20 best movies like Whirlwind Raiders (1948)

Arriving to become the new Deputy, Steve Gordon takes over as Sheriff instead when he finds the Sheriff has been killed. He doesn't last long and is fired for incompetence. But he realizes Brady is pulling off a swindle. Having found the proper soil, Brady has salted it with cheap diamonds, gotten Smiley to accidently find them, and is now taking money from eager investors and planning to flee with it.

Gene Autry and sidekick Frog Millhouse depart Madison Square Garden and NYC heading west for home in their car and a horse trailer carrying Gene's horse, Champion. They discover that Ronnie Willoughby, a young boy just off the boat from school in England, has hitched a ride, thinking that Gene and Frog were sent by his father to meet him. Ronnie thinks his father is a big rancher in the west and doesn't know that his father, Alfred Willoughby, is serving time in San Quentin prison because of a frame-up by the officials of a packing company. To keep the father from testifying against them, the packing company officials, Carter, Jenkins and Martin, have arranged for the boy to be kidnapped. Along the way a runaway bride, Joyce Halloway, and her young sister Patsy join the troupe.

U.S. marshal Ritter arrives in town to round up bandits who are attempting to fix the local elections.

Western star Charles Starrett was amazing; he kept making the same film over and over, but always made it seem as if it was for the first time. In West of Sonora, Starrett once again plays a frontier good-guy named Steve (Steve Rollins, to be exact), who, when the need arises, disguises himself as The Durango Kid, masked righter of wrongs. This time, Steve/Durango champions the cause of 10-year-old Penelope Clinton (Anita Castle), who has spent her short life as the focus of a feud between her grandfathers, suspected outlaw Black Murphy (Steve Darrell) and Sheriff Jack Clinton (George Cheseboro).

Former Hopalong Cassidy sidekick Russell Hayden retains his nickname of Lucky in this average entry in his short-lived starring series for Columbia.

Filmed at the Providencia Ranch (today's Forrest Lawn in Burbank, CA), this typical "Durango Kid" Western featured the Cass County Boys performing "Go West Young Lady" by Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin, in addition to series regular Smiley Burnette singing his own "It's My Turn" and "The Yodeler. This time, the Durango Kid (Charles Starrett) is chasing down a gang of outlaws shipping stolen gold in crates marked "ring bolts," ably assisted by Smiley, a treasury agent working undercover as a house painter. Virginia Maxey supplies female interest and little Tommy Ivo, in one of his six appearances in the Durango Kid series, also gets in the way of the action.

It's cattlemen versus sheepmen and Trigger Gargan appears to be the leader of the gang causing the trouble. But unknown to Ranger Tex Lawrence, the respected town citizen Barrow is the boss and is tipping off the gang as to the Ranger's activities.

A wandering cowboy and his sidekick try to resolve a murder.

Horse breeders Adams and Brock are vying for the Army contract. When Adams is killed trying to ride his horse Trigger, Roy saves the horse from being shot. He trains him and then plans to ride him in the race to win the contract.

Ranger Eddie Dean is looking for the outlaw the Tioga Kid, a man he closely resembles. He runs into Joe Morino and his gang of rustlers at the same time Tioga arrives to cut himself into Morino's game. But Morino doesn't give in and in the showdown, Eddie and the Kid find themselves on the same side.

Ex-Pony Express rider Autry ties to protect his US mail franchise as the Pony Express gives way to stage coach mail and the telegraph. Gene's last film appearance as a singing cowboy.

The Texas Rangers round up rustlers by masquerading as the same. Trouble ensues when while in disguise one of the Rangers is accused of a killing.

With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.

As executor of the owner's will, singing ranch foreman Gene must see that the daughter/heiress doesn't marry without his approval.

Singing cowboy Eddie Dean and his sidekick Soapy (Roscoe Ates) enter into the thick of things when they thwart a stagecoach holdup. Our heroes take it upon themselves to champion the cause of stage-line owner Margie Rodgers (Helen Mowery), who's being victimized by an unknown villain. Dean suspects that there's more to the case than mere robbery, and he's right: someone wants to gain control of Margie's business, and that someone is?

In this comic western, a Broadway star leaves his musical revue to go West and help out his troubled friend. While there, the performer finds himself forced into becoming the town sheriff. Mayhem ensues, but somehow, the crooner manages to round up a band of killers.

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.

Returning G.I. Curt Norton (Ken Curtis), owner of a radio station, finds his father Amos (Guy Kibbee) has allowed the station to run down and has squandered Curt's money in bad investments in war-surplus material. Eddie Jackson (Robert Kellard), who owns the rival station, is also attracted to Curt's sweetheart Jean White (Joan Barton). When Curt and the Hoosier Hotshots successfully stage an auction to raise money, Eddie hires Mimi Carston (Claudia Drake) to claim that Curt married her in France.

