Yellowstone (2018), Monte Walsh (1970), Ride, Tenderfoot, Ride (1940), Broken Lance (1954), Heritage of the Desert (1939), Sioux City Sue (1946), The Singing Hill (1941), Heart of the Rockies (1937) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Ranch Life movies.
Storyline: John Dutton tries to protect his ranch, the largest in the United States.
Plot Keywords: power struggle, modern western, american frontier, revenge plot, moral dilemma, tradition vs modernity, male-dominated ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Monte Walsh is an aging cowboy facing the ending days of the Wild West era. As barbed wire and railways steadily eliminate the need for the cowboy, Monte and his friends are left with fewer and fewer options. New work opportunities are available to them, but the freedom of the open prairie is what they long for. Eventually, they all must say goodbye to the lives they knew, and try to make a new start.—Jean-Marc Rocher <rocher@fiberbit.net>
Plot Keywords: western, friendship, loyalty, betrayal, romance, survival, tradition vs modernity ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Overly shy cowboy Gene inherits a meat-packing plant, then faces stiff competition from snooty Ann Randolph, rival owner determined to do him in.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: western, horse, adventure, outlaw, sheriff, 1940s, gunfight ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Cattle baron Matt Devereaux raids a copper smelter that is polluting his water, then divides his property among his sons. Son Joe takes responsibility for the raid and gets three years in prison. Matt dies from a stroke partly caused by his rebellious sons and when Joe gets out he plans revenge.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: western, drama, father-son relationship, revenge, power struggle, american west, sibling rivalry ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: John Abbott returns to the desert land he owns, and after being wounded by hired gunman Chick Chance, he is befriended by rancher Andrew Naab and his son, Marvin. Naab's daughter, Marian, falls in love with John but is about to marry Snap Thornton to keep a promise made by her father. She runs away on her wedding day but is captured and held hostage by outlaw Henry Holderness. John, the Naabs and fellow ranchers rush to her rescue.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: western, classic film, 1930s, american film, black and white, paramount pictures, adventure ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Utilizing a script from 1939's "She Married a Cop" with a 1946 Hit Parade song for the title, Gene Autry's screen return following his WW II Army Air Corps service, "Sioux City Sue" has Hollywood talent scout Sue Warner (Lynne Roberts) in search of a singing cowboy and finding and offering cattle rancher Gene Autry (Gene Autry) a contract. He agrees to go to Hollywood if there is a part for his horse Champion. Gene isn't aware they only want to use his voice in an animated cartoon. After the preview, he and Champ depart in a huff (Well, actually, Champ was in a trailer). The annoyed Sue also follows and gets work on Gene's ranch as a cook. Later, the studio heads, while looking at Gene's screen test, decide he is a natural and want to sign him to a contract. After a few misunderstandings, Gene realizes that Sue is sincere, and he signs a contract to star in a musical western, but first he has to stop a cattle stampede and rout a gang of rustlers trying to blow up his ranch dam.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: western, comedy, musical, country music, black and white, 1940s, american film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The free grazing land that the local ranchers have used for years is about to be sold to John R. Ramsey (George Meeker), a greedy, grasping cattle broker. Gene Autry (Gene Autry), as foreman of the Circle R Ranch and head of the Cattleman's Association, tries to make Jo Adams (Virginia Dale), the youthful owner of the ranch, understand that the future of all the ranchers hinges on the sale of her property. But Jo, a frivolous, extravagant heiress to whom sentiment means little, stubbornly refuses to stop the sale. Gene goes to court and has Jo declared incompetent and has himself appointed her guardian. Ramsey has already made a $25,000 down payment to clinch his option to buy within sixty days, and Jo has already spent the money on the debts she owed. Gene's problem is to figure out how to raise the $25,000 to return to Ramsey in order to cancel the sale. He and the other cattleman agree to poll their herds for sale to raise the cash, but Ramsey hires some gunmen to stampede the cattle and also flood the valley, killing kindly old Pop Sloan (Wade Borteler) in the process..—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: musical, western, romance, comedy, country music, romantic comedy, lighthearted ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The Mesquiteers are supposedly losing cattle to a bear from the adjoining National park. But the culprits are the Dawson clan who kill the cattle and use Davey's pet bear to leave tracks. When Davey breaks his leg, they find a crutch mark along with the bear tracks and head after the Dawson's.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>
