Texas Cyclone (1932) User Reviews

Tim McCoy Comes Back to Town and Pretends to be himself

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 21 March 2007]

I agree with the previous reviewer, if you can accept a very silly premise that a man could look and talk so much like a missing rancher who's from the town he rides into than you will enjoy Texas Cyclone. And of course you can see John Wayne in support of another cowboy hero Tim McCoy.

During this short stint with Columbia Pictures Wayne did two films with Tim McCoy. Both are directed by D. Ross Lederman, both written by William Coit McDonald, and both had a whole lot of the same cast members.

Repeating his role as villain is Wheeler Oakman and John Wayne is once again a cowhand, the only one it turns out who's honest and employed by Tim McCoy's 'widow' played by Sheila Terry. We also have for the first time Walter Brennan and John Wayne working in the same film. Brennan is the sheriff and he's made up to be quite a bit older than he was at the time. This may have been the beginning of all those old codger roles that Brennan played right up to when he was one.

Of course McCoy finds that Oakman is still up to no good just like when he left and he has to deal with all the problems Oakman is causing. With John Wayne's help all things are righted in the end and the reason for McCoy's absence is explained in a very typical movie fashion.

If it wasn't such a silly plot premise, I'd give the film a notch or two higher a rating. It's not bad for a B film and the young Duke is shown to great advantage here.

John Wayne playing another cowboy'd sidekick---now that's interesting!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 13 August 2010]

This Tim McCoy movie is well worth seeing due to its cast. Although today McCoy is pretty much forgotten, the film also features a couple future stars--John Wayne and Walter Brennan (spelling 'Brenan' here--and wearing a lot of makeup to make him look much older). Plus, for fans of old time comedy (such as Mack Sennett and Three Stooges films) will probably recognize Vernon Dent as the bartender.

McCoy enters a new town and, oddly, everyone seems to know him and keep referring to him as 'Jim'. Apparently, this Jim was a bit of a hero who was loved by many and hated by others--but he died several years ago! Yet, in their eyes, Jim was somehow back from the dead. After talking with the bartender (with whom he develops an instant friendship), McCoy decides to pretend he is Jim to see what develops. However, this plan is sorely tested when he meets Jim's widow--who also thinks he's Jim! Using an old movie cliché, she faints at the sight of him. Soon he strikes up a friendship with John Wayne (who, for once, plays the sidekick role) and, along with some friends from back in Texas, they set out to set things right.

While this is a pretty standard B-western (aside from the cast), it is a nice film to watch simply because the DVD is of such a nice quality. Unlike many of Wayne's early Bs, this one is in nearly pristine condition and even has DVD captions in three languages (including English). In addition, the acting and script is a bit better than you'd normally find in a low-budget western. While the film won't change your life and the whole mistaken identity idea is silly if you think about it, it's well worth seeing if you enjoy the genre...or if you have an hour to spare and want to try one of these old-time films.

By the way, I'd like to explain my score of 7. This is relative to other Bs of the era as well as indicative of its watchability today. for what this is, it's pretty good. Also, if you like this one, McCoy and Wayne also did one other film together--"Two-Fisted Law".

Cast Makes This Entertaining

[Michael_Elliott · 29 July 2016]

Texas Cyclone (1932)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Texas Grant (Tim McCoy) rides into a small town where he's immediately mistaken for a man named Rawlins who died years earlier. Pretty soon this mistake has people taking shots at his life so Texas must try and find out what happened to Rawlins.

Texas CYCLONE certainly isn't a masterpiece but it's a fairly entertaining "B" Western from the era when it seems like at least two of these were being released each week. This one here benefits from having a very familiar cast, which should keep film buffs glued to the screen.

The film is pretty much what you'd expect from a Western from this era. It clocks in at just a hour and features a rather routine story that leads to our hero being heroic and of course there are some nice shoot outs. The film benefits from McCoy's fine performance, although I must admit his constant "I must look like this fella Rawlins" got annoying. The supporting cast includes a young John Wayne and Walter Brennan as well as Vernon Dent who steals the show as the bartender.

A man arrives in a town where the inhabitants recognize him as a hero long thought dead

[getcarter2 · 21 September 2000]

A classic, innocent western. Fun and, at times, funny. John Wayne as Steve is worth the whole 58 minutes. Tim McCoy over acts like nothing I've ever seen and the whole movie is simply enjoyable. Find it if you can.

