arfdawg-1 Tim Madigan (Tim McCoy), gentleman gambler who never carries a gun, exposes a card sharp cheating Jose Hernandez (Red Lease.) Later, the gambler is shot after being knocked unconscious by Tim. Through circumstances, Jose thinks he did the killing, while Marshal Tom Barstow (Earle Hodgins) thinks Tim is the guilty party.Tim takes refuge at the ranch of Don Hernandez (Joseph Girard) and his daughter Juanita (Luana Walters), not knowing the youth he befriended is the runaway son of the family. Saloon owner Amos Harden (J. Frank Glendon) and gambler Ace Morgan (Wheeler Oakman), who sat in on the card game preceding the murder, are plotting to acquire the Hernandez ranch by means of a forged document.Harassed by the Marshal, who is seeking to unravel the murder mystery, Tim persuades Jose to return home. Tim then wins enough in a poker game with Harden and Morgan to save the Hernandez ranch. It's always amazing to me the number of small film companies there were in the 30s. This one was done by Puritan Pictures which produced a handful of westerns for about 2 years.The guy who owned the company, however went on to produce the side kids and even the Superman serial in the 40s. He even produced some Elvis movies and Roy Orbison's only film.But you want to know about this movie right? Not much to say. It's really cheaply made and not especially well acted.the story is silly and in all you'll likely be bored.Guess this is why TV killed the motion picture.

MartinHafer While no sane person would go so far as to say "Aces and Eights" is a great film, it is a bit better than average for a B-series western. That's because unlike most westerns (and Hollywood made 130234482734 of them), the plot is pretty unusual. What's most unusual is that the hero (Tim McCoy) plays a professional gambler--a first that I can recall. With B-series westerns, usually the hero (Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and the like) plays a government agent or rancher or ranch hand...never a gambler. But, like other heroes, he's a honest professional gambler and what he often does is expose the crooked ones and dispense justice without even using a gun. Apparently, Tim had hands of steel and could just about crush the hands of anyone attempting to shoot him.The film begins with just such a situation--Tim sees that the man gambling with him is cheating by dealing himself aces. When he confronts the guy and they are about to come to blows, the Sheriff suggests they go outside and settle it (I presume to kill each other). But Tim does NOT kill him--just threatens him and leaves. But an unseen hand from behind a tree is waiting. And, when one of the gambler's victims then confronts him, a shot rings out--and the evil gambler is killed. Who did it? Well, at first blame rests on Tim--who is forced to run.Once on the run, Tim meets the family of the man who THINKS he shot the gambler (his gun DID go off but the guy behind the tree really killed him). Then, thanks to Tim, he saves the family fortune and reunites the young man with his grieving father and sister. And, in the end, all is well and the perpetrator of the foul deed is exposed.I liked Tim McCoy's acting--it was simple and direct. The story was good as well--and quite entertaining. For a B-series film, it's among the better ones I've seen. Oh, and by the way, the title refers to a pair of aces and a pair of eights--the same hand held by Wild Bill Hickok when he was shot in the back while gambling.

classicsoncall As the film's title suggests, the famed aces and eights poker hand plays a role in the outcome of the story, but this time it's not a murder. Cowboy star Tim McCoy portrays Gentleman Tim Madigan, a card sharp who's not above a little bottom dealing himself. His reputation is so renowned that posters warn other gamblers to keep their distance from the well dressed poker player.Madigan's sidekick is a fellow named Lucky (Jimmy Aubrey), who keeps a pair of dice handy to consider what the day will bring. They ride across the border to Roaring Gulch, California following the murder of a fellow gambler that's pinned on Madigan. Madigan doesn't wear a gun, relying on his wits and power; he can tear a deck of cards into quarters. In Roaring Gulch he's befriended by Don Julio Hernandez (Joseph Girard) and his daughter Juanita (Luana Walters), while her brother Jose mistakenly believes he's the one responsible for the murder back in Nevada.In an effort to save the Hernandez ranch from crooked saloon owner Amos Harden (Frank Glendon), Madigan challenges him to a poker hand using a clean deck. Seems to me that was quite a gamble, even IF Lucky rolled a seven that day. Perhaps in the end it was Tim McCoy's steely gaze that saved the day, I've never seen it better.The Marshal (Earl Hodgins) tailing Madigan becomes convinced that he's innocent of the Nevada murder when Madigan pulls a slug out of a wall fired from Ace Morgan's (Wheeler Oakman) derringer. It matches up with the slug found near the dead body, in a logic defying exercise in ballistics, since the bullet had to go entirely through the dead man's body and then fall to his side. Not only that, but the Marshal had to find it! I'd like to see the Warren Commission explain that one.At least one interesting custom is explained in the course of the story, though I don't know if there's any basis in fact for it. At the Hernandez ranch, a chalice of gold coins, 'La Copa D'Oro', is on display in one of the rooms. The custom says that the coins are for any guest who finds himself truly in need, and even a thief would not dishonor that generosity. Given the story line and the opportunities made available to tempt fate, the cup made it to the end of the tale untouched. That at least seemed a lot more credible than the exact same 'aces and eights' poker hand showing up at different times in the story, to the point of matching the fifth card in the hand each time.

JoeytheBrit This low-budget oater opens with a brief prologue featuring Wild Bill Hickok (Karl Hackett), who was shot in the back and killed while holding a poker hand of a pair of aces and a pair of eights, before showing our hero Gentleman Tim Madigan (Tim McCoy) winning a game with the very same hand. Madigan is a somewhat ambiguous hero who dresses sharply and knows all the card sharp's tricks. He can also tear a pack of cards into four, which is pretty impressive. He also never uses a gun, choosing instead to simply disarm anyone who aims one at him.Together with his sidekick Lucky (Jimmy Aubrey, probably the only Liverpudlian you're ever likely to see in a western), Gentleman Tim gets involved in foiling a plan by a local bar owner and his partner to swindle a Spanish ranch owner out of his property. The film is fairly good for a low budget effort, with decent acting from the leading man. The modest nature of the budget shows through every now and then, though; for example, the background crowd noise during the final poker game between Tim and the bar owner is clearly a loop which repeats every five seconds or so. Despite this, the film is reasonably enjoyable, with the only drawback being the wooden acting of the female lead Luana Walters, who fortunately only has about five minutes screen time. Walters went on to feature in a further sixty films over the next twenty-four years, though, so I guess she must have had something going for her.