Toll of the Desert (1935)

In Search of Bass Reeves

By the end of his illustrious career, Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves may well have been the preeminent lawman of the Old West. He brought upwards of 3,000 outlaws to justice and served in law enforcement for 32 years during Reconstruction after the Civil War. His story is one of an escape to freedom and the dangers of the West for a former slave who rose to become a legend of the law. Join us as we go in search of Bass Reeves.

Young Buffalo Bill

It's 1860 and the old Spanish land grants are being surveyed. Montez is after part of Don Regas' rancho and gets the surveyor to alter the boundary. But Don Regas still has the original grant written on a bandanna. Montez sends Indians after it but Bill Cody and Gabby fight them off and a wounded Gabby unknowingly ends up with the missing million dollar deed wrapped around his arm for a bandage.

Western World

When US Marshal Moses White is called to the Wyoming Territory town of Dogwood Pass he never realized the corruption and deceit that awaited his arrival. Sometimes one small seed of seduction and greed planted in the right situation can cause a whole town to go bad. One bad character leads to another and it all starts with a dead husband in a western town.

The Show Down

Cowboy Snappy Walton (Art Acord) trying to same a damsel in distress, hunting down the bad men that's troubling her in this 2-reel western.

Phantom Ranger

A Treasury Department engraver is being held captive by a counterfeiting gang that wants him to make counterfeit plates for them. A lawman is sent to rescue him.

Outlaws of the Plains

A gang of swindlers takes advantage of simple-minded Fuzzy Jones.....

Dead Man

On the run after committing murder, an accountant encounters a strange Native American man who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world.

For a Few Dollars More

Two bounty hunters both pursue the brutal and sadistic bandit, El Indio, who has a large bounty on his head.

The Magnificent Seven

An oppressed Mexican peasant village hires seven gunfighters to help defend their homes.

Bandidas

When a ruthless robber baron takes away everything they cherish, a rough-and-tumble, idealistic peasant and a sophisticated heiress embark on a quest for justice, vengeance…and a few good heists.

Hidalgo

Set in 1890, this is the story of a Pony Express courier who travels to Arabia to compete with his horse, Hidalgo, in a dangerous race for a massive contest prize, in an adventure that sends the pair around the world...

Open Range

A former gunslinger is forced to take up arms again when he and his cattle crew are threatened by a corrupt lawman.

Cyclone Bliss

Quiet and fairminded Jack Bliss traces his missing father to Hell's Hole, where he meets Helen Turner and Jack Hall, the leader of an outlaw gang rendezvousing at Hell's Hole. Hall kills Helen's father but fails in his attempts to get rid of Bliss and Helen, and Bliss, singlehanded, takes on the gang while the neighboring ranchers, settlers, and herders unite to clean out the outlaws.

Rio Grande

As Bruce Lanning posts a "no trespassing" sign at a watering hole on his Circle A ranch, his sister Jane rides up with news that Wes Caven, the hired gun of the Elwood brothers, is looking for him. Soon after, Wes appears and kicks over the sign. Later, Sunset Carson, Wes's boyhood friend, rides into town to invite Wes to become a partner in his new ranch. Just as Wes declines the offer and offers Sunset a job working for the Elwoods instead, Bruce bursts into the saloon, demanding to see Frank Elwood. Not to be confused with the 1950 John Wayne film of the same name

Satan's Cradle

Satan's Cradle was the fourth of producer Phil Krasne's "Cisco Kid" programmers for United Artists. This time, Cisco takes on a frontier megalomaniac, shyster lawyer Steve Gentry, who has taken over a mining town. Gentry's confederate is dancehall girl Lil who is as deadly as she is beautiful. When itinerant preacher Henry Lane is beaten to a pulp by Gentry's goons, Cisco and Pancho move in for the kill.

Stranger on My Land

A Vietnam veteran has to fight peacefully with words once more when the Air Force wants to expropriate his ranch for the construction of an air base.

Bubblegum and Broken Fingers

"If you don't have your own plan, you'll damn sure be a part of someone else's." That quote kicks off the first of multiple story lines, in the crime ensemble "Bubblegum & Broken Fingers." This character-driven collage of sex, violence and survival is equal parts western, gangster and love stories. We follow the journey of a mysterious silver briefcase and witness the havoc it brings each new owner.

