Best Western Movies of 1938

This is a story about family relationships, set in the time before and during the American Civil War. Ethan Wilkins is a poor and honest man who ministers to the human soul, while his son Jason yearns to be a doctor, helping people in the earthly realm. It is a rich story about striving for excellence, the tension of father-son rebellion, and the love of a mother that can never die.

Colonel Ferris, a wealthy farmer in northern California, is strongly opposed to hydraulic mining, a new method developed during the gold rush of the 1870's, which is flooding the area's prosperous farmlands. Despite Ferris' political stance, Jared Whitney, a mining engineer from the East, becomes friends with the colonel's son Lance and falls in love with his daughter Serena. Family tensions deepen when the colonel's brother Ralph gives up farming to go to San Francisco to work for his wife Rosanna's father, Harrison McCooey, a leader in the mining venture. When Lance follows Ralph, the colonel, focusing his anger on Jared, forbids him to see Serena.

Hopalong Cassidy, boss of the Bar 20 ranch in Texas, rides down the Camino Real in the New Mexico cattle country near Alamogordo, in response to an urgent message from his lifelong sweetheart, Nora Blake, who is in serious trouble. Before he and his saddlemates, "Lucky" Jenkins and "Pappy", can reach her ranch, they are stopped by Clay Allison, a cattle-rustler who is in almost complete control of the district, and wants to extend his holdings by seizing Nora's cattle and driving her out. Seeing Cassidy as a menace to his plans, he has him arrested on a trumped-up charge. Cassidy and his pals shoot their way out of the trouble and reach Nora;s ranch where they learn that Allison's henchmen have murdered her foreman, Tom Dillon, and Allison has sent for a crew of outlaws on the Texas border.

Cowboy star Ken Maynard is Jim "Trigger" Morton, in town undercover while pursuing the man who framed him for robbery. But a well-placed shot tames a band of scofflaws and gains Morton the sheriff's badge. Now, he's riding on both sides of the law. The line is further blurred when old buddy Chuck (Walter Long) offers evidence of Morton's innocence in exchange for a blind eye to Chuck's impending postal heist in this classic Western.

After the Civil War, an ex-Confederate soldier faces new battles, including the elements and a carpetbagger intent on destroying him.

The Mesquiteers capture a horse thief who escapes justice through a crooked judge. They gather signatures urging the governor to investigate but a friend with the petition is murdered. Stony is accused.

A cowboy and a bandit face off over possession of a valuable mine.

Bob arrives looking for the killer of his uncle. When the Sheriff chases him and his partner Rusty, Reno thinks they are the men he is looking for and takes them into his gang. There Bob finds his uncle's gun and knows he has found the right gang. However he realizes the gang has an unknown leader and he sets out to find him.

In his starring debut, Roy gets elected to Congress in order to bring water to the ranchers in his district. In Washington, he learns he needs the backing of a key congressman and gets that man to go west for an inspection trip. When the congressman is initially unimpressed, Roy gets the inspection party stranded without water to show the true conditions.

The first of eight "Three Mesquiteers" Westerns to star John Wayne.

Scanlon is pulling off a land swindle by selling lots in a ghost town claiming the power company is bringing in a line. As a bonus he throws in shares in a worthless gold mine. Gene is on to Scanlon and tries to get him to buy back the deeds by salting the mine with gold. But when a new vein is really discovered Gene has to stop the sales but is trapped in the mine by Scanlon's men.

The local school is causing Hoppy problems. First Bar 20 cattle are stolen when Hoppy investigates a problem there. Then the new teacher arrives and disrupts the routine of the Bar 20 hands. Later with the Bar 20 hands at graduation, the rustlers are poised to strike again. But there is dissension among them and this will lead to the break that Hoppy needs.

A federal agent goes undercover in order to capture a gang that's been smuggling munitions and horses near the Texas border.

After doing time for a crime he didn't commit, a cowboy tries to find the men who framed him.

The Cattlemen's Association has called in the Mesquiteers to find cattle rustlers. They get Tex Riley to pose as Stony so Stony can arrive posing as a wanted outlaw. This gets Stony into the gang of rustlers and he alerts Tucson and Lullaby as to the next raid. But Hartley is on hand and unknown to anyone is the rustler's boss and he joins the posse with a plan that will do away with the Mesquiteers.

Two Texas Rangers have their worlds rocked by a wrongfully accused female bandit.

Tex returns to Santa Fe to find his Mother murdered. Foster runs the town and all crimes committed by his gang are blamed on Rogel and his men. He makes Tex Marshal but this backfires when Tex enlists Rogel and his men and goes after Foster who he now knows is responsible for his Mother's death.

After Pat Garrett kills Billy the Kid, Billy's look-alike Roy Rogers arrives and is mistaken for him. Although a murderer, Billy was on the side of the homesteaders against the large ranchers. As Billy's death is unknown, Roy gets Garrett to let him pose as Billy to continue the fight, but without the killing.

After gold shipments from a mining town have been hijacked, the three Mesquiteers buy a plane to fly the gold out. The owner of the shipping line brings in Eastern gangsters to thwart them.

A Treasury Department engraver is being held captive by a counterfeiting gang that wants him to make counterfeit plates for them. A lawman is sent to rescue him.

Tex and his sidekicks arrive to help out his friend Jeffers, a railroad owner, only to find that he has been killed. They quickly run into trouble with an outlaw gang in their attempt to find the mysterious ghost train that supposedly runs on Jeffer's line.

