On Top of Old Smoky (1953), The Cowboy and the Senorita (1944), Call of the Canyon (1942), In Old Cheyenne (1941), Bells of Rosarita (1945), Susanna Pass (1949), Down Dakota Way (1949), Hit the Saddle (1937) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Republic Pictures movies.
Storyline: Roy Rogers (Roy Rogers, and not playing "himself" but playing a character named Roy Rogers), posing as The Carson City Kid, is seeking vengeance on Morgan Reynolds, the man who killed his brother. To find Reynolds in the gold towns, he systematically stops stagecoaches and goes through the mail, hoping to find letters addressed to Reynolds and thusly learn his whereabouts. Thus "The Kid" earns the reputation of a stagecoach robber, although he never takes anything, and the reputation is enhanced by the fact that he travels with Laramie (Francis McDonald), a notorious half-breed outlaw. A posse is about to capture them and Roy rides back to get Laramie whose horse has been shot, and Laramie repays the favor by slugging Roy and escaping on his horse Trigger. The posse rides by the unseen Roy and captures Laramie and, since he is riding the "Kid's" horse, take him to jail as being the "Kid." Laramie denies this and is told he will be free when he identifies the "Kid"; othewise he will hang. Roy rides into town, having deduced that the Morgan Reynolds he is looking for operates the Yellowback Saloon under the alias of "Lee Jessup" (Bob Steele) . As part of his plan to get evidence against Jessup, who also does not know his true identity, Roy takes a job as saloon shotgun guard, and meets saloon singer Joby Madison (Pauline Moore, in one of the truly great performances found in the B-western genre) and falls in love with her. This doesn't set well with Jessup, as he has plans of his own regarding Joby. Young gold miner Scott Warren (Noah Beery, Jr.), having hit his strike and heading for home with his fortune, comes into the Yellowback, talks too much about his stake, and is soon relieved of it in a crooked poker game by Jessup and friends. Scott, realizing he had been cheated, breaks into Jessup's office and, announcing he is the Carson City Kid, holds up Jessup henchman Harmon (Hal Taliaferro) and takes his gold and some letters and papers from the safe. Captured, he is taken before Laramie, who quickly identifies him as the "Kid" although he has never seen him before, in order to win the immunity promised him. Roy, masked as the Carson City Kid and speaking Spanish as the Kid did on the stage holdups, intervenes and at gunpoint, asks Jessup to identify what Scott has stolen from him. Besides the gold, Jessup unwittingly identifies as his own the latters and documents, which establish him as Morgan Reynolds. Reynolds meets justice and Roy is exonerated. ne fine little B-western with an excellent performance by George "Gabby" Hayes (as Sheriff Gabby Whittaker), before he had the character down as a sleep-walking exercise and was still revolving, and by, as mentioned, Pauline Moore, as a no-excuses heroine for being where she was doing what she did as a saloon entertainer.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: western, outlaw, sheriff, 1940s, action, adventure, gunfight ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The Governor sends Roy to help bring in a gang of saboteurs. Roy joins a traveling show and soon learns the saboteurs communicate during Maurice's mind reading act that uses a hidden receiver. But Maurice is on to Roy. Roy narrowly escapes when Maurice leaves him tied up in a warehouse they are blowing up. But Maurice then kills a man and blames Roy who now finds himself in jail.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>
Plot Keywords: western, musical, american film, 1940s, black and white, country music, action ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Zorro, the masked deliverer of Indians of Spanish-ruled California, is about to be hanged when General Palma is declared governor of Santa Cruz. Palma is to replace the tyrannical commandante, Sebastian Golle, who has been pilfering King Charles' tax money and terrorizing the natives. With the help of the Indians, Zorro escapes and, posing as Don Diego Vega, a gentleman pauper from Mexico, offers his services to Palma and his lovely daughter Isabella. Palma, however, refuses Diego and unwittingly sends him out as bait for Zorro. But as Palma chases the elusive hero, he is killed by a bandit who leaves Zorro's "Z" mark on his dead body. After Isabella is made governor, Golle plans to marry her and receive Santa Cruz as her dowery, and Diego agrees to do his wooing for him. Golle, meanwhile, has been taxing the Indians beyond their means and enslaving the sons of those who cannot pay. When Golle's soldiers herd the slaves into the public square, their mothers cry for Zorro to deliver them. Hoping to expose Golle's barbarism, Diego brings Isabella to the square, where she promises to free the slaves once information on Zorro's whereabouts is brought to her and offers a public bounty of two hundred pieces of gold for the outlaw. Zorro, however, steals the gold and buys the slaves' freedom himself. Then, on Isabella's birthday, Golle stages a burlesque bullfight in which a child is placed in the ring, hoping to lure Zorro out of hiding. When Isabella pleads with the foppish Diego to save the child, he fights the bull bravely and adeptly, revealing his true virility and love for Isabella. Seeing them kiss, Golle accuses Diego of betraying him, and Diego fends off Golle and his soldiers and escapes. When Zorro's mark is found on Golle's wounded body, Isabella finally realizes Diego is Zorro and escapes from Golle's clutches to capture him, still determined to avenge her father's murder. Golle captures them both, however, and fatally whips Isabella's female companion, planning to blame her death on Zorro. When Zorro finds the woman marred with the same backwards "Z" found on Palma, Isabella finally realizes it was Golle who killed her father. Just as Zorro is about to be hanged, the natives stage an uprising and help him defeat Golle. Zorro's loyal priest then blesses Isabella and Zorro, and the couple falls through the gallows box and kisses.
