Best movies like West of the Santa Fe
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A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like West of the Santa Fe Starring Charles Starrett, Iris Meredith, Dick Curtis, Robert Fiske, and more. If you liked West of the Santa Fe then you may also like: Under Arizona Skies, The Old Wyoming Trail, Rawhide, Dodge City Trail, Spoilers of the Range 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.
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.
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The Old Wyoming Trail
In an effort to compete with Republic's popular songfest Westerns, fours music numbers -- including Tumbling Tumbleweeds -- were added to The Old Wyoming Trail, an otherwise average Charles Starrett vehicle. No singer, Starrett left the vocalizing to his sidekick Donald Grayson and the popular Sons of the Pioneers. En route to purchase a herd of cattle, Bob Patterson (Starrett) and his sidekick Sandy (Grayson) get in the way of a scheme to defraud the local ranchers of their possessions.
Rawhide
Saunders with his Cattlemen's Protective Agency is running roughshod over the ranchers. Lawyer Larry Kimball is fighting him but he needs a rancher that will stand up with him against Saunders. He finds him when Lou Gehrig retires from baseball to take up ranching. Lou expects to relax on his ranch but quickly joins Larry in the fight.
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.
Spoilers of the Range
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.
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.
The Durango Kid
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.
Outlaws of the Rockies
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.
Texas Stampede
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.
The Stranger from Texas
Things get under way when US marshal Tom (Starrett) finds himself in the midst of a range war. The villains are a band of rustlers who play both sides of the confrontation against one another, the better to move in and claim all the livestock.
Riders of Black River
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.
Colorado Trail
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.
Blazing Six Shooters
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.
Outlaws of the Prairie
Charles Starrett plays two-fisted frontiersman Dart Collins in this slick Columbia "B" western. Collins wants to find out who's behind a series of gold-shipment robberies. So does heroine Judy Garfield (Iris Meredith), whose stage transport business faces foreclosure if the holdups continue. It comes as no surprise that the crimes are being orchestrated by the very people who want to force Judy out of business.
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
The Man from Sundown
The hero, Texas Ranger Larry Whalen (Charles Starrett), is on the trail of a mysterious outlaw leader.
Rio Grande
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.
The Pinto Kid
Pinto Kid was one of Charles Starrett's last "formula" westerns before he permanently assumed the screen guise of the Durango Kid. The story takes places just after the Civil War, with hostilities between Yanks and Rebels still in effect between Kansas and Texas. The villain, cattle rustler Vic Landreau (Paul Sutton), intends to play both factions down the middle for his own benefit. But Landreau meets his match in the form of wandering do-gooder Jud Calvert (Charles Starrett).
Honor of the West
Sheriff Bob Bartlett is called away from the rodeo to apprehend cattle rustlers.
The Stranger From Ponca City
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.
Gallant Defender
Munro and his gang control the valley and are driving away all nesters. Johnny arrives, and taking an interest in Barbara McGrail, decides to help the nesters. He receives unexpected help from Barbara's uncle who is posing as Salty Smith, one of Munro's hired guns. Salty thinks Munro killed his brother and is out to get proof.
Trail of the Rustlers
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.
Pardon My Gun
In this western, a rancher is ambushed, killed, and robbed, but for some reason the killers through his money pouch in the bushes without opening it. Later a woman happens upon the cash and finds herself a prime suspect in the killing. Fortunately, a survey engineer proves her innocence, and they begin looking for the real villains.
Bullets for Rustlers
Steve Beaumont, an operative for the Cattleman's Protective Association, is assigned the difficult task of breaking up a murderous gang of rustlers led by Ed Brock and Strang. He takes Sheriff Webb, Judge Baxter, and rancher Ann Houston into his confidence, and works his way into the rustler stronghold and confidence by "turning rustler" himself.
Two-Fisted Rangers
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.
Terror Trail
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.
Prairie Stranger
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.
Texas Stagecoach
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.
Outpost of the Mounties
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.
Cowboy in the Clouds
A rancher who becomes a pilot staunchly defends the newly formed Civil Air Patrol from the cattle barons who fail to see the value of airplanes on the range.
Robin Hood of the Range
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.
Western Caravans
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.
The Fighting Buckaroo
In this western, a lonesome cowpoke trots into a town and helps clear his pardner's name. The trouble began when the friend was framed by the leader of the Cattlemen's association who made it seem like he was a rustler. Because the friend was an ex-con, the evidence against him seems airtight. The wandering hero must work extra hard to prove his friend's innocence.
South of the Chisholm Trail
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.
Under Arizona Skies
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.