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Classics

My Name is Nobody is also underrated in my opinion

Last of the Dogman is pretty good, but “The Mountain Men” is truly a very underrated classic!!! Everybody needs to see it at least two or three times!

Last of the Dogmen was the first one to come to mind.

The Man That Short Liberty Valence. The old version with John Wayne.

"Tom Horn" with Steve McQueen and Richard Farnsworth. Also "Comanche Moon" TV mini series which was prequel to Lonesome Dove.

Yep... Excellent movie. Too many westerns are about lawmen or gunfighters and not about cowboys just being cowboys. Monte Walsh fills that niche very well. Conagher is another.

The Coen Brother’s True Grit is criminally underrated.

Just read that story the other night.
The cook,dealer, .........Ricky Jay, just heard he died.
So read it again. I’ll look for it to watch the movie again.
McLean was in the Forest Service.
River Runs Through It was another of his.

Here's the best part, I found it in a bargain bin for $2.99 in a place like Dollar General

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Great movie, I also have the DVD. As to where to find it: https://www.amazon.com/Ranger-Cook-Hole-Sky/dp/B00LD0V8WK/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_sims?ie=UTF8

Holy cow, there's so many of these movies I just plum forgot about till you brought them up!

The Magnificent Seven. Yul Brenner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Eli Wallach, Robert Vaughan, James Coburn. Now that's a star studded cast.

The Stalking Moon with Gregory Peck. Reluctant cowboy vs. Indian.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stalking_Moon

The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing...Burt Reynolds

IIRC '...Hole in the Sky" was set in Hamilton, Mt for a town but the Forest Rangering was in the Selway

The Mountain Men was written by Charlton Heston's son and is little more than a retelling of several original mountain man stories without giving credit for them. That said, Keith and Heston are entertaining but you've likely seen or read it before.

Such as in The Big Sky, a good early mountain man movie.

Don't forget Lonely Are the Brave with Kirk Douglas. From the book by Edward Abbey. The book is called The Brave Cowboy.

Will Penny

The Villian

Kurt Douglas, Anne Margret and Arnold.

Evil Roy Slade

Cowboy (1958)
The Rounders (1965)
The Cheyenne Social Club (1970)
There Was a Crooked Man (1970)
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)
JW Coop (1971)
Junior Bonner (1972)

hi-lo country

They show all of these old ones on Grit TV. Go to https://www.grittv.com/tv-schedule/ to find a station in your area.

The Cheyenne Social Club and The Ballad of Cable Hogue

Dam.......great movies well made.

A lot of these movies are just great westerns and don't really fit the criteria of "forgotten" or "little known" which was how I read the OP. A good example are Stewart's collaborations with Anthony Mann. Pretty well-known movies, just old now. Probably did decent at the box office in their day too. I personally don't think Randolph Scott's movies fit either. Lots of people call them B movies, but they are pretty well known and respected. Almost all the westerns in the late sixties or seventies fit because by then the western wasn't seen as "cool" by the beautiful people. Lots of them fit the criteria even though they had big-name stars and decent budgets.

Somebody mentioned "The Professionals". One of my favorites. Kind of forgotten but wouldn't fit the criteria really, as I read it. Lots of big names, don't know how it did at the box office but used to be on TV a lot.

The Left Handed Gun with Paul Newman is one you didn't see much. Kind of before Newman became a mega star. FWIW most now don't think Billy the Kid was left-handed.

Some of these movies seem to cycle. They seem forgotten for awhile and then will revive and have everybody talking about them. Others just never were well liked by the masses.