Gun Law

Finding a man alone in the desert, Marshal Tom is relieved - of his horse, clothes and water. When he catches up to Raven, he finds him dying from drinking bad water. When he gets to Gunsight, everyone thinks that he is the outlaw Raven and he plays it out so that he can end lawlessness.

Square Dance Jubilee

Two talent scouts for a New York-based country music TV show called "Square Dance Jubilee" are sent out West to get authentic western singing acts. They find what they're looking for, but also get mixed up in cattle rustling and murder.

Outcasts of the Trail

Legendary lawman Pat Garrett wins the Fourth of July buckboard race in a small Nevada town against the unscrupulous Fred Smith and pretty Lavinia White. Lavinia blames Garrett for sending her father Ivory White to jail for robbing 100,000 dollars. White, who has stashed the loot away someplace, is about to be released and plans to return the money to the express office for the sake of his children, Lavinia and Chad. Nasty Jim Judd forces Lavinia to help him rob the coach carrying Ivory and the money, counting on the fact that White will keep quiet for his daughter's sake.

Riders of the Dusk

Riders of the Dusk is another of Monogram's formula Whip Wilson westerns. Since the studio couldn't build an entire film around Wilson's bullwhip prowess, a plot was called for. This time around, it's the one about a U.S. marshal who searches high and low for a mysterious masked desperado. The mystery angle is minimal, since seasoned movie fans will be able to determine the mystery person's identity within 15 minutes. As always, Andy Clyde is a tower of comic strength as Whip Wilson's grizzled old sidekick.

The Fighting Sheriff

A dying Jack makes Bob and Flash promise not to tell his sister that he was an outlaw. When Bob confronts Flash with his muffler found at the stage holdup, Flash tells Mary that Bob killed her brother. Believing he can now marry Mary, he plans one more robbery. But the jealous Tiana overhears and runs for the Sheriff.

Billy the Kid Wanted

Billy the Kid and his pal Jeff help their friend Fuzzy Jones escape from jail, and the trio heads for Paradise Valley, where they find the Paradise Land Development Company, ran by Matt Brawley and Jack Saunders, is somewhat less than honest in their dealings with the homesteaders. They devise a plan to cause a split between Brawley and Saunders.

Law of the West

With the railroad coming, Nixon is after the ranchers land. Using a stooge land agent, his method is to claim the person they bought their ranches from never had title to the land and their deeds are worthless. Fereral Agent Johnny Mack arrives posing as a gunman. He is quickly onto the henchman and Land Agent and eventually suspects Nixon is the big boss. But he needs the help of ventriloquist Alibi to bring them in.

Range Justice

Johnny Mack goes to work on "Ma" Curtis' ranch, to the disapproval of his friends, rancher Glenn Hadley and his sister Beth, who are at odds with her. Secretly, Ma's foreman Stoner is plotting with real estate man Ed Dutton to ruin her ranch and acquire it cheaply, with controlling water rights. Johnny stops henchman Dade in an attempt to dynamite the barn and Stoner, supposedly taking him to the sheriff, kills him. Johnny stops Glenn and Beth from tearing down a Curtis fence in order to get their cattle to water, but Glenn refuses to help even after Johnny explains he is helping Ma in order to find out who is behind the attacks on both ranches. Ma pretends to fire Johnny for saving Glenn from an ambush. As the outlaws attempt to rustle Ma's remaining cattle, Johnny, Alibi and Glenn join forces.

The Specialists

Hud Dixon returns to his hometown when his brother is killed by a lynch mob.

Down in the Valley

On a trip to the beach, a teenage girl named Tobe meets a charismatic stranger named Harlan, who dresses like a cowboy and claims to be a former ranch hand. The pair feel an instant attraction and begin a relationship, but her father, a lawman, is suspicious of her lover.

Deadwood '76

A young drifter is mistaken for Billy the Kid. The concequences prove deadly.

Along the Mohawk Trail

Two episodes of the 1957 TV series "Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans" edited together and released as a feature.

