Broncho Billy, a Friend in Need

This documentary traces the history of the B-Western from it's silent movie origins to its demise in the early 1950s. The film contains a large number of scenes from early silents and seldom seen films, as well as old photographs of the stars and one-sheet advertisements for lost films.

Old Clayton, a ranchman, has a pretty daughter, Sue, who is loved by Dan Morris, a worthless cattleman. Clayton tries to force Sue to marry Morris, but the girl indignantly refuses, tells Morris she doesn't love him and goes to meet her real sweetheart.

Pioneer filmmaker J. Stuart Blackton was intrigued by the idea of a film about the history of the movies as early as 1915. He finally released a 52-minute feature called The Film Parade that was shown in New York and favorably reviewed by "Variety" in 1933. He continued tinkering with the film for the rest of the decade, and later filmmakers and distributors used Blackton's footage for stock or to produce their own variously titled and truncated versions. -UCLA Film & Television Archive

Jim Dunn, county sheriff, is asked to withdraw his name as a candidate for re-election because the boys think he has proved himself incapable in office. Dunn is a tighter, rushes to town, declares he will be in the campaign in spite of all opposition, and has the town placarded with notices urging the boys to vote for him. .Meanwhile, the judges have a hard time to find a man with the nerve to run against Dunn. Broncho Billy, a ranchman, is urged to become a candidate and agrees. Cleaning his gun thoroughly, Broncho sits down to eat dinner. Word of Broncho's becoming his rival reaches Dunn's ears and he immediately rides to the ranch house.

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.

While looking for work, Broncho Billy meets a girl and falls in love with her. Broncho is then accused of horse theft by a jealous lover of the girl. At the moment that he is to be hanged, Broncho’s beloved girl comes to his rescue.

Walking along with his bulldog, Charlie finds a "good luck" horseshoe just as he passes a training camp advertising for a boxing partner "who can take a beating." After watching others lose, Charlie puts the horseshoe in his glove and wins. The trainer prepares Charlie to fight the world champion. A gambler wants Charlie to throw the fight. He and the trainer's daughter fall in love.

Rhubarb Vaselino lives in a small village, when he and his friend, Sapo, enter a bullfighting contest, Sapo dies, but Rhubarb kills three bulls and becomes a local hero earning money. Two years later, he is living in Madrid as a national hero , when he becomes involved with Filet de Sol, and his lover finds out, he must fight the most deadliest in Spain, in the last bull fight of the season.

Willie Duggans, a tenderfoot from the east, arrives in the wild west and soon experiences its violence. Willie discovers the easy money in bounty killing and must choose between that violent lifestyle and the love of a beautiful saloon singer.

A rough criminal gets a second chance at life thanks to a kindly (and wealthy) lady saloon patron. But he hasn't gone straight yet, as he and a partner attempt to rob the home of a rich homeowner-- whose wife is asleep in the next room.

When rancher Arthur Mackley welcomes his daughter (Florence Perkes) to his ranch for a visit, all of the cowboys compete for her affections.

Alkali Ike and Mustang Pete are both wooing the same woman. Ike hopes to take her for a horseback ride, but she chooses instead to go with Pete, who has a horse and carriage. Ike trades his horses for an automobile, hoping to win her over that way, but things do not work out as planned.

A romantic Western in which John saves his beloved Mary when she is about to marry a criminal.

A pretty western girl rejected a cowpuncher admirer for Bronche Billy. Snake, the rejected suitor, swears revenge and immediately proceeds to the village barroom to load up with ammunition, both for the gun and the stomach.

Matt Malone, a highwayman and night rider who has long baffled the police authorities, loves Nona McMahon, posing with her as a cowboy from up country.

William Young and his daughter, Mildred, settle in the west, with the intention of investing their money in a mine. True Boardman, a mine shark, knowing that Young will be easy money, salts the mine and sells it to them.