
As summarized in a film publication, Buck (Jones) consents to study for the ministry, and before leaving attempts to convince his worthless brother Jed (Curtis) to sober up and stay home with their mother (Lee) during Buck's absence. On the eve of his leaving Buck is implicated in a murder committed by Jed and his gang. Buck serves two years and upon his release completes his study for the ministry before returning home. People ridicule him and laugh at the "jailbird minister," as they call him. During one of his services, his brother and two pals enter the church to hide from the prison officials who are after them. Buck shields them, and they later come to his aid when Flash McGraw (Siegmann), the owner of a dance hall, has lured Hope Standish, a Salvation Army girl (Bedford), to his room, and Buck has to fight the whole gang. A girl who believes McGraw is "throwing her over" reveals that McGraw "framed" the murder charge on Jed and his pals. This gives the men their freedom and clears Buck, leaving him free to marry the Salvation Army girl.

As described in a studio publication, Bert Lyons (Gibson) returns to his ranch to discover his foreman dead and the ranch leased to a real estate shark. The new hands seem to be trafficking in booze and narcotics under the guise of raising cattle. He goes to see his sweetheart Molly Grainger (Olmstead) who shares her suspicions. The smugglers do not care for Bert's curiosity and plan to "get him." The new boss of the ranch has designs on Molly, and tells her that he will assist in freeing her brother Joe (Sutherland), who is in prison charged with murder, if she goes with him across the border. Bert learns of this ruse, tricks the smugglers, and rides to Molly's rescue. The smugglers are rounded up, and Joe is freed, leaving Bert and Molly to plan their new home.

Glenn Kilbourne (Richard Dix) returns from the war and travels to Arizona to regain his health. There he is nursed back to health by an Arizona girl, Flo Hutter (Marjorie Daw). Kilbourne's fiancée, Carley Burch (Lois Wilson), arrives in Arizona but soon becomes disillusioned with life in the West and returns to New York. Sometime later, Flo is seriously injured in an accident. Wanting to repay her for restoring him back to health, Glenn asks her to marry him. On their wedding day, Carley returns to Arizona from New York looking for Glenn. When Flo sees that Glenn and Carley are still in love, she calls off her wedding to Glenn and marries another admirer, Lee Stanton (Leonard Clapham).


Following the death of the owner of the Hunt ranch, foreman Tom Foster (Tom Mix) assumes responsibility for the property, taking also into his care Eleanor Hunt (Billie Dove), the beautiful daughter of the late owner. Although he falls in love with the girl, Tom is too diffident to express his feelings and propose marriage. Soon after, Eleanor is asked to accompany her aunt to Europe.
Two years later, Eleanor returns from Europe with condescending airs, accompanied by Denman (Malcolm Waite), her wealthy European fiancée. Eleanor announces that she plans to hold the wedding at the ranch, which has been renovated by Tom and transformed into a successful tourist destination. Tom's friend, Mack (J. Farrell MacDonald), tells Tom about the rakish exploits of Don Juan, hoping to instill in him a bit of romance.
Wanting to eliminate any competition, Denman instructs his men to kidnap Tom and keep him prisoner until after the wedding. Tom is knocked on the head and dreams that he is the fabled Juan, fighting like a lion for love. When he wakes up, Tom frees himself from his bonds and rides back to the ranch, where he arrives just in time to prevent the wedding. Afterwards, Tom and Eleanor are married.

Tex Hartwell (Buck Jones) rescues an old cobbler from the physical assault of corrupt banker Jim Mackey (Carl Stockdale). When Mackey orders his hired guns to kill Tex, the stranger outdraws them. Rancher Dee Winch (Jack McDonald) is impressed with Tex's fast draw and hires him as a trail rider, tasked with keeping diseased cattle off of his land.
Sometime later, Mackey's men stampede a herd of infected cattle onto Winch's land. When Winch learns of the infected cattle, he fires Tex, who leaves in disgrace. Meanwhile, Tex learns from Fanny Goodnight (Lucy Fox) that Mackey was behind the stampede of infected cattle. Tex confronts the corrupt banker and forces him to sign a confession admitting to his guilt. Later, the old cobbler kills Mackey, Tex's reputation is restored with the cattlemen, and he and Fanny ride trail together on their own.