Plot Keywords: western, adventure, action, hero, swashbuckler, 1930s, black-and-white ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In this Roy Rogers entry, featuring a song written by Oklahoma Governor Roy J. Turner (making him and Louisiana's Jimmie Davis and Texas' W.E. "Pappy" O'Daniel possibly the only state governors to write songs used in a western), Flying T ranch owner Sam Talbot is killed by a fall from a horse. St. Louis reporter Connie Edwards comes to check a rumor that he might have been murdered. She goes to Roy Rogers, editor of the local newspaper, and he takes her to the reading of Talbot's will. The ranch is left to Talbot's 12-year-old ward, Duke Lowery, much to the dismay of Talbot's niece, Jan Holloway. After some attempts on Duke's life, Roy finally proves that Jan, Steve McClory and coroner Jim Judnick had Talbot killed and are conspiring to do the same for Duke, making Jan the last heir.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: western, 1940s, sheriff, outlaw, black and white, justice, small town ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Eddie Dean and Soapy Jones foil an attempted stagecoach holdup designed to murder Circuit Judge Hilton, bound for Rawhide to restore law and order. The Judge and the other passenger, Parson Trimble, decide to put up at the ranch owned by Sherry Lynn, Eddie's sweetheart, and her mother Ma Lynn. They are waylaid again, but the outlaws are driven off, and Nevada, an undercover man for the Judge, allows one of captured men to escape so he can follow him to the gang hideout. The Judge also deputizes Eddie. Nevada gets in with the gang, led by Duke and Dad Dillon, and is given the assignment to kill the Judge, whose first act in Rawhide was to close Duke's saloon and fire the city manager, Colonel Blake, a hireling of the Dillons. Eddie, Nevada and Soapy find evidence at the Dillon mine that they have been stealing government gold shipments. Colonel Blake is preparing to skip town and reveals to Sherry and saloon-girl Lola, Duke's girlfriend, that Duke is really the son of Judge Hilton, kidnapped in infancy by Dillon as an act of revenge. The Dillons and Eddie and his men are in a gunfight outside of the Palace Saloon when the Judge, having learned that Duke is is son, goes out to look for him. Duke, not believing the story, is looking to kill the Judge.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: western, 1940s, musical, outlaw, sheriff, black and white, action ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The Pony Express days are coming to an end, with riders John Blair (John Wayne) and his friend Larry Adams (Lane Chandler), both about 75 pounds too heavy for the original job description, out of a job. They pay Cal Drake (Douglas Cosgrove) of Buchanan City a big price for the Crescent City line and equipment, and arrive there to find it is a ghost mining town and has only two residents: eccentric, self-proclaimed Mayor "Rocky" O'Brien (Lew Kelly) and Dr. William Forsythe (Sam Flint). With the arrival from back east of Barbara Forsythe (Phyllis Fraser), the doctor's daughter and Ginger Rogers lookalike, O'Brien happily changes the blackboard population sign from two to five. John determines to get even and operate the line anyway, after vacating a resident skunk from the stagecoach. On his first run into Buchanan City John learns of a coach race to be staged (fastest team to win a $25,000 government mail contract) and he signs up. A telegraph crew, drinking unknowingly of a poisoned well, are saved by John's timely arrival on the scene,and agree to run their line through Crescent City if John can get laborers.He takes them from Buchanan City, leaving it nearly deserted and O'Brien wearing out his chalk changing the population sign upwardly in Crescent City.Drake decides to get rid of John by hiring him, for $1,000, to drive a gold shipment to Sacramento, and ambushing him. John evades the ambush by taking another route and returns to collect his thousand dollars at gunpoint. As the race for the mail contract starts, Drake and his henchmen throw many obstacles in John's way.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: western, classic film, black and white, 1930s, action, adventure, gunfight ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Sintown is just a deserted ghost town until Vanderpool starts looking for silver. Cookie and Roy's partners put $20,000 into the business only to find that the mine is worthless and Vanderpool is bankrupt. Carol comes out to look for silver to save the company, but does not know that their engineer, named Regan, is crooked and wants all the silver for himself. But only Old Ed knows where the mother lode is located.—Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
Plot Keywords: western, outlaw, sheriff, adventure, action, 1940s, gunfight ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Profiteer Alexander Stiles lays claim to a million acres of range in the Pecos River country, but a rancher named Claybor stands in his way as he has already claimed the water-rich location of Sweetwater as his own, and refuses Stiles' $1000 offer for his land. Led by the murderous Ash, the hired guns of Stiles kill Clayborn and his wife but their young son John survives and joins his grandfather in Austin. As the boy grows into a man he learns the use of a law book as well as a six gun, intending to use both to bring Stiles to justice. As lawyer John Clay, he travels to the Cottonwood headquarters of Stiles, self-proclaimed King of the Pecos, and meets Hank Matthews and Josh Billings, two cattlemen thrown into poverty through the crooked dealings of Stiles. John serves a summons for Stiles to appear in court but the circuit judge is too frightened to face the might of Stiles. John sends Hank to round up other impoverished cattlemen, and they provide the judge with an armed escort to Cottonwood. The judge