Tex Ritter Filmography

What Am I Bid?

Actors: Stephanie Hill, Tex Ritter

Synopsis: In this countrified musical, a C&W singer does all he can to avoid fame and fortune because that is what destroyed his famous daddy. His managers have other plans though; musical mayhem ensues as they insure that he spends his life before an audience and not around cows. Songs include: "We've Got Read More

The Girl from Tobacco Row

Synopsis: Ron Ormond, the Carolina-based purveyor of bottom-budget "regionals," was producer of The Girl From Tobacco Row. Per its title, the film concerns a young lady from a tobacco-growing community, played by Rachel Romen. Surrounded by a flock of inbred boyfriends who won't take no for an answer Read More

Nashville Rebel

Actors: Waylon Jennings

Synopsis: Waylon Jennings stars as an up-and-coming country & western singer in this low-budget musical drama. Arlin Grove (Jennings) has just finished a hitch in the Army and finds he's stranded in the small town of Morgan's Corner after being robbed by drunken rednecks. Grove is taken in by pretty Molly Read More

Western Ranch Party [TV Series]

Actors: Tex Ritter

Country-Western All-Stars

Synopsis: This musical performance video takes you to the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville for a country-western variety show! ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Apache Ambush

Actors: Bill Williams, Richard Jaeckel, Alex Montoya, Adele August, Tex Ritter

Synopsis: Longtime B-western favorites Tex Ritter and Ray "Crash" Corrigan are among the supporting players of the Columbia oater Apache Ambush. Star of the proceedings is Bill Williams, cast as Indian scout James Kingston. In the last days of the Civil War, President Lincoln (James Griffith) selects Read More

Wichita

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Joel McCrea, Vera Miles, Lloyd Bridges, Wallace Ford, Edgar Buchanan

Synopsis: Filmed around the same time as Gunfight at the OK Corral, Wichita is a more modest--and to some, more entertaining--slant on the Wyatt Earp legend. Joel McCrea does his usual smooth, underplayed job as Earp, who aims to bring law and order to the wide-open cow town of Wichita. His least popular Read More

The Gabby Hayes Show: Episode 5

The Gabby Hayes Show: Episode 12

The Cowboy

Synopsis: This film traces the history of the American cowboy right up to modern times. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Gabby Hayes Show: Episode 7

The Gabby Hayes Show: Episode 11

The Marshal's Daughter

Actors: Laurie Anders, Hoot Gibson, Ken Murray, Harry Lauter

Synopsis: To fully appreciate the western comedy The Marshal's Daughter, one must be aware that its star, a zaftig, wide-eyed lass named Laurie Anders, was in 1953 a popular TV personality. A regular on The Ken Murray Show, Anders had risen to fame with the Southern-fried catchphrase "Ah love the wi-i-i-ide Read More

High Noon

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado, Otto Kruger

Synopsis: This Western classic stars Gary Cooper as Hadleyville marshal Will Kane, about to retire from office and go on his honeymoon with his new Quaker bride, Amy (Grace Kelly). But his happiness is short-lived when he is informed that the Miller gang, whose leader (Ian McDonald) Will had arrested, is Read More

Town Hall Party [TV Series]

Holiday Rhythm

Actors: Mary Beth Hughes, David Street, Wally Vernon, Alan Harris

Synopsis: Little Lippert Studios wasn't really equipped to produce large-scale musicals, but the company can't be faulted for trying. Holiday Rhythm stars David Street as Larry, a TV producer who plans a big musical spectacular. Knocked unconscious, Larry dreams of all the wonderful acts he intends to Read More

Flaming Bullets

Synopsis: A gang which frees criminals and kills them to collect their reward is broken up by the Texas Rangers who plant one of their men in jail in order to be freed by the gang. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Enemy of the Law

Synopsis: A great old Western filled with Tex Ritter's songs, this one revolves around a manhunt by the Texas Rangers who are trying to find the outlaw gang who, years before, broke into a safe and hid the money. Good Western comedy. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

Frontier Fugitives

Synopsis: The penultimate entry in the Texas Rangers lineup, PRC's super-low-budget rival to Republic Pictures' Three Mesqueteers series, Frontier Fugitives once again stars Tex Ritter, Dave O'Brien, and Guy Wilkerson. This time, the trio are on to a gang that preys on both traders and Indians. Trailing the Read More

Marked for Murder

Synopsis: In this western, the Texas Rangers must stop a range war between sheepherders and cattle ranchers from erupting. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Three in the Saddle

