20 best movies like Raiders of San Joaquin (1943)

In this western, set in Texas, the brave heroes Rod, Fuzzy, and their good-guy gang attempt to keep a band of ruthless outlaws who are trying to take over the reins of a stage coach line.

In his film debut Ritter is sent to investigate miners being killed and their mines confiscated. The culprit is Evans and after Tex joins the gang, he is sent to kill two more miners. When Estaban is killed, Tex is put on trial for all three murders.

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.

Jimmy Wakely and Cannonball Taylor escort Anne Lamont, the new school teacher, to Oreville, where she is molested by two outlaws, Tom Slade and Cal Derringer. Marshal Blackjack Flint wounds Slade, who tells Derringer that lawman Flint is wanted by the law and, unknown to Anne, is also her father. Derringer than kills Slade and begins to blackmail Flint. Jimmy and Cannonball join the fray on the side of Flint, the reformed outlaw.

Ken Armstrong (Ken Maynard) finds himself a mine owner and a daddy simultaneously when a friend dies and wills him his mine and his baby. The outlaws eying the mine try to frame the hero for the death.

In one of his better Monogram Westerns, Johnny Mack Brown goes up against a crooked saloon owner with more than one murder on his conscience. Steve Corbin (Tristram Coffin) and his gang of cutthroats are terrorizing the townspeople of Rimrock, who in self-defense hire Johnny Macklin (Mack Brown) as new town marshal.

When shifty cattlemen Belknap (Walter Miller) and H.R. Shelby (Gordon Hart) are caught shipping infected animals to Mexico, they frame inspector Gene Autry. Now Autry and his sidekick, Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette), must catch the bad guys in the act and set things straight. June Storey co-stars as rancher Martha Wheeler. Autry sings "I'm Gonna Round Up My Blues," "Moonlight on the Ranch House" and "Big Bull Frog."

Two Gun Law perpetuated the cinematic winning streak established early in 1937 by western star Charles Starrett and director Leon Barsha. The action never lets up as hero Bob Larson (Charles Starrett) takes on an impressive triumvirate of villains (Charles Middleton, Alan Bridge and Dick Curtis).

Gene is the foreman at the ranch owned by wealthy rodeo owner Maureen. She will lose her rodeo contract unless sales improve.

Riding Through Nevada is a western starring Charles Starrett

When a woman turns outlaw, she is suspected of murder.

The conflict between a railroader and a stage line owner is being aggravated by bad guys who are sabotaging both sides. Roy and Gabby mediate the conflict and expose the bad guys.

When Hadley finds gold on his land, Kirby kills him and then goes after Hadley's ranch. After Eddie Dean foils Kirby's robbery attempt, Kirby forces the assistant land agent Tuttle to sell the ranch to him. But Eddie learns of the forgery thru Tuttle's boss and goes after Kirby.

The story revolves around a valuable silver deposit, located between two ranches. Villain Lash Bender (Dick Curtis) cooks up a scheme to gain control of both ranches so that he may have a clear field to the silver lode.

Mortimer builds a fence for the cattle brought by Ken Morley. To retaliate, Slater who wants access to the land, builds a dam cutting off Mortimer's water supply. When Ken confronts Slater, he is captured. Then lightning destroys the dam and Ken, imprisoned in a shack, is in the path of the oncoming water.

Krag Sabine has aroused the wrath of all the ranchers by stealing their land with the aid of his henchmen, led by Ace Barco; when Lafe Martin objects, the outlaws shoot him down. Lucky Randall promises Ann Martin he will avenge her wounded father. He sets up headquarters on the Martin ranch and sends for Bob Merritt and his men, the Texas Playboys (Jesse Ashlock, Leon McAuliffe, Cotton Thompson, Junior Barnard and Luke Wills). Krag organizes his remaining men for an attack on the ranch. Lucky's men get the upper hand but Krag escapes with Ann as his hostage.

The Western hero takes on a ruthless land baron whose henchmen killed his best friend.