A telephone line repairman named Joe Graham (Spencer Tracy) lives in Los Angeles. One night he's offered a promotion but declines telling his boss he's happy being a "trouble shooter" working out in the field solving problems for a living.
Later Joe’s co-worker and partner Dan Sutter cannot work the night shift, and Joe has to work with a new repairman called Casey, who has an aptitude for practical jokes. Joe and Casey run into some odd things during their shift, finding a corpse at the place of their first assignment.
When the shift is over, both men go for a drink, and they find their colleague Dan very drunk in a casino. This night the police are on their way to raid the casino, but Casey hears about the raid and manages to warn both his colleagues and the casino owner, causing the raid to be a complete failure.
The next day both Casey and Joe are accused of tipping off the owner and causing the raid to be unsuccessful. In an attempt to exculpate himself, Joe tells his boss about the reason for their involvement in the events, and about Dan’s visit to the casino. The result is that Dan is fired from his position without notice.
Joe has been involved with one of the company’s switchboard operators, Ethel Greenwood. They split up after he suspected her of dating his partner Dan one night when Joe was working overtime. Now he reconciles with her and they go back together. However, soon after they are reunited, Dan tells Ethel about how he got fired from work, and Ethel is upset with Joe for causing it. They break up again.
Joe and Ethel don’t see each other for a while, but he hears she quit her job and started working for another company together with Dan. It turns out the office where they work is a cover-up for a racketeering operation, run by two men by the name of George and Max. Their illegal business idea consists of tapping into the phone lines of a nearby investment company to get secret stock tips.
Joe is unaware of this sly operation, until one day when he and Casey are sent to investigate the investment company’s phone lines. They have complained about the lines malfunctioning, and when Joe sees the tap he discloses the racketeering operation. Joe catches Dan red handed, as he is trying to get into the investment company’s vaults and steal the contents.
The police are notified, and the robbery in progress is stopped, but Dan manages to escape from the crime scene. Joe tips off the police about Dan and they go to his apartment. When they arrive, Ethel is there to meet up with Dan for their trip to Mexico with the bounty from the robbery. Ethel finds Dan shot and killed in the apartment and comes running out into the street in a state of complete hysteria. When the police catch her, she has a check from Dan’s bosses in her hand, and it has Dan’s fingerprints all over it. Ethel is arrested for killing Dan and being an accomplice in the racketeering operation.
Joe is doubtful of Ethel’s involvement in the illegal business, and he doesn’t believe she killed Dan. He decides to find Dan’s other girlfriend and partner in crime, Pearl Latour. Joe searches all over Long Beach to find her, and eventually he does. Pearl confesses to Joe that she indeed killed Dan, and that the reason was that he was trying to trick her and take the money that was hers. While Joe and Pearl are still talking, an earthquake shakes the whole area, and the house where they are caves in from the shaking. Pearl doesn’t escape the house in time and is buried under the masses, but is still alive. To get Pearl’s story about how she killed Dan, Joe and Casey manage to use an emergency phone line to contact her under the debris. Pearl’s last confession is then heard by the police, and Ethel is released.
Before Joe can take Pearl in, however, a huge earthquake hits Long Beach, and Pearl is buried in debris. Joe and Casey rig an emergency phone line, and police Captain Flynn records Pearl's dying confession. Ethel is cleared of all suspicions and released from jail. Upon her release Ethel and Joe are both guests at Casey and his fiancee Maizie’s wedding at city hall, at which Ethel persuades Joe to get a marriage license of his own.


As a child, Barbara is orphaned when her settler parents perish trying to cross a California desert. She is rescued and raised by Jefferson Worth, who dreams of irrigating the desert. Fifteen years later, Willard Holmes, the chief engineer of a company intent on diverting the Colorado River to do just that, arrives and is smitten with Barbara. However, he has a rival for her affections: local cowboy Abe Lee.






When Calls the Heart tells the story of Elizabeth Thatcher (Erin Krakow), a young teacher accustomed to her high-society life. She receives her first classroom assignment in Coal Valley, a small coal-mining town in Western Canada which is located just south of Robb, Alberta. There, life is simple—but often fraught with challenges. Elizabeth charms most everyone in Coal Valley, except Royal North West Mounted Police Constable Jack Thornton (Daniel Lissing). He believes Thatcher’s wealthy father has doomed the lawman's career by insisting he be assigned in town to protect the shipping magnate’s daughter. The town of Coal Valley was renamed Hope Valley in Episode 2, Season 2 after the coal mine was closed.
Living in this 1910 coal town, Elizabeth must learn the ways of the Canadian frontier movement if she wishes to thrive in the rural west on her own. Lori Loughlin portrays Abigail Stanton, whose husband, the foreman of the mine, and her only son—along with 44 other miners—have recently been killed in an explosion, which turns out to have been a tragic accident waiting to happen—a result of the mining-company site manager's irresponsible management and lack of due care in his management of the mine. The newly widowed women find their faith tested when they must go to work in the mine to keep a roof over their heads, food on the table, and compile a wage for the town's teacher.



