Frontier Fugitives (1945)

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

When brash Texas border officer Mike Norton wrongfully kills and buries the friend and ranch hand of Pete Perkins, the latter is reminded of a promise he made to bury his friend, Melquiades Estrada, in his Mexican home town. He kidnaps Norton and exhumes Estrada's corpse, and the odd caravan sets out on horseback for Mexico.

Lone Star Ranger

Texas Ranger Buck Dunne is assigned to round up a gang of bank robbers. The leader of the gang turns out to be the "respectable" Judge Longstreth, making life difficult for Dunne inasmuch as he's in love with Longstreth's niece Barbara.

The Wonderful Country

Having fled to Mexico from the U.S. many years ago for killing his father's murderer, Martin Brady travels to Texas to broker an arms deal for his Mexican boss, strongman Governor Cipriano Castro. Brady breaks a leg and while recuperating in Texas the gun shipment is stolen. Complicating matters further the wife of local army major Colton has designs on him, and the local Texas Ranger captain makes him a generous offer to come back to the states and join his outfit. After killing a man in self-defense, Brady slips back over the border and confronts Castro who is not only unhappy that Brady has lost his gun shipment but is about to join forces with Colton to battle the local raiding Apache Indians.

The Unforgiven

The neighbors of a frontier family turn on them when it is suspected that their beloved adopted daughter was stolen from the Kiowa tribe.

El Dorado

Cole Thornton, a gunfighter for hire, joins forces with an old friend, Sheriff J.P. Harrah. Together with a fighter and a gambler, they help a rancher and his family fight a rival rancher that is trying to steal their water.

No Country for Old Men

Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon dead bodies, $2 million and a hoard of heroin in a Texas desert, but methodical killer Anton Chigurh comes looking for it, with local sheriff Ed Tom Bell hot on his trail. The roles of prey and predator blur as the violent pursuit of money and justice collide.

The Return of the Rangers

The Texas Rangers round up rustlers by masquerading as the same. Trouble ensues when while in disguise one of the Rangers is accused of a killing.

The Outlaw Josey Wales

After avenging his family's brutal murder, Wales is pursued by a pack of soldiers. He prefers to travel alone, but ragtag outcasts are drawn to him - and Wales can't bring himself to leave them unprotected.

Rio Grande

Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke is posted on the Texas frontier to defend settlers against depredations of marauding Apaches. Col. Yorke is under considerable stress by a serious shortage of troops of his command. Tension is added when Yorke's son (whom he hasn't seen in fifteen years), Trooper Jeff Yorke, is one of 18 recruits sent to the regiment.

Red River

Remake of the 1948 John Wayne feature about a man who rebels against his tyrannical guardian during a crucial cattle drive.

Return of the Texan

A young widower named Sam Crockett returns from Kansas City to his small hometown in rural Texas, bringing with him his feisty grandfather and two young sons, Steve and Yoyo. He tries to make a go of the old family homestead but faces financial problems and pressures from his well-to-do neighbor, Rod Marshall. He also begins an on-again-off-again romance with Rod's sister-in-law, even though she's engaged to wed the town's doctor. Events come to head when Sam's grandfather suffers a stroke.

Urban Cowboy

After moving to Pasadena, Texas, country boy Bud Davis starts hanging around a bar called Gilley's, where he falls in love with Sissy, a cowgirl who believes the sexes are equal. They eventually marry, but their relationship is turbulent due to Bud's traditional view of gender roles. Jealousy over his rival leads to their separation, but Bud attempts to win Sissy back by triumphing at Gilley's mechanical bull-riding competition.

The Sons of Katie Elder

The four sons of Katie Elder reunite in their hometown of Clearwater, Texas for her funeral and discover that the family ranch is now in the hands of Morgan Hastings, a corrupt businessman who wants to exploit the area around the town.

Rio Bravo

A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a disabled man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.

45 Calibre Echo

A cowhand and his sidekick come to the Texas border country looking for the man who had lured the cowhand's sister in bondage in Mexico. But the man doesn't want to be found and has hired some gunmen to see that he isn't.

The Wild Bunch

An aging group of outlaws look for one last big score as the "traditional" American West is disappearing around them.

