Directed by:
Roy RowlandCinematography:
Joseph RuttenbergComposer:
David SnellCast:
Mickey Rooney, Brian Donlevy, Ann Blyth, James Dunn, Tom Tully, Sam Levene, Walter Sande, Mickey Knox, Gloria Holden, Eve March, June Storey, Bob Steele (more)Plots(1)
In one of his first "adult" roles (he made his last Andy Hardy vehicle only a year earlier), Mickey Rooney plays Tommy McCoy, a dancer who performs in a going-nowhere nightclub act with his alcoholic father, Brian (James Dunn). Johnny Martin (Mickey Knox), a lightweight boxing champ who is headlining the show that Tommy and his Dad are currently working, admires Tommy's footwork and tells him that he might have a future in the ring. Tommy gives the fight game a try, and he soon proves he's got the goods as a slugger. Before long, Tommy is fighting Johnny for the lightweight title, and after a hard-fought match, Tommy wins -- and Johnny dies. Now dubbed "Killer" McCoy by the press and boxing fans, a distraught Tommy allows his career to be taken over by Jim Caighn (Brian Donlevy), an unscrupulous manager with a gambling problem. Jim drags Tommy through the dirtiest and most dishonest levels of the fight game, but Jim's daughter Sheila (Ann Blyth) sees Tommy's decent side and tries to rescue him. KILLER MCCOY was a remake of the 1938 Robert Taylor vehicle THE CROWD ROARS. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Mickey Rooney
USA
Best movies:
Captains Courageous (1937)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
Strike Up the Band (1940)
Brian Donlevy
Ireland
Best movies:
Destry Rides Again (1939)
Union Pacific (1939)
Hold Back the Dawn (1941)
Ann Blyth
USA
Best movies:
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Brute Force (1947)
Thunder on the Hill (1951)
James Dunn
USA
Best movies:
Tom Tully
USA
Best movies:
Ten North Frederick (1958)
The Sign of the Cross (1932)
The Moon Is Blue (1953)
Sam Levene
Russian Empire
Best movies:
After the Thin Man (1936)
...And Justice for All (1979)
Action in the North Atlantic (1943)
Walter Sande
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Citizen Kane (1941)
A Place in the Sun (1951)
Mickey Knox
USA
Best movies:
The Godfather: Part III (1990)
The Longest Day (1962)
White Heat (1949)
Gloria Holden
UK
Best movies:
Dodge City (1939)
Test Pilot (1938)
The Hucksters (1947)
Eve March
USA
Best movies:
Adam's Rib (1949)
The Last Hurrah (1958)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
June Storey
Canada
Best movies:
The Strange Woman (1946)
Too Late for Tears (1949)
In Old Chicago (1937)
Bob Steele
USA
Best movies:
The Longest Day (1962)
Of Mice and Men (1939)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Shelley Winters
USA
Best movies:
A Patch of Blue (1965)
An Average Little Man (1977)
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
Bert Stevens
USA
Best movies:
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Paul Bryar
USA
Best movies:
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Vertigo (1958)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Kenner G. Kemp
USA
Best movies:
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Limelight (1952)
Jeffrey Sayre
USA
Best movies:
Bon Voyage! (1962)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
North by Northwest (1959)
Harold Miller
USA
Best movies:
Song of Love (1947)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Frank Mayo
USA
Best movies:
Easter Parade (1948)
Action in the North Atlantic (1943)
Gilda (1946)
George Chandler
USA
Best movies:
Griffin and Phoenix: A Love Story (1976) (TV movie)
Edison, the Man (1940)
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)