Best movies like Lawless Empire

The cattle herds of some Arizona ranchers are being stampeded and stolen, so the Arizona Stockmen's Syndicate sends ace investigator Steve Reynolds in to find out who is responsible. Steve poses as a vicious gunslinger named Buck McCloud to work his way into the gang, and then becomes the Durango Kid to disrupt the activities he learns about. Jud Temple is the loyal fiancée of town banker Grat Hanlon who turns out to be the brain-trust behind the gang.

Steve Holden, a secret service agent, is suspended when his boss becomes suspicious of his activities as The Durango Kid. Can Steve prove his innocence?

Krag Sabine has aroused the wrath of all the ranchers by stealing their land with the aid of his henchmen, led by Ace Barco; when Lafe Martin objects, the outlaws shoot him down. Lucky Randall promises Ann Martin he will avenge her wounded father. He sets up headquarters on the Martin ranch and sends for Bob Merritt and his men, the Texas Playboys (Jesse Ashlock, Leon McAuliffe, Cotton Thompson, Junior Barnard and Luke Wills). Krag organizes his remaining men for an attack on the ranch. Lucky's men get the upper hand but Krag escapes with Ann as his hostage.

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

A Hollywood singing-cowboy star with a big heart and an even bigger secret (he uses a double in most scenes because he can't ride, fight or sing) comes to the aid of a rancher about to lose his home on a rodeo bet.

The Durango Kid is a sort of Robin Hood of the West who helps the lovely Walters (who replaced Starrett's usual love-interest, Iris Meredith), the daughter of a homesteader, defeat the evil MacDonald who has been terrorizing the decent citizens with his gang of rustlers.

When Moreland's henchman attack Bob Horner the Range Busters break it up. Horner dies but they get the baby Moreland was after. He must have it to become it's guardian and take control of the Horner ranch. When the henchmen catch up with Alibi, they take the baby cradle not realizing Alibi has substituted his dummy Elmer. Crash having evidence Moreland is the one they want, now has a plan to expose him.

Silver is being smuggled across the border and the secret passage goes through Betty Long's basement. When Steve arrives he gets tangled up with the rustlers who are now going to have the Durango Kid to contend with.

Stage line owner Brent has his men robbing Halliday stages and when his manager Waring learns of it, Brent has him killed. Jeff Waring arrives and takes his uncle's job. He soon learns what's happening and the Durango Kid goes into action. This keeps Halliday going and gives them a chance to get the mail contract by winning the stagecoach race.

Outlaws of the Rockies is the fourth of Columbia's revitalized "Durango Kid" series. Charles Starrett is back in the saddle as the masked do-gooder Durango, aka easygoing sheriff Steve Williams. Accused of being a member of an outlaw gang, Williams is forced to don his Durango disguise to bring the actual criminals to justice.

Kalmus is after the freight contract held by Summers. When his gang kill Summers, Tex and Duke step in to help Madge keep the freight line going. When they foil the gang's further attempts, Kalmus gets the Judge to jail the two.

Charles Starrett once more hits the trail as "The Durango Kid" in Columbia's Across the Badlands. By now, the formula was a well-oiled machine: Starrett becomes a lawman, is challenged by the local criminal element, and ultimately goes beyond the law as the masked Durango.

U.S. Marshal Wild Bill Hickok arrives in Goldfield to arrest Tex Martin, who has been accused of murdering the sheriff. "Hawk" Hammond, the man behind the sheriff's killing, sends his legions of henchmen to lynch Tex before the trail. Wild Bill and Tex escape to a stagecoach rest station run by Reba Bailey. There is a showdown battle at Hammond's saloon but not before Tex gets to sing two songs followed by a third one after the battle.

The fifth film in the 24-film Range Busters series finds "Crash", "Dusty" and Alibi, on their way to Gopher City to become the town's peace officers. In the saloon, young Jimmy Rowell is losing money in a crooked poker game to saloon owner Bob Harmon. Harmon and his henchman Bart Gill are in reality wanted-outlaw brothers Jim and Ike Breedon seeking revenge against Jimmy and his school-teaching sister Sally as their father, a circuit judge in Nebraska, had sentenced their brother Bud to be hanged. Harmon involves Jimmy, because of his gambling debts, in a robbery of a rancher known to keep large amounts of money at his ranch. The Range Busters break up the robbery, Bart is killed, as is Rancher Fleming, and Jimmy is wounded but escapes. Harmon, setting a trap for Crash, tricks Sally and Jimmy to his hideout, and Crash follows them.

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.

Steve Landry arrives as the new Marshal of a town that is having trouble with outlaws. When an outlaw escapes over the State line out of his jurisdiction, the Durango Kid brings him in. The Durango Kid then continues to break up the outlaw raids. But Belle, the saloon owner who is in cahoots with the outlaws, notices the the boot prints of the Durango Kid match those of the new Marshal and a trap is sent to get Durango.