Red River

Following the Civil War, headstrong rancher Thomas Dunson decides to lead a perilous cattle drive from Texas to Missouri. During the exhausting journey, his persistence becomes tyrannical in the eyes of Matthew Garth, his adopted son and protégé.

Giant

Wealthy rancher Bick Benedict and dirt-poor cowboy Jett Rink both woo Leslie Lynnton, a beautiful young woman from Maryland who is new to Texas. She marries Benedict, but she is shocked by the racial bigotry of the White Texans against the local people of Mexican descent. Rink discovers oil on a small plot of land, and while he uses his vast, new wealth to buy all the land surrounding the Benedict ranch, the Benedict's disagreement over prejudice fuels conflict that runs across generations.

The Pinto Kid

Pinto Kid was one of Charles Starrett's last "formula" westerns before he permanently assumed the screen guise of the Durango Kid. The story takes places just after the Civil War, with hostilities between Yanks and Rebels still in effect between Kansas and Texas. The villain, cattle rustler Vic Landreau (Paul Sutton), intends to play both factions down the middle for his own benefit. But Landreau meets his match in the form of wandering do-gooder Jud Calvert (Charles Starrett).

Black Eagle

Black Eagle is based on The Passing of Black Eagle, a short story by O. Henry. William Bishop stars as Jason Bond, who stays out of trouble by the simple expedient of avoiding other people. Unfortunately, the plot dictates that Bond must come into contact with several characters, all of whom end up fleecing our hero in one way or another. Even so, Jason manages to enjoy a brief romance with pretty Ginny Long (Virginia Patton) before returning to his life of carefree vagabondage. A very minor film, The Black Eagle makes the most of its excellent supporting cast, including Gordon Jones, Trevor Bardette, Will Wright and stuntman extraordinaire Richard Talmadge.

The Alamo

The legendary true story of a small band of soldiers who sacrificed their lives in hopeless combat against a massive army in order to prevent a tyrant from smashing the new Republic of Texas.

Texas Rangers

Ten years after the Civil War has ended, the Governor of Texas asks Leander McNelly to form a company of Rangers to help uphold the law along the Mexican border. With a few veterans of the war, most of the recruits are young men who have little or no experience with guns or policing crime.

Three in the Saddle

Peggy Barlou is a young rancher who refuses to sell her spread to greedy stage-line proprietor John Rankin. Tex Haines, meanwhile, is accused of killing Bill Dugan, Rankin's bodyguard, but eludes capture long enough to hook up with Dave Wyatt and Panhandle Perkins, a couple of rangers in disguise.

Extreme Prejudice

Directed by the legendary Walter Hill, this gritty, modern Western is regarded as a classic and features an all-star cast with Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, Maria Conchita Alonso, Rip Torn, and Michael Ironside. Lean, mean Texas Ranger Jack Benteen (Nolte) locks horns with a former friend, Cash Bailey (Boothe), now a ruthless drug kingpin. Though they're on opposite sides of the law, they share a love interest in the sensual Sarita (Alonso). When a crew of rogue soldiers descends upon the border town for an off-the-books mission, all roads lead to a bloody, to-the-death showdown, as loyalties shift and the lines between good and evil are blurred.

All the Pretty Horses

The year is 1949. A young Texan named John Grady finds himself without a home after his mother sells the ranch where he has spent his entire life. Lured south of the border by the romance of cowboy life and the promise of a fresh start, Cole and his pal embark on an adventure that will test their resilience, define their maturity, and change their lives forever.

Old Yeller

Young Travis Coates is left to take care of the family ranch with his mother and younger brother while his father goes off on a cattle drive in the 1860s. When a yellow mongrel comes for an uninvited stay with the family, Travis reluctantly adopts the dog.

The Lone Star Vigilantes

It's Wild Bill Elliot as Wild Bill Hickok in the Columbia B-western Lone Star Vigilantes. Returning from Civil War duty, Hickok, Tex Martin and Cannonball find that their Texas home town is under the rule of Colonel Monroe, a bush-league dictator with his own police force. In true Hitlerian fashion, Monroe extorts huge sums of money from the populace, terrorizing them into silence. Our three heroes set about to put an end to Monroe's regime, with time out for Tex Ritter's musical interludes.

