Recapping the first 50 films...
ESSENTIALS
★★★★
Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)
My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)
★★★ 1/2
The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, 1903)
The Covered Wagon (James Cruze, 1923)
The Iron Horse (John Ford, 1924)
3 Bad Men (John Ford, 1926)
Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939)
The Ox-Bow Incident (William A. Wellman, 1943)
Canyon Passage (Jacques Tourneur, 1946)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)
Here are some "BUBBLING UNDER" picks...
★★★
Go West (Buster Keaton, 1925)
The Wind (Victor Sjostrom, 1928)
Ruggles of Red Gap (Leo McCarey, 1935)
The Plainsman (Cecil B. DeMille, 1936)
The Cowboy and the Lady (H.C. Potter, 1938)
Jesse James (Henry King, 1939)
Dodge City (Michael Curtiz, 1939)
Virginia City (Michael Curtiz, 1940)
The Return of Frank James (Fritz Lang, 1940)
The Westerner (William Wyler, 1940)
Trail of the Vigilantes (Allan Dwan, 1940)
Arizona (Wesley Ruggles, 1940)
The Spoilers (Ray Enright, 1942)
Tall in the Saddle (Edwin L. Marin, 1944)
Along Came Jones (Stuart Heisler, 1945)
Don't Fence Me In (John English, 1945)
The Virginian (Stuart Gilmore, 1946)
Angel and the Badman (James Edward Grant, 1947)
Fort Apache (John Ford, 1948)
Four Faces West (Alfred E. Green, 1948)
Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)
AVOID AT ALL COSTS...
★★
Cimarron (Wesley Ruggles, 1931)
Western Union (Fritz Lang, 1941)
The Outlaw (Howard Hughes, 1943)
That leaves only 16 films somewhere else in the middle.