Lawless Cowboys

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.

The "badmen" of the title in this average western from Monogram are Waller, a greedy express agent and Banker Jensen, who conspire to separate Bob Bannon from the gold found on his property. Bob's brother Jim and his two pals Whip Wilson and Texas arrive too late to save Bob from the bad guys. Hoping to flush out the killer, Whip arranges to auction off the property.

The Caravan Trail stars PRC Pictures' resident singing cowboy Eddie Dean. This time around, wagonmaster Dean is appointed sheriff of a lawless frontier territory. Immediately getting down to business, our hero goes after a band of land-grabbing outlaws who've been terrorizing the homesteaders. The film is stolen hands down by supporting play Al LaRue, who as "Lash" LaRue would eventually be awarded a western series of his own. Like most of Eddie Dean's 1946 releases, The Caravan Trail was lensed in the two-hued Cinecolor process. Read more at http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-caravan-trail-v8165#ome2SWX8mH31k9yd.99

In this western, the Three Mesquiteers team up with a Texas Ranger to round up the outlaws who forced the ranger's younger brother into becoming a criminal.

Two Texas Rangers have their worlds rocked by a wrongfully accused female bandit.

Monte Hale is a stagecoach driver for Jed Baker's stage-line. Jed believes his brother, Ralph, is behind the many hold-ups of his stagecoaches but has no proof. Ralph, in turn, blames Jed for the attacks on the linemen of his pioneer telegraph company. Big Bart, a ruthless gunman and outlaw-gang leader working for crooked banker Jordan Weatherbee, is actually behind the troubles of both companies. Bart plans to frame Jed for a double-murder and then kill him. Monte saves his life and, together, they devise a plan of their own to bring an end to the reign of lawlessness along the timber trail.

All-American singing cowboy Jimmy Wakely went below the border in this musical Western from the assembly line at Monogram, performing such ditties as Adios Mariquita Linda, Rose of the Rancho, the inevitable La Cucaracha, and his own title tune. As always, Jimmy Wakely plays himself, this time heading for Don Roberto Lopez's (Julian Rivero) ranch to track down a missing gold shipment.

When Ranger Raymond is killed during a stage holdup, Wells Fargo Agent Whip Wilson assumes his identity.

Whip Wilson rides again in the Monogram western Abilene Trail. Wilson and his grizzled sidekick Andy Clyde are accused of horse stealing, a hangin' offense around these here parts. Eluding the authorities, the boys take jobs at a ranch where the real crook is hiding out.

Singing cowboy Whip Wilson, the foreman on a cattle drive, quits his job to pursue five bank robbers who murdered his brother.

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.

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.

Texas Ranger O'Brien has an outlaw twin brother. When his sibling is killed, O'Brien assumes his identity in order to infiltrate a gang of stagecoach robbers.

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.

Monogram's Outlaws of Texas is surprisingly bereft of the action highlights one might expect from star Whip Wilson. This time, the Whip and his saddle pal Andy Clyde play heroes Tom and Hungry who work undercover to break up a gang of bank robbers.

Of all the notorious lawmen that ever patrolled the violent frontier, none are more storied than ballsy and badass Molly Parker, one of the first women to join the Texas Rangers.

The tale of trail boss Gil Favor and his trusty foreman Rowdy Yates as they drives cattle across the old west. Along the way they meet up with adventure and drama.

The series initially starred veteran movie supporting actor Ward Bond as the wagon master, later replaced upon his death by John McIntire, and Robert Horton as the scout, subsequently replaced by lookalike Robert Fuller a year after Horton had decided to leave the series. The series was inspired by the 1950 film Wagon Master directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond, and harkens back to the early widescreen wagon train epic The Big Trail starring John Wayne and featuring Bond in his first major screen appearance playing a supporting role. Horton's buckskin outfit as the scout in the first season of the television series resembles Wayne's, who also played the wagon train's scout in the earlier film.

Modern-day Texas Ranger, Cordell Walker's independent crime-solving methods have their roots in the rugged traditions of the Old West. Walker's closest friend is former Ranger, C.D. Parker, who retired after a knee injury, and now owns "C.D.'s," a Country/Western saloon/restaurant. Rookie Ranger, James "Jimmy" Trivette is an ex-football player who bases his crime-solving methods on reason and uses computers and cellular phones. Alex Cahill is the Assistant DA who shares a mutual attraction with Walker, but often disagrees with his unorthodox approach to law enforcement.

Bordertown is a television western-drama series that aired from 1989 to 1991. It depicts the town formerly known as Pemmican that was later renamed Bordertown when the western border between the United States and Canada was surveyed in 1880, dividing the town.

Sons of Thunder is a television show that ran from March to April 1999 on CBS. It was a spin-off of Walker, Texas Ranger.

Slow drawls, quick draws, heroes and outlaws all have one thing in common -- "The Legend of Calamity Jane." Fast with the whip, and even faster with a smile, Jane rides the trails and backwoods in search of truth and justice, showing what real heroes are made of in this animated western adventure series.

The Restless Gun is an American western television series that appeared on NBC between 1957 and 1959, with John Payne in the role of Vint Bonner, a wandering cowboy in the era after the American Civil War. A skilled gunfighter, Bonner is an idealistic person who prefers peaceful resolutions of conflict wherever possible. He is gregarious, intelligent, and public-spirited. The half-hour black-and-white program aired seventy-eight episodes. Jeanne Bates appeared in varying roles with Payne in five episodes of The Restless Gun. The Restless Gun theme song begins: "I ride with the wind, my eyes on the sun, and my hand on my restless gun..." The song composer is probably Paul Dunlap, credited as the primary series composer, but could have been contributed to by either of the two other series composers, Dave Kahn and Stanley Wilson, also. Two versions are currently posted on YouTube, but neither posting lists any composer or performance credits.

A pair of longtime friends and former Texas Rangers crave one last adventure before hanging-up their spurs. After stealing over a thousand head of cattle from rustlers south of the border, they recruit an unlikely crew of hands to drive the herd 3,000 miles north to the grasslands of Montana.

Captain Woodrow Call, now retired from the Rangers, is a bounty hunter. He is hired by an eastern rail baron to track down Joey Garza, a new kind of killer, only a boy, who kills from a distance with a rifle.

A chronicle of the Texas Revolution, the uprising against the tyranny of Mexican dictator Santa Anna, from the battle of the Alamo to the battle of San Jacinto, and the rise of the Texas Rangers.

When the Los Angeles County’s Sheriff dies, an arcane rule forged back in the Wild West thrusts the most unlikely man into the job: a fifth-generation lawman, more comfortable taking down bad guys than navigating a sea of politics, who won’t rest until justice is served.

Cordell Walker, a widower and father of two with his own moral code, returns home to Austin after being undercover for two years, only to discover there's harder work to be done at home.

Follow the Dutton family as they embark on a journey west through the Great Plains toward the last bastion of untamed America. A stark retelling of Western expansion, and an intense study of one family fleeing poverty to seek a better future in America’s promised land — Montana.

Once a feared lawman, the legendary Bat Masterson trades his sheriff's badge for a pen and becomes a newspaper reporter. He now travels the frontier to chronicle the amazing true stories of the Wild West and bring them to life once more.