Best movies like Overland Trails

Dusty Smith arrives and takes a job on a ranch that is losing cattle to rustlers. When the rustlers strike again the cattle cannot be found but Dusty shoots one of the rustlers. Arrested for murder, Dusty is broken out of jail and the real outlaws put in the cell. Dusty then has them released figuring they will lead him to the hideout and the missing cattle.

Adam Larey becomes a fugitive from justice when he escapes after being blamed for a crime he did not commit. He wanders into the desert wastelands and joins an outlaw gang who prey on gold prospectors. Years later, he meets his wife and her gold-prospecting father as they have come there seeking their fortune, and not knowing the danger of the treacherous desert wastes, the poisoned-water holes and the outlaw bands of marauders who roam the desert in search of the gold found by others. He comes to their aid and, eventually, manges to clear his name of the false charge against him.

The Johnny Mack Brown West of Wyoming concerns the efforts by cattle baron Simon (Stanley Andrews) to prevent the opening up of the rang to homesteaders. Government agent Brown comes calling when Simon begins resorting to cold-blooded murder. The leading lady is Gail Davis, a few years shy of her Annie Oakley TV stardom. Surprisingly, West of Wyoming contains none of the comedy relief that had characterized earlier Johnny Mack Brown oaters.

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.

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.

The first of a long-running series of Monogram-produced westerns starring Johnny Mack Brown and Raymond Hatton that replaced the Rough Riders series following the death of Buck Jones in the Boston night club fire. Though the next three years featured Brown (as Nevada Jack McKenzie) and Hatton (in his Sandy Hopkins role from the Rough Riders series) as undercover marshals in some form or another, this initial entry had Brown as a lone rider seeking vengeance and he and Hatton's characters were unknown to each other through most of the film. Hopkins offer McKenzie a marshal's job at the end of the film, which the Brown character declined and rode off alone on his quest. This quest didn't take long as by the next film in the series Nevada Jack McKenzie was a full-fledged U. S. Marshal.

Magician-turned-actor John Calvert, previously the suave leading man of Film Classics' "Falcon" series, is a curious choice to star in the rough-and-tumble western Gold Fever. John Bonar (Calvert) and grizzled old prospector Nugget Jack (Ralph Morgan) strike it rich, whereupon they are besieged by Bill Johnson's (Gene Roth) outlaw gang. Heavily outnumbered, our heroes are forced to rely on brain rather than brawn.

When two of their Marshal friends are killed, the Rough Riders are sent to investigate. They have to find the killers in a ghost town where the houses and an old mine are interconnected by secret passages and tunnels.

U.S. Marshals "Nevada Jack" McKenzie and "Sandy" Hopkins, working undercover, investigate a plot to rob a widow and her daughter of a mine which they know to be filled with gold-laden ore, but the widow believes it has played out. A hermit, hanging around the mine and killing, impartially, anyone who enters the mine, impedes the investigation somewhat.

John Mason returns to the Sally Ann mine to claim his half share. Janet Cater also returns although her father lost his half share to Joe Ryan. Ryan and his gang are also there to get the gold. A mysterious Phantom is also present. Mason's plan to expose Ryan as an outlaw and to force him to turn his share to Janet works. But when distracted by the Phantom, John is made a prisoner by the gang.

U. S. Marshals Nevada Jack McKenzie and Sandy Hopkins come upon an overturned stagecoach with the driver and the passenger dead. They learn that the passenger, Hinkley, an archaeologist, has discovered an old Indian site that contains gold relics, and a gang has robbed him of the relics he was carrying. Jane Condon, daughter of Hinkley's partner who was also murdered, tells Nevada that an old Indian guide, Shag, is the only one who knows where the site is. The outlaws find Shag first, and kill him after forcing the information from him. Hinkley's son, Joel, arrives and knows where the site is and leads Nevada and Sandy there ahead of the outlaws.

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 fights a swindler and his pal, Hatton, finds a way to help a robbery victim buy back his property.

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.

Johnny Mack (Johnny Mack Brown ) is hired by Lois Benton (Virginia Carroll) as a hand on her ranch, formerly run by Daley, who is in jail on a payroll theft charge. Despite the warning for foreman Rusty Steele (Raymond Hatton), Johnny sees real estate agent Kirby (Bill Kennedy), who wants to buy the Benton ranch. When Johnny refuses to align with Kirby, he is forced to knock out henchman Moran (Marshall Reed) in a fist fight. Rusty finds on henchman Harris (Forrest Matthews), when he is caught spying on the ranch, half a map revealing the location of the missing payroll.

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.

Three fellows band together to help a woman find her uncle's cache of gold in this western. All they have to help them is a tattered map that her uncle, a prisoner of war, created in camp. Unfortunately two badguys have the map and try to turn the three goodguys against the niece. They do not succeed and justice prevails.

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.

Johnny Mack Brown was nearing the end of his starring career when he appeared in the Monogram oater Dead Man's Trail. Brown and his youthful sidekick Jimmy Ellison come to the aid of imperiled Barbara Allen. At this point, Johnny was too long in tooth and thick around the middle to qualify as a romantic lead, hence the presence of Ellison.

Johnny Williams (Johnny Mack Brown) returns to his home town of Beaufort, and finds himself when being chased by banker Henry Stevens (Tristram Coffin), Grangers Association head Les Travers (Ed Cassidy as Edward Cassidy) and real estate agent Frank Wilkins (Ted Adams.)

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).

A young man seeks vengeance on the outlaws who killed his father.

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.

U.S. Marshal Johnny Mack Brown once again goes undercover in this Nevada Mckenzie series entry from Great Westerns Prod./Monogram. Masquerading as a parson and a drifter, Sandy Hopkins (Raymond Hatton) and Nevada Jack McKenzie (Mack Brown) come to the aid of the beleaguered residents of Goldville, a small ranching community being terrorized by greedy saloon keeper Ace Benton (Kenneth MacDonald) and his gang of cutthroats. Unbeknownst to the citizenry, the railroad is planning to build tracks through town and Benton is attempting to secure the land by scaring off the settlers.

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 western, a hero prevents a stagecoach robbery and wins the respect and confidence of a mine owner and a pretty woman who is going west to see her sister. Two outlaws next try to jump the miner's claim.

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.

Blacksmith Pinto Peters calls on his old friend, Sam "Hurricane" Benton, to help him clear his son, Jimmy, of a murder charge. Hot-headed Jimmy, believes that the best way to cure a man of cheating at cards is to shoot him. He didn't shoot him enough, as the gambler only feigns death as part of a plot to gain possession of land owned by Pinto, as they know there is gold on the land buried there by an outlaw gang years ago.

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

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.