Worthwhile to see the very authentic Tim McCoy at work

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 20 December 2022]

B-Western starring Tim McCoy as a new guy in town who everyone mistakes for a heroic rancher who went missing years earlier and was presumed dead. Through a series of circumstances too silly to relate, McCoy decides to go along with the charade that he's this hero, and help out the man's wife (Shirley Grey) who has been struggling to keep her ranch going in the face of incessant cattle rustling by the minions of bad guy Wheeler Oakman. McCoy finds help in nice-guy ranch hand John Wayne and old coot sheriff Walter Brennan.

Tim McCoy was a major Western star in the late silent period, and continued on with B Westerns throughout the 1930's into the 40's. He was a real cowboy, adept horseman, and expert on Native American cultures and customs. He's perhaps not the strongest actor or the most intimidating screen presence, but he's genuine, and I liked him well enough. Wayne doesn't have a lot to do, but he's not bad, and you can see why he was a bit of a sex symbol during the early years of his career. Brennan, in one of his biggest roles to date, was only in his late 30's, but already playing a gray-haired old goof. As for the movie, it won't make anyone's top ten lists, but there are a lot worse in the world of quickie B Westerns.

A cowboy is believed to be back from the grave.

[michaelRokeefe · 7/10 · 13 June 2015]

This is a Columbia Pictures quickie western starring Tim McCoy as Texas Grant, who rides into Stampede, Arizona and is mistaken for Tim Rawlings a rancher who vanished long ago and assumed dead. Even Rawlings' wife Helen(Shirley Grey)believes she is looking at her husband. Texas agrees to stick around to help Mrs. Rawlings save her ranch from cattle rustlers lead by big money man Utah Becker(Wheeler Oakman). Grant gets rid of the no-good Rawlings ranch hands, but keeps Steve Pickett(John Wayne)to be his right hand man. Becker and Grant will butt heads one time too many. Grant will take a knock on the head and awake discovering the amazing truth about himself.

Other players: Wallace McDonald, Harry Cording, Jim Farley and Walter Brennan stars as Sheriff Collins.

Extremely Entertaining B Western

[ebach-264-953484 · 7/10 · 15 March 2015]

I had caught this movie on Sony's channel GetTV. I thought it was an extremely entertaining B Western. It does not have the production quality of a post WWII major western but was a lot of fun. It was quite fun to see a young John Wayne and Walter Brennan. I was not familiar with Tim McCoy, but he had a really entertaining persona along with his giant hat. I got a kick out of how the sped up the bar room fight scenes kind of an early version of FX. If you like this one you may also like Two Fisted Law. Both movies are short so great viewing for an afternoon. These are Columbia pictures movies. John Wayne has a somewhat minor role,but one sees how he did have the persona to become a star shortly.

An Obscure but Surprisingly Good Western

[Uriah43 · 7/10 · 16 September 2020]

This film begins with a cowboy by the name of "Texas Grant" (Tim McCoy) riding into the small town of Stampede, Arizona where he is mistaken by everybody there as a man named "Jim Rawlings" who owned the Diamond R Ranch about 5 years ago but was presumed dead. At first, Texas Grant doesn't know how to handle this news, but while talking to a bartender named "Hefty" (Vernon Dent) he is convinced to adopt the new name because it displeases some of the bad hombres in town. He then immediately realizes the depth of their hatred when, as soon as he walks out of the saloon, two men try to kill him. Fortunately, he is able to defend himself from their attack, and subsequently learns that both of these men work for a local cowboy by the name of "Utah Becker" (Wheeler Oakman) who is trying to acquire the Diamond R Ranch from Jim Rawlings' widow "Helen Rawlings" (Shirley Grey). Wanting to keep up the charade, he then rides out to the ranch, but after talking to Helen he is convinced to stay a little longer to help rid her of some of the rustlers who have been stealing her cattle. What he doesn't realize is just how badly Utah Becker wants the Diamond R Ranch--and the lengths he will go to in order to have it. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that I was pleasantly surprised by just how entertaining this film turned out to be. Admittedly, it is an older film and doesn't have many of the refinements one would expect by today's standards. Even so, it had a good plot, plenty of action and some good performances by Tim McCoy, Wheeler Oakman and John Wayne (as the ranch hand "Steve Pickett"). That being said, I liked this rather obscure film and recommend it to those who might enjoy a movie of this sort. Above average.

