Best movies like Outlaws of the Prairie

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.

US marshal Lawlor (Starrett) takes on a gang of cattle rustlers headed by Taylor (Dick Curtis). His reasons are partly personal: Conway (Edward LeSaint), the cattle-baron father of Lawlor's sweetheart Madge (Meredith), has been murdered by Taylor's minions.

A former Texas Ranger teams up with some of his old colleagues to rid the state of corruption in their new police force.

After a handful of non-formula westerns, Charles Starrett returned to the mixture as before in Thundering Frontier. Starrett plays Jim Fillmore, kind to old ladies, small animals and heroine Norma Belknap (Iris Meredith). In contrast, the villains are kind to no one, least of all struggling building contractor Square Deal Scottie (Alex Callam), whose projects are continually targeted for demolition and his payroll is forever being stolen at gunpoint. A good 25 percent of the film's running time is given over to Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers, whose C&W croonings are pleasant but a bit much. One of the film's few surprises is that Starrett's perennial screen sparring partner Dick Curtis isn't one of the bad guys.

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.

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.

Hero Jeff Strong (Starrett) comes to the rescue of a group of victimized ranchers. The villains are a gang of crooked gamblers, who demand a valuable dam as payment for a $50,000 debt. The ranchers hope to earn the money by getting their cattle to market on time, but head bad guy Cash Fenton (Kenneth MacDonald) and his flunkey Lobo (Dick Curtis) intend to prevent this.

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.

To get the three needed business men to visit the Stevens mine, Roy stages a ride with the Vacaros and has them as honored guests. Seeing a chance to make a lot of money, gangster Harmon joins the ride and then has his men kidnap the three. Having filmed a fake holdup earlier, he uses the film to convince the Sheriff that Roy and the boys were the Kidnapers.

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.

In this western, a community revives the legend of Billy the Kid after robbers attack a stage coach. The deputy marshal believes the Kid is dead and even goes to the cemetery to exhume his body. Unfortunately, the grave is empty and as the marshal ponders the mystery, a masked rider shoots at him. The eagle-eyed lawman recognizes the man's horse and realizes that he is a prominent businessman in town.

Tex is up against a group of hooded outlaws. When he shoots one, he uses the hood to infiltrate the gang. Almost caught by them, he escapes only to be arrested by the Sheriff who thinks he's one of the gang.

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.

Sheep raisers, resentful of old injuries from the cattlemen, bar the way to water when dry ranges force the cattle ranchers to drive their herds into the lowlands.

Former Texas Ranger Wade Patterson (Starrett) returns to his home town, only to find that the territory is in the grip of cattle rustlers. For a while, it looks as though heroine Linda Holden (Meredith) is in cahoots with the bad guys, but Patterson quickly clears her name and takes on the crooks himself.

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.

Frontiersman Tom Garfield and his pals endeavor to save their land from the clutches of slimy easterner Forsyth. The villain hires a bit of local muscle in the form of brutish Chris Matson, but he's no match for our hero.

In this western a traveling gun ends up in a small town and rescues an important rancher. Out of gratitude the rancher hires him to protect his land and cattle from his violent rival. It is revealed that the gunman is the son of the ruthless rival; he therefore, loses his job and finds himself entangled in the midst of a range war. He must eventually face his father when the bad guy takes over the only trail to the market.

Charles Starrett plays lawman Steve Forsythe in Ridin' the Outlaw Trail. Somewhere along the line, of course, Steve is obliged to don the mask of The Durango Kid, mysterious righter of wrongs. The "wrongs" in this instance include the theft of $20,000 in gold, and the "kidnapping" of a blacksmith's forge! Jim Bannon, who only a few months earlier had played the heroic Red Ryder, provides the villainy in this fast-paced "Durango Kid" entry

The story revolves around a valuable silver deposit, located between two ranches. Villain Lash Bender cooks up a scheme to gain control of both ranches so that he may have a clear field to the silver lode.

Riding Through Nevada is a western starring Charles Starrett

Federal agent Steve Lawton works undercover with his assistant, Smiley Burnette, to track down an outlaw gang that is raiding government gold shipments bound for Fort Navajo.

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 Starrett stars in the lightning-paced Columbia western Riding West. Somebody is planning to sabotage the new Pony Express mail service, and hard-ridin' Steve Jordan (Charles Starrett) aims to find out who.

This Columbia western starring Charles Starrett finds Steve Randall (Charles Starrett) forming a radio show with Jimmy Wakely (Jimmy Wakely) and his Saddle Pals, and are in town for a rodeo. Reporter Connie Pearson (Constance Worth) persuades them to visit Marty Jones (Elvin Fields), a fatherless boy, who has been sent to a boy's home after stealing Steve's wallet, ran by Tom Goodwin (Forrest Taylor.) Marty tells Steve that the home is a phony and is a front for cattle rustlers. Steve passes the information on to Connie, who doesn't believe him, so he and Jimmy wire the ranch for sound. They are caught and Goodwin turns them over to Sheriff Barnes (Edmund Cobb), and then plans to skip the country

The hero, Texas Ranger Larry Whalen (Charles Starrett), is on the trail of a mysterious outlaw leader.

