The Lone Rider: Outlaws of Boulder Pass (1942) / When a Man's a Man (1935) (DVD)

The Lone Rider: Outlaws of Boulder Pass (1942, B&W): Gunslinger Ned Harkness murders his partner, Jeff Hammer, to gain control of the Bar Bee X Ranch and Boulder Pass. Enforcing a huge tariff for use of the canyon trail, Harkness bleeds neighboring ranchers dry. Cowpokes have no choice but to pay to use Boulder Pass so as to avoid driving their herds to auction through a deadly, parched desert.

Learning of his father's demise, Jeff Hammer's son Smoky comes to claim the ranch as his birthright. Fearing opposition from Harkness, Smoky enlists the help of his loyal friends... Tom Cameron, the Lone Rider, and his sidekick, Fuzzy Jones. After an attempt on Smoky's life, the trio realizes that vengeance will be most effective if its victims think it comes from beyond the grave. Smoky then fakes his own death and begins to "haunt" his father's assassins. Starring George Houston, Al "Fuzzy" St. John, Dennis Moore and Karl Hackett; Directed by Sam Newfield.

When a Man's a Man (1935, B&W): Dean Baldwin and his pretty daughter, Kitty, watch as their herd dies of thirst. Crooked neighbor Nick Cambert has diverted a stream that runs through the Baldwin land. When drifter Larry Knight steps off a train from the East, a job at the Baldwin's Crooked Triangle Ranch puts him in the center of a deadly showdown over water rights. Starring George O'Brien, Dorothy Wilson, Paul Kelly, Clarence Wilson and Edgar Norton; Directed by Edward F. Cline.

• western