Best movies like Dead Man's Trail

Johnny Mack Brown was recruited by Chet Norman, the owner of a stagecoach line, to end the heist perpetrated by a mysterious knight who plays strange notes with a hiss of money before robbing them.

Johnny Mack Brown goes up against a lady bank robber in this average Mack Brown series late-entry from Monogram. The lady, played by Barbara Allen, is of course called "Ma." In order to get the goods on "Ma" and her "brood," Mack Brown must masquerade as a lone bandit.

Dusty Gardner, and other Texas ranchers, are driving a herd of cattle to Abilene, Kansas along the Chisholm Trail. Desperate need of water takes them to the Turner ranch, where Belle Turner demands exorbitant prices for the water. Dusty learns that Belle is also trying to oust Mary Lee and Montana Smith from the trading post Mary operates. The sheriff sides with Belle following a fight between the two women. Belle knows there is artesian springs under the land the trading post occupies and intends to get the property by any means.

Bringing Bart Calhoun (Marshall Reed) to justice for his complicity in a robbery/murder, Johnny assumes that his job is over. Not by a long shot! Calhoun's arrest leads to the uncovering of a wide-ranging conspiracy to smuggle silver from Mexico to the United States.

Johnny Mack Brown stars in this above-average B-Western from Monogram, penned under the pseudonym of Jess Bowers by veteran genre specialist Adele Buffington. Mack Brown plays Johnny Murdoch, a drifter arriving in Gold Flats in search of his prospector father. From old-timer Dusty Hanover (Raymond Hatton), Johnny learns that Old Man Murdoch was murdered for his claim by Rex Hillman (Holly Bane), a hireling of Carter Morgan (Bill Kennedy).

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.

Johnny Mack Brown substitutes brains for brawn during most of Texas City. Cast once more as a U.S. marshal, Johnny investigates when several government gold shipments are hijacked. Someone has been tipping of the outlaws as to when and where the supposedly secret shipments will take place. The principal suspect is dishonorably discharged cavalry officer Kirby (James Ellison), but Johnny has a gut feeling that Kirby is innocent on all counts.

A Texas Ranger goes up against the Morrow outlaw gang.

Rancher Blaze Barker returns to Dead Falls after being framed by land-grabbers and spending two years in jail. Paroled, he can't wear a gun, but is aided by Marshal Fargo Steele. The gang is out to gain control of all of the valley land before a dam is constructed. When Blaze raises the money to pay off the taxes on his ranch, he finds it has been marked to incriminate him.

Mining executive Neal Wallace arrives to investigate the losses at a gold mine and is immediately framed for murder. The murderers then incite a lynch mob but the Sheriff lets him go. Wallace eventually convinces the Sheriff of his innocence and the two then work together to get the gang that is looting the gold ore.

A sheriff tries to prevent a range war between cattlemen and homesteaders.

In this western, two cowboys are framed as cattle rustlers and tossed in the pokey. Later, honest ranchers spring them and together they ride out against the rustlers.

Dan Stanton and Condon are foreclosing on a group of ranchers in order to gain a land-monopoly. They have one of the ranchers, whose property supplies the others with water, killed. Ann Jennings, niece of the rancher, sends for U. S. Marshals Nevada Jack McKenzie and Sandy Hopkins, who organize the ranchers who take over the dead man's property and blast the dam releasing needed water to all the ranchers. Nevada and Sandy, aided by the sheriff, round up Stanton, Condon and their gang members.

Johnny Mack Brown is back as Nevada Jack McKenzie in Frontier Feud. Once again, Nevada and his grizzled sidekick Sandy (Raymond Hatton) are US marshals posing as drifters. Rancher Joe (Dennis Moore) is accused of a series of murders, but Nevada and Sandy manage to prove that another man is the guilty party.

Burly Johnny Mack Brown once again plays undercover U.S. Marshal Nevada McKenzie in this overly complicated series oater from low-budget Monogram. This time, McKenzie, who goes under the alias of Roy Ferris, is waylaid by would-be stage robber Cy Manning (John Merton) en route to the Bar X Ranch.

Brown's principal antagonist this time is the town boss, an outlaw who has killed the community's leading citizen. The dead man's grown children want to investigate the killing, but the outlaw puts a stop to this by hiring a dance-hall dame to pose as the kids' long-lost mother. Johnny isn't fooled by this subterfuge nor is his sidekick.

A United States marshal uncovers a plot to steal the valuable gold-laden property of ranchers.

The old bromide about the western town run by outlaws as a hideout for their fellow crooks makes a return appearance in Monogram's Land of the Outlaws. Since the crooks include such reliable disreputables as Charles King and John Merton, the good guys really have their work cut out for them. But not to worry! The heroes are Johnny Mack Brown and Raymond Hatton, whose B-western track record is unbeatable. Land of the Outlaws was directed by Lambert Hillyer, whose sense of rhythm and pace had saved many another inexpensive oater.

As other "B"-western series kept dropping like flies in 1952, Johnny Mack Brown kept grinding 'em out for Monogram. In Man From Black Hills, Johnny tries to help locate his saddle pal Jim Fallan's (James Ellison) long-lost father. Arriving in a small mining town, Johnny and Jim discover that Jim's father has established a financial empire--and that a local opportunist (Randy Brooks) has capitalized on this by claiming to be the old man's son.

Veteran cowboy star Johnny Mack Brown plays a cattle buyer turned prairie sleuth in this low-budget oater from Monogram, which co-stars perennial old-timer Raymond Hatton as a retired U.S. Marshal assigned to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a rancher. As the two old friends soon learn, a gang of smugglers headed by the town's banker (Frank LaRue) needs the use of the Flying Arrow Ranch for their nefarious purposes.

