Movies like California in '49 (1924)
The best movies like California in '49 (1924) are Ramrod (1947), The Bravados (1958) and Canyon Passage (1946). If California in '49 hooked you with its western, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Great Train Robbery (1903)7.0/10 from 735 votes
- NewestBroke (2025)Released 2025
Ramrod (1947)
A cattle-vs.-sheepman feud loses Connie Dickason her fiance, but gains her his ranch, which she determines to run alone in opposition to Frank Ivey, "boss" of the valley, whom her father Ben wanted her to marry. She hires recovering alcoholic Dave Nash as foreman and a crew of Ivey's enemies. Ivey fights back with violence and destruction, but Dave is determined to counter him legally... a feeling not shared by his associates. Connie's boast that, as a woman, she doesn't need guns proves justified, but plenty of gunplay results.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bravados (1958)
Jim Douglass arrives in the small town of Rio Arriba in order to witness the hanging of the four men he believes murdered his wife. When the convicts escape, Jim tracks them into Mexico, determined to see that justice is done. But the farther Jim goes in his quest for vengeance, the more merciless he becomes, losing himself in an unrelenting spiral of hatred and violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCanyon Passage (1946)
In 1850s Oregon, a businessman is torn between his love of two very different women and his loyalty to a compulsive gambler friend who goes over the line.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDecision at Sundown (1957)
A man and his partner arrive at a small Western town to kill its most powerful man because the former blames him for his wife's death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Five (2023)
A scorned woman enlists the help of five strangers to execute a bank robbery. Tensions rise as the men anxiously await her arrival with the money, leaving the crew to wonder if they have been betrayed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
SnoozefestMovies like thisFirecreek (1968)
A peace-loving, part-time sheriff in the small town of Firecreek must take a stand when a gang of vicious outlaws takes over his town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnion Pacific (1939)
One of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad across the wilderness to California. But financial opportunist Asa Barrows hopes to profit from obstructing it. Chief troubleshooter Jeff Butler has his hands full fighting Barrows' agent, gambler Sid Campeau; Campeau's partner Dick Allen is Jeff's war buddy and rival suitor for engineer's daughter Molly Monahan. Who will survive the effort to push the railroad through at any cost?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReturn of the Gunfighter (1967)
A gunfighter and a cowboy help a Mexican girl avenge the land-related murder of her parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Sunset (1961)
At a Mexican ranch, fugitive O'Malley and pursuing Sheriff Stribling agree to help rancher Breckenridge drive his herd into Texas where Stribling could legally arrest O'Malley, but Breckenridge's wife complicates things.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Man Called Sledge (1970)
James Garner is Luther Sledge, the leader of a pack of rebels who are planning to steal a stash of gold. But after the thieves actually manage to get away with the bounty, they soon discover that the enemy lies within their midst. As they begin to bicker over who should get the biggest cut, the stage is set for a deadly showdown. Claude Akins and John Marley co-star in this Italian Western directed by Vic Morrow.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonte Walsh (2003)
Monte Walsh and Chet Rollins are long-time cowhands, working whatever ranch work comes their way, but "nothing they can't do from a horse." Their lives are divided between months on the range and the occasional trip into town. Monte has a long-term relationship with prostitute Martine Bernard, while Chet has fallen under the spell of the widow who owns the hardware store. Camaraderie and competition with the other cowboys fill their days, until one of the hands, Shorty Austin, loses his job and gets involved in rustling and killing. Then Monte and Chet find that their lives on the range are inexorably redirected.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisForty Guns (1957)
An authoritarian rancher rules an Arizona county with her private posse of hired guns. When a new Marshal arrives to set things straight, the cattle queen finds herself falling for the avowedly non-violent lawman. Both have itchy-fingered brothers, a female gunman enters the picture, and things go desperately wrong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBroke (2025)
A bronc rider in denial about his fading rodeo career battles against brain injury and a sudden blizzard while reflecting on how it became so difficult to achieve his dreams.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDead for a Dollar (2022)
In 1897, veteran bounty hunter Max Borlund is deep into Mexico where he encounters professional gambler and outlaw Joe Cribbens — a sworn enemy he sent to prison years before. Max is on a mission to find and return Rachel Kidd, the wife of a wealthy businessman, who as the story is told to Max, has been abducted by Buffalo Soldier Elijah Jones. Max is ultimately faced with a showdown to save honor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966)
A naive traveler in Laredo gets involved in a poker game between the richest men in the area, jeopardizing all the money he has saved for the purpose of settling with his wife and child in San Antonio.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBarquero (1970)
Jake Remy leads a gang of outlaw cutthroats making their escape toward Mexico from a successful robbery. Barring their way is a river--crossable only by means of a ferry barge. The barge operator, Travis, refuses to be bullied into providing transport for the gang and escapes across river with most of the local populace--leaving Remy and his gang behind, desperately seeking a way across. A river-wide stand-off begins between the gang and the townspeople, both groups of which have left people on the wrong side of the river.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Missouri Breaks (1976)
When vigilante land baron David Braxton hangs one of the best friends of cattle rustler Tom Logan, Logan's gang decides to get even by purchasing a small farm next to Braxton's ranch. From there the rustlers begin stealing horses, using the farm as a front for their operation. Determined to stop the thefts at any cost, Braxton retains the services of eccentric sharpshooter Robert E. Lee Clayton, who begins ruthlessly taking down Logan's gang.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrontera (2014)
After crossing the border illegally for work, Miguel, a hard-working father and devoted husband, finds himself wrongfully accused of murdering a former sheriff’s wife. After learning of his imprisonment, Miguel’s pregnant wife tries to come to his aid and lands in the hands of corrupt coyotes who hold her for ransom. Dissatisfied with the police department’s investigation, the former sheriff tries to uncover the truth about his wife’s death and discovers disturbing evidence that will destroy one family’s future, or tear another’s apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTwo Rode Together (1961)
Two tough westerners bring home a group of settlers who have spent years as Comanche hostages.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBilly Two Hats (1974)
After a bank robbery, runaway Scottish outlaw Arch Deans and his young half-breed Kiowa partner Billy Two Hats develop a father-son relationship, but Sheriff Henry Gifford is determined to capture or kill them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
SnoozefestMovies like thisChilean Soul (1918)
A Chilean version of the 1915 Argentinian film "Nobleza gaucha".
