Best Western Movies of 1944

Scout William F. Cody (Joel McCrea) marries a U.S. senator's daughter (Maureen O'Hara), fights the Cheyenne and leads a Wild West show.

Red Hot Ryder is sent to catch the Masked Marauder (Bugs Bunny) who is terrorizing a small Western town.

In this western, two cowboys go to buy fresh horses for the cavalry and end up taking on two badguys and a female vigilante.

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.

Just as Nevada wins $7000 in yellowback bills, Ben Ide takes his $7000 and heads out to buy mining equipment. Burridge has his man Powell kill Ide and retrieve the money and Nevada finds Ide just as the posse arrives. Found with the money Nevada is arrested and Burridge now gets Powell to incite the local citizens to lynch Nevada.

The sheriff camps outside of town and tries to arrest Froggy and Sunset, but a gang of outlaws helps them get away.

When John Barrabbee's plane makes an emergency landing, he wanders off and joins Roy's cattle drive. Later he learns he was killed when his plane resumed its flight and crashed. He also learns his daughter is going to sell his ranch and marry a man he dislikes. So he gives Roy a job on the ranch and sends him off to see if he can prevent both of these events while he remains in hiding. Written by Maurice VanAuken Western girl moves east and influenced badly by her snobby fiance. She returns to sell her deceased father's ranch. The father isn't really dead, though; he's hoping that his friend Roy can restore the girl's western values. Songs include "New Moon Over Nevada," "A Cowboy has to Yodel in the Morning," and "The Harum Scarum Baron of the Harmonium." Written by Ed Stephan

Julie's husband has been murdered and land agents want her to sign away her property rights. Hoppy warns against this but she does so anyway. It looks as though she will be unable to deliver the timber called for in her agreement. Hoppy has to make the lumber deal happened and solve the murder.

Horse breeders Adams and Brock are vying for the Army contract. When Adams is killed trying to ride his horse Trigger, Roy saves the horse from being shot. He trains him and then plans to ride him in the race to win the contract.

Steve Kinney and his henchman, Mort, are trying to stir up trouble between the local ranchers and farmers, behind a wave of rustling and lawlessness. Mort kills Vic, a Kirby cowhand, and lays the blame on Dan Harper, the leader of the farmers faction. Storekeeper Fuzzy Q. Jones, fearful of losing the outstanding charge-accounts he has on his books, drags his reluctant pal, Billy Carson, into the fray, and the two soon prove Kinney and his henchmen to be behind the valley's troubles.

When a Texas playboy is murdered in a New York City nightclub the Falcon investigates. When he learns that the victim was slipped rattlesnake venom, the trail leads to Texas, his own kidnapping and near death.

Sandwiched in between the numerous musical numbers, the Gabby Whittaker and Madden rodeo's are competing for bookings. When Gabby gets a date in Albuquerque, Madden has his man destroy his equipment. Roy finds a broken rawhide rope at the scene and uses it to bring Madden to justice.

With the California Gold Rush beginning, Senator Frost's singing daughter Caroline loves a young army officer; the Senator can't stand him, and has him sent to California. Headstrong Caroline follows him by train, riverboat, and covered wagon, gaining companions en route: a vagrant Russian prince and gambler Johnny Lawlor, who just might take her mind off the army.

Pretty Girl Barbara Mededith takes over her murdered brother's crusading newspaper. She also assumes the dead sibling's identity as "The Black Whip," righting the wrongs of Crescent City very much in the manner of her famous ancestor, Zorro.

The Rangers are after Yackey and his gang. Posing as an outlaw, Dave arrives as Panhandle's prisoner and works his way into the gang. Tex arrives and joins Wright's committee. Tex plans a trap for the gang but things go awry when the gang catches Tex and the Committee catches Dave and both are about to be hung.

A lawman stages a prison break so a gang of imprisoned robbers will lead him to their hidden loot.

US marshals Ken, Hoot and Bob stop a gang dressed as Indians from robbing the stage. After getting repairs at the relay station, but before they get to town, another trap is set, but they get away. In town, they search the stage and find nothing. But hidden in the axle grease can are diamonds. Polini wants them cut into smaller diamonds so that he can easily dispose of them. Throughout this Western, the courageous trio faces off against cunning opponents, including the gang's merciless leader (Ian Keith) and an unsuspecting banker (Karl Hackett).

