The best Richard Alexander’s western movies

Retired wealthy sea captain Jim McKay arrives in the vast expanse of the West to marry fiancée Pat Terrill. McKay is a man whose values and approach to life are a mystery to the ranchers and ranch foreman Steve Leech takes an immediate dislike to him. Pat is spoiled, selfish and controlled by her wealthy father, Major Henry Terrill. The Major is involved in a ruthless civil war, over watering rights for cattle, with a rough hewn clan led by Rufus Hannassey. The land in question is owned by Julie Maragon and both Terrill and Hannassey want it.

One of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad across the wilderness to California. But financial opportunist Asa Barrows hopes to profit from obstructing it. Chief troubleshooter Jeff Butler has his hands full fighting Barrows' agent, gambler Sid Campeau; Campeau's partner Dick Allen is Jeff's war buddy and rival suitor for engineer's daughter Molly Monahan. Who will survive the effort to push the railroad through at any cost?

Businessman Logan Stuart is torn between his love of two very different women in 1850s Oregon and his loyalty to a compulsive gambler friend who goes over the line.

When transplanted Texan Bob Seton arrives in Lawrence, Kansas he finds much to like about the place, especially Mary McCloud, daughter of the local banker. Politics is in the air however. It's just prior to the civil war and there is already a sharp division in the Territory as to whether it will remain slave-free. When he gets the opportunity to run for marshal, Seton finds himself running against the respected local schoolteacher, William Cantrell. Not is what it seems however. While acting as the upstanding citizen in public, Cantrell is dangerously ambitious and is prepared to do anything to make his mark, and his fortune, on the Territory. When he loses the race for marshal, he forms a group of raiders who run guns into the territory and rob and terrorize settlers throughout the territory. Eventually donning Confederate uniforms, it is left to Seton and the good citizens of Lawrence to face Cantrell and his raiders in one final clash.

When a tough western town needs taming, the mild-mannered son of a hard-nosed sheriff gets the job.

With the army after him and his partner deserting, Reb decides that a change of scenery would be nice so he heads for Wyoming with Dave.

Wyatt Earp agrees to become marshal and establish order in Tombstone in this very romanticized version of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

California's gold discovery in 1848 draws a "tide of empire" to the area, which becomes ripe for bandits.

A greedy businessman tries to block the building of a new railroad in his area.

Roy Rogers, Smiley Burnette and the Sons of the Pioneers go undercover to help Texas Governor Russell Hicks stop World War II Axis sympathizers from blowing up U.S. warehouses.

Rancher Tim Clark borrows money from Bob Russell, who then rustles Clark's cattle so he will be unable to repay the money. Thus Russell is able to cheat Clark out of his ranch. Clark becomes a prospector for silver and ultimately comes to settle accounts with Russell and crooked deputy Bendix.

Boston pharmacist Tom Craig comes to Sacramento, where he runs afoul of local political boss Britt Dawson, who exacts protection payment from the citizenry. Dawson frames Craig with poisoned medicine, but Craig redeems himself during a Gold Rush epidemic.

Buck's friend Sheriff Simpson is after the Juarez Kid. Buck knows the Kid and the Sheriff's description does not fit. Buck then meets a one time outlaw who is now the Sheriff's deputy and thinks he is posing as the Kid. When a rancher is killed by the supposed Kid, Buck has a plan utilizing the real Juarez's Kid's ranch that will trap him.

Bill travels to a new state after the outlaw Scarface saves him from a lynch mob. There he takes a job on the Barton ranch and joins in the fight against gang leader Larkin. Finding a wounded Scarface he helps him recover. Arrested by Larkin's stooge Sheriff, and with another lynch mob after him, he once again needs Scarface's help.

Up-and-coming Universal leading man Robert Stack made his western-movie debut in Badlands of Dakota. Set in the Dakotas during the days of the Great Gold Boom, the story finds brothers Jim and Bob Holliday (Stack and Broderick Crawford) dukeing it out over the affections of pretty Anne Grayson (Ann Rutherford). While all this is going on, Wild Bill Hickok (Richard Dix) does his best to neutralize the local criminal element-and to fend off the romantic overtures of boisterous Calamity Jane (Frances Farmer).

The Saturday matinee crowd got two cowboy stars for the price of one in this lavishly budgeted western serial starring former singing cowboy Dick Foran and Buck Jones. The latter contributed deadpan humor to the proceedings, making Jones perhaps the highest paid B-western comedy relief in history. The two heroes defend the Death Valley borax miners from an outlaw gang headed by Wolf Reade. An extraordinarily strong cast -- for a serial, at least -- supported the stars, headed by Charles Bickford as Reade, Leo Carillo, Lon Chaney, Jr., and silent screen star Monte Blue. Leading lady Jeanne Kelly later changed her name to Jean Brooks and starred in the atmospheric RKO thriller The Seventh Victim (1943). Universal claimed to have spent $1 million on this serial and made sure to get their money's worth by endlessly recycling the action footage in serials and B-westerns for years to come.

An average low-budget Western from short-lived Puritan Pictures, Roarin' Guns starred Tim McCoy as Tim Corwin, an agent for the Cattlemen's Association assigned to look into a range war between settlers and powerful cattle baron Walton (Wheeler Oakman).

A legendary lawman and his cohorts set out to restore order to the dangerous streets of Tombstone, Ariz.