Top 25 1950's Westerns

by the_beer_hunter | created - 22 Mar 2013 | updated - 08 Mar 2016 | Public
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1. Man of the West (1958)

Not Rated | 100 min | Western

A reformed outlaw becomes stranded after an aborted train robbery with two other passengers and is forced to rejoin his old outlaw band.

Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Gary Cooper, Julie London, Lee J. Cobb, Arthur O'Connell

Votes: 9,170

2. The Big Country (1958)

Passed | 166 min | Drama, Romance, Western

61 Metascore

A New England sea captain in the 1880s arrives at his fiancée's sprawling Texas ranch, where he becomes embroiled in a feud between two families over a valuable patch of land.

Director: William Wyler | Stars: Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston

Votes: 21,135

3. The Gunfighter (1950)

Approved | 85 min | Western

94 Metascore

Notorious gunfighter Jimmy Ringo rides into town to find his true love, who doesn't want to see him. He hasn't come looking for trouble, but trouble finds him around every corner.

Director: Henry King | Stars: Gregory Peck, Helen Westcott, Millard Mitchell, Jean Parker

Votes: 12,533

4. The Naked Spur (1953)

Passed | 91 min | Drama, Thriller, Western

A bounty hunter trying to bring a murderer to justice is forced to accept the help of two less-than-trustworthy strangers.

Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker

Votes: 12,669

5. The Last Hunt (1956)

Not Rated | 108 min | Drama, Western

In 1883 South Dakota, two buffalo hunters start a personal feud over a captured squaw and a stand-off with a Dakota raiding party over some stolen horses.

Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Robert Taylor, Stewart Granger, Lloyd Nolan, Debra Paget

Votes: 1,808

6. High Noon (1952)

PG | 85 min | Drama, Thriller, Western

89 Metascore

A town Marshal, despite the disagreements of his newlywed bride and the townspeople around him, must face a gang of deadly killers alone at "high noon" when the gang leader, an outlaw he "sent up" years ago, arrives on the noon train.

Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges

Votes: 110,225 | Gross: $9.45M

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. Cowboy (1958)

Approved | 92 min | Drama, Western

An idealistic tenderfoot Chicago hotel clerk is taken on a cattle-drive to Mexico by famous trail boss Tom Reece but discovers that cowboy life isn't what he expected.

Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Glenn Ford, Jack Lemmon, Anna Kashfi, Brian Donlevy

Votes: 3,477

9. The Tall T (1957)

Approved | 78 min | Western

An independent former ranch foreman is kidnapped along with an heiress, who is being held for ransom by trio of ruthless outlaws.

Director: Budd Boetticher | Stars: Randolph Scott, Richard Boone, Maureen O'Sullivan, Arthur Hunnicutt

Votes: 6,158

10. 3:10 to Yuma (1957)

Not Rated | 92 min | Drama, Thriller, Western

80 Metascore

Broke small-time rancher Dan Evans is hired by the stagecoach line to put big-time captured outlaw leader Ben Wade on the 3:10 train to Yuma but Wade's gang tries to free him.

Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr, Leora Dana

Votes: 21,660

11. Two Flags West (1950)

Approved | 92 min | War, Western

Forced by circumstances,Confederate POWs and Union soldiers join forces against Indians but old animosities resurface during their fragile alliance.

Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Joseph Cotten, Linda Darnell, Jeff Chandler, Cornel Wilde

Votes: 1,202

12. Westward the Women (1951)

Passed | 118 min | Adventure, Drama, Western

A trail guide escorts a group of women from Chicago to California to marry men that have recently begun settling there.

Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Robert Taylor, Denise Darcel, Hope Emerson, John McIntire

Votes: 3,805

13. Devil's Doorway (1950)

Approved | 84 min | Western

After the Civil War, a highly decorated Shoshone Indian veteran plans to raise cattle in Wyoming but white farmers plan to grab fertile tribal lands by pitting the whites against the Indians.

Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Robert Taylor, Louis Calhern, Paula Raymond, Marshall Thompson

Votes: 1,855

14. Shane (1953)

Not Rated | 118 min | Drama, Western

85 Metascore

A weary gunfighter in 1880s Wyoming begins to envision a quieter life after befriending a homestead family with a young son who idolizes him, but a smoldering range war forces him to act.

Director: George Stevens | Stars: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon De Wilde

Votes: 44,162 | Gross: $20.00M

15. Vera Cruz (1954)

Approved | 94 min | Adventure, Drama, Western

During the Mexican Rebellion of 1866, an unsavory group of American adventurers are hired by the forces of Emporer Maximilian to escort a countess to Vera Cruz.

Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Denise Darcel, Cesar Romero

Votes: 11,332

16. The Man from Laramie (1955)

Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, Western

Newcomer Will Lockhart defies the local cattle baron and his sadistic son by working for one of his oldest rivals.

Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp, Cathy O'Donnell

Votes: 12,014

17. 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: 4,424

18. The Furies (1950)

Passed | 109 min | Western

A firebrand heiress clashes with her tyrannical father, a cattle rancher who fancies himself a Napoleon, but their relationship turns ugly only when he finds himself a new woman.

Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Wendell Corey, Walter Huston, Judith Anderson

Votes: 3,905

19. 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

20. Last Train from Gun Hill (1959)

Passed | 95 min | Western

A marshal tries to bring the son of an old friend, an autocratic cattle baron, to justice for his role in the rape and murder of the marshal's Native American wife.

Director: John Sturges | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Carolyn Jones, Earl Holliman

Votes: 8,809 | Gross: $2.50M

21. Rio Bravo (1959)

Passed | 141 min | Western

93 Metascore

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.

Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson

Votes: 68,098 | Gross: $12.54M

22. Fort Massacre (1958)

Approved | 80 min | Western

A cavalry troop finds itself under constant attack by Indians.

Director: Joseph M. Newman | Stars: Joel McCrea, Forrest Tucker, John Russell, Susan Cabot

Votes: 1,078

23. Saddle the Wind (1958)

Passed | 84 min | Drama, Western

Former gunslinger Steve Sinclair (Taylor), is now a peaceful rancher, but things go wrong when his wild brother Tony (Cassavetes) arrives with his new gun--and his new fiancée, former saloon girl Joan Blake (London).

Directors: Robert Parrish, John Sturges | Stars: Robert Taylor, Julie London, John Cassavetes, Donald Crisp

Votes: 1,720

24. Wichita (1955)

Passed | 81 min | Western

In 1874, after noticing the total lawlessness in Wichita, Wyatt Earp reluctantly accepts the Marshal's job and runs into the worst local troublemakers.

Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Joel McCrea, Vera Miles, Lloyd Bridges, Wallace Ford

Votes: 2,351

25. Face of a Fugitive (1959)

Approved | 81 min | Drama, Western

A robber who is falsely accused of murdering a deputy sheriff tries to start a new life in a border town near Mexico, but his past catches up with him.

Director: Paul Wendkos | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Lin McCarthy, Dorothy Green, Alan Baxter

Votes: 926



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