Chip has inherited a supposedly worthless gold mine from her father and Craig Allen is about to buy it. Roy suspects the mine may be valuable and using a clue left by Chip's father, investigates. He finds the hidden shaft that contains the gold and with the posse chasing him on a trumped up robbery charge, races to town with ore samples hoping to get there before the ownership is transferred.

The Goss family live on a farm they call the dust bowl where the wind blows during the day and the coyotes howl at night. When the train is robbed, everyone thinks that Cotton and Violet were the ones that did the job, but no one has any proof. US Marshal Lloyd Richland comes into town in disguise to find the truth and he finds that the sheriff is corrupt and that the Goss family is gosh darn nice. They take in Richland and a stranded woman named Mary without any questions. Cotton believes that Sheriff Tatum shot their pa in the back, and the sheriff is now trying to plug the boys. Richland is looking for the train robbers, and at the same time is keeping an eye on Tatum and the lovely young Mary.

Trigger Trail is a Western drama featuring the tale of Clint Farrell (played by Rod Cameron) , an aspiring lawyer who must use both his wits and his brawn to save his town from being taken over by a villainous railroad financier.

Learning that Montana is about to become a state and that property values will rise rapidly, Caldwell is using his outlaw gang to force the ranchers off their land.

Honest Plush Brannon is a con-man thrown out of the Barbary Coast in San Francisco in the 1880s and headed for the gold rush region of Nevada. He discovers a real mine which lead to several complications.

Sent to investigate a payroll robbery, Marshall Rocky meets his old friends Ken, Eddie, and Max. He has the serial numbers and when Pop puts on his medicine show they get one of the bills. This enables Ken to see through Sorrell's scheme that threw the blame on an innocent rancher and he sets out to prove it. Written by Maurice Van Auken

Insurance Investigator Roy is looking for Weston and the missing money he supposedly obtained in a robbery. When he catches him and listens to his story, he changes his mind about him. A freak accident locates the missing money box and they find the seal unbroken. Roy then announces the box will be opened at the showboat that evening.

The Texas Rangers take on a shyster who is trying to bilk a family of their money after he learns that an oil company thinks their land may contain the black gold.

Left by a con man, Belle De Valle, a dancer, finds him again in gold-rush Alaska running an honest casino/dance hall.

A notorious arrives in Sunrise and turns in his gun and promises to avoid trouble. But when robbers shoot his good friend, he straps on his gun again and takes off in pursuit.

Tex put the Kern gang away once but they have returned with reinforcements and have take over the town of Red Rock capturing the townsmen and forcing them to work for them in the gold mines. Dave and Tex then organize the ranchers into the Territorial Rangers. After blowing up the mines to keep the gang from getting the gold, they are ready for the showdown between the two sides. Written by Maurice VanAuken

In this western, brave Red Ryder and his sidekick save a murdered judge's son from going to jail by proving that someone else killed his father.

Cowboy Sunset Carson teams up with Frog Millhouse on a routine supply trip to Placer City. Before long, the duo find themselves ambushed by a team of dastardly highwaymen embroiled in an extortion ring. Sunset and Frog must then go undercover to set things right for a mining town under siege. Galloping hooves, spittin' six shooters, and all manner of disreputable behavior ensue.

Ranger Tex Wyatt introduces himself as the notorious bandit Spade Norton. Crooked saloon owner Red Hayden believes him until the real Spade turns up and all hell breaks loose.

One of two towns will be selected to be the County Seat and Editor Palmer has a gang working to make sure his town is chosen. Investigating the lawlessness, Red Ryder poses as an outlaw to get into the gang hoping to find out who the boss is. But Palmer knows Red and exposes his true identity when he arrives and Red and Gabby then find themselves prisoners of the gang. [Written by Maurice Van Auken]

Lawyer Leland is using land rights to kick the ranchers off their land. When Wild Bill and Gabby arrive to help the ranchers, he has actor Percel frame them for murder and then incites the townsmen to lynch them.

This "Red Ryder" entry stars Gordon "Wild Bill" Elliot as Ryder. The heroine (Linda Stirling) is having troubles with the freight company that she owns. Time and again, her coaches are beset by hooded thieves. With Red Ryder on the job, the robbers haven't got a chance, but they put up a fight anyway.

