20 best movies like Challenge of the Range (1949)

Vignettes weaving together the stories of six individuals in the old West at the end of the Civil War. Following the tales of a sharp-shooting songster, a wannabe bank robber, two weary traveling performers, a lone gold prospector, a woman traveling the West to an uncertain future, and a motley crew of strangers undertaking a carriage ride.

El Malo, notorious Mexican bandit, forces the Mayor of Sierra Blanca, Seth Landport, to open the safe and turn over to him 2,000 pesos, which the bandit gives a promissory note for to the Mayor. Seth rushes to the cantina where Sheriff Rankin is drinking, and the sheriff posts a reward for the capture of El Malo. El Malo informs his men of the reward. The bandit and his sidekick, Pedro, visit the cantina where Pedro resumes a former acquaintance with Dolores, while El Malo has his attention directed to a tango being performed by Carmita. El Malo pushes her dancing partner aside and finishes the dance with Carmita. Since Seth's description of him is not accurate, El May visits the sheriff and promises to deliver the wanted bandit to the cantina the following night. THe following morning, El Malo and Pedro depart, and, halting their horses on a hill, view the stagecoach being held up by a trio of outlaws.

The "star" in the title of this low-budget singing Western was Dynamite, a wild stallion captured by cowboy Curt Walker (Ken Curtis) to ride in the Big Rodeo. Unscrupulous John Burton (Robert Stevens) has bet against Curt and does his best to sabotage the event. When lovely Barbara Allen (Adelle Roberts), Curt's new girlfriend, leaves town because of Burton's schemes, Curt loses the first couple of events. The big Bronco Busting contest is coming up, and Pop Walker (Andy Clyde) stalls the proceedings with a series of singing acts while the girl's brothers (the musical group the Hoosier Hot Shots) attempt to locate her. Barbara arrives just in time to spur Curt on to victory.

Two talent scouts for a New York-based country music TV show called "Square Dance Jubilee" are sent out West to get authentic western singing acts. They find what they're looking for, but also get mixed up in cattle rustling and murder.

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.

Despite his unprepossessing screen personality, singing cowboy Jimmy Wakely was starred in a series of Monogram westerns, one of which was West of the Alamo. Wakely and comedy sidekick Lee "Lasses" White play a pair of government agents who work undercover to solve a series of baffling crimes. It comes to no one's surprise that the criminal mastermind is the town's leading citizen, in this case banker Clay Bradford (Jack Ingram). As was typical in the Wakely westerns, West of the Alamo is approximately 25 percent action and 75 percent musical. Among the guest warblers this time out is the Arthur Smith Trio, headed by a gospel singer who'd later emcee a popular religious TV talk show.

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

The setting is a small town in 1870s Pennsylvania. Sally Waterson and her father have stopped in town with their traveling medicine show, but when their wagon catches fire, they find themselves stranded. They're taken in by Mrs. Cortlandt and her grandson, Peter, who is trying to set up a pipeline that will supply oil throughout the state. Sally and Peter soon fall in love and marry. Neither their marriage nor Peter's pipe dreams flow too smoothly.

Opera singer, Marie de Flor, seeks out fugitive brother in the Canadian wilderness. During her trek, she meets a Canadian mountie, Sgt. Bruce, who is also searching for her brother. Romance ensues, resulting in several love duets between the two.

Charles Starrett returns as the Durango Kid in Columbia's Rough, Tough, West. For most of the film, however, Starrett is known as "Steve Holden," a former Texas Ranger who comes to a wide-open mining town to visit an old friend (Jack -- later Jock -- Mahoney). Alas, said friend has turned bad, and is busy arranging a major land grab when Steve arrives on the scene. With deep regret, our hero dons his Durango disguise to thwart his ex-friend's criminal activities.

Joe Lightcloud persuades his Congressman to give him 20 heifers and a prize bull so he and his father, Charlie, can prove that the Navajos can successfully raise cattle on the reservation. If their experiment is successful, then the government will help all the Navajo people. But Joe's friend, Bronc Hoverty, accidentally barbecues the prize bull, while Joe sells the heifers to buy plumbing and other home improvements for his stepmother.

A Michigan farmer and a prospector form a partnership in the California gold country. Their adventures include buying and sharing a wife, hijacking a stage, kidnapping six prostitutes, and turning their mining camp into a boom town. Along the way there is plenty of drinking, gambling, and singing. They even find time to do some creative gold mining.

A singing medicine-show cowboy and his magician partner catch a killer.