Colonel Tim McCoy

[i-shaolinmaster · 10/10 · 23 October 2020]

This is one of our favorites and we watch it several times a moth. Tim's background in the military seems to have given him a leading man's bearing in his films. We love them all. Code of the Cactus, Six Gun Trail, The Fighting Renegade, just to name a few. In these particular three and others, Tim plays dual roles and they are loads of fun. As for Texas Cyclone, we love seeing John Wayne in one of Tim's movies. He did some movies before but he is so charming in this one. Watch closely and you see some of his trademark gestures and his signature laugh. Although Harry Carey taught John Wayne to walk his iconic walk in the future, he did just fine here. I don't want to forget to mention Tim's horse Pal. He often looks like he thinks he is in a parade dancing through the streets. A fantastic addition and partner to any film.

McCoy, Duke, and Brennan turn Cyclone into a twister

[frank4122 · 10/10 · 24 June 2019]

Is he Texas Grant or Jim Rawlings? Not really sure who real cowboy Tim McCoy is until you see the ending but in between a very entertaining film. John Wayne plays a supporting role but it's easy to see he's destined to be a star. Beautiful Shirley Grey trying to save the Diamond R ranch has some acting heavies for and against her. A young Brennan needed some make up to be a elderly irascible sheriff. Who better than Wheeler Oakman to play Utah Becker trying to run Rawlings out of town or kill him. Other greats in this film who made it so memorable include, Mary Gordon, Vernon Dent, and Wallace MacDonald.

Dead ringer yarn that is more curio than quality

[shakercoola · 5/10 · 29 November 2019]

An American western; A story about a wanderer who rides into a strange town in Arizona, and the town villains confuse him with a a former inhabitant, believed dead for five years. This 'B' movie oater has a theme about reclaimed justice, but mostly suffers for its primitive plot about supposed mistaken identity. It has staged fighting and mostly stiff acting from its star, Tim McCoy. John Wayne makes an appearance, but does not make enough impact given his then burgeoning talent.

Primitive!

[JohnHowardReid · 4/10 · 4 February 2018]

NOTES: The first of two films Wayne made supporting Tim McCoy at Columbia. The other: Two Fisted Law (1932), shot by the same team of Lederman and Kline, also from a William Colt MacDonald story.

VIEWERS' GUIDE: Okay for all.

COMMENT: As will be seen from the synopsis, Wayne's role is relatively unimportant. True, the actor is much his usual self, even at this early stage of his career, but he has only four or five scenes and is surprisingly even up-staged by an unknown bit-player as the climax (in which he takes no part) comes around.

Aside from Wayne's presence, this is a typical "B" western of its period. Not a great deal of action - a couple of undercranked fist fights and a brief climactic shoot-out; a lesser amount of comedy relief (somewhat inepty provided by a youngish Walter Brennan already into old-timer parts but not yet having them down pat); a lot of simple-minded intrigue; and a smidgin of romance. All against settings far more grittily realistic (the saloon girls) than those we are now used to. And of course no background music - a deficiency that despite Kline's lucid photography, gives the movie a somewhat primitive air.

That soundtrack

[bruno-32 · 4/10 · 13 September 2014]

This movie appealed to me cause of the featured cast of John Wayne, who was 25 at the time and Walt Brennan, in makeup, which he used in future roles to his advantage..."Kentucky", when he won an Oscar as a supporting player. The plot was interesting, but not the writing that accompanied it. Imagine a 'strange woman' running over to you and plant a kiss in broad daylight, thinking its her long, lost husband...real stupid. Aside from that, I marveled at the clippety clop of the horses..and it brought to mind those old radio shows when they made the sound of horses running. I can't imagine it being that specific when they run the horses in westerns like that, especially on soft dirt. Have to admit though, it makes the scene more dramatic.

Tim McCoy & John Wayne in an Amnesia Oater

[zardoz-13 · 6/10 · 27 July 2014]

"Texas Cyclone" is a Tim McCoy western about mistaken identity. John Wayne co-starred in two McCoy's oaters as a second-string cowboy. For the record, this was Wayne's first film with McCoy. Later, he appeared in "Two-Fisted Law" with McCoy. Altogether, Wayne worked with director D. Ross Lederman on three horse operas. Before his two co-starring turns with McCoy, Wayne co-starred with Buck Jones in "The Range Feud" for Columbia. Wayne's two McCoy sagebrushers were Columbia releases, too. "Texas Cyclone" emerges as a 1932 version of "The Bourne Identity." Our hero calls himself Texas Grant, but everybody else hails him as Jim Rawlins. Predictably, as it turns out, Tex Grant has suffered such trauma that he doesn't know he isn't Jim Rawlins. D. Ross Lederman stages an interesting saloon shoot-out between our hero and the dastardly villain with his camera set high in the rafters above the two shooters. This is distinctive because everything else is filmed at eye-level.