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Looking for Trouble (1926)
Jack Pepper accidentally fires his gun while forcing a newspaper editor to retract his statement regarding Miss Tulip Hellier, and the sheriff goes after Jack. While hiding out, Jack finds a liquor cache on the Hellier ranch and knows it was placed there as a ruse to distract the sheriff while an outlaw gang runs dope across the border.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
The Testing Block (1920)
The tough outlaw 'Sierra' Bill falls in love with the traveling girl violinist Nelly Gray. Sierra forces her into marrying him. They have a child, but family life is interrupted by the gambler Ringe, who not only persuades Nelly to leave her husband but ruins Sierra at the gaming table. With thoughts of vengeance, the angry Sierra breaks out of jail and goes after Ringe.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Gun Woman (1918)
A saloon owner loans her lover the money to buy a house, which he has led her to believe they will live in after they're married. Instead, he takes the money and buys a saloon in another town.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Calamity Anne's Ward (1912)
During the raid on an emigrant train the girl and her brother, the only survivors, are attacked by the villain who kidnaps the girl and takes her to the camp of Calamity Anne, who takes a liking to the girl and becomes her guardian angel. The girl's brother is killed and a ranger takes the locket containing the girl's picture from his neck and recognizes the girl in Calamity Anne's camp. Later, Calamity Anne holds the villain and his band at bay and the girl and the ranger make their escape. The girl and the ranger come to the spot where the girl's brother is buried and here she asks the ranger if he is going to leave her there alone. His answer is to take her into his arms.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Broken Ways (1913)
In this story the young wife concerned is called upon to solve a rather momentous question. After separating from her husband, whom she has discovered to be a brute and a criminal, she is about to give herself to another man, believing her husband dead, when he appears before her fleeing from justice. Shall she deliver him to the law or surrender to his claims? She yields in one instance, but not in the other. Then justice intervenes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
The Desert Man (1917)
William S. Hart directs and stars in a film that is a typical Western of the era. He plays Jim, a prospector who lands in the town of Broken Hope, and the name pretty much describes its inhabitants. Jim meets and falls in love with Jennie (Margery Wilson), whose father (Walt Whitman) is gravely ill. Jim rounds up a reluctant doctor from another town to tend to the old man, but he dies anyway. The doctor, however, gains Jennie's trust and she runs off with him. Only then does he tell her he's already married. She leaves immediately, but is too proud to go home so she finds work as a dance hall girl at Tacoma Jake's saloon. Jim, meanwhile, finds gold near Broken Hope, which raises its inhabitants' attitudes considerably. But the bad element is still there, and Jim is chasing after a group of kidnappers when he enters Tacoma Jake's saloon and sees Jennie. Jim not only overcomes the bad guys, he gets the girl, too.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
$50,000 Reward (1924)
Tex Sherwood has just come into possession of a valuable piece of land that will be irrigated by a new dam. Banker Holman knowing the deed must be registered the next day, offers a $50,000 reward for Tex's capture.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
The Land Beyond the Law (1927)
Deputy Marshal Jerry Steele (Ken Maynard) heads off to Oklahoma where a gang of nasty cattle rustlers is terrorizing the local ranchers. After a bit of detective work -- greatly aided by a motley group of would-be outlaws deputized for the occasion -- Steele unmasks a supposedly upstanding citizen Bob Crew (Tom Santschi) as the leader of the rustlers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like California in '49?
The closest matches to California in '49 are Ramrod (1947), The Bravados (1958) and Canyon Passage (1946). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after California in '49?
Start with Ramrod (1947), the closest match to California in '49.
What is the highest-rated movie like California in '49?
The Great Train Robbery (1903), rated 7.0/10 by 735 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like California in '49?
Broke (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like California in '49?
Yes: Ramrod (1947), The Bravados (1958) and Canyon Passage (1946).
How are movies similar to California in '49 chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside California in '49, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.