In order to help neighboring Indians irrigate their farms, the Hotshots plan to put on a fair for tourists. But first they need $2000 for an advertising campaign, and the only way they can get it is to borrow it from a wealthy local woman, who has made it clear that she won't give them the money until Hezzie marries her.

Embezzler, shill, all around confidence man S. Quentin Quale is heading west to find his fortune; he meets the crafty but simple brothers Joseph and Rusty Panello in a train station, where they steal all his money. They're heading west, too, because they've heard you can just pick the gold off the ground. Once there, they befriend an old miner named Dan Wilson whose property, Dead Man's Gulch, has no gold. They loan him their last ten dollars so he can go start life anew, and for collateral, he gives them the deed to the Gulch. Unbeknownst to Wilson, the son of his longtime rival, Terry Turner (who's also in love with his daughter, Eva), has contacted the railroad to arrange for them to build through the land, making the old man rich and hopefully resolving the feud. But the evil Red Baxter, owner of a saloon, tricks the boys out of the deed, and it's up to them - as well as Quale, who naturally finds his way out west anyway - to save the day.

Heading through Colorado Territory in search of gold and women, Alferd Packer and his group of bemused companions find themselves lost, starving and musically inspired by the obstacles they confront along the way, including a die-hard Confederate cyclops, a trio of surly trappers, a tribe of Japanese-speaking "Indians," and ultimately, each other.

Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok fuss, feud and fall in love. At first, Calamity is too busy fighting Indians and cracking a bullwhip to pay attention to such girlie things as dresses and perfume. She soon changes her mind when Katie Brown arrives in town.

Duke Fergus falls for Ann 'Flaxen' Tarry in the Barbary Coast in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. He loses money to crooked gambler Boss Tito Morell, goes home, learns to gamble, and returns. After he makes a fortune, he opens his own place with Flaxen as the entertainer; but the 1906 quake destroys his place.

This joyous celebration of frontier life combines tender romance and violent passion in the Oklahoma Territory of the 1900s with a timeless score filled with unforgettable songs. Rodgers and Hammerstein's hit Broadway musical.

With the backing of the Mayor, Brady is running a crooked gambling operation. When Sheriff Curt shuts him down, he reopens when the Mayor charters his place as a private club. When Curt decides to run for Mayor, he is made to shut down the popular Warren medicine show. With Curt now out of favor the Warrens decide to run their daughter for Mayor and Brady has a plan to stop her also. - Written by Maurice VanAuken

In 1850 Oregon, when a backwoodsman brings a wife home to his farm, his six brothers decide that they want to get married too.

Rancher Autry takes a job singing on the radio to aid farmers and ranchers whose lands were destroyed by raging floods. Blaming crooked politicians, he goes to Washington and tries to put through a food control bill and finds he has a lot to learn. In this classic release, Gene introduces his immortal theme song, "Back in the Saddle Again," which has gone on to become a piece of American History.

An obscure entry in the musical Western cycle, Swing, Cowboy, Swing was produced by and starred country & western bandleader Cal Shrum. Shrum and his band, the Rhythm Rangers, are warned away from playing a theater in Big Bend by Cal's brother, Walt Shrum and his Colorado Hillbillies. Ignoring the warning, the Rhythm Rangers arrive at the theater only to be shot at by a masked stranger. With the help of stranded vaudeville performer Max "Alibi" Terhune and his dummy Elmer, Cal manages to catch the mystery shooter who turns out to be Frank Lawson (Frank Ellis). The film apparently did not generate enough interest for a series, but was re-released by Astor Pictures in 1949 under the title Bad Man From Big Bend.

A look at what goes on backstage during the last broadcast of America's most celebrated radio show, where singing cowboys Dusty and Lefty, a country music siren, and a host of others hold court

Gene goes after the badguys after they kidnap the baby he should have been babysitting.

In this tuneful western, two curious actresses head West to find out the name of their secret admirer. Songs include: "Amor," (Sunny Skylar, Gabriel Ruiz), "Hey Mabel" (Fred Stryker), "By the River Sainte Marie" (Edgar Leslie, Harry Warren), "She Broke My Heart in Three Places" (Oliver Drake), "When It's Harvest Time in Peaceful Valley" (Robert Martin, Raymond McKee), and "There'll Be a Jubilee" (Phil Moore).

An Arizona teacher (Noah Beery Jr.) saves a vaudeville star (Martha O'Driscoll) and her troupe from a bandit (Leo Carrillo).

The two nieces of the deceased Charley Bronson arrive to learn that an unknown judge will determine which one of them will inherit his ranch. But Bronson is still alive and posing as the cook. Hilda learns of this and sets out to use this information to win the ranch from her cousin Laurie.