Overlooked Movies: Silent Men (1933)

Growing up, I was never a fan of Tim McCoy's Western movies. They didn't show up very often on the local TV stations, and anyway, I was too busy watching Roy, Gene, and Hoppy. But now that I'm older, I've come to appreciate McCoy's work. A former military officer, Wild West showman, and Indian expert, McCoy was a little on the stiff side as an actor, but with his jutting chin and enormous hat, he always projected plenty of strength and gravitas.

The 1933 movie SILENT MEN finds him playing a respected range detective and brand inspector in Montana, but the character has a secret: he's really an escaped convict who was sentenced to life in prison in Arizona for a crime he didn't commit. His old cellmate (who happens to have been a member of the gang that framed McCoy's character) shows up and tries to blackmail him into overlooking the rustling that's going on in the area. McCoy, who blames a pair of shady brothers played by Wheeler Oakman and J. Carrol Naish for the rustling, is too upright to go along with that, of course, so the gang frames him for a killing and he winds up in jail.

From there, however, he gets some help from an unexpected source and escapes to track down the real mastermind behind the cattle thefts and the murder. There's some fightin' and ridin' and shootin', naturally, but not really a lot for a B-Western.

You can really tell that this movie is based on a pulp story by Walt Coburn. (Unfortunately, I don't know which one.) It's just packed with back-story, plot twists, and characters who don't turn out like you might expect them to. The acting is generally pretty good, especially Naish and Oakman, and Glenn Strange, a welcome presence in any Western, shows up in a couple of scenes as a cowboy. One of the scripters was Gerald Geraghty, who went on to write some of those good Roy Rogers movies directed by William Witney.

If you've never seen a Tim McCoy movie, SILENT MEN wouldn't be a bad place to start. It's a good solid B-Western, and I'm glad I watched it. A tip of the enormous Stetson to Steve Mertz, who made that possible.