Charles "Durango" Starrett and his pal Smiley Burnette go after smugglers. Our heroes travel incognito across the Mexican border to beard the leader of the gang in his den.

The outlaw gangs are robbing the railroads and the Rangers cannot follow them when they move to New Mexico. So Kip decides to take a vacation to New Mexico and, as the Durango Kid, bring Cass and his gang back to justice. But Cass and his gang are killed at the bank in a double cross and Kip must still find the loot. For this, he enlists the help of Tex and Grubstake, although Grubstake does not know it.

The Range Busters head for Pinto Basin where a series of stage robberies have occurred. To try and find the gang's boss, Crash sends out a empty money box. The plan backfires when the boss has the Range Busters identified as the robbers. Thinking it is now safe, the bank sends out a big money shipment. Needing to rob the stage, the boss gets the boys out of jail so they can be blamed. But this is just the chance they need to catch the robbers.

In a saloon shooting, a cowboy thinks he killed Prince Katey, a man he closely resembles. Cannonball arrives and thinking the cowboy to be Katey, gets him to return to the Katey ranch where the mother is in trouble. She thinks her missing son has returned and even though the Sheriff is chasing him, he decides to take up the mother's fight against the man who is trying to throw her off the ranch.

In Prairie Roundup, Fred F. Sears' direction brings a welcome jolt of vitality to Columbia's aging "Durango Kid" western series. Once again, Charles Starrett stars as Steve Carson, a lawman who is forced to assume the identity of masked do-gooder Durango. Framed for murder, Carson escapes to locate the real killer. It turns out that he was set up by cattle baron Buck Prescott (Frank Fenton), who eliminates competition by stealing livestock from other ranchers.

Using marked bills, Steve is looking for the supposedly dead Henry Hardison. Coming to Bonanza Town he gets a job with the town boss Crag Bozeman and gets paid with marked bills. He suspects Hardison is Boseman's boss and he is right as Hardison and his men are now planning to get rid of both him and the Durango kid.

The Durango Kid and his sidekick look for stolen gold with a history.

The Durango Kid, along with assistance from sidekick Smiley Burnett, investigates a pair of murders that threaten to fuel a range war.

Government Agent Steve leases land to Masters so he can bring in horses for the Army. Henley has obtained a forged lease for the same land and Steve is unable to prove it's a fake. While Steve checks with Washington, Henley plans to roundup and ship the horses. Masters also intends to roundup the horses and he has the Durango Kid on his side in the battle with Henley.

An outlaw gang is trying to stop the reopening of a mine as they look for the money left there by the famous outlaw Dusty Morton. After a ten year absence, Morton has apparently reappeared and Steve arrives looking for him. He finds his son who also wonders if his father is still alive. With the gang soon after him, the Durango Kid goes into action and Steve tries to learn who the real Dusty Morgan is.

Treasury Department Steve Waring, and also, unknown to others, the Durango Kid, comes to Sunset Pass in search of $1000,000 in gold coins, stolen from the government by the late Forrest Brent. He is aided by Smiley Burnette, the local deputy sheriff. Later, Paula Thorpe, Brent's daughter from his first marriage, arrives with her lawyer sweetheart Frank Raeburn, with intentions of proving her father's estate belongs to her and not to Mrs. Brent, his wife of record when he died. The widow Brent has no intentions of giving up one single cent.

Charles Starrett returns as the Durango Kid in Columbia's Rough, Tough, West. For most of the film, however, Starrett is known as "Steve Holden," a former Texas Ranger who comes to a wide-open mining town to visit an old friend (Jack -- later Jock -- Mahoney). Alas, said friend has turned bad, and is busy arranging a major land grab when Steve arrives on the scene. With deep regret, our hero dons his Durango disguise to thwart his ex-friend's criminal activities.

Steve Martin is sent to Wild River to recover stolen gold and finds the town is being terrorized by The Hawk and his outlaw gang. The Hawk attempts to murder Sheriff Jack Mahoney and is captured and jailed. Steve helps the Hawk break jail and thus makes contact with the bandit gang. He sends a bungling photographer, Smiley Burnette, to warn the sheriff that the gang plan to rob the express office.

Dakota Indian Agent Steve Reynolds receives a copy of the Bonanza City Nuggett from Jim Mallory and reads a story blaming the Durango Kid for recent gold mine raids.

This time the Durango Kid confronts an expert gambler.

A masked outlaw steals from bank robbers to help the poor.

Arriving to become the new Deputy, Steve Gordon takes over as Sheriff instead when he finds the Sheriff has been killed. He doesn't last long and is fired for incompetence. But he realizes Brady is pulling off a swindle. Having found the proper soil, Brady has salted it with cheap diamonds, gotten Smiley to accidently find them, and is now taking money from eager investors and planning to flee with it.