Fighting Valley

Someone has been stealing ore from a valuable smelting mine. One of the independent mine-owners victimized by the crooks is pretty Joan Manning, making the Rangers' mission a bit more pleasant.

Hail to the Rangers

In this western, fake settlers make themselves at home on an ex-ranger's ranch and drive him away. A shady newspaper publisher and a gambler then conspire to take over the land. Fortunately, another ranger endeavors to help his pal. Enlisting the aide of his fellow rangers, they get oust the homesteaders. The publisher and the gambler shoot each other and the retired ranger gets his ranch back.

Six-Gun Rhythm

Western - When football player Tex fletcher arives home he finds his father missing. Jim Davis has killed the father and learning of Tex's identity - Tex Fletcher, Joan Barclay, Ralph Peters

The Tall Men

Two brothers discharged from the Confederate Army join a businessman for a cattle drive from Texas to Montana where they run into raiding Jayhawkers, angry Sioux, rough terrain and bad weather.

Lone Star

Rip-roaring big star, big budget semi-historical story about cattle baron Devereaux Burke, who is enlisted by an aging Andrew Jackson to dissuade Sam Houston from establishing Texas as a republic. Burke must fight state senator Thomas Craden, in the process winning the heart of Craden's newspaper-editor girlfriend Martha Ronda.

Goin' South

Henry Moon is captured for a capital offense by a posse when his horse quits while trying to escape to Mexico. He finds that there is a post-Civil War law in the small town that any single or widowed woman can save him from the gallows by marrying him.

Texas Tornado

Tex Robbins, a Texas Ranger, posing as "Wolf" Cassidy, a notorious Chicago gangster, works his way into the rustling gang and hideout of "Three-Star" Henley, but his plans go wrong and he has to fight his way to victory.

Rio Rita

Capt. James Stewart pursues the bandit "The Kinkajou" over the Mexican border and falls in love with Rita, though he suspects that her brother is the bandit.

The Lone Ranger

The Texas Rangers chase down a gang of outlaws led by Butch Cavendish, but the gang ambushes the Rangers, seemingly killing them all. One survivor is found, however, by an American Indian named Tonto, who nurses him back to health. The Ranger, donning a mask and riding a white stallion named Silver, teams up with Tonto to bring the unscrupulous gang and others of that ilk to justice.

The Lone Rider Crosses the Rio

Tom Cameron, aka the Lone Rider, and his faithful sidekick, Fuzzy Jones, flee across the Rio Grande to avoid assassination by crooked lawman Deputy Hatfield, only to have the Mexican cops accuse Cameron of being the notorious bandit El Puma. At Hatfield's behest, they are also accused of kidnapping the local mayor's son, and now the pair must prove their innocence and find a way to stop Hatfield's lawless ways.

The Over the Hill Gang

A retired Texas Ranger and three aged pals help to clean up a town run by a crooked mayor, a drunken judge and a trigger-happy sheriff.

Once Upon a Texas Train

Captain Hayes of the mighty law enforcement squad named the Texas Rangers reached the pinnacle of his career when he captured the notorious John Henry, an outlaw cowboy, and put him behind bars. Twenty years later, upon his release, Henry is older but unrepentant. Within six hours after leaving his jail cell, he evens the score with Hayes by holding up the Bank of Texas for $20,000 in gold. Hayes, in his fury, gets himself out of retirement to take up the chase once more.

The Wind

When Letty Mason relocates to West Texas, she finds herself unsettled by the ever-present wind and sand. Arriving at her new home at the ranch of her cousin, Beverly, she receives a surprisingly cold welcome from his wife, Cora. Soon tensions in the family and unwanted attention from a trio of suitors leave Letty increasingly disturbed.

North of 36

A young woman inherits her father's large Texas ranch and plans to begin a cattle drive to Abilene, Kansas, 1000 miles away. The crooked State Treasurer plans to attack the cattle drive and steal all of the stock so he can gain control of her ranch.

Flaming Bullets

Bullets fly as the Texas rangers fight an outlaw gang.

