Editor's Top Picks Following the Footsteps of Doctor Bull: Cult Guide

Dir: John Ford

Jim Kyneton, once a member of an outlaw gang, joins the Texas Rangers and is forced to track down his former friends and his half-brother Nick, who have been robbing a gold mine.

Dir: John Ford

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Thieves' Gold perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Cheyenne Harry tries to help his outlaw friend Padden evade arrest after Padden has drunkenly shot another man. In the end, the two mismatched friends fight it out, leaving Padden dead.

Dir: John Ford

Cattleman Flint cuts off farmer Sims' water supply. When Sims' son Ted goes for water, one of Flint's men kills him. Cheyenne is sent to finish off Sims, but finding the family at the newly dug grave, he changes sides.

Dir: John Ford

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Straight Shooting perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

The head of a band of cattle rustlers is defied, prompting him to call his phantom riders together and route the defier's cattle, and then seek their owner intent on taking his life.

Dir: John Ford

A grizzled hero is revisiting the town of his youthful exploits.

Dir: John Ford

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Phantom Riders perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A man declined admission to fight in the American Civil War joins a gang of marauders and winds up as a fugitive.

Dir: John Ford

The marshal of a wild Kansas border town is killed in a gunfight in a saloon. His son, Cheyenne Harry, shoots dead two of the killers. Not wanting to lose both her son and her husband to gun violence, Harry's mother gets him to agree never to carry a gun again. However, Harry's rival for the beautiful Conchita, Boone Travis, commits a murder and frames Harry for it. Complications ensue.

Dir: John Ford

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Last Outlaw perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Harry's bride is murdered at their wedding along with Harry's mother and father, and the good-hearted outlaw turns grimly malevolent.

Dir: John Ford

Cheyenne Harry and his pals, bent on helping their friend Rawhide Jack, attend a rodeo with the intent to win the prize and to hand the winnings over to Jack. Harry is the successful winner and after the rodeo the boys get drunk and fall asleep.

Dir: John Ford

A cowboy must save his girlfriend from captivity and then cross the desert on foot with a single waterhole on the way.