Best Western Movies of 1951
1.
7.6/10
Westward the Women
3.9
7.6/10
In a time when "The West" pretty much ends in Texas and only California is slowly being populated by the white men, there's a severe lack of women among the workers on Roy Whitman's farm in the California Valley. So he goes back east to Chicago to recruit 150 women willing to become wives for his employees. From the candidates he selects 138 who seem able to survive a months long journey across "The Great American Desert" and the Rocky Mountains. Written by Tom Zoerner
Starring:
Robert Taylor, Denise Darcel, Hope Emerson, John McIntire, Julie Bishop
Directed by:
William A. Wellman
Release date:
1951-12-31
2.
6.9/10
Along the Great Divide
3.6
6.9/10
New Federal marshal Len Merrick saves Tim Keith from lynching at the hands of the Roden clan, and hopes to get him to Santa Loma for trial. Vindictive Ned Roden, whose son Ed was killed, still wants personal revenge, and Tim would like to escape before Ned catches up with him again. Can the marshal make it across the desert with Tim and his daughter? Even if he makes it, will justice be served?
Starring:
Kirk Douglas, Virginia Mayo, John Agar, Walter Brennan, Ray Teal
Directed by:
Raoul Walsh
Release date:
1951-06-02
3.
7.2/10
Rawhide
3.6
7.2/10
Not a Rowdy Yates in sight in this western set in a stop over for the California to St Louis mail stagecoach run. The two staff are warned that four dangerous outlaws are in the area, and together with a female stage passenger and her baby they wait patiently for the word to go round that these men have been caught. Can you guess where the outlaws decide to hide out while they plan a large gold robbery? What follows is a film that concentrates on small details (like attempts to slip a warning note to a passing stage, or to reach a hidden gun that the bad guys don't know about) as the captives try anything to get away from the outlaws.
Starring:
Tyrone Power, Susan Hayward, Hugh Marlowe, Dean Jagger, Edgar Buchanan
Directed by:
Henry Hathaway
Release date:
1951-03-25
4.
6.5/10
Only the Valiant
3.3
6.5/10
Only the Valiant, a classic western adventure, based on a novel by Charles Marquis Warren, the film tells the story of a Cavalry officer who volunteers for a suicidal mission to fight the hostile Apaches in an effort to prove his loyalty to his men and the woman he loves.
Starring:
Gregory Peck, Barbara Payton, Ward Bond, Gig Young, Neville Brand
Directed by:
Gordon Douglas
Release date:
1951-04-13
5.
6.5/10
Distant Drums
3.3
6.5/10
After destroying a Seminole fort, American soldiers and their rescued companions must face the dangerous Everglades and hostile Indians in order to reach safety
Starring:
Gary Cooper, Mari Aldon, Richard Webb, Ray Teal, Arthur Hunnicutt
Directed by:
Raoul Walsh
Release date:
1951-12-25
6.
6.2/10
Across the Wide Missouri
3.1
6.2/10
In the 1830's beaver trapper Flint Mitchell and other white men hunt and trap in the then unnamed territories of Montana and Idaho. Flint marries a Blackfoot woman as a way to gain entrance into her people's rich lands, but finds she means more to him than a ticket to good beaver habitat.
Starring:
Clark Gable, Ricardo Montalban, John Hodiak, Adolphe Menjou, J. Carrol Naish
Directed by:
William A. Wellman
Release date:
1951-10-01
7.
6.6/10
Little Big Horn
2.9
6.6/10
Two cavalry officers (Lloyd Bridges, John Ireland) lead a patrol to warn Gen. Custer about an ambush.
Starring:
Lloyd Bridges, John Ireland, Marie Windsor, Reed Hadley, Jim Davis
Directed by:
Charles Marquis Warren
Release date:
1951-06-15
8.
6.6/10
The Longhorn
2.9
6.6/10
A double-crossing cowboy and his gang of henchmen steal cattle, even from friends, in this classic Western.
Starring:
Bill Elliott, Myron Healey, Phyllis Coates, I. Stanford Jolley, Lane Bradford
Directed by:
Lewis D. Collins
Release date:
1951-11-25
9.
7.0/10
The Secret of Convict Lake
2.8
7.0/10
After a group of convicts escapes from prison, they take refuge in the wilderness. While most of the crew are ruthless sociopaths, Jim Canfield is an innocent man who was jailed under false pretenses. When Canfield and his fellow fugitives reach an isolated farming settlement where the men are all away, it creates tension with the local women. Things get more dire when rumors of hidden money arise, and Canfield discovers that the man who framed him is part of the community.
Starring:
Glenn Ford, Gene Tierney, Ethel Barrymore, Zachary Scott, Ann Dvorak
Directed by:
Michael Gordon
Release date:
1951-08-03
10.
6.6/10
In Old Amarillo
2.7
6.6/10
A drought is about to end the cattle business. The owner of a canning factory wants to buy all the remaining cattle cheap. He plans to ruin the cattlemen's plans to ship water by train and to seed the clouds for rain. Roy is sent by a packing house to investigate.
