars!) The first entry set the pattern of all the "Rough Riders" entries to follow: Apparently retired, gunslinger Buck Roberts (Buck Jones) is galvanized into action when an old friend asks him to help rid Mesa City of a scurrilous outlaw gang. Upon his arrival, Buck makes the acquaintance of local parson Tim McCall (McCoy) and itinerant ranchhand Sandy Hopkins (Hatton). It soon becomes obvious that Buck, Tim and Sandy have been working together all along, with Roberts doing most of the shootin' and fightin' while Tim and Sandy operate undercover and undetected. Their job finally done, our three heroes bid farewell to one another and go their separate ways, with the promise that they'll join up again whenever its becomes necessary. Though it seldom deviated from this basic formula, the "Rough Riders" series was a hit, and remained so until Buck Jones' untimely death in 1942. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, (more)
- 1921
Duke Travis (Buck Jones) is the new foreman on a ranch run by pretty Bess Lynne (Ruth Renick) and her brother (William Buckley). Trouble begins with the arrival of a pair of crooked cattle buyers (Arthur Carewe and James Farley) and soon our hero is robbed and left for dead in the desert. Bess, assuming her handsome foreman really is dead, allows herself to be wooed by one of the crooks and is on her way to the altar when Duke, having fortuitously stumbled upon a stray horse in the wilderness, gallops up to save her from a fate worse than death. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Ruth Renick, (more)
- 1922
Pioneering film producer William Fox turned Jackson Gregory's 1919 Wild West story The Bells of San Juan into a strong silent vehicle for relative newcomer Buck Jones. Jones plays Rod Norton, a lawman searching for his father's killer. Norton suspects saloon owner Jim Garson (Claude Payton) but is lacking evidence. Garson's henchmen, the Rickard brothers, kidnap Norton's sweetheart Dorothy (Fritzi Brunette), hoping to lure the sheriff into a trap. Norton saves the girl, but a head injury turns the lawman into a bank robber. An operation returns him to sanity, however, and he brings the murderer and his helpers to justice. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
The Rough Riders-Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, and Raymond Hatton-go through their customary paces in the Monogram western Below the Border. Once again, the three stars play characters who are outwardly strangers to one another, but who are secretly working together to defeat a common enemy. This time around, Buck Roberts (Jones), Tim McCall (McCoy) and Sandy Hopkins (Hatton) are in hot pursuit of the desperado who murdered a US marshal and then skeedaddled South of the Border. To keep the villain off track, Buck poses as an ex-convict, Tim pretends to be a wealthy cattle buyer, and Sandy impersonates a saloon handyman. By film's end, however, the three heroes have united as one, and it's curtains for bad guy Slade (Charles King). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, (more)
- 1923
Fox Western star Buck Jones enjoyed a change of pace in this boxing melodrama directed by a young William Wellman. Returning from the war, Dan O'Hara discovers that his wife has left him for another man. To find a new purpose in life, Big Dan turns his home into a gym for street boys, where he teaches them how to box. He later falls in love with pretty Dora Allen (Marian Nixon), but a jealous woman (Jacqueline Gadsden) is only too happy to inform Dora of Big Dan's marital status. Fortunately, the errant wife obligingly dies in a sanitarium, leaving Dan and Dora free to marry. Big Dan successfully mixed action with sentiment, leaving the comic relief to veteran comedian Monte Collins and African-American actress Mattie Peters, the latter portraying a no-nonsense factotum named Ophelia. Hired originally to keep the studio's reigning cowboy star Tom Mix in line, Buck Jones proved to be no mere copy and quickly found his own audience. Unlike Tom Mix, Jones would regularly be cast in non-Westerns, but his bread-and-butter remained sagebrush tales. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eileen O'Malley, Buck Jones, (more)