Betty Dallas (Crawford) is a passenger on a stagecoach that is held up by an outlaw named The Solitaire Kid (Lease). Ranger Jim Lockhart (McCoy), who is Betty's sweetheart, is in pursuit of The Solitaire Kid, and in the end, as the two men face one another, there is a mortal shoot-out.




Cowboy Jack "Dirty Neck" Purvin travels to San Francisco to learn how to become a refined gentleman in order to impress Helen van Smythe. Upon his return from San Francisco, Purvin is forced to shed his training to save van Smythe from the grasp of a count, and her mother from a jewel thief.

A large caravan of settlers attempt to cross the Oregon Trail. Breck Coleman (John Wayne) is a young trapper who just got back to Missouri from his travels near Santa Fe, seeking to avenge the death of an old trapper friend who was killed the winter before along the Santa Fe Trail for his furs, by Red Flack (Tyrone Power, Sr.) and his minion Lopez (Charles Stevens). At a large trading post owned by a man named Wellmore, Coleman sees Flack and suspects him right away as being one of the killers. Flack likewise suspects Coleman as being somebody who knows too much about the killing. Coleman is asked by a large group of settlers to scout their caravan west, and declines, until he learns that Flack and Lopez were just hired by Wellmore to boss a bull train along the as-yet-unblazed Oregon Trail to a trading post north of Oregon, owned by another Missouri fur trader. Coleman agrees to scout for the train, so he can keep an eye on the villains and kill them as soon as they reach their destination. The caravan of settlers in their Prairie schooners would follow Wellmore's ox-drawn train of Conestoga Wagons, as the first major group of settlers to move west on the Oregon Trail. The film is set somewhere between 1837 and 1845. This is historically accurate, as the first major wave of settlers on the Oregon Trail was in 1843, although the details were completely different.
Coleman finds love with young Ruth Cameron (Marguerite Churchill), whom he'd kissed accidentally, mistaking her for somebody else. Unwilling to accept her attraction toward him, Ruth gets rather close to a gambler acquaintance of Flack's, Thorpe (Ian Keith), who joined the trail after being caught gambling. Coleman and Flack have to lead the settlers west, while Flack does everything he can to have Coleman killed before he finds any proof of what he'd done. The three villains' main reason for going west is to avoid the hangman's noose for previous crimes, and all three receive frontier justice instead. The settlers trail ends in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, where Coleman and Ruth finally settle down together amidst giant redwoods.

It tells the story of a cold hearted man named Jack Kells who falls in love with Miss Joan Randle, a girl his legion has taken captive near the Idaho border.

Helen Kane takes the lead role as an entertainer in a traveling medicine show run by her boss. Muldoon, one of the members of the medicine show, is a fugitive who is on the run from a murder charge. It's up to Dangerous Nan McGrew, the Sharpshooting singer, to save the day. The medicine show gets stranded at the snowbound hunting lodge of a wealthy woman. Performing at a Christmas Eve show for the lodge guests, the saxophone-playing nephew of the landlady falls in love with Nan. Enter the villain, a bank robber (how did he get through the snow?). Can the Royal Canadian Mounted Police be far behind? You betcha!

After the United States enters World War I in 1917, Wyoming native Jim Baker (Gary Cooper) and his fellow engineer Jersey (Regis Toomey) join the Army and are sent to France with the Engineer Corps. On the battlefield, Baker rescues Patricia Hunter (June Collyer), an American society girl who wanders onto the battlefield. Having worked for the Ambulance Corps, Hunter went AWOL to escape the boredom of her job. After rescueing her from enemy fire, Baker reprimands her for her actions. Later at a rest camp, Baker and Hunter see much of each other, fall in love, and are secretly married. Sometime later, Jim is sent back to the front. When Hunter reads about Baker's death, she opens a family chateau to entertain servicemen and try to forget the man she loves. When Jim arrives at the chateau, having only been wounded, he sees her apparent gaity and misunderstands her feelings. When he encourages her to return with him to Wyoming, she refuses, and he decides to return to the front. On Armistice Day, Baker finds her waiting for him in the town where they were married.