Hannie Caulder

Hannie enlists the aid of bounty hunter Tom Price to teach her how to be a gunfighter so she can hunt down the 3 men who killed her husband and raped her.

The Comancheros

Texas Ranger Jake Cutter arrests gambler Paul Regret, but soon finds himself teamed with his prisoner in an undercover effort to defeat a band of renegade arms merchants and thieves known as Comancheros.

The Pilgrim

The Tramp is an escaped convict who is mistaken as a pastor in a small town church.

The Dawn Trail

Dissension arises between cattlemen in Osage County, Texas, and sheepherders who have settled there and use the same watering stream. Mart Dalton, son of a wealthy cattleman, quarrels with and kills one of the settlers, thus placing sheriff Larry Williams in a delicate position; for he is Mart's best friend and is engaged to Mart's sister June. However, sworn to do his duty, he arrests Mart, incensing the cattlemen, who help Mart escape, leaving Larry wounded.

Texas Across the River

The Louisiana wedding of debutante Phoebe Ann Naylor to Don Andrea de Baldasar, El Duce de la Casala is stopped by the Cavalry over a matter of honor. Don Andrea flees across the river to Texas, where he meets up with Sam Hollis and his Indian sidekick, Kronk, who are carrying rifles to the town of Moccasin Flats. Don Andrea rescues an Indian maiden, Lonetta, tames some longhorns, competes with Sam for Phoebe's affections, eludes a Comanche war party and the cavalry and ultimately saves the town and gets his girl.

Ridin' the Cherokee Trail

Singing cowboy Tex Ritter and his sidekick, Slim Andrews, star in this musical Western about a couple of Texas Rangers who defend the citizens of a small territory from power-hungry outlaws. Villain Bradley Craven (Forrest Taylor) is determined to stop the election process that would allow the region to join the Union. Tex and Slim join a rancher and his daughter to stop Craven, with fearless Tex going undercover to ensure that justice is served.

The Texas Rangers

Two down-on-their-luck former outlaws volunteer to be Texas Rangers and find themselves assigned to bring in an old friend, now a notorious outlaw.

Cassidy of Bar 20

Hopalong Cassidy, boss of the Bar 20 ranch in Texas, rides down the Camino Real in the New Mexico cattle country near Alamogordo, in response to an urgent message from his lifelong sweetheart, Nora Blake, who is in serious trouble. Before he and his saddlemates, "Lucky" Jenkins and "Pappy", can reach her ranch, they are stopped by Clay Allison, a cattle-rustler who is in almost complete control of the district, and wants to extend his holdings by seizing Nora's cattle and driving her out. Seeing Cassidy as a menace to his plans, he has him arrested on a trumped-up charge. Cassidy and his pals shoot their way out of the trouble and reach Nora;s ranch where they learn that Allison's henchmen have murdered her foreman, Tom Dillon, and Allison has sent for a crew of outlaws on the Texas border.

Hud

Hud Bannon is a ruthless young man who tarnishes everything and everyone he touches. Hud represents the perfect embodiment of alienated youth, out for kicks with no regard for the consequences. There is bitter conflict between the callous Hud and his stern and highly principled father, Homer. Hud's nephew Lon admires Hud's cheating ways, though he soon becomes too aware of Hud's reckless amorality to bear him anymore. In the world of the takers and the taken, Hud is a winner. He's a cheat, but, he explains, "I always say the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner."

Big Jake

An aging Texas cattle man who has outlived his time swings into action when outlaws kidnap his grandson.

The Lawless Legion

Cal Stanley goes undercover as a beef buyer in order to catch the gang responsible for stealing the area's cattle.

The Fighting Legion

After being shot, a dying Marshal Dawson gives Dave Hayes his badge and asks him to finish his job. Dave becomes Marshal but when Bowie, the man that shot Dawson appears, he exposes Dave as an imposter. Dave is then in trouble when Edwards incites the mob to lynch him.

Whitetail

Donnie Mann, his father and uncle embark on a weekend hunting trip in West Texas, where they find a mysterious man shot in the stomach and clutching a backpack full of money.

The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again

Walter Brennan is back as the clever and funny over the hill Texas Ranger Nash Crawford. This time the gang must face corruption in their own home town. The gang put their heads together to clean up their town, take back the rule of law and rehabilitate the town lush (played by Fred Astaire) along with way.