To get the Delaney ranch Cole's henchman Anders has started a phony range war between the cattlemen and sheepmen. After killing Delaney, he tries to kill his daughter Jill and then Roy who was sent to investigate the war. But the failed attempts gives Roy the information he needs.

As he looks over the dusty, deserted remains of the western "boom town" of Panamint, grizzled old prospector Chuckawalla Bill Redfield (Ruggles) recalls the town's glory days. Looming large in Chuckawalla's reminiscences is the day that young and apparently mild-mannerd minister Philip Pharo (Phillip Terry) rode into town. In his own gentle but forceful fashion, Pharo managed to bring the town's lawless element into line, mollify the local bluenoses, and win the heart of likeable dance-hall girl Mary Mallory (Ellen Drew).

Mahoney is a sheep man who's framed for the murder of a rancher. It's all part of a scheme by a dishonest cattleman who hopes to extenuate a range war for his own profit. The Durango Kid helps clear Mahoney's name.

Young boy leaves the Oklahoma farm to travel with his country musician uncle who is trying out for the Grand Ole Opry. Set during the Great Depression.

When Jesse learns that Krager is cheating settlers, he and his gang rob trains to obtain money for them to purchase their land. Krager, finding a Jesse look alike in Burns, hires him to wreck havoc on the ranchers. When Jesse kills Burns he switches clothes and goes after the culprits.

A crooked lawyer and his gang are trying to steal some government land meant for a stagecoach company. The company hires a cowboy to stop them.

An over-the-hill rodeo champion is so self-centered that he ignores his wife, son, and best friend.

A young mining engineer sets out to catch the killers of both his brother and a beautiful young girl's father.

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Tex is after the gang that robbed a train of a gold shipment. He suspects Dorman is the culprit and is hiding their gold at his mine. When Stubby sees Dorman's henchman Stark cash in some gold nuggets, Tex tricks Dorman into moving the gold. He hopes to round them up with the help of the posse and the local Boy Scout Troop.

The Harper wagon train is carrying money and Bull and his gang are after it. When their first attack is foiled by the rangers, Allen trails them. But he is captured and his ranger badge used to divert the rangers away leaving the wagon train unprotected.

Trouble in Colorado is tying up Union troops needed back east during the Civil War and Lieut. Burke is sent to investigate. Macklin and his gang are causing the problems and Capt. Mason joins them. When Burke catches up with them he also finds Mason, his brother.

Wise-guy carnival barker Windy bilks a group of cowboys out of their money, gets caught and is forced into working off the debt on their ranch. He falls in love with Molly, the pretty owner of the ranch, but runs afoul of foreman Steve, who also loves Molly.

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

A cowboy turns bad for revenge, but can't stomach his new evil ways.

Two championship rodeo partners travel to New York to find their missing friend, Nacho Salazar who went missing there.

When Tad Wallace's act flops on Broadway, he joins a troop heading west. In a small town, they run into Jeffries who has just burned down the theater. When Jeffries kills Griswold, Tad has a plan to trap him by using the talents of Shakespearian actor Thorndyke.

Judy Canova is right in her element in the rowdy Republic musical Untamed Heiress. Canova plays Judy, the daughter of a famous opera singer who once bankrolled prospector Andrew "Cactus" Clayton (George Cleveland). Now Clayton hopes to repay the favor, but first he must reclaim his stash of gold from the crooked Williams (Hugh Sanders). Judy helps the old coot by taking on not only Williams, but duplicitous private detectives Walter Martin (Taylor Holmes) and Eddie Taylor (Chick Chandler), not to mention gangsters Spider Mike (Donald Barry) and Louie (Jack Kruschen).

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

20 years ago, 3 men robbed a stage and hid $30,000. They were caught and sent to prison by Marshal Steve Autry (Also played by Gene Autry). 20 years later, the men bust out of prison and return to the ghost town where they stashed their treasure searching. Steve's grandson picks up where Steve left off to foil the plans of the outlaws.

Dan Frazier is a U. S. Border Patrolman on the California-Mexico border whose hot temper and ready-fists keep him in trouble, both of which indirectly lead to the death of a fellow trooper. He resigns from the force in order to find out who was responsible. He believes it was a gang of smugglers, engaged in smuggling illegal aliens into the United States from Mexico, and in order to get inside the gang he fakes smuggling activities.

An idealistic, modern-day cowboy struggles to keep his Wild West show afloat in the face of hard luck and waning interest.

One of Hoppy's Bar 20 ranch hands is tricked into participating in nefarious activities after being subjected to hypnosis.