Crew: Songwriter

Synopsis: Partners in most of the low-budget Texas Rangers Westerns, Tex Ritter and Dave O'Brien are at loggerheads through the greater part of this slow-moving entry, the last in the series. In fact, despite a title card that reads, "Tex Ritter and Dave O'Brien as the Texas Rangers," Ritter actually works Read More

Cowboy Canteen

Synopsis: In this western, a rancher turns his property into a dude ranch for soldiers after he is drafted. Featured upon this ranch are entertaining shows with music from Tex Ritter, Roy Acuff, and the Mills Brothers. Songs include: "Spot In Arizona," "You Man You," "Wait For The Light To Shine," "Walking Read More

Gangsters of the Frontier

Crew: Songwriter

Synopsis: Replacing James Newell, country and western crooner Tex Ritter joins Dave "Tex" O'Brien and Guy Wilkerson in the last eight of PRC's "Texas Rangers" western series. In his initial effort, Ritter, as Sheriff Tex Haines, is again confronted with Bart Kern (I. Stanford Jolley) and his gang of Read More

Marshal of Gunsmoke

Synopsis: U.S. marshal Ritter arrives in town to round up bandits who are attempting to fix the local elections. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Oklahoma Raiders

Synopsis: In this western, two cowboys go to buy fresh horses for the cavalry and end up taking on two badguys and a female vigilante. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Whispering Skull

Synopsis: In this western, the Texas Rangers ride out after "The Whispering Skull" an enigmatic killer who murders his victims in the dead of night. Following the death of a town sheriff, one of the Rangers begins posing as the phantom. This forces the real killer to reveal his identity. ~ Sandra Brennan Read More

Cheyenne Roundup

Actors: Johnny Mack Brown, Tex Ritter, Fuzzy Knight, Jennifer Holt, Harry Woods

Synopsis: Johnny Mack Brown's Universal western series was drawing to a close when Cheyenne Roundup was released in mid-1943. Brown is herein cast in a dual role, as honest Gils Brandon and his less-than-honest brother Buck. Pursued by lawman Steve Rawlins (Tex Ritter), Buck tries to pass himself off as the Read More

Arizona Trail

Actors: Tex Ritter, Janet Shaw, Jack Ingram

Synopsis: When cowboy star Johnny Mack Brown left Universal for Monogram, he also left one last western, Arizona Trail, unfilmed. Thus it was that veteran sagebrusher Tex Ritter, originally cast in a secondary role, was promoted to the lead-his first such at a major studio in several years. Ritter and Dennis Moore Read More

Frontier Badmen

Actors: Robert Paige, Anne Gwynne, Noah Beery, Jr., Diana Barrymore, Leo Carrillo

Synopsis: Cattlemen Robert Paige and Noah Beery Jr. run up against a shady syndicate, set up to squash the dealing between independent dealers and cattle buyers. Paige sets up his own exchange, in direct competition with cattle baron Thomas Gomez. He also falls in love with Anne Gwynne, daughter of a man Read More

Raiders of San Joaquin

Actors: Johnny Mack Brown, Tex Ritter, Fuzzy Knight, Jennifer Holt, Henry Hall

Synopsis: In this western, two cowboys ride to the rescue of ranchers who are fighting to keep a land-grabber from taking their land and selling it to the railroad. Things look bleak for a while, but fortunately, one of the heroes is related to the vice--president of the railroad and is able to straighten Read More

The Lone Star Trail

Actors: Johnny Mack Brown, Tex Ritter, Fuzzy Knight, Jennifer Holt

Synopsis: The Lone Star Trail was the last of Johnny Mack Brown's series westerns for Universal; thereafter, he pitched camp at Monogram. In this one, Brown plays Blaze Barker, who spends two years in jail on a trumped-up train robbery charge. Upon being paroled, Barker makes it his mission to track down Read More

Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground

Actors: Johnny Mack Brown, Tex Ritter, Fuzzy Knight, Jennifer Holt

Synopsis: Like many of Johnny Mack Brown's western vehicles of the 1942-43 season, Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground draws its title from a popular song. Brown plays Wade Benson, head of a road-building project in the wild frontier. In their efforts to sabotage Benson's efforts, the villains lure his Read More

Old Chisholm Trail

Actors: Johnny Mack Brown, Tex Ritter, Fuzzy Knight, Jennifer Holt, Mady Correll

Synopsis: Johnny Mack Brown stars as Dusty Gardner, spokesmen for a group of hard-working cattlemen. As Gardner and his compatriots guide their livestock down the titular trail, the villains try to make certain that the cattle will never reach the market. Heading the bad guys is a bad girl, one Belle Turner Read More