Johnny Mack Brown stars in the formula oater Shadows on the Range. The film was made at a time when Monogram was experimenting with the notion of passing Brown off as a singing cowboy. While his voice is dubbed, he's definitely handling all the action sequences himself, and that's what the fans really wanted.

A mysterious masked rider and his gang are murdering ranchers and robbing stages. Government Agent Johnny Mack Brown has been called in to help the Sheriff.

Before changing his name to Richard Powers, cowboy hero Tom Keene spent the waning days of his stardom at Monogram, churning out westerns like Riding the Sunset Trail. When ingenue Betty Dawson (Betty Miles) and her kid sister Sugar (Sugar Dawn) are cheated out of their cattle ranch, Tom Sterling (Keene) and his sidekick Mendoza (Frank Yaconelli) vow to get the ranch back for the girls. This requires Sterling to cross six-guns with Pecos Dean (Gene Alcase), a former friend who'd turned bad.

Having briefly abandoned his standard "Nevada Jack McKenzie" characterization in Flame of the West, cowboy star Johnny Mack Brown was back as Nevada Jack in Monogram's The Lost Trail. Vowing to bring in a gang of stagecoach outlaws, Nevada redoubles his efforts when he learns that the owner of the stagecoach line is pretty Jane Burns (Jennifer Holt).

Johnny Mack Brown essays the title role in Universal's Fighting Bill Forgo. Returning to his home town, Bill Fargo takes over the operation of his late father's newspaper. He quickly gets swept up in political intrigue fomented by political boss Hackett (Kenneth Harlan), who has a cute habit of rubbing out any and all honest candidates for the sheriff's office.

Range Law stars Johnny Mack Brown as "Nevada" and Raymond Hatton as "Sandy", the same characters they played in most of their mid-1940s Monogram westerns. This time, Nevada and Sandy, US marshals both, set out to collar some renegades who've been driving out the local ranchers. It's just possible that one of said ranchers is behind this land-grabbing scheme.

To get the herd on Six Gun Mesa, Carson has the owner and hands killed. But one hand, Dave Emmett was in town instead of with the cattle. So Carter kills a man and frames Dave for the murder. Johnny Mack Brown arrives just in time to stop the lynching and sets out to find the real killer. Getting the Doctor who falsified the murder evidence drunk gets him the information he wants and this leads to the showdown with Carson.

After a brief mid-1940s burst of originality, Monogram's Johnny Mack Brown western series settled back into the commonplace with such entries as Flashing Guns. In this outing, Brown tries to save his pal Shelby (Raymond Hatton) from being thrown off his ranch by crooked banker Ainsworth (James E. Logan). To do this, our hero must prove that the banker is in cahoots with the local gambling boss (Douglas Evans).

In this his penultimate Western for low-budget company Monogram, Jack Randall assumed the identity of a murdered ranger in order to track down the killer. In the lawless town of Brimstone, the citizens are being terrorized by a gang of outlaws headed by Mason (Tom London), who, to no one's great surprise, proves to be the very man Jack has been trailing. The relieved citizens of Brimstone then elect Jack as their new sheriff. The murdered ranger's sister was played by Margaret Roach, the 19-year-old daughter of comedy producer Hal Roach. Ernie Adams replaced Glenn Strange (who himself had replaced Frank Yaconelli) as Randall's sidekick, Manny, and Nelson McDowell provided additional comic relief as Brimstone's busy undertaker.

Flame of the West has always attracted more attention than most of Johnny Mack Brown's Monogram westerns, if for no other reason than the offbeat casting of Douglass Dumbrille. Usually seen in villainous roles, Dumbrille herein offers a sincere, effective performance as a scrupulously honest US marshal named Nightlander. When he takes on a gang of crooked gamblers, Nightlander is shot down in cold blood, compelling frontier doctor John Poole (Johnny Mack Brown) to put his Hippocratic oath on the back burner and strap on the shootin' irons.

Johnny Mack Brown comes to the aid of a beleaguered female freight line operator in this standard Monogram oater directed by veteran Lambert Hillyer. Having saved his old friend Faro Jenkins and young Dave Porter from marauding outlaws, Ranger Johnny Hudson learns that the attack may be part of a concerted effort by bandits to drive Dave's sister Peggy out of the freight business. Unbeknownst to Johnny and the Porters, the crimes are committed on behalf of local banker Gordon Gregg who wants to bankrupt the freight business in order to take over the valuable Porter ranch.

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).

Monogram added several songs and a barn dance to this otherwise standard Johnny Mack Brown hay burner, in which the veteran cowboy star comes to the aid of a beleaguered female rancher. Just "drifting along," Steve Garner (Mack Brown) obtains the job of foreman on a spread belonging to pretty Pat McBride (Lynne Carver). Unbeknownst to Pat, local banker Jack Dailey (Douglas Fowley) not only holds the mortgage on the ranch but is also the man responsible for the death of Pat's father. Read more at http://www.allmovie.com/movie/drifting-along-v90041#OtPRR6jLd1ubhlQv.99

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.

In one of his better Monogram Westerns, Johnny Mack Brown goes up against a crooked saloon owner with more than one murder on his conscience. Steve Corbin (Tristram Coffin) and his gang of cutthroats are terrorizing the townspeople of Rimrock, who in self-defense hire Johnny Macklin (Mack Brown) as new town marshal.