Bertrand Tavernier's List of Overlooked or Underrated Westerns
by KasparM | created - 10 Jan 2012 | updated - 10 Jan 2012 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Day of the Outlaw (1959)
Not Rated | 92 min | Drama, Western
Blaise Starrett is a rancher at odds with homesteaders when outlaws hold up the small town. The outlaws are held in check only by their notorious leader, but he is diagnosed with a fatal wound and the town is a powder keg waiting to blow.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Robert Ryan, Burl Ives, Tina Louise, Alan Marshal
Votes: 4,423
2. The Naked Dawn (1955)
Passed | 82 min | Action, Crime, Drama
In Mexico, at the dawn of the automobile, modern bandit Santiago burglarizes train freight cars and falls in love with a poor farmer's wife.
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer | Stars: Arthur Kennedy, Betta St. John, Eugene Iglesias, Roy Engel
Votes: 709
3. The Last Wagon (1956)
Approved | 99 min | Drama, Western
Wagon train survivors of an Apache attack entrust the sheriff's prisoner, scout Comanche Todd, with their lives despite his wanted-for-murder status.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Richard Widmark, Felicia Farr, Susan Kohner, Tommy Rettig
Votes: 3,678
4. Law and Order (1932)
Passed | 75 min | Western
A lawman sets out to tame Tombstone, Arizona.
Director: Edward L. Cahn | Stars: Walter Huston, Harry Carey, Raymond Hatton, Russell Hopton
Votes: 343
5. Apache Drums (1951)
Approved | 76 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A gambler is thrown out of a western town, but returns when the town is suddenly threatened by a band of marauding Apaches.
Director: Hugo Fregonese | Stars: Stephen McNally, Coleen Gray, Willard Parker, Arthur Shields
Votes: 942
6. Four Faces West (1948)
Approved | 89 min | Western
In New Mexico, a cowpoke forces a banker at gunpoint to give him a loan without collateral in exchange for an IOU, but the marshal and his posse chase after him.
Director: Alfred E. Green | Stars: Joel McCrea, Frances Dee, Charles Bickford, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 991
7. The Wonderful Country (1959)
Approved | 98 min | Romance, Western
A honorable drifter constantly on the run finds his enemies closing in around him.
Director: Robert Parrish | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Julie London, Gary Merrill, Albert Dekker
Votes: 2,109
8. Pursued (1947)
Passed | 101 min | Western
A boy haunted by nightmares about the night his entire family was murdered is brought up by a neighboring family in the 1880s. He falls for his lovely adoptive sister but his nasty adoptive brother and mysterious uncle want him dead.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Teresa Wright, Robert Mitchum, Judith Anderson, Dean Jagger
Votes: 3,837
9. Ulzana's Raid (1972)
R | 103 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
After fierce war chief Ulzana and a small war party jump the reservation bent on murder and terror, an inexperienced young lieutenant is assigned to track him down.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Bruce Davison, Jorge Luke, Richard Jaeckel
Votes: 6,482
10. From Hell to Texas (1958)
Passed | 100 min | Action, Romance, Western
After ranch hand Tod Lohman accidentally kills the son of a powerful rancher, he panics and flees, but the rancher and his vengeful crew hunt Tod down.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Don Murray, Diane Varsi, Chill Wills, Dennis Hopper
Votes: 1,152
11. Silver Lode (1954)
Approved | 81 min | Western
In the western town of Silver Lode, Dan Ballard is arrested for murder and theft by marshals, but he denies the charges and searches for the real culprit as the townsfolk gradually turn against him.
Director: Allan Dwan | Stars: John Payne, Lizabeth Scott, Dan Duryea, Dolores Moran
Votes: 2,302
12. Tennessee's Partner (1955)
Not Rated | 87 min | Action, Drama, Romance
In a California mining town, a gold miner, a saloon gambler and a cat-house madam strike an odd alliance revolving around a gold mine claim.
Director: Allan Dwan | Stars: John Payne, Ronald Reagan, Rhonda Fleming, Coleen Gray
Votes: 755
13. Ride Lonesome (1959)
Approved | 73 min | Western
A bounty hunter (Randolph Scott) escorts a killer (James Best) to be tried for murder, but allows the man's outlaw brother (Lee Van Cleef) to catch up with them to have a showdown over a previous shocking murder.
Director: Budd Boetticher | Stars: Randolph Scott, Karen Steele, Pernell Roberts, James Best
Votes: 6,607
14. Hangman's Knot (1952)
Approved | 81 min | Western
A Confederate Major and his troops are falsely led to believe the Civil War is not over, and become wanted men after they attack a Union Army wagon train in Nevada.
Director: Roy Huggins | Stars: Randolph Scott, Donna Reed, Claude Jarman Jr., Frank Faylen
Votes: 1,757
15. Chuka (1967)
Approved | 105 min | Western
While Indians besiege a U.S. Army fort in 1876, residents of the fort, a gunfighter, a stagecoach driver, two Mexican women, and a motley company of soldiers, try to come to terms with their pasts.
Director: Gordon Douglas | Stars: Rod Taylor, Ernest Borgnine, John Mills, Luciana Paluzzi
Votes: 1,075
16. The Man from the Alamo (1953)
Approved | 79 min | Western
During the Alamo siege, John Stroud is sent to Ox Bow to protect the townsfolk but, following a massacre, he infiltrates Jess Wade's gang of turncoat renegades supporting the Mexicans.
Director: Budd Boetticher | Stars: Glenn Ford, Julie Adams, Chill Wills, Hugh O'Brian
Votes: 2,152
17. Will Penny (1967)
Approved | 108 min | Drama, Romance, Western
Aging cowboy Will Penny gets a line camp job on a large cattle spread and finds his isolated cabin is already occupied by an abandoned woman traveler and her young son.
Director: Tom Gries | Stars: Charlton Heston, Joan Hackett, Donald Pleasence, Lee Majors
Votes: 5,257
18. Drum Beat (1954)
Not Rated | 111 min | Adventure, Western
In 1872, Indian fighter Johnny MacKay is appointed peace commissioner for the California and Oregon territory but he faces tough opposition from the renegade Modocs led by their chief Captain Jack.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Alan Ladd, Audrey Dalton, Marisa Pavan, Robert Keith
Votes: 1,139
19. Little Big Horn (1951)
Not Rated | 86 min | Western
A small band of cavalry attempt to warn Custer of an impending massacre. Friction develops when commander of the patrol suspects his subordinate of having an affair with his wife.
Director: Charles Marquis Warren | Stars: Lloyd Bridges, John Ireland, Marie Windsor, Reed Hadley
Votes: 489 | Gross: $0.52M
20. The Indian Fighter (1955)
Passed | 88 min | Drama, Western
A scout leading a wagon train through hostile Indian country unwittingly gets involved with a Sioux chief's daughter.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Elsa Martinelli, Walter Matthau, Diana Douglas
Votes: 2,886
21. Blood on the Moon (1948)
Passed | 88 min | Drama, Western
Unemployed cowhand Jim Garry is hired by his dishonest friend Tate Riling as muscle in a dispute between homesteaders and cattleman John Lufton.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Preston, Walter Brennan
Votes: 3,503
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