The Devil's Trail

Synopsis: Cowboy-pic legends Wild Bill Elliot and Tex Ritter team up in The Devil's Trail. While the film contains barely enough plot for one star, it's nice to see Bill and Tex working together so smoothly. Our heroes head to a wide-open town in search of a gang of desperadoes, headed by swarthy Noah Beery Read More

North of the Rockies

Deep in the Heart of Texas

Actors: Johnny Mack Brown, Tex Ritter, Fuzzy Knight, Jennifer Holt, William Farnum

Synopsis: Hoping to increase its box-office allure by adopting the title of a popular song, Deep in the Heart of Texas (clap!clap!clap!clap!) was the first Johnny Mack Brown western of the 1942-43 season. The plot concerns a group of insurrectionists who intend to keep Texas separate from the rest of the Read More

Bullets for Bandits

Prairie Gunsmoke

Synopsis: "Wild" Bill Elliot is the star of Prairie Gunsmoke. This time Elliot is paired with Tex Ritter, both of whom prove the bane of the bad guys' existence. It's fun to watch Ritter swing into action the moment he finishes singing, though Elliot may not have been overly pleased at sharing the Read More

Vengeance of the West

Little Joe, the Wrangler

Actors: Johnny Mack Brown, Tex Ritter, Fuzzy Knight, Jennifer Holt, Florine McKinney

Synopsis: It should be obvious to fans of husky, muscle-bound cowboy star Johnny Mack Brown that he does not play the title role in Little Joe, Wrangler. That honor goes to Brown's perennial comic sidekick, Fuzzy Knight. Neither Brown nor Knight are the focal point of the story, however: Instead, Tex Ritter Read More

The Lone Star Vigilantes

Actors: Tex Ritter, Frank Mitchell, Virginia Carpenter, Luana Walters

Synopsis: It's Wild Bill Elliot as Wild Bill Hickok in the Columbia B-western Lone Star Vigilantes. This time out, Elliot is teamed with singing cowboy Tex Ritter, while comedy relief is provided by diminutive stuntman Frank Mitchell. Returning from Civil War duty, Hickok, Tex Martin (Ritter) and Cannonball Read More

King of Dodge City

Actors: Tex Ritter, Judith Linden, Dub Taylor, Guy Usher

Synopsis: Columbia's King of Dodge City was the first of several westerns costarring "Wild Bill" Elliot and singing cowboy Tex Ritter. Though Elliot is billed first, the plot and action are evenly divided between the two B-picture favorites. The story takes place in Kansas, just after the Civil War. Wild Read More

The Pioneers

Actors: Tex Ritter, Arkansas "Slim" Andrews, Red Foley, Doye O'Dell, Wanda McKay

Synopsis: Tex Ritter's thirty-second music Western for producer {$Edward F. Finney -- the last twenty released by Monogram -- The Pioneers was also Ritter's perhaps most unusual. "Suggested" by James Fenimore Cooper's 1853 The Leatherstocking Tales, the Western featured both Ritter and sidekick Slim Andrews Read More

Ridin' the Cherokee Trail

Actors: Tex Ritter, Slim Andrews, Forrest Taylor, Betty Miles, Jack Roper

Synopsis: Tex Ritter's penultimate Western for Monogram -- and his second-to-last as a solo star -- Ridin' the Cherokee Trail featured no less than 13 musical numbers, several composed by Ritter and his sidekick Arkansas Slim Andrews. Surrounding all this warbling, screenwriter Edmond Kelso and director Read More

Roaring Frontiers

Synopsis: In their second of eight co-starring westerns for Columbia Pictures, William "Wild Bill" Elliott and Tex Ritter were joined by veteran comedian Frank Mitchell, who replaced the departing Dub Taylor as comic sidekick "Cannonball." Vowing to avenge the murder of his father, Tex Rawlings (Ritter) Read More

Dead or Alive

Synopsis: Although rather grandly dedicated to "the law officers of the Old West, who led the fight for law and order in the pioneer days of this country in 1880," Dead or Alive was merely another entry inThe Texas Rangers series, PRC's low-budget answer to Republic Pictures' Three Mesqueteers Westerns. Read More

Rainbow over the Range

Actors: Tex Ritter, Slim Andrews, Dorothy Fay, Gene Alsace, Warner P. Richmond

Synopsis: In his sixth of nine Monogram releases of 1940, Tex Ritter played a U.S. Marshal coming to the aid of a beleaguered schoolmarm. The latter was played by blonde Dorothy Fay, who had appeared in two previous Westerns with Ritter. By this time they were dating and would soon marry, a lifelong union Read More