Two cowboy friends, Jeff (J. Farrell MacDonald) and Cash (William Farnum), are traveling through the desert in the southwest U.S., when they come upon a baby who has been abandoned in the back of a covered wagon. They can't leave the defenseless child, so decide to take the baby with them, however, they argue over which of them would be better suited to raising the child. When Cash ends up prevailing in the debate, this creates a lifelong rift between the two friends.
Years later the baby has now grown into a young man, Bill Holbrook (William Boyd), who works with his adoptive father on their cattle ranch. Cash's erstwhile friend, Jeff, has remained in the area where the infant was found and has established his own ranch, centered on the water hole where the entire feud originally began, a feud which is still in full force. Jeff lives with his grown daughter, Mary Ellen (Helen Twelvetrees). The feud escalates when Cash wants to use the water hole on Jeff's property to water his cattle. Jeff is ready to confront Cash in a stand-off, preventing him from watering his cattle on the property Jeff has claimed, assisted by an itinerant cowboy, Rance Brett (Clark Gable), who has been smitten with Mary Ellen's beauty. The confrontation is temporarily avoided when Cash's herd unexpectedly stampedes.
When Bill discovers tungsten on Jeff's property, he attempts to use it to close the division between his father and Jeff, however this only results in his father kicking him out. He turns to Jeff, and begins a mining operation, which actually has the opposite effect of Bill's original intention, only exacerbating the tension between Jeff and Cash. Bill and Jeff's partnership also causes tension with Rance, since Mary Ellen now shows an interest in Bill. After a shipment of tungsten which was on its way to pay the loan they had taken out to develop the mine is waylaid, Bill works furiously with the miners to replace it with another load. He is successful. However, as he is celebrating the success of the mine, as well as his impending nuptials with Mary Ellen, the mine is sabotaged by a series of explosions.
Everyone believes the mine sabotage is the work of Cash, but it turns out to have been an act of jealousy on the part of Rance, who confesses, leaving the two old friends to reconcile, and their two children to marry.



Tom Reed's (Tom Mix) famous traveling Wild West show performs in Alvonia, a small European country, where the child king, ten year old Charles V (Mickey Rooney), neglects his duties because of his interest in the show. After a discussion with Tom, Charles decides that he should treat his subjects fairly, which does not please Count De Mar (James Kirkwood) who has been in control of the country and wants to tax the people heavily. He plots with the Dowager Queen (Clarissa Selwynne) to kidnap Charles and his tutor, Dr. Lorenz (Wallis Clark), and throws them in a dungeon, and suggests to Lorenz that he kill Charles and then kill himself. Tom learns from Charles' aunt, Princess Elsa (Noel Francis) that the king is missing, and Tom manages to track him to the fortress where the king is imprisoned. Tom's cowboys and the count's men fight, and the count ends up drowning to death. Tom then rescues the king and his tutor, and Charles promises to always treat his people well.



Buck Randall (Buck Jones), a carefree cowboy whose popularity with the local saloon girls becomes the talk of the town. The new marshal, Joseph Slyde (Russell Simpson), gets on Buck's bad side by enforcing a "no gun" rule. Buck returns the favor by falling in love with the marshal's mistreated wife, Mary (Mary Doran), and she asks her husband for a divorce so she can marry Buck.

Rancher Tim Clark borrows money from Bob Russell, who then rustles Clark's cattle so he will be unable to repay the money. Thus Russell is able to cheat Clark out of his ranch. Clark becomes a prospector for silver and ultimately comes to settle accounts with Russell and crooked deputy Bendix.

The story is based on the requirement of Spanish land owners in California to register their lands before a deadline and the chicanery practiced by some to prevent registration.

Based upon a novel by Zane Grey, Man of the Forest involves a young lady (Verna Hillie) who is captured by a band of outlaws led by Clint Beasley (Noah Beery). Brett Dale (Randolph Scott) figures out their plan and rescues her.However from here the plot gets confusing because she thinks that Scott is one of the outlaws.So she des not mind him.Hillie tries to run away from him but she eventuallly runs into a pond so he picks her up and places her on his horse while he is carrying her to his horse he loses his hat so when he bends over to pick it up she rides away from him.But she does not know that his horse is very well trained when he whistles it returns.When they finally reach his cabin Scott gets a pail for water to keep her from catching a cold and when he starts a fire she grabbs his gun and he grabbs her around her waist and administers eleven spanks to her bottom.The story ends with her uncle finding her.

An impoverished saddle tramp from Utah rides into a small town seeking work. He finds himself gunning down a trio of men robbing a local bank. The marshal sees the fearless, quick-drawing, sharp-shooting, hard-riding stranger as the man for the marshal's plan of discovering who is behind a crooked rodeo. A further mystery is that several rodeo riders have died of snakebite.

The film opens with an apparent bank robbery terminated when the driver of the alleged getaway car is fatally shot by a sniper. Inside the car is the late driver's daughter, Tiny Norton who is adopted by rancher Ted Wright and his Three Stooges type ranch hands, Tom, Dick and Harry, the "Three Radio Nuts" who spend their time impersonating radio stars. The robbery and assassination of Tiny's father was orchestrated by a cruel and corrupt banker in cahoots with a crooked sheriff.