Veteran western star Buck Jones both co-produced (with Lesley Selander) and directed this well-mounted Universal B-Western co-starring the competent Kay Linaker and a host of familiar supporting players. A gang of blackmailers terrorizing the Swiftwater area leaves black aces cards with their ransom notes. Lackadaisical rancher Ted Ames (Jones) also receives a card but to the dismay of girlfriend Sandy McKenzie (Linaker) fails to do anything about it. But after losing his ramshackle ranch in a poker game with brothers Len (Fred Mackaye) and Jake Stoddard (Bernard Phillips), Ted is later accused of killing the latter, who is found on the Ames spread with a black ace left on his body. When Ted comes across blacksmith Henry Kline (Raymond Brown), yet another victim of the Black Aces gang, the two men decide to work together and catch the murderous blackmailers. Although he later finds Henry's money in the saddlebags belonging to Boyd Loomis (William E. Lawrence), Ted realizes that the real leader of the gang is someone much more powerful. On the advice of an old prospector (Arthur Van Slyke), Ted heads to a basin where he suspects the gang is holed up. Also arriving at the spot is Sandy, who manages to send her horse with a message to the sheriff (Charles LeMoyne) before being captured. The surprising identity of the gang leader is revealed just before the arrival of the sheriff and his men. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Kay Linaker, (more)
- 1927
Buck Jones stars as Black Jack, a clever if somewhat larcenous gambler who finds willing suckers wherever he goes. After cleaning out the participants of a poker game (with only 17 cents to his name!), Black Jack is chased out of town by the local "reformers." While on the lam, he meets heroine Barbara Bennett, who owns one of three pieces of a coin which, when joined together, will reveal the location of a lost gold mine. Black Jack spends the rest of the picture protecting the girl from the villains, who'd give -- and do -- anything to get their mitts on that precious coin. Leading lady Barbara Bennett was the sister of Joan and Constance Bennett, the wife of singer Morton Downey, and the mother of talk-show host Morton Downey Jr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Barbara Bennett, (more)
- 1927
Rancher Buck Jones goes undercover as a ranch hand on his own spread in this fairly well-paced silent Western, the last under the star's contract with Fox. A gang of land grabbers has taken over the place, led by the ubiquitous crooked foreman (Robert Kortman), but Buck prevails and wins the lovely Kathryn Perry in the process. Playing Perry's brother is young Austin Jewell, a bespectacled kid actor who later became secretary to Columbia czar Harry Cohn and, later still, production manager of films such as Terms of Endearment (1983). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Katherine Perry, (more)
- 1935
Westerner Buck Jones heads to the Great White North in Border Brigands. Jones plays Canadian Mountie Tim Barry, who always gets his man. This time, however, he's forced to cross the border into the United States -- apparently without permission -- to "get" villain Conyda (Fred Kohler Sr.). The reason for Barry's trek Southward is personal: Conyda is responsible for the death of the Mountie's brother. Lona Andre, one of the sexiest of the "B"-western leading ladies, co-stars with Jones in Border Brigands, while eyeball-rolling Frank Rice offers comedy relief. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Lona Andre, (more)
- 1931
A well-paced early sound Western, Border Law features Buck Jones) as Jim Houston, a Texas Ranger going undercover as a bandit, "The Tonto Kid," in order to infiltrate the gang that caused the death of his brother (Don Chapman). In the Mexican town of Alemeda, Jim, as "The Tonto Kid," saves saloon belle Tonita (Lupita Tovar) from the unwanted attentions of Dave (Louis Hickus), a member of Shag Smith's gang. Shag (James Mason) is so impressed with "The Kid" that he invites him to join the gang. Jim accepts, provided that Shag accompanies the gang during a raid on the bank in Eureka. Eureka, of course, is prepared for the invasion and Jim finally avenges his brother's death. Border Law was unofficially remade by Ken Maynard as Whistlin' Dan (1932) and officially by Jones himself as The Fighting Ranger (1934). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Rice
- 1937
Buck Jones was his own producer on this average Universal western filmed on attractive locations in California's Kern River Valley. After receiving a threatening note, Lonely Valley rancher Retta Lowry (Muriel Evans) and her kid brother Sunny (Dick Holland) rush to the local church to warn Parson Reeves, only to find him already dead. The next day Retta is visited by town boss Jake Wagner (Walter Miller), who produces a bill of sale for her ranch, apparently signed by her late father. Steve Hanson (Jones) and his friend Jim Lynch (Harvey Clark), a government agent masquerading as a tramp, begin an investigation into the strange and unsettling developments. After Steve discovers a secret tunnel leading from the church straight to Wagner's office, the villain orders him killed. Pretending to have drowned in the river, an incognito Steve discovers that Wagner and an accomplice, Sam Leavitt (Matty Fain), have been forging the signatures of dead ranchers in order to swindle the rightful heirs out of their properties. But with the able assistance of Jim Lynch, the very much alive Steve is able to catch the criminals in the act, and restore peace and tranquility to the valley. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Muriel Evans, (more)