Rhythm of the Rio Grande

Actors: Tex Ritter, Warner P. Richmond, Martin Garralaga, Frank Mitchell

Synopsis: Filmed at Palmdale, California, this Tex Ritter Western continued a recent trend of limiting Ritter's trademark music numbers in favor of rather ill staged fisticuffs and other action scenes. Ritter, who was never very lucky with his ever changing comic sidekicks, was here saddled with one Frank Read More

Rollin' Home to Texas

Actors: Tex Ritter, Cal Shrum, Eddie Dean, Virginia Carpenter

Synopsis: In his final release of 1940, Monogram's answer to {$Gene Autry, Tex Ritter, played a United States Marshal assigned to investigate a gang that is taking advantage of the prison honor system. Helping unsuspecting prisoners escape, the gang enlists them in bank holdups. As the escapee demands Read More

Pals of the Silver Sage

Actors: Tex Ritter, Sugar Dawn, Slim Andrews, Glenn Strange

Synopsis: Monogram's answer to Republic's Gene Autry, Tex Ritter was never successful in his choice of sidekicks. In Pals of the Silver Sage he had to contend with bucolic Slim Andrews, who at least was a personal friend if no bargain in the comedy department. But this time he was also saddled with one Read More

Arizona Frontier

Synopsis: After several dismal Westerns, Tex Ritter found a winner in Arizona Frontier, which was filmed in glorious locations near Prescott, Arizona. Ritter played Tex Whitedeer, a white boy reared by the Indian Grey Cloud (real-life native American sports legend Jim Thorpe). Tex's ancestry becomes an Read More

Take Me Back to Oklahoma

Synopsis: Featuring even more musical numbers than usual, this Tex Ritter Western from Monogram marked the feature film debut of the "King of Western Swing," Bob Wills, and his Texas Playboys, a group that also included Wills' brother Johnnie Lee Wills. The group performed no less than four numbers in a row Read More

Westbound Stage

Actors: Tex Ritter, Nelson McDowell, Muriel Evans, Nolan Willis, Steve Clark

Synopsis: Filmed back-to-back with Roll, Wagons, Roll (1939), this minor Tex Ritter Western once again teamed Ritter with the rangy, unfunny Nelson McDowell. Also repeating was a story of a wagon train guided by an army scout (Ritter). This time, however, the train is attacked, not by wild Indians, but by Read More

The Golden Trail

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Tex Ritter, Slim Andrews, Ina Guest, Patsy Moran, Gene Alsace

Synopsis: After a couple of Westerns with barely any singing, former radio crooner Tex Ritter was back to form in this his fifth Monogram oater of 1940. Apart from his own and Frank Harbord's Gold Is Where You Find It, Ritter also performed Donohue's Done It Again, by Jack Frost} and Johnny Lange and Lew Read More

Cowboy from Sundown

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Tex Ritter, Roscoe Ates, Carleton Young, George Pembroke

Synopsis: Hoof and mouth disease reared its ugly head in this unusual Tex Ritter singing Western from Monogram. Ritter played Tex Rocketts, the sheriff of Sundown who is forced to quarantine the valley's cattle to prevent the spread of the disease. The desperate ranchers, all of whom are in debt to banker Read More

Roll, Wagons, Roll

Actors: Tex Ritter, Nelson McDowell, Muriel Evans, Nolan Willis, Steve Clark

Synopsis: Tex Ritter, Monogram' low-budget answer to Republic's Gene Autry, got himself a new sidekick in rangy Nelson McDowell in the otherwise dull Roll, Wagons, Roll. Executive producer Edward F. Finney only allowed two songs -- Roll Wagon Wheels, by Dorcas Cochran and Charles Rosoff, and Oh, Suzannah Read More

Riders of the Frontier

Actors: Tex Ritter, Jack Rutherford, Hal Taliaferro, Nolan Willis

Synopsis: The Tex Ritter Monogram Westerns had a change of directors with Riders of the Frontier, Spencer Gordon Bennet having replaced Al Herman. But that was really the only difference between this entry and the previous seven. Ritter impersonated a notorious outlaw in order to infiltrate the gang that is Read More

Song of the Buckaroo

Actors: Tex Ritter, Mary Ruth, Tom London, Frank LaRue

Synopsis: An above-average entry in the Monogram Tex Ritter series of music Westerns, Song of the Buckaroo proved to be a memorable event for the star in more ways than one. Appearing in a small role of a pioneer woman, pretty Dorothy Fay was killed off early on, leaving the remainder of the film to Read More

Rollin' Westward

Actors: Tex Ritter, Horace Murphy, Dorothy Fay, Charles "Slim" Whitaker, Herbert Corthell

