Killer McCoy


Killer McCoy is a 1947 American film about a boxer starring Mickey Rooney. It is a remake of The Crowd Roars. The picture was directed by Roy Rowland with a supporting cast featuring Brian Donlevy, Ann Blyth, James Dunn, Tom Tully, and Sam Levene.

Plot summary

Tommy McCoy is a tough New York City boy, close to his dad, Brian, a performer in vaudeville. One night while his dad's doing a song and dance for the audience as part of a boxing event, Tommy accepts a challenge to step into the ring. He knocks out his opponent.
Lightweight champ Johnny Martin is impressed. He takes the McCoys on the road, letting Brian perform and showing Tommy the ropes of the boxing business. Tommy wins several fights and gains popularity, but kills a man in the ring and wants to quit. Then he discovers that his dad is heavily in debt to racketeer Jim Caighn and has gambled away Tommy's earnings.
Tommy begins a romantic relationship with the gangster's daughter, Sheila. He is expected to throw a big fight so that Caighn can collect a big payoff from his gambling rivals, and to ensure his dive in the eighth round, Sheila is taken hostage. But she manages to escape, inspiring Tommy to knock out his foe.

Cast

MGM announced the film in March 1947. Mickey Rooney had intended to appear in a biopic of jockey Tod Sloan but when that was postponed MGM put him in this. Cyril Hume wrote the script and Sam Zimbalist was assigned to produce. It was a conscious decision on MGM's part to try him in a different sort of role. Elizabeth Taylor was announced as his costar. In May Frederick Hazlitt Brennan signed to write the script. By June, Taylor had been replaced by Ann Blyth due to script revisions that changed the age of her character.

Reception

Box office

The film was a hit, earning $2,201,000 in the US and Canada and $990,000 elsewhere making a profit of $768,000.