We don't think about it so much today, but at a certain point in time, Fred MacMurray was a big star in Hollywood and one of the highest paid. And certainly one of the most versatile, as he bounced from breezy stuff like The Egg And I (1947) to the noir-est of noir, Double Indemnity (1944), with incredible ease. As much as we liked him when he played, what we assume, was himself (the kind, wise, easy-going fatherly type), he really shined when cast against that - proven by his Oscar-winning role as Jack Lemmon's sleazy boss in Billy Wilder's The Apartment (1960). And by his '50s Westerns.

Between 1953 and 1959, MacMurray made eight middle-budgeted Westerns for everybody from Allied Artists to Universal. Often cast as an outlaw, he's chillingly effective in these films, bringing a weariness to these characters making them stand out decades later. Only four are currently available on DVD, and they’re well worth seeking out.

The Moonlighter (1953)
Directed by Roy Rowland
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Ward Bond, William Ching, John Dierkes, Morris Ankrum, Jack Elam

MacMurray herds cattle by day and rustles them by night. (He's the eponymous 'moonlighter.') Written by Niven Busch, who was responsible for oddball Westerns like Duel In The Sun (1946) and The Furies (1950), The Moonlighter was the third of four films to pair MacMurray with Stanwyck.

Barbara Stanwyck gets to do plenty of riding and shooting; she'd do her own stunts throughout her '50s Westerns - even being drug by a horse in Forty Guns (1957) after a stunt woman refused to do it. Warner Bros. added NaturalVision 3-D to the star-power of its leads, but what they should've done is throw some more money at it; the budget limitations are quite obvious at times. However, Fred and Barbara, and a terrific roster of character actors like Ward Bond, John Dierkes and Jack Elam make up for a lot of its shortcomings.

Gun For A Coward (1957)
Directed by Abner Biberman
Cast: Fred MacMurray, Jeffrey Hunter, Janice Rule, Chill Wills, Dean Stockwell

Abner Biberman was an actor who made the leap to directing in the mid-50s and kept busy directing TV through the '60s and early '70s. MacMurray plays the manipulative older brother of Jeffrey Hunter (the 'coward' of the title) and Dean Stockwell. Hunter is very good, as always, and MacMurray is steady as a rock - even though casting gets in the way: MacMurray is old enough to be the father of his brothers.

It's interesting to note that Gun For A Coward was at Warner Bros. for a while, planned as a James Dean picture. After his death, it found its way to Universal, who borrowed Jeffrey Hunter from Fox to play the Dean tole.

Quantez (1957)
Directed by Harry Keller
Cast: Fred MacMurray, Dorothy Malone, James Barton, Sydney Chaplin, John Gavin, John Larch, Michael Ansara

This time, MacMurray is a tired gunman in a gang of bank robbers with a posse in hot pursuit. They take refuge in Quantez, a small town they find deserted. With their horses tired and near death, they're forced to stay the night with the plan to cross the border into Mexico the next day. The action of Quantez takes place within a 24-hour period, roughly, as conflicts arise between these desperate men. The director, Harry Keller, has plenty at his disposal for building tension: a bundle of stolen money, a posse, a band of Indians and a beautiful woman (Dorothy Malone). Add to that the fact that one of the outlaws (John Larch) is a sadistic, psychotic freak.

Carl E. Guthrie's CinemaScope camerawork is one of the real stars of the film. Given the mood and the many night scenes, you might think this would play better in black and white. But some ingenious lighting - rich blues at night and deep reds as the sun comes up - gives the picture a very effective, stylized look. Quantez is one of those movies which proves a small budget does not have to be a liability. This one of my favorites of the many terrific Westerns Universal cranked out in the '50s.

Good Day For A Hanging (1959)
Director: Nathan Juran
Cast: Fred MacMurray, Maggie Hayes, Robert Vaughn , Joan Blackman, James Drury, Wendell Holmes.

From the producer-director team that gave us some of the Ray Harryhausen films we know and love (20 Million Miles To Earth, 7th Voyage Of Sinbad) MacMurray plays a marshal who captures a sheriff's killer (Robert Vaughn) and brings him into town for trial, but the townspeople people don't think such a charming young man could be guilty.

Robert Vaughan is very good as the slimy psychotic, but MacMurray picks up the movie and carries it on his back. (Another MacMurray film from Columbia, 1959's Face Of A Fugitive, is not available on DVD, at least not in the States. It's maybe the best of the Westerns he made in this period.)

The Oregon Trail (1959)
Directed by Gene Fowler, Jr.
Cast: Fred MacMurray, William Bishop, John Carradine, Nina Shipman, Henry Hull, Gloria Talbott, John Dierkes

MacMurray is solid, again playing a character he's probably too old to play, a New York reporter who joins a wagon train headed west. Produced on a shoestring budget by Robert Lippert's Associated Producers, The Oregon Trail makes good use of the Fox backlot - and painfully obvious use of soundstages in place of the great outdoors. Character actors like John Carradine, Henry Hull and John Dierkes help make up for the budget shortage.

The Oregon Trail was released the same year (1959) MacMurray did The Shaggy Dog for Disney, a film that set his career on a very different path. In 1960, My Three Sons made its TV debut, and The Absent-Minded Professor hit in 1961. Fred MacMurray would not make another Western.

Toby Roan watches a lot of cowboy movies. His blog, 50 Westerns from the 50's, proves that point.