The 40 most popular 1950s western movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


High Noon
1952 · 1h 25m · US
Will Kane, the sheriff of a small town in New Mexico, learns a notorious outlaw he put in jail has been freed, and will be arriving on the noon train. Knowing the outlaw and his gang are coming to kill him, Kane is determined to stand his ground, so he attempts to gather a posse from among the local townspeople.


Giant
1956 · 3h 21m · US
Wealthy rancher Bick Benedict and dirt-poor cowboy Jett Rink both woo Leslie Lynnton, a beautiful young woman from Maryland who is new to Texas. She marries Benedict, but she is shocked by the racial bigotry of the White Texans against the local people of Mexican descent. Rink discovers oil on a small plot of land, and while he uses his vast, new wealth to buy all the land surrounding the Benedict ranch, the Benedict's disagreement over prejudice fuels conflict that runs across generations.


The Searchers
1956 · 1h 59m · US
As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable.


Rio Bravo
1959 · 2h 21m · US
A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a disabled man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.


Pony Express
1953 · 1h 41m · US
Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok join forces to establish a mail route that can get mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, in ten days. Along the way they must battle bad weather, hostile Indians and outlaws intent on robbing the mail and shutting down the entire operation.


Shane
1953 · 1h 58m · US
A weary gunfighter attempts to settle down with a homestead family, but a smouldering settler and rancher conflict forces him to act.


Oklahoma Justice
1951 · 56m · US
Johnny Mack Brown goes up against a lady bank robber in this average Mack Brown series late-entry from Monogram. The lady, played by Barbara Allen, is of course called "Ma." In order to get the goods on "Ma" and her "brood," Mack Brown must masquerade as a lone bandit.


El ciclón
1959 · 1h 23m · MX
Cowboy revenge-drama, paired with a love triangle between two Mexican fellers and a rather unpleasant gringa.


Passion
1954 · 1h 24m · US
In old Spanish California, dashing cattleman Juan Obregon returns to the rancho of his friend Gaspar Melo, to find he's fathered a son on Rosa, one of Gaspar's identical twin daughters. Overjoyed, he plans to formalize his "unofficial" marriage. But trouble brews; Melo's land is of unclear title and the new Don Domingo hopes to grab it for his own profit. Violence results. Without even knowing who survived, Juan (accompanied by Rosa's tomboy sister Tonya) rides for revenge, through spectacular pastoral and wilderness scenery.


Distant Drums
1951 · 1h 41m · US
After destroying a Seminole fort, American soldiers and their rescued companions must face the dangerous Everglades and hostile Indians in order to reach safety


Dallas
1950 · 1h 34m · US
After the Civil War, Confederate soldier Blayde Hollister travels to Dallas to avenge the savage murder of his family. Discovering his enemy is now an esteemed citizen, Hollister plots to expose the outlaw and his syndicate.


Dude Duck
1951 · 8m · US
Donald is vacationing at a dude ranch. After all the beautiful women pick the best horses, Donald ends up with the sad sack Rover Boy. But Rover Boy wants nothing to do with Donald.


Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
1957 · 2h 3m · US
Lawman Wyatt Earp and outlaw Doc Holliday form an unlikely alliance which culminates in their participation in the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.


Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
1954 · 1h 43m · US
In 1850 Oregon, when a backwoodsman brings a wife home to his farm, his six brothers decide that they want to get married too.


3:10 to Yuma
1957 · 1h 32m · US
Dan Evans, a small time farmer, is hired to escort Ben Wade, a dangerous outlaw, to Yuma. As Evans and Wade wait for the 3:10 train to Yuma, Wade's gang is racing to free him.


Sugarfoot
1951 · 1h 20m · US
The lawless west had never met a gun-throwing gent like...


Teenage Monster
1957 · 1h 5m · US
In a little Western town, a boy is subjected to rays from a meteor. As a result, he grows into a teenaged, hairy, psychopathic killer. His mother hides him in her basement.


The Bravados
1958 · 1h 38m · US
Jim Douglass arrives in the small town of Rio Arriba in order to witness the hanging of the four men he believes murdered his wife. When the convicts escape, Jim tracks them into Mexico, determined to see that justice is done. But the farther Jim goes in his quest for vengeance, the more merciless he becomes, losing himself in an unrelenting spiral of hatred and violence.


Old Yeller
1957 · 1h 24m · US
Young Travis Coates is left to take care of the family ranch with his mother and younger brother while his father goes off on a cattle drive in the 1860s. When a yellow mongrel comes for an uninvited stay with the family, Travis reluctantly adopts the dog.


The Big Country
1958 · 2h 47m · US
Retired wealthy sea captain Jim McKay arrives in the Old West, where he becomes embroiled in a feud between his future father-in-law, Major Terrill, and the rough and lawless Hannasseys over a valuable patch of land.


Colorado Ambush
1951 · 52m
As was customary in his late Monogram westerns, Johnny Mack Brown plays an undercover agent in Colorado Ambush. Brown is sent to Colorado to stem the activities of a particularly vicious outlaw gang


7 Men from Now
1956 · 1h 18m · US
Former sheriff Ben Stride, haunted by the loss of his wife in a Wells Fargo robbery, hunts for the seven men responsible for her death – along the way, encountering a couple heading west for California, and an outlaw he once arrested.


