Best movies like The Virginian
The All-Time Best-Selling Love Story of the West... Now On the Screen In Spectacular Technicolor!
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Virginian Starring Joel McCrea, Brian Donlevy, Sonny Tufts, Barbara Britton, and more. If you liked The Virginian then you may also like: The Virginian, The Virginian, Nevada, Ride a Violent Mile, Robbers' Roost and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
Arriving at Medicine Bow, eastern schoolteacher Molly Woods meets two cowboys, irresponsible Steve and the "Virginian," who gets off on the wrong foot with her. To add to his troubles, the Virginian finds that his old pal Steve is mixed up with black-hatted Trampas and his rustlers...then finds himself at the head of a posse after said rustlers; and Molly hates the violent side of frontier life.
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The Virginian
A good-natured cowboy who is romancing the new schoolmarm has a crisis of conscience when he discovers his best friend is engaged in cattle rustling.
Ride a Violent Mile
A cowboy stampedes a Rebel plot with a Union spy posing as a dance-hall girl.
Robbers' Roost
Running from the law, Jim Hall joins Hays’ gang. Hays is foreman on the Herrick ranch and plans to rustle Herrick’s cattle. Attracted to Herrick’s sister Helen, Jim decides to tell the Sheriff about the raid. But when his plan is overheard he is made a prisoner.
Rough Night in Jericho
The only business in the Wild West town of Jericho that corrupt sheriff Alex Flood doesn't control behind the scenes is the stagecoach owned by tough-willed widow Molly Lang and her right-hand man, Hickman. Former marshal Dolan, recently hired by Lang and Hickman as a driver, wants to stay out of the mess, but when he sees Flood's henchman Yarbrough assault Lang, he steps up to fight the corruption.
Brass Commandments
"Flash" Lanning returns to Bozzam City from the East to put an end to cattle rustling. Gloria Hallowell, who has known him by reputation, falls in love with Lanning but believes that he loves Ellen Bosworth, an eastern "lady." Campan, the leader of the rustlers, hoping to lure Lanning into a trap, kidnaps both girls. Lanning rescues the girls, punishes Campan, and indicates to Gloria that she is the girl for him.
The Cheyenne Social Club
Two cowboys inherit a "social club" specializing in satisfying men.
Roll, Thunder, Roll!
Jim Bannon is back as enduring cowboy hero Red Ryder in Eagle-Lion's Roll, Thunder, Roll. As ever, Ryder's cohorts are Little Beaver and the Duchess, here played by "Little Brown Jug" and Marin Sais. This time, Ryder tries to prove that a series of cattle raids and ranch fires were not the handiwork of masked Mexican do-gooder El Conejo.
Tom Horn
A renowned former army scout is hired by ranchers to hunt down rustlers but finds himself on trial for the murder of a boy when he carries out his job too well. Tom Horn finds that the simple skills he knows are of no help in dealing with the ambitions of ranchers and corrupt officials as progress marches over him and the old west.
The Culpepper Cattle Co.
Working as an assistant on a long cattle drive, the young Ben Mockridge contends between his dream of being a cowboy and the harsh truth of the Old West.
Smoky
Clint Barkley first sees Smoky as a runaway, and drives him back to the ranch where he meets the owner, Julie Richards. He is given a job on her ranch, but the head cowhand is doubtful about Clint and fears that since he refuses to talk about himself, he must have some dreadful secret in his past. Clint and Smoky become close to each other, weathering the hardships of Western life and the suspicions of others together, until one day, Smoky tragically vanishes. Will Clint ever see him again?
These Thousand Hills
A cowboy tries for easy money with his partner, then tries ranching with a saloon hostess's money.
The Cimarron Kid
Audie Murphy comes into his own as a Western star in this story. Wrongly accused by crooked railroad officials of aiding a train heist by his old friends the Daltons, he joins their gang and becomes an active participant in other robberies. Betrayed by a fellow gang member, Murphy becomes a fugitive in the end. Seeking refuge at the ranch of a reformed gang member, he hopes to flee with the man's daughter to South America, but he's captured in the end and led off to jail. The girl promises to wait.
The Lone Star Ranger
After shooting a man in self-defense, Buck Duane finds himself accused of many crimes, none of which he committed. In order to prove his innocence, he joins the Texas Rangers, and also hopes to win the approval and hand of Mary Aldridge, a girl from the East. He is assigned to round up a gang of cattle rustlers who are, unknown by Mary. led by her father.
Square Shooter
Tim returns from prison after being framed for murder to clear his name and retrieve the ranch taken from his uncle with a forged will.
Outlaws of the Panhandle
Outlaws of the Pandhandle was the last of Charles Starrett's "formula" westerns for Columbia: hereafter, Starrett would be seen only in the guise of frontier medico Steven Monroe or masked do-gooder The Durango Kid. For the moment, however, the star is cast as Jim Endicott, bound and determined to put an end to the underhanded activities of gin-mill operator Faro Jack Vaughn (Norman Willis). The villain's strategy is to get the local cowpunchers tanked up on rotgut that they'll prove to be easy pickings for a gang of rustlers-and will be unable to complete work on a railroad spur which will bypass the outlaws' hideaway.
Frontier Law
A town is cleared of crime when a group of cowboys under the direction of Hayden battles an outlaw gang. They also manage to restore the reputation of a friend wrongly accused of murder.
Dodge City Trail
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.
The Sunset Legion
The citizens and near-by ranchers of a western town are being besieged by a gang of rustlers and robbers, and a plea is made to the governor to send a troop of rangers. Shortly, thereafter a dude-costumed cowboy shows up but he only asks a lot of dumb questions and does a lot of stick-whittling as he wanders the streets and hangs out in the saloon with the regular barflies. The citizens mark him down as being 'tetched in the head.' Also, shortly after the whittler arrives, a mysterious black-masked rider begins to make life a bit tougher on them than it had been.