Last Man Standing

John Smith is a mysterious stranger who is drawn into a vicious war between two Prohibition-era gangs. In a dangerous game, he switches allegiances from one to another, offering his services to the highest bidder. As the death toll mounts, Smith takes the law into his own hands in a deadly race to stay alive.

The Legend of Walks Far Woman

Walks Far Woman is a an Indigenous woman of the Blackfoot tribe. She takes revenge on two men who killed her husband and then she is ostracized by her tribe. She then is adopted by the Sioux, the tribe of her mother, and there she tries to start a new life.

We Could All Do With a Little Back & Forth As Far As It Concerns the To & Fro of Everywhere Each of Us Go

(Some of us) Still run down the same [mental&emotional] streets we revered/reproached/replaced as children.

Hang 'em High

Marshall Jed Cooper survives a hanging, vowing revenge on the lynch mob that left him dangling. To carry out his oath for vengeance, he returns to his former job as a lawman. Before long, he's caught up with the nine men on his hit list and starts dispensing his own brand of Wild West justice.

Firecreek

A peace-loving, part-time sheriff in the small town of Firecreek must take a stand when a gang of vicious outlaws takes over his town.

The Last Frontier

Three trappers become scouts for a cavalry captain who loses his fort to a hated colonel.

The Night of the Grizzly

Marshall "Big Jim" Cole turns in his badge and heads to Wyoming with his family in order to settle on some land left him by a relative. He faces opposition both from a neighbor who wants that land for his own sons, and from a grizzly bear nicknamed "Satan" who keeps killing Cole's livestock.

A Time for Killing

During the Civil War, Confederate soldiers escape from a Union prison and head for the Mexican border. Along the way, they kill a Union courier bearing the news that the war is over. Keeping the message a secret, the captain has his men go on and they soon find themselves in a battle with the Union search party who also is unaware of the war's end.

5 Card Stud

The players in an ongoing poker game are being mysteriously killed off, one by one.

White Wolves

Farsighted Falcon, chief of the Lakota, seeks refuge in the Black Hills with his wife Blue Hair and two warriors, sole survivors of their tribe. When they are attacked by the outlaw Bashan, Falcon strikes out for the town of Tanglewood to take on Bashan's boss, mining magnate Harrington.

Carry On Cowboy

Stodge City is in the grip of the Rumpo Kid and his gang. Mistaken identity again takes a hand as a 'sanitary engineer' named Marshal P. Knutt is mistaken for a law marshal. Being the conscientious sort, Marshal tries to help the town get rid of Rumpo, and a showdown is inevitable. Marshal has two aids—revenge-seeking Annie Oakley and his sanitary expertise.

3:10 to Yuma

In Arizona in the late 1800s, infamous outlaw Ben Wade and his vicious gang of thieves and murderers have plagued the Southern Railroad. When Wade is captured, Civil War veteran Dan Evans, struggling to survive on his drought-plagued ranch, volunteers to deliver him alive to the "3:10 to Yuma", a train that will take the killer to trial.

We Are No Angels

Two wannabes rig a fight with a large prize fighter to buy a car.

Unknown Valley

Looking for his missing father, Joe Gordon heads into the desert where Elders from a secret village find him unconscious. Attracted to Sheilla O'Neill, the two plan an escape from the village where no one is allowed to leave. But then he learns his father is being held prisoner and finding him, he is also made a prisoner.

Silent Valley

A sheriff tracking a gang of rustlers discovers that one of them is the brother of his fiance.

Bullseye

In the 1860s, two friends, Harry and Bluey, steal a thousand head of cattle and trek it across country from Queensland to Adelaide.

Rebel City

Wild Bill Elliot plays gambler Frank Graham, who heads to Kansas in search of his father's murderer. This being 1864, the local military presence is more preoccupied with keeping Southern sympathizers out of the state to worry about Graham's problems. Thus, our hero undertakes the task of exposing the killer himself.

Star of Texas

Ed Ryan is a Texas ranger who goes undercover to trap a criminal gang headed by Luke Andrews. Posing as the wanted killer Robert Larkin, Ed is able to move freely amongst the town riffraff. Marshal Bullock learns that the brains behind the gang of Luke Andrews is a group of supposed respectable businessmen.