Plot Keywords: western, adventure, classic, 1930s, action, heroism, treasure hunt ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The happy Indians live in Antelope Valley and Eddie is the new Indian Agent. Everything seems fine until the town selectmen want the valley occupied by the Indians because it contains silver. So they hire outlaw Indians and Chico to start trouble hoping that the army will forcibly remove them from the valley and they will claim it. But Father Sullivan and Eddie believe the Indians are being wronged even though they cannot convince anyone else.—Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
Plot Keywords: western, romance, 1940s, classic, adventure, drama, historical ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: This western begins with St. Louis resident Lutie Cameron (Katharine Hepburn) marrying New Mexico cattleman Col. James B. 'Jim' Brewton (Spencer Tracy) after a short courtship. When she arrives in "Salt Fork, NM" she finds that her new husband is considered by the locals to be a tyrant who uses force to keep homesteaders off the government owned land he uses for grazing his cattle--the so-called Sea of Grass. Lutie, has difficulty reconciling her husband's beliefs and passions with her own.—kzmckeown
Plot Keywords: western, drama, romance, family drama, epic, classic film, black and white ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In 1875, the collapse of the world beef market creates hardships for Texas cattle growers. In Garnet Basin, many cattlemen are forced to sell their cattle for low prices. Processed in rendering plants, they're only used for their hides, fats and oils, tallow for soap and fertilizers. Without sufficient funds, many ranchers face foreclosures on their lands. Greedy local banker Marvin Parker refuses to extend the mortgage payments or make any new loans to ranchers. He hopes to force the ranchers to sell their lands for cheap to him. In cahoots with Parker are Caddo Sledge, the owner of a cattle rendering plant and womanizing rancher Harry Odell. Odell is engaged to Linda Garnet, daughter of rancher Walt Garnet, but is secretly romancing Melba Sykes, daughter of Tim Sykes. Against the scheming trio of Parker, Sledge and Odell is Ben Anthony, former cattleman, who is the owner of the local freight and stagecoach line. A war of sorts ensues between Ben Anthony and the crooked trio. When the army announces an upcoming purchase of beef from the area, the cattlemen sense that a solution to their problem is near and that ranches, cattle businesses and lands soon could be saved. These news prompt the criminal trio of Parker, Sledge and Odell to intensify their campaign of intimidation and destruction, culminating in raids against Ben Anthony's freight line and murder of all those witnesses who could identify them as the culprits. The climax sees Ben Anthony in a gunfight against Sledge and Parker while a fugitive Odell is tracked by local rancher Fritz Warner.—nufs68
Plot Keywords: western, american west, black and white, classic film, rural life, gunfight, family conflict ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Jim Mallory returns from the Civil War to Texas to find his father, Colonel Mallory, leading a band of land grabbers and carpet-baggers during the Reconstruction Era. He learns of this from newspaper publisher Jonathan Taylor, who advocates the overthrow of Colonel Mallory's crooked regime, and his daughter Nan. Jim and his pal, "Happy" Snodgrass save Taylor from Mallory's henchmen, led by Idaho, and they side with the Governor's representative Brent Gordon against the gang. When Jim kills one of the gang members, Captain Sneed, the Colonel's main aide, has him jailed and he is to be executed. Colonel Mallory goes to Gordon and Taylor, and they agree to take up arms to free Jim on the condition that the Colonel join their crusade against the lawlessness.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: western, comedy, musical, romance, black and white, lighthearted, classic hollywood ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Kincade controls the area's water supply and is about to force the ranchers into contracts at exorbitant rates. Government Agent Saunders has a plan that will open up the lost river and dry up Kincade's supply. So he gets the ranchers to insist on a clause that Kincade's land will revert to the public if he fails to deliver water.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>
Plot Keywords: western, black and white film, sheriff, john wayne, singing cowboy, b-western, 1930s cinema ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: An American cowboy is hired to work on a ranch in Africa, and winds up having to fight predators, the four and two-legged kinds.
Plot Keywords: adventure, western, wildlife, africa, texas, conservation, action ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Following the Civil War, the state of Texas, needing money, sells land to a syndicate of northerners headed by Judd Hastings (Ray Teal). When Hastings demands the land, and the squatters refuses to vacate, the governor sends Mike McGann (Dennis Morgan) to settle the issues. Eventually, McGann gets the ranchers to move on to other areas with their cattle, which Hastings also covets. McGann also falls in love with Hastings' daughter, Marian (Amanda Blake).—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: western, conflict, texas, sheriff, rural setting, adventure, drama ...
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