The Lone Star Ranger

In this western, William Farnum plays yet another Zane Grey character. Duane Steele (Farnum) is a Texas Ranger who is determined to get the outlaws out of his part of the Lone Star state for good.

The Western Code

When Tim Barrett rides into Carabinas, his reputation as a lawman precedes him. Rescuing Polly Loomis from the unwanted attentions of a saloon ruffian, he learns her mother married ranch foreman Nick Grindel shortly before her death, and left everything to him in her will. Nick has proposed marriage to his stepdaughter, and she fears violence if her hot-blooded brother Dick finds out. When a body is found at the Bow Knot, Tim barely rescues Dick from a necktie party and is deputized to investigate when Dick confesses to a crime he didn't commit.

The Pinto Bandit

A masked desperado wants to disrupt the mail service between two frontier communities.

Texans Never Cry

A Texas Ranger tries to bring down counterfeiters selling fake lottery tickets.

North West Mounted Police

Texas Ranger Dusty Rivers ("Isn't that a contradiction in terms?", another character asks him) travels to Canada in the 1880s in search of Jacques Corbeau, who is wanted for murder. He wanders into the midst of the Riel Rebellion, in which Métis (people of French and Native heritage) and Natives want a separate nation. Dusty falls for nurse April Logan, who is also loved by Mountie Jim Brett. April's brother is involved with Courbeau's daughter Louvette, which leads to trouble during the battles between the rebels and the Mounties. Through it all Dusty is determined to bring Corbeau back to Texas (and April, too, if he can manage it.)

Down Rio Grande Way

Slightly more elaborate than most Charles Starrett westerns, Down Rio Grande Way is set in the mid-19th century, when the Republic of Texas was poised to join the Union. Starrett plays Texas Ranger Steve Martin, who is dispatched to a "renegade" Texas country that refuses to become part of the good old USA. He discovers that the crux of the problem is a local tax collector who, with the help of a crooked newspaper editor, is systematically robbing the citizens of their hard-earned cash, all the while fomenting anti-American sentiments.

Thunder Over the Plains

Set in 1869, after the Civil War, Texas had not yet been readmitted to the Union and carpetbaggers, hiding behind the legal protection of the Union Army of occupation, had taken over the state. Federal Captain Porter, a Texan, has to carry out orders against his own people. He brings in the rebel leader Ben Westman whom he knows is innocent of a murder that he is accused of. In trying to prove his innocence, Porter himself becomes a wanted man.

Texas

Two Virginians are heading for a new life in Texas when they witness a stagecoach being held up. They decide to rob the robbers and make off with the loot. To escape a posse, they split up and don't see each other again for a long time. When they do meet up again, they find themselves on different sides of the law. This leads to the increasing estrangement of the two men, who once thought of themselves as brothers.

Without Honor

Pete Marlan is a gambler with an unsavory past. Suspected of being an outlaw, Pete plays along with this misconception, the better to infiltrate a gang of smugglers. Along the way, he clears the name of the brother of Texas Ranger Mike Donovan, and helps patch up the romance between Donovan and heroine Bernice.

West of the Alamo

Despite his unprepossessing screen personality, singing cowboy Jimmy Wakely was starred in a series of Monogram westerns, one of which was West of the Alamo. Wakely and comedy sidekick Lee "Lasses" White play a pair of government agents who work undercover to solve a series of baffling crimes. It comes to no one's surprise that the criminal mastermind is the town's leading citizen, in this case banker Clay Bradford (Jack Ingram). As was typical in the Wakely westerns, West of the Alamo is approximately 25 percent action and 75 percent musical. Among the guest warblers this time out is the Arthur Smith Trio, headed by a gospel singer who'd later emcee a popular religious TV talk show.

Dodge City Trail

With the increasing popularity of Republic's sagebrush crooner Gene Autry, rival company Columbia found it necessary to add a musical element to this Charles Starrett Western released in early 1937. As Starrett himself was no singer, the studio hired Donald Grayson to warble Lonesome River, Out in the Cow Country and Pancho's Widow, all by Ned Washington and Sam H. Stept.