Autry and his buddies have a horse selling business which is threatened by a tractor company which claims horses are out of date.

A cowboy is wrongfully accused of murder. He winds up in Harlem, where he assumes the identity of a preacher-turned-gangster who looks like him. He infiltrates the gang to catch the men who framed him.

Death stalked Garou's Landing, in the Canadian frozen north, but who was the killer who murdered two men and left them huddled in the snow. Sergeant Renfrew (James Newill, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, accompanied by his dog, Silver King (Silver King the Dog), and Kay Larkin (Terry Walker) the daughter of the man, Andrew Larkin (Robert Frazer) accused of the crime, sets out to solve the crime and bring the real killer to justice.

Mary Robbins is a moderately educated, beautiful, young woman who owns the saloon called "The Poker". She is the only woman in the town of Couldee - making her the fancy of all the men there, especially to Sheriff Jack Rance. On the way to Monterey to sing at a mass officiated by Father Sienna, her stagecoach is held up by the infamous masked bandit, Ramerez. He too takes a fancy to Mary, and decides to secretly follow her, taking on the identity of an officer named, Lieutenant Johnson. While in Monterey, he dances, sings and courts Mary, who has now fallen in love with him. He then has to make a quick getaway. In the mean-time, Sheriff Jack has set up a trap to catch Ramerez at "The Poker". When Ramerez does arrive he soon discovers that Mary is the owner, and quickly changes to the identity of Lieutenant Johnson. How long can this charade last?

Regan is passing off counterfeit money at rodeos betting on his man Denby. When Tex appears and wins all the events, Regan has him accused of murder. As Tex looks for the counterfeiters, his pals Stubby and Pee Wee keep the Sheriff off his trail.

The Three Mesquiteers are forced to track down a train robbery ring after some of the gang hijack their truck for a getaway and the police conclude they are part of the gang, an identification which is just fine with the gang's nameless chief.

When Tex is brought in to fight in a range war between the cowmen and the nesters, he meets his old outlaw boss Lassiter. He learns Lassiter is behind the feud when Lassiter asks him to join up with his gang. Tex refuses and instead sets out to stop the feud but no one will believe him that Lassiter is responsible.

A quiet cowboy on a white horse saves a gal from cattle rustlers.

Peterson has a plan to obtain all the ranches in the valley. He gives Carson a phony Spanish land grant and has him pose as the Mexican owner. When Fred and Fuzzy have their cattle stolen by Peterson's men, they quickly become involved in the scheme.

Using a conventional Western story with an all dwarf cast, the filmmakers were able to showcase gags such as cowboys entering the local saloon by walking under the swinging doors, and pint-sized cowboys galloping around on Shetland ponies while roping calves.

A Royal Canadian Mounted Police sergeant must mediate a land rights dispute between an advancing railroad construction gang and French Canadian trappers in the rugged Northwest Territory of Canada.

A two-fisted Canadian Mountie leads lawmen in pursuit of the thieves who stole an Edmonton-bound freighter's cargo.

Cowboys live amidst Hawaiian scenery and song.

A Texas Ranger is faced with the task of bringing his outlaw brother to justice.

A hero goes undercover to uncover outlaws while singing to a heroine and being sneered at by a bad guy.

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.

Ore shipments are being stolen and the Rangers send Buck and his men to guard the next shipment. When that is stolen also, Buck is kicked out of the Rangers.

In this entry in the long-running series of westerns, the Three Mesquiteers transform their ranch into a prison farm to provide a model for prison reform. They are opposed by a local contractor who wants to build a standard prison.

In 1865, Captain Mark Smith of the Confederate Army leads a band of deserters to conquer Texas and rule it as a dictator. In one of his first actions, he captures and assumes the identity of Texas' new Finance Commissioner, Colonel Marcus Jeffries, after having the real man murdered. When a contingent of Texas Rangers enters the territory, Snead, one of Smith's men, leads them into an ambush by Smith's "troopers". The Rangers are apparently wiped out, although one injured survivor is left. The survivor, nursed back to health by Tonto, swears to avenge the massacre and defeat "Colonel Jeffries" and his men.

The son of a cattle-rustling Cossack immigrant must choose between following the straight path and helping his father escape from prison.

Outlaws of Sonora is a 1938 American Western "Three Mesquiteers" B-movie directed by George Sherman.

Escaped criminal "The Fox" hates Hoppy and a Rurales colonel for imprisoning him and lures Cassidy to Mexico in order to exact his vengeance.

Lorna Drake has inherited a ranch. Hoppy teaches her a bit about ranching and handles Scar Lewis, the bad guy, in the process.

As executor of the owner's will, singing ranch foreman Gene must see that the daughter/heiress doesn't marry without his approval.

Gene takes care of three tough kids sent west from Chicago after their father died and left them a cattle ranch. They help him catch a bunch of rustlers.

An outlaw on the run assumes the identity of a dead man. When in his new identity he finds himself elected the mayor of a small town, he decides to go straight.

David Ross organizes the ranchers into a vigilante group to rid the town of outlaws. The plan succeeds but the trouble starts when some of the men form a new vigilante group and posing as the original one plunder for loot.

A group of "Phantom Raiders" interfere with a cattle drive from Texas to Abilene; fortunately, U.S. Marshal Wild Bill Hickok is appointed to ensure the success of the mission.