- 1931
On his way to claim an inheritance, Tom, aka Cuthbert Chauncey Dale (Buck Jones), and his pal "Swede" (John Oscar) witness a stagecoach hold-up. The lone gunman escapes but leaves the loot behind and Chauncey and "Swede" soon find themselves arrested for the crime. They manage to escape, however, and later befriends the gunman, Starrett (Wallace MacDonald), whom Tom invites to work on his inherited ranch. Along with a dilapidated ranch house, the property also contains a strip of land separating the wealthy Preston spread from an especially rich pasture. After quarreling with supercilious Lou Preston (Ethel Kenyon), Tom chases her off his property, but Joe Moore (Albert J. Smith), the Preston foreman who is in love with Lou, mistakes the scene for a lovers' tiff. When Tom mortgages his ranch in order to buy cattle, Moore has his buddy Bill Saunders (Robert Kortman) "sell" him cattle stolen from the Preston herd. Believing the newcomer to be a common rustler, an angry Lou gives Tom 24 hours to leave or else! Just then, Sheriff Mac (Philo McCullough arrives to arrest Tom for the stagecoach robbery. Everything is ironed out, however, when a witness to the robbery identifies Starrett, who is killed in a gunfight with Moore. A recalcitrant Lou apologizes to Tom and they embrace. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Ethel Kenyon, (more)
- 1928
In one of his final Westerns for the Fox company, Buck Jones promises his dying foster-father, "Honest" John Maggert (Stanton Heck), that he will return the cattle that Maggert rustled from the local ranchers. Not only does Jones live up to his promise, he manages to rescue his foster-brother (Jack Baston) from a life of vice in the process. Veteran director Lambert Hillyer knew how to pace films such as The Branded Sombrero, and Jones once again proved what a fine actor he really was. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Leila Hyams, (more)
- 1938
Set on the eve of California's entry into the Union, this fact-based Western features Buck Jones as an undercover agent out to bring justice to American bandits swiping land from Mexicans. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Carmen Bailey, (more)
- 1927
A simple but well-received silent Western, this film starred popular Buck Jones as a young rancher tracking down the rustler (Jack Baston) who stole his herd of purebred horses. Jones' leading lady in this film, Diane Ellis (here for some reason billed "Dione Ellis"), was a blonde newcomer from Los Angeles who would tragically succumb to a rare tropical disease while honeymooning in India in December of 1930. Chain Lightning was a remake of The Brass Commandments (1923), which was also from Fox and which starred the veteran William Farnum. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1933
On the outs at Paramount, musical comedy star Nancy Carroll was "punished" by being sent to Columbia for the lachrymose Child of Manhattan. Carroll plays a dance-hall girl who falls hard for wealthy John Boles. Marriage is out of the question until she becomes pregnant. After losing her baby, Carroll divorces Boles and runs off with Charles Jones (better known as cowboy star Buck Jones). As the plot would have it, this convinces Boles that Carroll is not the golddigger she appears to be. Child of Manhattan was based on a Preston Sturges play, but most of the wittier and more pungent lines were lost in translation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nancy Carroll, John Boles, (more)
- 1924
Cowboy Buck Saxon (Buck Jones) is falsely accused of attempting to murder his rival in love (Jack McDonald) and is on the run from the law. He is hired incognito by a travelling circus and works there as a trick rider. On the job, Saxon falls for the show's blond high-wire artist, Bird Taylor (Marian Nixon). They marry, despite the objections from a lovesick animal trainer, and Buck later gets the chance to clear himself of attempted murder. Fox was grooming lovely Marian Nixon for top stardom and almost succeeded. In the end, the attempt was defeated by subpar material and Nixon never enjoyed the success of another Fox starlet, Janet Gaynor. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles "Buck" Jones
