Bret Harte

Author Bret Harte relates the story of the discovery of gold in California at Sutter's Mill, and how that discovery changed the history of the west forever.

Open details →

Four petty criminals, three men and a woman, wander through the trackless terrain of the Wild West Utah and are hounded by a sadistic bandit.

Open details →

A tough, womanizing high-stakes gambler known only as Tennessee has an uneasy relationship with Duchess, madam of a thinly-disguised bordello, and no other friends at all. But he's saved from murder by a lonesome cowpoke ('My friends call me Cowpoke'), in town to meet his fiancée Goldie on the steamboat. When she arrives, there's a mysterious undercurrent between Goldie and Tennessee, whose newfound friendship with Cowpoke is destined to be severely tried...

Open details →

Four undesirables run out of a mining town and become marooned in a deserted mountain cabin during a raging snowstorm.

Open details →

When the miners of Roaring Camp become Godfathers to a motherless baby, they name the boy Luck and promise to set aside money for him from their diggings. But when they strike it rich the money is gambled away instead.

Open details →

The 1937 film version of Bret Harte's story, starring Preston Foster.

Open details →

Salomy Jane, a California mountain girl, is sought after by a number of men in the nearby small town of Redwood City. She is affected when two criminals are pursued by authorities: one for killing a hypocritical mayoral candidate, the other for robbing the stagecoach.

Open details →

In the days of the California Gold Rush of '49, Sandy is at odds with his partner, Falloner, over the latter's heavy drinking.

Open details →

A story of greed and lust driven by gold fever. Rapacious Kate Kent abandons her daughter Betty to run off with Tom Romaine, her husband’s killer during the Gold Rush. A quindecinnial later Betty heads to California and partners with Tennessee, a freind of her father’s, in the Golden Princess Mine. Kate and Romaine try and dupe Betty into believing he is Betty’s father to get control of her portion, but Tennessee reveals the truth and after an attempt on their lives all works out as it should.

Open details →

A young cowhand befriends a disreputable gambler and pulls him out of some trouble. Hoping to square things with his new friend, the gambler seeks to warn him about the cowhand's fiancée, about whom the gambler knows some unsavory details.

Open details →

M'liss, raised in the mountains as an unruly tomboy, is orphaned and is offered "protection" by Calaveras John and Johnny Cake, friends of her father's murderer. She shows no interest in anything until the new schoolmaster persuades her to tidy herself and get some education. Believing the schoolmaster to be in love with some other girl, M'liss decides to run off with another man.

Open details →

The owner of a gambling hall is entrusted with the care of a pretty young girl. He falls in love with her, but he must decide whether to let her go to his best friend, with whom he believes her to be in love, or to try to win her for himself.

Open details →

A jealous dance-hall girl kills her lover. She escapes from the sheriff who is taking her to jail and hides out in the forest with a recluse who lives in a hollowed-out redwood.

Open details →

The story takes place in a small struggling mining town located in the foothills of the California mountains at the time of the gold rush. The camp is suffering from a long string of bad luck. With only one woman in their midst, it seems as though the miners have no future. However, the tide turns when a small boy is born. "Thomas Luck" is the first newborn the camp has seen in ages; things are looking up.

Open details →

In an attempt to brand himself as a serious actor, the smiling swashbuckler Douglas Fairbanks starred in THE HALF-BREED (1916), a Western melodrama written by Anita Loos and directed with flair by Allan Dwan. Fairbanks stars as Lo Dorman, who has been ostracized from society because of this mixed ethnicity - his Native American mother was abandoned by his white father. When Lo catches the eye of the rich white debutante Nellie (Jewel Carmen), he becomes a target for the racist Sheriff Dunn (Sam De Grasse), who wants to break them up and take Nelli for his own. This love triangle becomes a quadrangle with the arrival of Teresa (Alma Rubens), who is on the run from the law. Through fire and fury Lo must decide who and what he truly loves.

Open details →

When a cowpoke steps into a fight and saves the life of a disreputable gambler, the gambler decides to reciprocate by revealing to his new-found friend the truth about the cowpoke's fiancée.

Open details →

When beautiful Salomy Jane resists the romantic advances of a young ruffian, she is rescued by Jack Dart, who has his own additional reasons for tangling with the man. Jack fights the ruffian and kills him. He escapes with the law on his trail, for it is (wrongly) presumed that he is also the man who held up the stagecoach. Salomy Jane comes to his rescue when he is captured and about to be lynched.

Open details →

The Goddess, the prettiest and best-natured girl that ever graced that little mining town, meets the tenderfoot prospector and leaves him another worshiper of her. His chances, however, are slim for Blue-grass Pete has won her affections, he having at an opportune moment saved her from the fangs of a snake which was about to attack her. Pete's affections turn to the Goddess's sister, while Pete's friends plot to rob.

Open details →

A wagon train heading west across the great desert runs out of water, and is attacked by Indians. One man -- their last hope -- is sent out to find water.

Open details →