Charles Starrett once more dons the mask of mysterious do-gooder "The Durango Kid" in Columbia's Challenge of the Range. Wandering cowboy Steve Roper (Starrett) is hired by the Farmers Association to stem the activities of a group of gunmen who are driving ranchers off their land. The most likely suspect turns out to be innocent: the real culprits are within the Association itself. With the help of the chief suspect's son, Roper brings the crooks to justice.

A saddle-weary Steve Larkin, also the Duranko Kid, rides into Red Mound, a town filled with cattle rustlers. Cafe owner Smiley, befriends Steve and fills him in on the activities. Steve angers the rustler's leader, Flip Dugan when he purchases the old Atkins ranch which is supposedly haunted. Flip and his henchmen try to prevent the recording of the deed, but the Durango Kid and Deputy Marshal Tug Carter win the gun battle.

When Temple's miners strike gold they send Jake to file the claim. Dana is in the Recorder's office and overhears. He and his men kill Jake and forge new deeds. Now owning everything Dana tries to kick the Temple group off their land. But Jack and sidekick Lucky are on hand and plan to help them fight back.

Cimarron has found a lost treasure and the outlaw gang knows about it. They have made him a prisoner and are trying to get the location from him. However, he has sent for his friend Steve Reynolds and the Durango Kid will soon be on the job.

Charles Starrett goes up against an entire family of criminals posing as respectable citizens in this entry in Columbia's long-running Durango Kid Western series.

The Durango Kid sets out to clear his name after being falsely accused of a payroll robbery.

The Durango Kid (Charles Starrett) returns to Ret Butte intending to sell his cattle ranch. Saloon owner, Duke Catlett (Lane Chandler) is the secret owner of a sheep flock which graze on the cattle lands--leaving them useless for cattle. A range war looms between the cattlemen and sheepherders.

The Durango Kid fights to catch the rustlers who killed an Army officer.

Wanted outlaws have mysteriously disappeared. Ranger Captain Henley and Steve have a plan to find them. Steve becomes a wanted man by faking the killing of Henley. Not only is he now in trouble as both the Rangers and the Mexican Rurales are after him, but Smiley knows him and may expose his masquerade to the bad guys.

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.

When Sheriff Jeff Connor of Powder River cannot stop the crime wave, his young son, Larry, writes to the Durango Kid for aid. Taggart, the saloon owner, is the secret head of the outlaws, while Connor's brother Bill is in cahoots with him. Steve Randall, the Durango Kid, and his pal, Smiley Butterbean, arrive in time to stop a stagecoach holdup, and Steve is made a deputy sheriff. Taggart has one of his men, Slade, pose as the Durango Kid and while he is speaking to the townspeople, the rest of the outlaw gang pillages the town, and this somewhat damages the Durango Kid in the eyes of Larry and his sister Doris. Steve suggests that Sheriff Connor visit the government about a railroad project, and Taggart instructs Slade and the gang leader to kill Connor on his trip back.

Steve Driscoll arrives to help a friend who is trying to bring in an oil well. He finds that the well has been blown up and the workers have quit. He gets the workers back on the job and orders a new drill bit . When the drill bit is stolen he organizes the townspeople to invest in the well. But when the money is collected, a fake Durango Kid shows up to take it and flee

Inasmuch as western star Charles Starrett gained screen fame as the Robin Hood-like "Durango Kid", it stands to reason that Starrett would head the cast of Robin Hood of the Range. The star plays Steve Marlowe, the foster son of railroad manager Henry Marlowe (Kenneth McDonald). When it becomes apparent that the railroad is using underhanded methods to drive local homesteaders off their land, Steve adopts the guise of "The Vulcan", a legendary champion of justice.

Steve arrives looking for the person printing counterfeit bonds. He finds his man in Pop Ryland who has two sons and a stepson. The stepson doesn't want to be an outlaw like the other sons and helps Steve out by posing as the Durango Kid when needed and then leading him to the evidence he is looking for.

When the ranchers of Bearcat are plagued by rustlers, Big Jim Grady offers to buy their herds from them at low-ball prices. Steve Haley suggests to the ranchers that they band together and drive their herds to Abilene, Kansas and get full price. Steve's friend Smiley "joins" the rustlers to learn who their leader is. Grady henchman Doc Walker asks Steve to help break up the cattle drive, and he agrees in order to keep tabs on the rustlers. The gang makes several attempts to take the trail herd but Steve, in his guise as the Durango Kid, intervenes and saves the cattle.

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).

Jimmy and Cannonball find the body of Don Muquel after he has been shot and robbed by henchmen Ramsay and Sturgis. Jimmy is accused of the crime by Jose Esteban but the latter's rich uncle, Don Esteban, clears his friend Jimmy. Jose accuses the the settlers, led by John Chambers, of confiscating the land of the native Californians, through murder and theft. Actually, surveyor Willard Jackson is making forged copies of stolen land-grant papers after his men have killed the rightful owners. Playing both ends against the middle, Ramsay urges Chambers and his daughter, Diane, to drive off the Californians.