Unforgiven

William Munny is a retired, once-ruthless killer turned gentle widower and hog farmer. To help support his two motherless children, he accepts one last bounty-hunter mission to find the men who brutalized a prostitute. Joined by his former partner and a cocky greenhorn, he takes on a corrupt sheriff.

Broncos and Boy Scouts

After an embarrassing encounter with his crush, socially awkward Boy Scout Brody finds his life uprooted when an old west cowboy mysteriously appears in the wilderness. Although an unlikely pairing, Brody and the cowboy find themselves learning things about each other, as well as themselves.

Return of the Lash

Six wanted outlaws are rounded up and captured by the Cheyenne Kid. Collecting the reward money, Cheyenne instructs his sidekick Fuzzy Q. Jones to give the money to a group of financially strapped ranchers. Alas, Fuzzy falls off his horse, loses his memory, and forgets what became of the money.

Justice

A U.S. Marshal seeking justice for his brother's murder defends a small town from a corrupt Mayor and his henchmen with intents to revive the civil war.

Trailing Danger

Convicted killer Jim Holden is rescued from the sheriff by his gang, led by Mason and Riley. He is out to get the Hathaway Stage superintendent George Bannister, who was responsible for his conviction and learns the Bannister, his niece (Kay) and Hal Hathaway, son of the stage line owner, are on a cross-country stage. Johnny, a rancher, and Waco, local stage representative head for the stage to warn the passengers, including entertainer Paradise Flo and coffin salesman Pennypacker. Hal takes the stage into Holdin. Johnny and Waco rescue Hal and Bannister before the gang succeeds in hanging the pair.

West to Glory

Two con-men from the East come out West to join up with Avery. They plan to steal the Lopez diamond from Don Lopez. With the drought, Lopez has sold all of his other jewels for gold so that he can take his people to a better place to live and work. Dean and Soapy try to protect Lopez, but Avery and his gang steal the gold and look forward to stealing the diamond necklace. When Maria offers to become partners with Barrit, it looks bad for Lopez.

The Red Glove

On the American frontier in the last decades of the 19th century, Billie is a female cowboy who fights a series of bad men in this film serial.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

While the Civil War rages on between the Union and the Confederacy, three men – a quiet loner, a ruthless hitman, and a Mexican bandit – comb the American Southwest in search of a strongbox containing $200,000 in stolen gold.

Land of the Lawless

Johnny Mack Brown goes up against a female boss villain in this unusual Western from Monogram. Hired to look into dirty dealings in the town of Medicine Flats, Johnny learns that Kansas City Kate (Christine McIntyre), the owner of the Golden Spur Saloon, has been waging a war against local prospectors, one of whom is found murdered. Not appreciating Johnny's interference, Kate has her henchman Cameo (Tristram Coffin) take a shot at him and when that fails, hires a notorious gunslinger, the Cherokee Kid (I. Stanford Jolley).

The Hi-Lo Country

An intimate story of the enduring bond of friendship between two hard-living men, set against a sweeping backdrop: the American West, post-World War II, in its twilight. Pete and Big Boy are masters of the prairie, but ultimately face trickier terrain: the human heart.

Hickok

Legendary Lawman and Gunslinger Wild Bill Hickok, is tasked with taming the wildest cow-town in the West, while delivering his own brand of frontier Justice and infamous gunfighter's reputation as the fastest draw in the West is put to the test

The Valiant Hombre

The Cisco Kid and Pancho set off to find the missing owner of a devoted little dog in this western adventure. From the vanished man's sister, the heroes learn that her brother disappeared soon after striking a major gold vein in his mine. In the end Cisco accosts the villain, saves the kidnapped miner and reunites him with his dog.

Back Trail

Back Trail is one of the livelier entries in Monogram's Johnny Mack Brown western series. Brown rides into a small town where he becomes embroiled in a blackmail scheme. The town's banker (Ted Adams), a pillar of respectability, once served a jail term. Outlaw leader Pierce Lyden threatens to reveal Adams' secret if the banker doesn't let him know in advance when the gold shipments are going through. Adams tearfully tells Brown the whole story, whereupon Johnny rides shotgun on the next shipment himself. Back Trail was one of the last films directed by workhorse Christy Cabanne, whose career stretched all the way back to the D.W. Griffith days.