Calamity Jane
1953 · 1h 41m · US
Sharpshooter Calamity Jane takes it upon herself to recruit a famous actress and bring her back to the local saloon, but jealousy soon gets in the way.


Broken Arrow
1950 · 1h 33m · US
Indian scout Tom Jeffords is sent out to stem the war between the American settlers and Apaches in the late 1870s Arizona. He learns that the Indians kill only to protect themselves, or out of retaliation for white atrocities.


Frisco Tornado
1950 · 1h · US
U.S. marshal sets out to end an insurance scam: salesmen provide cow town folk with insurance against outlaw activity, outlaws who work for the insurance salesmen.


River of No Return
1954 · 1h 31m · US
An itinerant farmer and his young son help a heart-of-gold saloon singer search for her estranged husband.


The Marksman
1953 · 1h 2m · US
Mike Martin becomes a deputy marshal and takes on a gang of cattle rustlers.


Scorching Fury
1952 · 1h 9m · US
Three masked bandits responsible for a wave of holdups and bank robberies stick up a stagecoach on its way to Boone City.


Bad Day at Black Rock
1955 · 1h 21m · US
One-armed war veteran John J. Macreedy steps off a train at the sleepy little town of Black Rock. Once there, he begins to unravel a web of lies, secrecy, and murder.


Texas Lady
1955 · 1h 22m · US
Claudette Colbert plays Prudence Webb, who arrives in the wide-open town of Fort Ralston, Texas, to assume control of her late father's newspaper. Her first major print crusade is aimed at gambler Chris Mooney, whom Prudence holds responsible for her dad's suicide. She then takes aim at a couple of crooked cattle barons, who'd like nothing better than to put Prudence out of the way for keeps.


Man of the West
1958 · 1h 40m · US
Heading east to Fort Worth to hire a schoolteacher for his frontier town home, Link Jones is stranded with singer Billie Ellis and gambler Sam Beasley when their train is held up. For shelter, Jones leads them to his nearby former home, where he was brought up an outlaw. Finding the gang still living in the shack, Jones pretends to be ready to return to a life crime.


Last Train from Gun Hill
1959 · 1h 38m · US
A marshal tries to bring the son of an old friend, an autocratic cattle baron, to justice for the rape and murder of his wife.


Hondo
1953 · 1h 24m · US
Army despatch rider Hondo Lane discovers a woman and her son living in the midst of warring Apaches, and he becomes their protector.


Oklahoma!
1955 · 2h 28m · US
There's a box social coming up, and Curly asks Laurey if she'll be his date. Trouble is, Laurey thinks he's waited too long, and in a fit of pique accepts an offer from the boorish ranch hand Jud instead. Meanwhile, Laurey's friend Ado Annie is also torn between two men: cowboy Will and foreign peddler Ali Hakim. Both women struggle to know their own hearts before it's too late.


Jubal
1956 · 1h 40m · US
Jubal Troop is a cowboy who is found in a weakened condition, without a horse. He is given shelter at Shep Horgan's large ranch, where he quickly makes an enemy in foreman Pinky, a cattleman who accuses Jubal of carrying the smell of sheep.


Battling Marshal
1950 · 55m · US
In one of his last film roles, legendary B-Western cowboy Sunset Carson roots out the varmints responsible for a false smallpox scare. After arriving in the small town of Quartzville, Carson determines that a crooked lawyer-and-doctor team created a false smallpox epidemic in order to seize a gold mine from an old man and his family. Carson and his friends set out to bring the villains to justice. Al Terry, Pat Starling and Lee Roberts co-star.


Bitter Springs
1950 · 1h 29m · UK
A family buy land set around a water hole in a remote location, that is occupied by native Australians. The two groups clash.


Warlock
1959 · 2h 2m · US
A band of murderous cowboys has imposed a reign of terror on the town of Warlock. With the sheriff humiliatingly run out of town, the residents hire the services of Clay Blaisedell as de facto town marshal. He arrives along with his friend, Tom Morgan, and sets about restoring law and order on his own terms whilst also overseeing the establishment of a gambling house and saloon.


Destry
1954 · 1h 35m · US
Western remake of "Destry Rides Again", starring Audie Murphy, Mari Blanchard, Thomas Mitchell, Lori Nelson and Lyle Bettger.


Thundering Caravans
1952 · 54m · US
Marshal Rocky Lane is sent to help the Sheriff who is under attack from both the miners whose ore wagons are disappearing and the newspaper editor for not catching the outlaws. But the editor is actually the leader of the gang and with the election forthcoming, she has a plan to make the Sheriff look bad so her son will be elected Sheriff thereby making it easy for them to continue with their robberies.
1950s cinema fought television with everything it had: widescreen formats, colour, and spectacle. Underneath the scale, it was also the decade of Japanese cinema's international breakthrough and the birth of the modern art film.
The Western built the visual language of American cinema, then spent decades dismantling its own myths. Its influence runs global — the Italian Spaghetti Western and the Japanese samurai film borrowed from it and fed straight back in.