- 1926
With Tom Mix already having explored Arabia, it was only natural that Fox's other cowboy star, Buck Jones, should visit the mythical kingdom of Belgravia. The vehicle was The Cowboy and the Countess, in which Jones played a carefree range devil (as the film's press material put it), who rescues visiting Countess Justina of Belgravia (Helena D'Algy) from a car wreck. Visiting Belgravia with their Wild West show, Jones and his horse Wild Eagle grab yet another opportunity to save Her Highness, this time from the scheming Duke de Milos. A well-known concert singer, Helena D'Algy had made her screen debut in the Pauline Frederick drama Let Not man Put Asunder (1924). She looked good in period costumes and was highly visible in romantic vehicles such as Confessions of a Queen (1925) and Don Juan (1926). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Diana Miller, (more)
- 1923
In this simple little romantic drama, Charles "Buck" Jones plays fireman Andy McGee. McGee becomes a fireman over the protests of his mother (Lucy Beaumont), who doesn't want to see her son sacrifice his life the way his father did. When she dies, McGee adopts little Elizabeth Stevens (Eileen O'Malley), who takes care of him instead of vice versa. Along the way he meets Agnes Evans, a chorus girl (Marian Nixon), and falls in love. He finds out she is married to a worthless alcoholic, and he sadly has to write her off. When the home in which she lives catches fire, he comes to the rescue and saves her. Then he finds out that her husband -- who had locked her in her room -- is still inside. McGee does his duty and goes back for the husband. His heroic attempt to rescue the man, however, is in vain. The death of Agnes' nasty husband paves the way for her relationship with McGee. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles "Buck" Jones, Marian Nixon, (more)
The Rough Riders--Buck Jones, Raymond Hatton and Rex Bell--endeavor to provide a wagon train safe passage through Indian country. With Jones heading the caravan and Bell and Hatton working undercover, the threesome discover that the "savages" planning to attack the settlers are actually renegade whites. The criminals' target is the shipment of railroad supplies being carried in one of the wagons. Normally, the third "Rough Rider" would have been played by Colonel Tim McCoy, but when McCoy was called to active duty in World War II, he was hastily replaced by old-time western star Rex Bell. Dawn on the Great Divide was the last film for Buck Jones, who was killed in the infamous Coconut Grove fire shortly before the film was released. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Rex Bell, (more)
- 1924
Fox's also-ran cowboy star Buck Jones played a prospector falsely accused of murder in this silent Western, which benefitted from an above average supporting cast. Along with a fellow inmate, Jones escapes from prison. Hiding out with his newfound buddy's sister (Evelyn Brent), Jones manages not only to clear his own name but also to obtain a pardon from the governor for his friend. Playing the hero's young sidekick was William Haines (then spelling his last name "Haynes"), a perky young actor who made quite a name for himself in light comedy roles at MGM in the late 1920s. Haines retired from acting soon after the changeover to sound, becoming instead Hollywood's most fashionable interior designer. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles "Buck" Jones, Evelyn Brent, (more)
- 1926
Based on a 1921 story by Jackson Gregory, this silent Western starred Buck Jones as Montgomery Wilson Fitzsmith, a roaming cowboy who comes to the aid of a beleaguered group of Desert Valley ranchers who are fighting an unscrupulous capitalist, Jefferson Hoades (Malcolm Waite). Hoades has cornered the valley's costly water supply, but before Fitzsmith can join the side of the righteous, he most prove himself innocent of stealing a pie. With sheriff's deputy Eugene Pallette in hot pursuit, our hero encounters Mildred Dean (Virginia Brown Faire), whose father (J.W. Johnston), is put on trial for breaking the water pipeline. Fitzsmith gallops back to town and proves that the real culprit is Hoades. A chase ensues, and Fitzsmith bests the evil Hoades in a well-staged fistfight. Having signed with Fox in 1919, Buck Jones would become that studio's runner-up to the great Tom Mix. By the mid 1920s, Jones was almost rivaling Mix's popularity, having adopted a less flamboyant but still pleasing style of his own. Jones' stardom lasted until his tragic death in a Boston nightclub fire in 1942. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Virginia Brown Faire, (more)