No relation to the 1950 John Ford classic of the same name, Rio Grande is yet another rubber-stamp Charles Starrett western from the Columbia assembly line.

Filmed at the Providencia Ranch (today's Forrest Lawn in Burbank, CA), this typical "Durango Kid" Western featured the Cass County Boys performing "Go West Young Lady" by Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin, in addition to series regular Smiley Burnette singing his own "It's My Turn" and "The Yodeler. This time, the Durango Kid (Charles Starrett) is chasing down a gang of outlaws shipping stolen gold in crates marked "ring bolts," ably assisted by Smiley, a treasury agent working undercover as a house painter. Virginia Maxey supplies female interest and little Tommy Ivo, in one of his six appearances in the Durango Kid series, also gets in the way of the action.

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.

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

Western star Charles Starrett was amazing; he kept making the same film over and over, but always made it seem as if it was for the first time. In West of Sonora, Starrett once again plays a frontier good-guy named Steve (Steve Rollins, to be exact), who, when the need arises, disguises himself as The Durango Kid, masked righter of wrongs. This time, Steve/Durango champions the cause of 10-year-old Penelope Clinton (Anita Castle), who has spent her short life as the focus of a feud between her grandfathers, suspected outlaw Black Murphy (Steve Darrell) and Sheriff Jack Clinton (George Cheseboro).

A late entry in Columbia's seemingly endless Durango Kid Western series, Cyclone Fury was augmented with a hefty dose of stock footage from an earlier Durango effort, Galloping Thunder (1946), footage that included sidekick Smiley Burnette warbling "Hear the Wind (Singing a Cowboy Song)" accompanied by Merle Travis and his Bronco Busters.

Charles Starrett once again dons the disguise of the "Durango Kid" to restore law and order in this entry in Columbia's Western series. This time, the Kid, aka Steve Ramsey, witnesses a stage robbery, during which local rancher John Avery is brutally murdered.

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.

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.

In this western, a decent Indian agent loses his job and his good name after someone steals the government money he was to deliver to a tribe. Because he cannot bear to see the people starve over the long winter, he begins searching for the robbers. He does so by looking for the unusual coins that had been included in the payroll.

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.

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.

Thad Lawson arrives in Oak Valley to avenge the murder of his brother, the local sheriff. He learns that Jack Rand, powerful overlord of the town is to blame. After Rand murders newspaper publisher Jordan Webster, Thad sets out to put him behind bars.

Charles Starrett returns as The Durango Kid in Columbia's El Dorado Pass. It all begins when Durango, in his everyday guise of Steve Clanton, is falsely accused of robbing a stagecoach. The genuine criminal is not only a thief but a coin collector, searching for a valuable specimen by staging holdups.

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.

Charles Starrett is once more cast as frontier doctor Steve Monroe in Columbia's Prairie Stranger. In the company of his comic sidekick, mail-order intern Bones (Cliff Edwards), Dr. Monroe sets up his shingle in a small Nevada town. When business is slow, Monroe and Bones take jobs as ranch-hands on a cattle spread, and while thus employed try to solve a series of mysterious livestock poisonings.

The Kinkaids and the Harpers both run stage lines and are friendly competitors. Appleby is after the stage line and convinces the two owners to build a spur line to the same town. Then he has both projects sabotaged pitting the friends against each other and running them out of money.

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.

Jim Steele spots Pete Dawson taking horses over the Mexico-Texas border, but Dawson has an alibi. A new group of recruits arrives at the Ranger station, among them Tex Wyatt, the son of Ranger Captain John Wyatt, whom he hasn't seen for many years. Captain Wyatt tells Tex that he is in the Rangers strictly on his own merit and there will be no favors played. He assigns Tex to pick up Dawson's trail, but orders that no arrest be made without proof.

In this adventure, a courageous Canadian Mountie must bring peace an embattled miner and an unscrupulous trader whose price mark-ups are beginning to hurt the community. They fight so frequently that when the avaricious proprietor is killed, the young man becomes the prime suspect.

The Durango Kid rides again in Columbia's Landrush. As ever, the masked do-gooder, alias Steve Harmon, is played by Charles Starrett. Bringing up the rear in every sense of the word is Harmon's comical sidekick Smiley Burnette. In this outing, Harmon dons his Durango garb to rescue a group of homesteaders from scurrilous villains. Musical relief is provided by Ozie Waters and his Colorado Rangers.

A caravan of settlers is arriving and the ranchers intend to keep them out. It looks like a range war but Sheriff Jim gets the ranchers to accept the settlers. Kohler re-ignites the feud by making settler Winters appear to be a rustler and then by killing Winter's son. Once more the two sides appear headed for a war and Jim is caught in the middle.