Hangman's Knot
In 1865, a troop of Confederate soldiers led by Major Matt Stewart attack the wagon of gold escorted by Union cavalry and the soldiers are killed. The only wounded survivor tells that the war ended one month ago, and the group decides to take the gold and meet their liaison that knew that the war ended but did not inform the troop. The harsh Rolph Bainter kills the greedy man and the soldiers flee in his wagon driven by Major Stewart. When they meet a posse chasing them, Stewart gives wrong information to misguide the group; however, they have an accident with the wagon and lose the horses. They decide to stop a stagecoach and force the driver to transport them, but the posse returns and they are trapped in the station with the passenger. They realize that the men are not deputies and have no intention to bring them to justice but take the stolen gold.
Crossfire Trail
Rafe Covington is as good as his word, and he's determined to keep his promise to a dying man that he'll look after the man's widow and Wyoming ranch. But the widow doubts the integrity of drifter Covington. And an unscrupulous land grabber and his gunmen are sizing up the ranch the way a spider eyes a fly.
Canyon River
A rancher's foreman schemes against him on a cattle drive from Oregon to Wyoming.
Hills of Oklahoma
In this remake of Gene Autry's 1942 "Call of the Canyon", Rex Allen, the newly-elected head of the cattleman's association, is driving the combined herds of the ranchers to the nearest railhead when he runs into trouble. Singing cowboy Rex Allen stars as a newly appointed leader of a cattleman's association who finds himself battling a greedy meat-packer (Robert Karnes) and his father (Robert Emmett Keane) for fair passage through the hills of Oklahoma.
Rainbow Over the Rockies
Driving a herd of cattle to market, Jimmy finds the trail has been fenced off by an old friend of his. While the two sides try to settle the matter peaceably, a man from each outfit get together to try and start a range war between them figuring they will end up with the cattle. When cattle are rustled, Jimmy finds the clue, horses with shoes that make tracks that look like cattle.
Melody of the Plains
The fourth of 12 singing Westerns starring the "Silvery-Voiced Baritone," Fred Scott, Melody of the Plains begins peacefully enough with Scott, as cowboy Steve Condon, warbling Don Swander and June Hershey's "Albuquerque." The story quickly takes a rather grim turn when one of Steve's colleagues is shot and killed after selling out to a gang of rustlers. Mistakenly believing he fired the deadly shot, a dejected Steve, along with sidekick Fuzzy, goes to work for Bud's father, a rancher nearly forced into bankruptcy by a crooked land developer.
Last Stand at Saber River
As America recovers from the Civil War, one man tries to put the pieces of his life back together but finds himself fighting a new battle on the frontier. Cable is an embittered Confederate soldier who returns from the war to reclaim his Arizona homestead from rebel pioneers who sympathize with the Union war effort.
Tonto Basin Outlaws
Number 10 in Monogram's series of 24 "Range Busters" westerns, Crash Corrigan, Dusty King and Alibi Terhune, the Range Busters,enlist in Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War, but are mustered out and sent to Wyoming to clean up a cattle-rustling situation that is affecting the Army's meat supply. Arriving in North Butte, Crash's home town, they all get separate jobs. Jane Blanchard, a reporter from the Denver Daily, also arrives in town in search of a story, and is posing as a waitress. They learn that Jeff Miller is behind the huge combine of rustlers, but Miller also learns that they are the Range Busters and are on his trail. He and his henchmen engage the out-numbered Crash and Alibi in a fight, but Dusty stampedes a large herd of Miller's stolen cattle into the midst of the fray.
Sagebrush Heroes
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
Six-Gun Serenade
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.
Riders in the Sky
When asked about the Ghost Riders song he sings, Gene Autry tells this legend: Gene is about to resign as an investigator for the county attorney and go into the cattle business with his pal Chuckawalla Jones but decides instead to help Anne Lawson clear her father, rancher Ralph Lawson, of a false murder charge. He looks for the three witnesses who can testify that Lawson shot only in self defense in killing a gambler, but the witnesses are terrorized by another gambler, town boss Rock McCleary, who shoots witness Pop Roberts Morgan. Fatally wounded, Pop gives Gene the information needed to clear Lawson, then dies crying the "Ghost Riders" are coming for him. Gene then heads for a showdown with McCleary.
Riders of the Range
Out-of-work cowboys Kansas Jones and Chito Rafferty are offered jobs at pretty Dusty Willis' ranch after saving her from a beating by saloon owner Clint Burrows. Dusty's good-hearted but weak-willed brother Harry, adding to his $3000 gambling debt to Willis, reluctantly agrees to pay it off by allowing the Ringo Kid, Burrows' vicious hired gun, to rustle cattle from his sister's ranch. Kansas intervenes, deters the rustlers and persuades Harry to confess his involvement to Dusty. Kansas, sent into town by Dusty to pay off Harry's debts, suddenly finds himself on the wrong side of the law, wrongly accused of murder and must rely on Dusty's belief in his innocence for his salvation.
Frontier Outlaws
Billy Carson, looking for rustlers, kills Bradley in a gun fight. Arrested, the judge finds him innocent but jails him anyway. When the rustling resumes he is released and posing as a Mexican cattle buyer he hopes to trap the culprits.
Roaring Rangers
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.
The Virginian
A good-natured but chivalrous cowboy romances the local schoolmarm and leads the posse that brings a gang of rustlers, which includes his best friend, to justice.