Gun Code
1940 film

Gun Code is a 1940 American western film directed by Sam Newfield and starring Tim McCoy, Inna Gest and Carleton Young. It was distributed by the independent company PRC which specialized in handling low-budget second features. The film's sets were designed by the art director Fred Preble.
Plot
The inhabitants of the town Miller Flats are intimidated by a gang running a protection racket. When the parson attempts to rally the townspeople against the gang he is killed by them. A marshal comes to town in disguise and joins forces with Betty Garrett the owner of the newspaper to bring down the racket.
Cast
Tim McCoy as Marshal Tim Hammond posing as Tim Hays
Inna Gest as Betty Garrett
Lou Fulton as Curley Haines
Stephen Chase as James M. Bradley - Banker
Carleton Young as Henchman Slim Doyle
Ted Adams as Sheriff Kramer
Robert Winkler as Jerry Garrett
Dave O'Brien as Henchman Gale
George Chesebro as Henchman Bart
Jack Richardson as Mike McClure
John Elliott as Parson A. Hammond
Victor Adamson as Townsman
Bob Burns as Townsman
Budd Buster as Townsman
Tex Cooper as Townsman
Jack Evans as Henchman
Herman Hack as Posse Rider
References
Bibliography
Pitts, Michael R. Western Movies: A Guide to 5,105 Feature Films. McFarland, 2012.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Gun Code” as 1940 film. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1940 film. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q111915606. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1940 and 2012.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gun Code” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.