Texas Grant (Tim McCoy) rides into the frontier town of Stampede and some gunmen are prepared to shoot it out with him. An obese bartender named Hefty tells Texas to masquerade as Rawlings. Hefty tells Texas how to get to the Diamond R Ranch where Rawlins lived. Texas has to beat some sense into one of his assailants before the hombre capitulates. Sheriff Lew Collins (Walter Brennan of "Red River") makes the same mistake that many other townspeople made. He believes that Tex is Jim Rawlins. When Rawlins's wife Helen (Shirley Guy) lays her eyes on Texas, she believes that she is seeing her long, lost husband Jim. It seems that Jim disappeared five years ago, and Hefty believes he was shot and killed. Texas takes Rawlins's wife inside and meets Katie (Mary Gordon) the housekeeper who makes the same mistake everybody else has made about Texas. She tells Tex in so many words that Helen is running the Diamond R, but Utah Becker (Wheeler Oakman) is rustling her cattle. Furthermore, Katie condemns the lazy, good-for-nothing ranch hands for their lackluster duty. Tex goes to the bunkhouse and fires ranch foreman Jim Lawler (Wallace MacDonald). He meets a cowpoke who doesn't string along with Lawler. This man is Steve Picket (John Wayne) and Tex takes a liking to Steve. Lawler and Tex have a knockdown drag-out fistfight, and Tex licks him. Helen decides go along with the ruse that Tex is Jim, and they fix him up a room in the house to avert suspicion. Later, Becker's men are rustling cattle when Steve spots them, and a shoot-out ensues. The two rustlers exchange gunshots with Steve, and they cease him in the shoulder and knock him off his horse. As the rustlers are hightailing it, Steve kills Web Oliver, while Steve's horse gallops back to the ranch. Tex and Helen find him and Tex leaves Steve in Helen's care. Meanwhile, Tex catches up with Farwell and takes him to Sheriff Collins. Tex and Sheriff Collins concoct a scheme to draw all the inhospitable types with no apparent job but money in their wallets to a lecture by Collins. Meantime, Tex has summoned ten Texas gunslingers to join him. Tex and his friends surprise the undesirables at Sheriff Collins' lecture and Collins compels them to disarm themselves. He orders them to leave Stampede and make a 20 mile hike to the nearest town on foot. Becker swears up and down that Tex isn't Jim, just as Tex has believed all along. Nevertheless, after a brief gunfight in Becker's saloon, a wounded Tex collapses. The next time that we see Tex, he is in bed with Helen tending him. As it turns out, Tex really is Jim and the mystery is resolved to everyone's satisfaction.

"Texas Cyclone" is a rougher than usual B-movie western with comic relief. Quite possibly, this may have been the first time that John Wayne and Walter Brennan co-starred in a western.

Early product of Gower Gulch

[fredit-43004 · 6/10 · 28 September 2022]

I mostly agree with the other comments, that the main attraction of this film is the early days of John Wayne, and also, the beginnings of Western "talkies." The rating is dependent upon how indulgent you are, and if historical interest means little to you, then your rating will be lower than mine. The basic plot element of mistaken identity is absurd. Beyond this, all of the cowboys seem to have immaculate clothing and hats--none of them appears to have been spending regular time with the cattle. But the appearance of these cowboys probably has much to do with the beginnings of "Gower Gulch," that part of Gower Street in Hollywood which Harry Cohn acquired to serve as the home of Columbia Pictures. This is obviously a Columbia film, because at the start of the film you can hear the audio fanfare for the Columbia trademark. Cowboys and other hopeful extras for a western film would congregate on the street near Columbia, hoping to be hired by the studios based in that area. Often, having one's own costume and hat helped in being hired. The numerous cowboys regularly seen on Gower led to the location being nicknamed "Gower Gulch."

Classic early western!

[frellebay-29-238690 · 8/10 · 28 December 2021]

Great early movie from Tim McCoy. I would have rated it a "7" but it holds two of the best lines of any movie, ever. No matter how many times I've heard them before, I have to chuckle each time one of them comes up.