Explore the greatest Western movies directed by John Ford, the architect of American frontier cinema. Stagecoach, Fort Apache, and The Searchers.
William Munny is a retired, once-ruthless killer turned gentle widower and hog farmer. To help support his two motherless children, he accepts one last bounty-hunter mission to find the men who brutalized a prostitute. Joined by his former partner and a cocky greenhorn, he takes on a corrupt sheriff.
Questions arise when Senator Stoddard attends the funeral of a local man named Tom Doniphon in a small Western town. Flashing back, we learn Doniphon saved Stoddard, then a lawyer, when he was roughed up by a crew of outlaws terrorizing the town, led by Liberty Valance. As the territory's safety hung in the balance, Doniphon and Stoddard, two of the only people standing up to him, proved to be very important, but different, foes to Valance.
As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable.
A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo, and learn something about each other in the process.
John Ford both directed and wrote the story (based on his published work The Hostage), a typical western romance in which Mix falls for the daughter of an imperiled rancher. This above-average Tom Mix western contains one of the star's more spectacular stunts -- a jump on horseback across the 20-foot Beale's Cut. Truth be told, the star, who frequently did his own stunt work, was forced to use a double this time
Three brothers stop off for a night in the town of Tombstone. The next morning they find one of their brothers dead and their cattle stolen. They decide to take revenge on the culprits.
The Last Outlaw (1919) proved very tantalizing. An end-of-the-West Western, it shows its grizzled hero revisiting the town of his youthful exploits. But now, in an anticipation of Ride the High Country (1962), civilization has taken over. Cars chase Bud off the streets and the theatre features movies (Universal Bluebirds at that, a bit of product placement). Ford heightens the contrast by letting us into the hero’s memory, introduced by the title: “Memories of the past flashing back to him”—the earliest reference to the term “flashback” I recall seeing in the movies.
The legendary true story of a small band of soldiers who sacrificed their lives in hopeless combat against a massive army in order to prevent a tyrant from smashing the new Republic of Texas.
Owen Thursday sees his new posting to the desolate Fort Apache as a chance to claim the military honour which he believes is rightfully his. Arrogant, obsessed with military form and ultimately self-destructive, he attempts to destroy the Apache chief Cochise after luring him across the border from Mexico, against the advice of his subordinates.
Buck, who is preparing to enter a theological seminary, aids his brother and some friends who are fleeing from justice, and thus implicated he is sent to prison for 2 years. There he meets again Hope Standish, a Salvation Army girl who had interested him. Returning home, he meets the old district circuit rider and promises to continue the circuit rider's work when he dies. The brother escapes from prison and is converted by Buck, who falls in love with Hope.
Bart Carson is in love with Lou and even goes to jail to save Walter A. Walker, a man she says is her brother but who is really a husband who has deserted his wife and two children.
Into the town of Broken Buckle rides a stranger who threatens to open a new gambling establishment to rival the one operated by Denver Red and Headlight Whipple. The latter's sister, Zoe, who disapproves of her brother's saloon and is the local schoolteacher and owner of a notions store, tries to interest The Stranger in reforming the vice-ridden community.
Jim Kyneton, once a member of an outlaw gang, joins the Texas Rangers and is forced to track down his former friends and his half brother Nick, who have been robbing a gold mine.
Wealthy ranch owner Cheyenne Harry decides he needs a housekeeper, but his cowboys decide he needs a wife and advertise in an eastern newspaper. The ad is answered by Aileen Judson-Brown, as dictated by her fortune-hunting mother. Harry marries Aileen and a baby is born a year later. Deciding to gain more money and social standing, Mrs. Judson-Brown then tries to break up the marriage so that Aileen can marry Ferdie Van Duzen. Mrs. Judson-Brown steals the baby and tells Harry the baby has died and Aileen no longer loves him. Harry goes out West in sorrow, but when Mrs. Judson-Brown's butler wires Harry the truth, Harry locates the baby and discovers Aileen still loves him. The reunited family goes West together, leaving Mrs. Judson-Brown behind.
The epic tale of the development of the American West from the 1830s through the Civil War to the end of the century, as seen through the eyes of one pioneer family.
Respected black cavalry Sergeant Brax Rutledge stands court-martial for raping and killing a white woman and murdering her father, his superior officer.