Starring:
Roy Rogers, Trigger, Estelita Rodriguez, Penny Edwards, Pinky Lee
Directed by:
William Witney
Release date:
1951-05-15
11.
6.3/10
Warpath
2.7
6.3/10
Warpath is a 1951 film directed by Byron Haskin. It stars Edmond O'Brien, Polly Bergen and Dean Jagger. John Vickers has spent eight years hunting for the three men who murdered the woman he loved. He finds one, Woodson, and kills him in a gunfight, but not before learning that the other two men have joined the U.S. Cavalry.
Starring:
Edmond O'Brien, Harry Carey, Jr., Dean Jagger, Forrest Tucker, Polly Bergen
Directed by:
Byron Haskin
Release date:
1951-11-22
12.
6.2/10
The Texas Rangers
2.6
6.2/10
It's 1874 and the Texas Rangers have been reorganized. But Sam Bass has assembled a group of notorious outlaws into a gang the Rangers are unable to cope with. So the Ranger Major releases two men from prison who are familiar with the movements and locations used by Bass and his men and sends them out to find him.
Starring:
George Montgomery, Gale Storm, Jerome Courtland, Noah Beery Jr., William Bishop
Directed by:
Phil Karlson
Release date:
1951-06-03
13.
6.2/10
Santa Fe
2.6
6.2/10
After their service in the Civil War, four brothers go their separate ways, but later find themselves on opposite sides of a final showdown.
Starring:
Randolph Scott, Janis Carter, Jerome Courtland, Peter M. Thompson, John Archer
Directed by:
Irving Pichel
Release date:
1951-04-01
14.
6.1/10
Passage West
2.6
6.1/10
In 1863, having escaped from a rock-quarry prison in Salt Lake, six inmates led by convicted murderer Pete Black take over a small wagon train headed by preacher Jacob Karns. Tensions and hardships grow as the travelers continue to trek toward California across dry, desolate country.
Starring:
John Payne, Dennis O'Keefe, Arleen Whelan, Frank Faylen, Mary Anderson
Directed by:
Lewis R. Foster
Release date:
1951-10-01
15.
6.2/10
Cavalry Scout
2.6
6.2/10
Kirby Frye, a former Confederate officer but now a Union Cavalry scout, is sent into Montana territory to locate and retrieve three Gatling Guns stolen from the U.S. Arsenal by outlaws believed to have taken them west to sell to the Soiux and Cheyenne. The trail leads him to Red Bluff where, aided by Claire Corville, he and the audience discover together and real quick like that Martin Gavin, a supposedly-honest operator of a freight line, has the guns and intends to exchange them to the Indians for furs.
Starring:
Rod Cameron, Audrey Long, Jim Davis, James Millican, James Arness
Directed by:
Lesley Selander
Release date:
1951-05-13
16.
6.3/10
Man in the Saddle
2.5
6.3/10
A small farmer and rancher is being harassed by his mighty and powerfull neighbour. When the neighbour even hires gunmen to intimidate him he has to defend himself and his property by means of violence.
Starring:
Randolph Scott, Joan Leslie, Ellen Drew, Alexander Knox, Richard Rober
Directed by:
André De Toth
Release date:
1951-12-02
17.
6.4/10
Apache Drums
2.5
6.4/10
A gambler is thrown out of a western town, but returns when the town is suddenly threatened by a band of marauding Apaches.
Starring:
Stephen McNally, Coleen Gray, Willard Parker, Arthur Shields, James Griffith
Directed by:
Hugo Fregonese
Release date:
1951-04-01
18.
6.1/10
Fort Defiance
2.5
6.1/10
It's just after the Civil War and Ben Shelby arrives looking for Johnny Tallon whom he plans to kill. Shelby was the only survivor of a battle due to the cowardice of Tallon. Thinking Tallon dead, another man who lost a brother at the same battle arrives to kill Tallon's blind brother. Tallon arrives to find Shelby and his brother fleeing. Then they are attacked by Indians and Shelby and Tallon must now fight together postponing the inevitable showdown. - Written by Maurice VanAuken
Starring:
Dane Clark, Ben Johnson, Peter Graves, Tracey Roberts, George Cleveland
Directed by:
John Rawlins
Release date:
1951-10-09
19.
6.3/10
Fort Worth
2.5
6.3/10
Ex-gunfighter Ned Britt returns to Fort Worth after the civil war to help run a newspaper which is against ambitious men and their schemes for control.
Starring:
Randolph Scott, David Brian, Phyllis Thaxter, Helena Carter, Dickie Jones
Directed by:
Edwin L. Marin
Release date:
1951-07-14
20.
6.4/10
Cyclone Fury
2.5
6.4/10
A late entry in Columbia's seemingly endless Durango Kid Western series, Cyclone Fury was augmented with a hefty dose of stock footage from an earlier Durango effort, Galloping Thunder (1946), footage that included sidekick Smiley Burnette warbling "Hear the Wind (Singing a Cowboy Song)" accompanied by Merle Travis and his Bronco Busters.
Starring:
Charles Starrett, Fred F. Sears, Clayton Moore, Robert J. Wilke, Merle Travis
Directed by:
Ray Nazarro
Release date:
1951-08-14
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