Hoppy's ranch is threatened by rustlers. Hoppy and the gang oblige as usual.

The swinging Andrews Sisters provide the musical interludes and romance in this western. They play a trio of WW II era ranchers. That they are so good at running it proves terrible surprise for a ranch hand who has just returned home after serving in the Navy.

A young Eastern lawyer, seriously injured in a stage holdup, secures the help of Hoppy, California and Jimmy in completing his mission to his woman cousin's ranch in Texas. The ranch, as are others in the same area, is being plagued by a gang called the Night Riders, while the friendly local town lawyer is trying to cajole the cousin into selling out to him. Hoppy begins by arriving in the town, separate from his pals, all spiffed up and dandified, posing as the Eastern lawyer...

A ranch owner fires his ranch hands and brings in women to replace them. The owner's daughter wants the male hands back and comes up with a plan to do it.

Bringing his large cattle herd to Sundown, rancher Tex Jordan must sell his cattle to corrupt baron Jack Hatfield. He does OK but learns Hatfield is cheating the small outfits. When one refuses to sell he is murdered and Tex then decides to stay and take up the fight. He is appointed a special Agent by the Governor but unknonw to him the Governor's Secretary is a spy for Hatfield and reveals his plans.

When he runs for sheriff, Hoppy is beaten by Jerry Doyle, the gutless wonder voted for by every crook in town. When Hoppy moves to have the new sheriff impeached, outlaw leader Tad Hammond hires forty gunslingers to stop him. Stop Hoppy? Hah!

In Elliot's initial appearance as Red Ryder, he finds himself framed for murder. Little Beaver then foils the crooked Sheriff's attempt to have Red killed escaping jail. When Hannah Rogers gives the Sheriff a note, Red sees her give him a signal. Gabby lifts the note and Red decodes it. The Duchess then gets a confession from Hannah enabling Red to set out after the outlaws. Written by Maurice Van Auken

Song and comedy revue, featuring Western talents, along with a theatrical troupe taking their vacation on the Lazy B Ranch run by Steve Bradley. Steve is about to enter the army and he and Tex Coulter compete for the love of Connie Grey.

U.S. marshal Ritter arrives in town to round up bandits who are attempting to fix the local elections.

Barstow and Stevens are forcing the local printer to print fake silver certificates which they then sell. Treasury Agents Chick Weaver and Throckmorton Snodgrass arrive working under cover. But when Chick's true identity as an Agent is revealed, Barstow sends his henchmen to finish him off.

A geologist has found oil on the neighboring ranches and teams up with Ace who has his gang create a reign of terror to get the ranchers to sell out. But to get rid of Red Ryder, Ace sends for the San Antonio Kid. Arriving, the Kid has a freak accident and Red comes along to save his life. When the Kid later meets with Ace he learns that Red is the man he has been paid to kill. Written by Maurice Van Auken

The Trail Blazers are bringing in a prisoner to stand trial for bank robbery, when several attempts are made to kill him; convinced of the man's innocence, they arrange a trap for the real thieves.

A posse, hunting the assailant of Denton's Partner, captures Steve Carlisle (Charles Starrett), who identifies himself as a mineralogist sent to check the area for quartz for radio parts. Calling at the Denton ranch, Steve hires Cannonball Mullins (Dub Taylor), who has just been fired by Jane Fielding (Vi Athens), Denton's ward. Steve learns that she wants to sell the ranch to the Empire Syndicate. Paul Edwards (Lloyd Bridges), syndicate representative, plans to convert the ranch into a swank hotel-gambling operation. At a party which Jane gives for Edwards, Hiram Denton (William Gould), is murdered and Steve is accused. He and Cannonball escape before the sheriff can take them into custody, and in searching for evidence find that Jane and Edwards are married and have done the killings in order to gain the ranch.

The election to determine if Texas will become a state is near and men opposed are running contraband across the border. Sunset and Frog are Border Patrolmen and have an agent that tips them off by carrier pigeon. The Army arrives and the commander is Sunset's brother. When the agent is found out and murdered, his fake replacement then leads the soldiers astray.

This western features a singing cowboy, a brave hero, and a bumbling sidekick who band together to defeat a ruthless range boss.