A Union Cavalry outfit is sent behind confederate lines in strength to destroy a rail supply center. Along with them is sent a doctor who causes instant antipathy between him and the commander. The secret plan for the mission is overheard by a southern belle who must be taken along to assure her silence.
Three outlaws come to the aid of a young girl after her father is killed.
On the eve of retirement, Captain Nathan Brittles takes out a last patrol to stop an impending massive Indian attack. Encumbered by women who must be evacuated, Brittles finds his mission imperiled.
Brandon, a surveyor, dreams of building a railway to the west. He sets off with his son, Davy, to survey a route. They discover a new pass which will shave 200 miles off the expected distance, but they are set upon by a party of Cheyenne. One of them, a white renegade with only two fingers on his right hand, kills Brandon and scalps him. Davy is all alone now.
Three outlaws on the run discover a dying woman and her baby. They swear to bring the infant to safety across the desert, even at the risk of their own lives.
Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke is posted on the Texas frontier to defend settlers against depredations of marauding Apaches. Col. Yorke is under considerable stress by a serious shortage of troops of his command. Tension is added when Yorke's son (whom he hasn't seen in fifteen years), Trooper Jeff Yorke, is one of 18 recruits sent to the regiment.
A reluctant cavalry Captain must track a defiant tribe of migrating Cheyenne.
Two young horse traders guide a Mormon wagon train to the San Juan Valley and encounter rugged terrain, the cutthroat Clegg gang, hospitable Navajo, and moral challenges on the journey.
The rancher Jeff Bransford returns to his ancestral acres and finds them heavily mortgaged and about to be foreclosed and is defended by hired men with guns.
John Wesley Pringle, adventurer at large, returns home after making his strike and finds his old girl friend, Stella, engaged to Christopher Foy, who is running for sheriff. Pringle foils an attempt by incumbent sheriff Matt Lisner to kill Foy, but when Foy is accused of a murder, Pringle, in a clever ruse, captures Foy, holds the posse at gunpoint, and then releases him, explaining his motive.
Three outlaws rescue a baby in the desert and with barely any water left try to return to the town in which they just robbed a bank. Lost film. A remake of 1916's "The Three Godfathers," which also starred Harry Carey.
Harry's bride is murdered at their wedding along with Harry's mother and father, and the good-hearted outlaw turns grimly malevolent.
Secret Serviceman Allen takes a job at Bart Stevens' mine in order to find evidence proving that Stevens is a mail robber named Smoke Gublen. He does - but by then, he is in love with the man's sister - and to make things harder, Stevens saves his life...
Disguised as a peaceful sheepman, Clayburn is actually a government ranger sent to Point Rock to find the leaders of a band of rustlers. When he is himself accused of being one of them, Nell saves him from a lynch mob and together they round up the real outlaws.
Bim seems to be his town's biggest loser, but when he takes a needy 13-year-old boy named Bill under his wing, it seems there may be some hope for Bim. After learning about Bill, a young teacher, Mary, whom Bim secretly adores, helps get the young boy into school. And when Bim then helps Mary repay a loan, defaulted on by shifty boyfriend, it becomes evident that Bim can reform. As the plot in this captivating film twist and turns, the stakes get higher, the action gets more intense and hope for Bim bounds upward.
Two tough westerners bring home a group of settlers who have spent years as Comanche hostages.
Jefferson Todd and Louis Castiga, brothers-in-law, come to blows on a Mississippi River steamer when Todd discovers Castiga's presence there with a woman.
Three Outlaws came across a stranded baby and must decide to save the child or escape from the law.
After serving 25 years in prison for robbery, Dean Payton returns to his home town to see his daughter, Sally, who is unaware he is her father. He befriends Cal Yates, the now semi-retired assistant sheriff who originally caught him, and Chuck Wilson, a young rancher who has eyes for Sally. Wanted criminal Al Goss holds up the local bank and makes his getaway, taking Sally hostage. Showing he still has what it takes, Payton, along with Yates and Wilson, take off into the hills on horseback to try to track Goss down. - Written by Doug Sederberg
Cattleman Flint cuts off farmer Sims' water supply. When Sims' son Ted goes for water, one of Flint's men kills him. Cheyenne is sent to finish off Sims, but finding the family at the newly dug grave, he changes sides.
