10 Western Masterpieces That No One Remembers

The first feature-length Western is widely considered to be the Australian film The Story of the Kelly Gang from 1906, but the genre is most often linked with Hollywood. During the industry’s Golden Age, roughly 1930 to 1960, Westerns were among the most popular and prolific films.

The genre faded between the late ’60s and early ’70s and never quite returned to that peak, though neo-Westerns have continued to produce some of cinema’s finest work. Even so, several outstanding films have slipped from the mainstream and deserve rediscovery. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made their only Western feature with Way Out West (1937), a charming comedy about delivering a prospector’s deed to his daughter while an evil guardian schemes to steal a gold mine.

Angel and the Badman (1947) marked John Wayne’s first film as producer and star; it slows the usual Western pace into a romance between a wounded gunslinger and the Quaker woman who nurses him.

Australia, Hollywood

westerns, western films, hollywood, golden age, neo-westerns, australian film, kelly gang, john wayne, stan laurel, oliver hardy