Caxton has broken out of prison and Eddie has been sent to bring him in. Caxton is known by the polka dot band on his hat and Eddie has Soapy wear one like it. This gets Soapy arrested as soon as he rides into town but it leads Eddie to Varney and he realizes Varney will lead him to Caxton.

Clay gets a musical troop out af jail and helps raise money so they can put on their show. During the performance Blake and his men rob the box office. The townsmen give chase and Clay goes after Blake.

A singing cowboy (Roy Rogers) and his sidekick (George "Gabby" Hayes) fight post-Civil War plunder in Texas.

Charles "Durango" Starrett and his pal Smiley Burnette go after smugglers. Our heroes travel incognito across the Mexican border to beard the leader of the gang in his den.

If a young lady gives up her inheritance the local ranchers will lose their free grazing land.

Indian Agent Kip Lewis arrives in Gun Town where Buckskin Sawyer is having her payroll shipments robbed by Indians. Kip and his men are ready the next time and learn the robbers are white men dressed as Indians. Kip finds Davy Sawyer's case at the scene and confronts him. When Davy accuses Talbot whom he lent it to, Talbot shoots him. But Davy names Talbot before he dies and Kip goes after him.

Ken, sent to investigate cattle rustlers, poses as a peddler during the day but the Masked Rider at night.

A cowboy goes undercover to catch the cattle thieves who killed his father.

Briefly switching gears in 1942 and 1943, western star Charles Starrett made a handful of "northerns" in which he played a Canadian mountie. In Law of the Northwest, Steve King (Starrett) supervises a road-construction project designed to transport war materials to the Aleutians. Problems arise when a crooked contractor decides that his interests are more important than the war effort.

Bill Underwood falls out with his father and chooses the life of a cowhand rather than take charge of his father's stage line.

his was one of the earlier uses of Robert Tansey's favorite plot (only the 3rd time he had trotted it out of the stable, but he got six more films out of it in later years) in which a group of outlaws (wrongly jailed this time) are let out to join up with the good guys against a worse bunch of outlaws. And, not unusual in the B-western genre, most of the production crew wore several hats; director Robert N. Bradbury and supervisor Lindsley Parsons wrote a song for Tommy Bupp, one of the actually good kid actors of the time who proved real quick-like that singing wasn't his strong suit, while Robert Emmett Tansey worked three jobs under three names... Robert Emmett on story and screenplay, Robert Tansey as the production manager and Al Lane as the assistant director. And, for a change, music director Frank Sanucci actually earned a composers' credit as he did write a song... Written by Les Adams

A sheriff tries to prevent a range war between cattlemen and homesteaders.

As foreman of a dude ranch, Gene has two problems. One is a guest, the spoiled daughter of a millioniare, and the other is the disgruntled ex-foreman that Gene replaced, now just a ranch hand. Gene eventually gets the daughter straightened out but has to fire the ex-foreman and this leads to trouble when he returns intent on revenge.

A couple of crooks have repeatedly sold the Circle C Ranch to unsuspecting buyers, whom they summarily rob and kill before signing the papers. Enter Fuzzy Jones, whose cousin Luke was one of the unlucky would-be ranchers, and Rocky Cameron who goes undercover as a fellow outlaw to catch the murderers.

Steve Landry arrives as the new Marshal of a town that is having trouble with outlaws. When an outlaw escapes over the State line out of his jurisdiction, the Durango Kid brings him in. The Durango Kid then continues to break up the outlaw raids. But Belle, the saloon owner who is in cahoots with the outlaws, notices the the boot prints of the Durango Kid match those of the new Marshal and a trap is sent to get Durango.

An itinerant farmer and his young son help a heart-of-gold saloon singer search for her estranged husband

To increase profits for his shipping company, Lynch has goaded the Indians to attack both the telegraph line and the new railroad. When Lynch sells rifles to the Indians, Rod Farrell captures Lynch and his gang. But Lynch's Indian friends free him and this time Farrell finds himself the prisoner.

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.