The owner of a gambling hall is entrusted with the care of a pretty young girl. He falls in love with her, but he must decide whether to let her go to his best friend, with whom he believes her to be in love, or to try to win her for himself.
With the help of a reformed gunman (and a gang of outlaws), the sheepmen aim to win their water rights from the cattle barons of Rimrock Valley.
The Northwest Mounties are after Cheyenne Harry for the murder of an Indian boy, and the only witness to the crime is a priest - who can't tell what he saw because the real killer, Black Michael, has confessed to him.
Cheyenne Harry, owner of the biggest cattle ranch in his corner of the west, is having trouble with John Merritt, a land-grabbing Chicago meat-packer. By some artifice of shrewd legal aid, Merritt manages to seize Harry's ranch under a bogus writ of foreclosure. Failing to get justice by his many letters to Merritt, Cheyenne Harry goes east and calls at the millionaire's mansion. At first, Merritt refuses to see him. Then, to cause amusement for his daughter, Helen, and her guests, he invites the "uncouth" westerner into his dining hall. He is sure that he will make some grave error in table deportment and afford them all a laugh. To the amazement of Merrit and the guests Harry's table manners are faultless. Then, to trick him into an embarrassing position, Merritt eats with his knife. Harry, realizing that it is proper for the guest to follow the example of the host, does likewise. He leaves the house chagrined but more determined than ever to get justice from Merritt.
On a steamboat heading North, where his brother has struck gold, Mike Dane falls in love with Estelle MacDonald. When he arrives at the Canadian trading post, Dane learns that his brother has been murdered and his partner sentenced to death as the killer.
A cowboy must save his girlfriend from captivity and then cross the desert on foot with a single waterhole on the way.
Jode MacWilliams, a cowboy working on the Circle O ranch, has a crush on the boss's daughter, Peg. After his friend writes a love letter for him, an Indian steals and delivers it to Peg. Meanwhile, word of Jode's affection reaches Peg's father, who has a decidedly less romantic view of this young couple.
On a ranch in Wyoming, one of the cowboys, Cheyenne Harry (Harry Carey), falls in love with his boss's daughter. But she decides to elope to the city with Captain Thornton, a wealthy visitor to the ranch. She quickly discovers that life in the city is not what she expected. Cheyenne, devastated by the loss of his fiancée, decides to go to the city to find her, and in the end rescues her from the grips of Captain Thornton and from the extravagant and decadent way of life in the city.
When Sheriff Larkin's brother is falsely accused of a murder, Larkin still does his job - arrests the boy and takes him to prison. But, his duty done, the sheriff takes off his badge and helps his brother to escape.
The Tornado mostly followed pulp Western formula -- bad guys hold up a town, take a girl hostage, and the hero rides to the rescue. But there were a couple of twists that made it seem more personal than the usual cowboy fare. Ford's Jack Dayton ... is known as "the No-Gun Man" because he faces the villains unarmed, anticipating the character played by James Stewart in George Marshall's 1939 Western comedy classic Destry Rides Again. Dayton is an immigrant who uses the reward money to bring over his mother (Jean Hathaway) from Ireland, a prototypically Fordian situation if there ever was one.
When cattle rancher Cheyenne Harry Henderson discovers that rustlers are attacking his herd, he informs Yucca County's sheriff but learns that the lawman is in cahoots with the outlaws.
Harry's father is killed in a gunfight, and his mother makes him swear he'll never again use his gun, and rely only on his bare fists. But when his little brother is branded on the chest by cattle rustlers, will Harry break his promise?
Convict Cheyenne Harry escapes from prison in a garbage truck and boards a train, where he eludes capture with the help of passenger Henry Beaufort. Beaufort is returning to his wealthy uncle's ranch, where earlier he had married Molly in secret because his uncle did not like her. Beaufort tells Pedro, who takes care of his child Elizabeth, to take her away because his uncle is coming, and Pedro, driving drunk, wrecks the wagon. Harry finds her and must protect her while still evading the sheriff.
"Kaintuck" Ridge (Carey), refused admission to the local militia to fight on the side of Union in the American Civil War, joins a gang of marauders and at the end of the conflict finds himself a fugitive with a price on his head.