Synopsis: In this mildly entertaining Tex Ritter music Western, a crooked attorney, Watkins (Harry Harvey), attempts to drive the ranchers off their land by depriving them of water. Rancher Lawson (Herbert Corthell) takes matters into his own hands and aligns himself with Tex. In retaliation, Watkins' Read More

The Man from Texas

Actors: Tex Ritter, Hal Price, Charles B. Wood, Vic Demourelle Jr., Roy Barcroft

Synopsis: After having terrorized singing cowboy Tex Ritter in 19 consecutive Westerns, veteran Bad Guy Charles King found himself relegated to that of a minor henchman in The Man from Texas. The chief villain this time was the now forgotten Vic Demourelle, Jr., who played Jeff Hall, a nasty rancher Read More

Sundown on the Prairie

Actors: Tex Ritter, Horace Murphy, Karl Hackett, Charles King

Synopsis: A typical Tex Ritter "Boots and Saddle" singing Western from low-budget company Monogram, Sundown on the Prairie featured Ritter and sidekick Horace Murphy as rangers assigned to apprehend a gang of rustlers. After capturing one member, Hendricks (Karl Hackett), Tex introduces himself to gang Read More

Down the Wyoming Trail

Actors: Tex Ritter, Horace Murphy, Mary Brodel, Charles King

Synopsis: One of the more unusual B-Westerns of the 1930s, Down the Wyoming Trail featured the spectacle of stampeding elk.Tex Ritter is assigned by Sheriff Missouri (Horace Murphy) of Elk Valley to track down Ted Becker (Charles King), a rustler who is stampeding elk across the valley to clear a path in Read More

Starlight over Texas

Actors: Tex Ritter, Carmen La Roux, Rosa Turich, Horace Murphy

Synopsis: The first Tex Ritter Western from Monogram Pictures, Starlight Over Texas contained the singing cowboy's trademark mix of furious fist-fight, ornery Charles King, and a slew of musical numbers. Unfortunately, Monogram also inherited Ritter's main weaknesses: idiotic sidekicks (Horace Murphy and Read More

Utah Trail

Actors: Tex Ritter, Horace Murphy, Adele Pearce [Pamela Blake], Karl Hackett

Synopsis: Tex Ritter's final music Western for floundering company Grand National, The Utah Trail was yet another low-budget patch-up job with plenty of stock footage from earlier releases. Horace Murphy and Snub Pollard (who is credited as "Peewee Pollard" in the film's credits) once again lent dubious Read More

Rollin' Plains

Actors: Tex Ritter, Horace Murphy, Harriet Bennet, Hobart Bosworth

Synopsis: Filmed after the star and his producer already had signed a new deal with rival company Monogram, this Grand National Tex Ritter Western slashed the usual parsimonious budget even further by recycling the entire final reel of Ritter's previous Sing, Cowboy, Sing. Filmed back-to-back with Utah Read More

Where the Buffalo Roam

Actors: Tex Ritter, Dorothy Short, Horace Murphy, Richard Alexander

Synopsis: In his second music Western for Monogram, Tex Ritter had the dubious honor of being accompanied by hillbilly acts Louise Massey and The Westerners. Clocking in at a short 55 minutes, Where the Buffalo Roam featured a grand total of seven music numbers, leaving little time for Ritter and co. to act Read More

The Mystery of the Hooded Horseman

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Actors: Tex Ritter, Iris Meredith, Horace Murphy, Charles King, Earl Dwire

Synopsis: Based on the notorious Black Legion which had created quite a turmoil in Michigan a few years earlier, screenwriter Edmund Kelso and director Al Taylor crafted one of the better Tex Ritter musical Westerns. Filmed on location at Kernville, California, The Mystery of the Hooded Horsemen was made Read More

Riders of the Rockies

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Tex Ritter, Louise Stanley, Charles King, Yakima Canutt, Earl Dwire

Synopsis: This average Tex Ritter music Western provided the former radio and Broadway performer with not one but two comedy sidekicks: Horace Murphy) and Snub Pollard. According to a few dour critics, Ritter would have been much better off without. The three played Arizona Rangers who rescue a pretty Read More

Arizona Days

Actors: Tex Ritter, Ethelind Terry, Sid Saylor, William Faversham, Eleanor Stewart

Synopsis: In his third starring Western, former radio singer Tex Ritter played a minstrel performer turned tax collector! During a performance at the Tombstone, Arizona, opera house, Tex Malinson (Ritter) courageously goes up against Harry Price (Forrest Taylor) and his henchmen, who refuse to pay the price Read More

Hittin' the Trail

Actors: Tex Ritter