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Sagebrush Trail:
Wrongfully convicted of murder in Baltimore, John Brant (John Wayne) breaks out of prison and heads west in this 1933 follow-up to Riders of Destiny, directed by Armand Schaefer (The Hurricane Express). On the run from the law, he is befriended by Bob Jones (Lane Chandler), who recruits him into a gang of stagecoach thieves, and winds up in the little town of Sagebrush, calling himself "John Smith." While trying to persuade his new saddle pal to go straight, Brant discovers that by a strange twist of fate Jones is really Joseph Conlon, the killer he has been seeking, but Jones begins to suspect him. Playing a dangerous double game, Brant tips off the authorities about each new robbery before the final shootout with Ed Walsh (Yakima Canutt), his gang, and a sheriff's posse in an abandoned mine.
The Dawn Rider:
John Wayne hits the vengeance trail after a gang of express office bandits in this 1935 film from Robert N. Bradbury, who directed most of his many Lone Star Westerns (Texas Terror: The Trail Beyond). John Mason (Wayne) befriends Ben McClure (Reed Howes), who works for his father (Joe DeGrasse), and then watches in horror as Dad Mason is shot to death by a masked gunman during a robbery. Badly wounded while chasing the gang and killing two of its members, John is nursed back to health by Ben's girlfriend, Alice Gordon (Marion Burns), and vows to let nothing stand in the way of justice. Unknown to John. Alice's brother Rudd (Denny Meadows) is his father's murderer, and persuades Ben that his best friend is trying to steal his girl, before the three men shoot it out in the final showdown.
The Lawless Frontier/ Riders Of Destiny:
The Lawless Frontier - John Wayne takes to the trail after Pandro Zanti (Earl Dwire), a half-white, half-Apache Indian outlaw who poses as a Mexican, and is wanted for $5,000-dead or alive- for cattle rustling and murder. When Sheriff Luke Williams (Jack Rockwell) handcuffs Wayne for a crime he didn't commit, accusing him of being in cahoots with Zanti, the Duke must clear his own name by bringing the gang to justice.
Riders of Destiny - In the first of his many Lone Star Westerns, Academy Award-winner John Wayne (True Grit) is "Singin' Sandy" Saunders, who rides to the rescue of the beleaguered ranchers in the little town of Starbuck. James Kincaid (Forrest Taylor) controls the local water rights, and is trying to force Charlie "Dad" Denton (George "Gabby" Hayes) and the other ranchers to sell their land for a measly dollar an acre.
The Man From Utah/ Randy Rides Alone:
The Man From Utah - Deputized by U.S. Marshal George Higgins (George "Gabby" Hayes), singing cowboy John Weston (John Wayne) infiltrates the Dalton Valley Rodeo, a crooked outfit run by Spike Barton (Edward Peil). The gang uses a snake venom-tipped needle stuck in the saddle to ensure that no outsiders walk away with any of its hefty cash prizes, and also operates a profitable sideline as stagecoach thieves.
Randy Rides Alone - John Wayne and frequent sidekick George "Gabby" Hayes are on opposite sides of the law in this atmospheric film, which opens as lawman Randy Bowers (Wayne) stumbles onto a bar full of corpses. Randy is mistakenly locked up by the Sheriff (Earl Dwire) while Marvin Black (Hayes) poses as the hunchbacked Matt the Mute to learn the location of $30,000 concealed in the bar by its late proprietor.
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