upholds the ranchers' pleas for use of water and grass, and Stiles sees most of his ill-gotten gains turned over to public domain for proper filing. Stiles convinces newcomers Eli Jackson and his daughter Belle that John is trying to cheat the ranchers and file claims for himself. He also plans an ambush for those riding through the canyon to file claims and he sends Ash and his gunmen to the hills, instructing them to shoot anyone without the white arm bands he has supplied to his own riders. John discovers the plot and has the ranchers to also wear white arm bands, ensuring their safe passage. With their claim successfully filed the ranchers plan a cattle drive to Abilene where the railroad is promising $20 a head. Stiles steals whatever cattle he can and moves his outlaws to Sweetwater, where he hopes to extort money for use of the water there from the trail drivers. When the drive reaches Sweetwater, John confronts Stiles, revealing that he is the son of the murdered Clayborn's and that Sweetwater rightfully belongs to him. Following a siege by John and the ranchers, Stiles tries to escape by buckboard, but when the wagon tips over he is crushed by the safe containing money he has stolen from others. John pursues Ash into the rocks, offering him a chance to draw first and then ills him. John leaves his gun and his quest for revenge at the site and turns his mind to Belle and his law career.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: western, revenge, gunfight, law, justice, outlaw, hero ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Roy has just finished his latest film and leaves for his ranch where he will be broadcasting a show celebrating his tenth year in movies. When Roy and Trigger arrive at his ranch he finds Cookie has hired his relatives. Caroline, the only relative that doesn't have a strong resemblance to Cookie, is the horse trainer. Bob Tells Roy a gang of men are hunting range horses. Roy puts a stop to hunting on his land. Pop decides there's money in kidnapping Trigger and demands a $100,000 ransom. McFarland's stepson, Ted, and his dog Tramp, run away and are found hiding in Roy's barn. A trap is set to catch the kidnappers.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: western, gunfight, bounty hunter, california, 1940s, black and white, music ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Nancy Evans, lovely circus owner, has a ranch that she's never visited, but for sentimental reasons won't sell to Mike Abbott. Her partners, secretly in league with Abbott, sabotage the circus to force Nancy to sell the ranch; instead, she goes there to live. Will her neighbors, the Three Mesquiteers, be a match for the secret swindlers? And what's so valuable about that run-down ranch anyway?—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: western, comedy, action, adventure, 1930s, black and white, gunfight ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Gene Autry (Gene Autry), foreman of an absentee-owner ranch, agrees to a ruse to help an elderly friend, Dad Haskell (Frank Darien), who has lied in letters to his daughter Betty (Jean Rouveral) back east, telling her he is a wealthy rancher. When his daughter, her prospective bridegroom, Walter Gregory (George Wolcott) and his haughty mother, Mrs. Gregory (Margaret Armstrong) arrive, Gene helps Dad Haskell deceive them into believing the ranch is the old man's. Gene and the cowhands pretend to turn the place into a dude ranch. However, the ruse is ruined when the real owner arrives, compounded by some unscrupulous crooks who have discovered helium gas on the range and plot to steal it for a foreign power.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: western, musical, country music, 1930s, vintage, black and white, guitar ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Both Sam Crew and his gang and Sonora Joe and his men are rustlers after a cattle herd just arriving. John Steele, sent by the Governor, is out to stop them. Greatly outnumbered, Steele's plan is to deputize Sonora and his men to fight the Crew gang.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>
Plot Keywords: western, sheriff, black and white, action, adventure, gunfight, fast-paced ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Maxwell is trying to bring in an oil well and Wilkens is out to stop him. When his attempted robbery of Maxwell's payroll fails, he tells the ranchers who invested on Autry's advise that the well is dry. But Gene knows there is oil there and with everyone after him he heads for the well to try and bring it in with dynamite.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>
Plot Keywords: western, musical, short film, 1930s, country music, black and white, guitar ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: When the showboat hits town, two men use the parade as a distraction to rob the bank. Their accomplice is Pop, the clown from the showboat. He leaves the money on the boat and tells his daughter Patsy to bring it to him at a later stop on the river. When Patsy arrives without the money, both her and her father are made prisoners. So she sends her trained dog back to the showboat for help.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>
Plot Keywords: western, musical, country music, 1940s, black and white, sheriff, show business ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Gridley is mining silver from an old Mexican mine and bringing it into the USA thru a passage into his worthless mine. Border guard Rogers suspects Gridley and finally finds the secret entrance to the Mexican mine. He sends Lee Madison for help only to have her captured by Gridley. Trigger brings help that takes care of Gridley's men and now Roy has to rescue Madison.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>
Plot Keywords: western, 1940s, black and white, gunfight, mexico, bounty hunter, justice ...
Movie Details Click Here !