Border Caballero (1936) User Reviews

Cowboy G-Men On The Range

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 5 July 2010]

Border Caballero finds Tim McCoy as a former FBI man in the modern west out on the range where he hooks up with Earl Hodgins Medicine Show as a trick shot artist. He meets up with his former colleague Ralph Byrd who is on the trail of counterfeiters. When Byrd is killed by the gang and McCoy framed, McCoy takes up where Byrd left off in an effort to trap the gang and find out who the brains is behind it.

Unfortunately we're told right away who the culprit is, but that doesn't stand in the way of Border Caballero being a pretty good B western. I have to call attention to two outstanding performances. The first is Lois January who plays a saloon girl named Goldie with a far more urban twist to her performance and a far more realistic one than you would find in a B western for the Saturday afternoon matinée crowd.

The second is one of my favorite character actors Earl Hodgins who occasionally got into a major film, but who graced many a B western with some outrageous characterizations. I love watching him here as the medicine show man who is one congenial fraud, but a good guy nonetheless.

Try to see Border Caballero if broadcast.

Another good one from the always reliable McCoy

[Paularoc · 6/10 · 20 June 2012]

Tim McCoy is not a western cowboy star I remember watching as a child and have no nostalgic memories of his portrayals. However, I have enjoyed the few movies I've seen of his and place his movies in my middle range of favorite B westerns (ahead of the movies of Sunset Carson and Don Barry, e.g.). This one is an especially good one due in no small part to Earl Hodgins as Dr. Shaw – the traveling medicine show huckster who is also very likable and Lois January, the cynical and savvy saloon girl. Tim McCoy plays a sharpshooter for Dr. Shaw's traveling show named Tim Ross but called Missouri. Come to find out, Missouri is an under cover agent as is Tex Weaver who has infiltrated a gang of bank robbers. The gang kills Tex and Missouri vows to bring the killer and his gang to justice. He does this by donning the disguise of a Mexican bad guy. Much to my pleasant surprise, McCoy did a good job with the accent and mannerisms.

Pretty ordinary...and that's not so bad.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 9 January 2011]

This is one of 136482371 B-westerns Hollywood made during the 1930s. All of them had low budgets (like all Bs), lots of action and a likable hero and there is a definite sameness to them. This is not necessarily bad--the public loved them and they were light and entertaining. John Wayne started in Bs and the likes of Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Hoot Gibson and Hopalong Cassidy made tons of them. This one features Tim McCoy--one of the lesser-known cowboy stars today but a guy who made a huge number of quick films all the way from the mid-1920s until the mid-1960s! A group of less than honest folk running a patent medicine show are being chased by the law. However, they manage to make it across the county line and the dastardly Sheriff actually tries pulling their wagon back across the border so he can arrest them! McCoy sees this and shoots the Sheriff's rope--freeing the wagon and impressing the leader of this group. He hires McCoy to do some trick shooting in order to drum up customers for the show.

Once in his new job, he meets up with a guy named 'Tex' who is in reality a government agent who has infiltrated a gang of bank robbers, Then you learn that McCoy (who, incidentally is named 'Missouri' as the writers obviously had an obsession with naming people after places) is ALSO a g-man! And when Tex is murdered, it looks like Missouri is responsible...and it's up to him to catch the baddies and make the world a better place for niceness.

As for McCoy, he didn't have a huge personality but was quite pleasant. The production was decent and the acting (usually a bit iffy in such films) is decent as well. All in all, this is not to get excited about but it's also worth your time if you are a B-western lover.

Does not star Joe Flaherty.

[Spuzzlightyear · 6/10 · 28 November 2005]

Another one of those Tim McCoy western movies that seem to spring up like rabbits when looking up the history of the Western. In this one, he gets a job in a traveling medicine show (helping the man who runs it skirt the law at the beginning reel) and getting involved in helping to try to bust a series of bank robberies in the region. His past friend is a G-Man who has infiltrated the group is soon found out and dealt with.. Is Mccoy next? This film isn't all that bad. Tim McCoy certainly doesn't really rank with the best of the movie cowboys (well, #1 problem would be his hat), but he's somewhat entertaining, gets into a lot of wimpy looking fights (he throws his hat a weapon1 Ooh! Tough!) shoots his gun totally wrong and again treats us to his Mexican impersonation (like he did in Lighting Carson Rides Again). Good for some entertainment.

on the drearily silly side of the '30s

[Cristi_Ciopron · 5/10 · 19 May 2016]

An updated western, with motorcars and suits, a gangster movie with a western pretext, about weapons smugglers; McCoy's impersonation of a Hispanic is funnier than his 1st avatar as a marksman, but not very good, only funnier, not really what this player had presumably best to offer, and this oddity gained some appreciation. Byrd has a supporting role, ending with a lousy scene of murder on stage, which perhaps would of satisfied the children in the audience.

The movie even has some kind of a pre-code joke about women's curiosity.

Shaw's scenes are funny, the only good acting belongs to him, and the intro, with the county line and its crossing, has to be one of the better things this director, for whom a honorable mediocrity should of been an ideal, ever filmed; afterward, there are only lowbrow gags with drunks, unfortunately the medicine swindler is dropped, expended. Ross, the undercover guy, needs the job, but also sympathizes the crook.

In this movie, an undercover agent impersonates 1st a cowboy and a hired marksman in a traveling show, then a Mexican; it's not the player who impersonates a Mexican, but his character does, making it a 2nd degree impersonation (a player pretends to be an undercover agent who pretends to be a Mexican horseman).

So, I would of liked to rate this movie as mediocre.

The leading player looks odd as a Mexican, but the movie is silly and awkward. The director, as I have (more than once) implied, was a disgrace to the trade.

An Excellent McCoy Entry from Sam Newfield

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 14 May 2008]

Sam Newfield was allegedly mighty fast on his movie-shooting feet, but no-one has ever described him as stylish or creative. This little film could well be the exception.

True, Doc Shaw's endless fulminating is allowed to take up too much screen time, but this is otherwise an admirably well-produced "B" with a surprisingly gritty, realistic feel to it.

By Newfield's humble standards, the direction is extremely gripping and involving, with action vigorously staged with lots of extras and an unusually dark atmosphere deftly, realistically created, despite a routine plot that pits our hero reluctantly against a band of bank bandits.

Tim McCoy true cowboy and cabellero

[frank4122 · 10/10 · 22 October 2019]

Many interesting characters in this from cinema's most prolific director Sam Newfield. Tim McCoy an ex G man posing as Missouri is with Dr. Shaw's medicine show. The medicine show's favorite pitchman, Earle Hodgins livens things up as the most loveable con man in the west. The best Dick Tracy, Ralph Byrd and McCoy have their eye on number one western sweatheart, Lois January. Although in a limited role, it was great to see the man who represented the law in the west Jack Rockwell. Tim McCoy shows some acting range here and many great character actors from the period make Border Cabellero a memorable flim.