Jesse James leaves Missouri for Mississippi, and immediately charms all the women in Mississippi out of their bloomers and garters. His first conquest is the banker's daughter who helps him loot the bank in exchange for a promise of marriage; he wanders over to the saloon and runs the crooked partner of the proprietress out of town, takes all of his-and-her money and leaves her, between kisses, hounding him for her share; the third one, the saloon singer, actually makes a mark out of him as she cons him into a boxing match against a professional fighter and he loses the fight and his money, but he holds the singer and the fighter up as they leave town and gets his money back; and then he romances and swindles Cattle Kate, a replay of what he had done somewhere before to Kate.
Singing cowboy Daffy retires to the Painted Desert (still wet). He falls for an Indian maiden with a Brooklyn accent, but her very large boyfriend catches them. Daffy dresses in drag, which fools him for a while until Daffy's wig falls off. The boyfriend chases Daffy into the Petrified Forest (where Daffy freezes and breaks tomahawks). The Indian sends smoke signals from a phone booth and his tribe attacks Daffy, trapping him under his house trailer.
Colonel Ferris, a wealthy farmer in northern California, is strongly opposed to hydraulic mining, a new method developed during the gold rush of the 1870's, which is flooding the area's prosperous farmlands. Despite Ferris' political stance, Jared Whitney, a mining engineer from the East, becomes friends with the colonel's son Lance and falls in love with his daughter Serena. Family tensions deepen when the colonel's brother Ralph gives up farming to go to San Francisco to work for his wife Rosanna's father, Harrison McCooey, a leader in the mining venture. When Lance follows Ralph, the colonel, focusing his anger on Jared, forbids him to see Serena.
Gold miner Roger Hazard brings his twelve year old son Casper to the treacherous gold fields of 1870s California. The two of them work a small mine in the southern fields but when Roger begins to lose touch with reality young Casper ends up on his own. Casper faces danger around every corner but must find the strength to save his father from himself and still manage to fight off the savage Indians and ruthless bushwhackers that plague them across California's breathtaking Sierra Nevadas.
Sam Elliot stars as Sam Houston, the visionary who nearly single-handedly forged the state of Texas into a powerful entity in its own right. Refusing to forget the Alamo (as if anyone could), Houston led the military in Texas' rebellion against Mexico. G.D. Spradlin co-stars as President Andrew Jackson, with Michael Beck appearing as Jim Bowie, James Stephens as Stephen Austin, and Richard Yniguez as Mexican General Santa Anna. Lensed on location in the Lone Star state, this sweeping made-for-TV film originally occupied three hours' screen time on November 22, 1986. Its title at that time was Houston: The Legend of Texas. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
A New Mexico Town Marshal, Clay Morgan, known as 'Black Patch' since he had lost an eye in the Civil War, takes his job seriously, especially after an old friend, Hank Danner, arrives in ...
A Professor has an invention that will bring down planes causing them to crash and Dawson is forcing him to use it on those carrying money. When Tim arrives to investigate he is mistaken for a noted outlaw. So he assumes that identity to force Dawson to make him a partner. But just as a plane bringing Tim help is arriving, his true identity is revealed and while he is a prisoner, Dawson forces the Professor to start his machine.
A homesteading family in 1867 Wyoming faces a crisis when the husband is killed and the wife must decide whether to remain or take her son and daughter back East.
A stranger rides into town and says he is looking for a local Indian. Told he left town, the truth everyone has been hiding comes out including the stranger's true identity.
Jode MacWilliams, a cowboy working on the Circle O ranch, has a crush on the boss's daughter, Peg. After his friend writes a love letter for him, an Indian steals and delivers it to Peg. Meanwhile, word of Jode's affection reaches Peg's father, who has a decidedly less romantic view of this young couple.
In an attempt to brand himself as a serious actor, the smiling swashbuckler Douglas Fairbanks starred in THE HALF-BREED (1916), a Western melodrama written by Anita Loos and directed with flair by Allan Dwan. Fairbanks stars as Lo Dorman, who has been ostracized from society because of this mixed ethnicity - his Native American mother was abandoned by his white father. When Lo catches the eye of the rich white debutante Nellie (Jewel Carmen), he becomes a target for the racist Sheriff Dunn (Sam De Grasse), who wants to break them up and take Nelli for his own. This love triangle becomes a quadrangle with the arrival of Teresa (Alma Rubens), who is on the run from the law. Through fire and fury Lo must decide who and what he truly loves.
Amid the Mexican Revolution, a woman rises from the depths of poverty and becomes a courtesan who is much-sought-after by high-society men, but she cannot forget her love for a rebel leader.