Cowboy from Idaho get letter form Chicago, that his uncle die and leave him fortune of several million dolars.

A ranch foreman tries to start a range war by playing two cattlemen against each other whilst helping a gang rustle their cattle. Each of the cattlemen blames the other for stealing their cattle. Hop-Along Cassidy, played by William Boyd, having been shot in an earlier gunfight, (which results in his trademark hop), uses an altered cowhide brand to discover the real rustlers. The cattlemen join forces with Hop-Along to bring the rustlers to justice.

Mining engineer Larry Sutton (Randolph Scott) arrives at the Ballard radium mine to take over as chief engineer from his missing brother-in-law Jack Parson, who is a suspect in the murder of ranch caretaker Adolph Borg. Sutton teams up with deputy sheriff Tex Murdock (Chic Sale) who is investigating the murder. Staying at the ranch with the ailing owner, Jim Ballard (George F. Marion), are his niece Flora (Kathleen Burke) and nephew Fritz (Howard Wilson) who've been notified of their uncle's failing health now wait to inherit his legacy. Also staying at the ranch is a mysterious Chinaman Ling Yat (Willie Fung), the housekeeper Mrs. Borg (Leslie Carter), her son John (James Eagles), and the beautiful and spirited Rita Ballard (Ann Sheridan), another niece, who quickly earns Sutton's trust and romantic interest.
Shortly after Sutton arrives, Ballard's nephew Fritz is murdered by a mysterious cloaked figure in the same manner that Adolph was killed—crushed beneath the massive weight of a stamp mill, a huge apparatus used to pulverize rock to unearth valuable ore. Sutton and Tex find that the ranch guests all have alibis. Soon the mysterious cloaked figure strikes again, shooting young John, attacking Sutton, and slashing Flora's throat. While the investigation continues, Jim, who is apparently an invalid, takes a turn for the worse, prompting Sutton to contact his ex-wife who hasn't been to the ranch in thirty years.
Mrs. Ballard arrives at the ranch, Mrs. Borg tries to prevent her from seeing her ailing ex-husband. Sutton arrives and helps her upstairs where she discover that "Jim" is actually Adolph Borg, and that he and his wife had killed the real Jim Ballard sometime earlier during a takeover attempt by the Borg family. Adolph then tricks Sutton and escapes, taking Rita as a hostage. Sutton follows them to the mine where he fights with Adolph and John, nearly being crushed by the stamp mill. After Adolph falls to his death, Sutton rescues Rita. Afterwards, Mrs. Borg, her son John, and their Chinese servant Ling Yat are sentenced to twenty years in prison, and Tex is made sheriff. Larry and Rita get married and buy a ranch in Hawaii.



Town marshal Hopalong Cassidy investigates the murder of a gold miner who was killed before he could file his claim.

In the 1890s, undercover federal agents John Tipton (Wayne) and Bridger (Chandler) head for Crocket City, Wyoming to supervise the vote on whether to join the Union. One group of local outlaws organized by Charles Plummer (Harry Woods) is using dynamite to terrorize the populace and ensure that the vote fails. In the chaos, Tipton and Bridger are separated and Tipton befriends a trio of settlers harassed by outlaws. They are Major Carter (Hayes), his daughter Janet (Rutherford) and their servant Moses (Fred Toones).
Carter had recently become the new editor and publisher of the local newspaper the Crocket City Blade, and when he announces plans to use the power of the press to fight lawlessness and aid the statehood cause, he is threatened by Plummer and subsequently shot and murdered by one of his men in a staged fight.
When Plummer's henchmen eventually kill Bridger, after learning of his status as a government agent, Tipton fights on. He sends fake telegrams that trap some of Plummer's men. Then he organizes the ranchers and on election day they descend on the town barricaded by Plummer's gang and defeated the gang leader and his henchmen.
On the day of the election, the villains actually initially stop the homesteaders from voting but Tipton leads in a bunch of agents and ranchers to crush the outlaws. It results in all the baddies brought to justice, Wyoming becoming a state and Tipton getting the pretty girl, Janet.

In Red River Valley, Banker Hartley Moore (Frank LaRue) schemes to sabotage the efforts of citizens to secure water rights in order to win water profits for himself. Following the murder of five men who were overseeing the completion of an irrigation system, Gene Autry (Gene Autry) is hired for the dangerous job of "ditch rider", in charge of patrolling the ditches to prevent malfunction or sabotage.
At the Red River Land and Irrigation Company, Steve Conway (Boothe Howard) works for Mary Baxter (Frances Grant) and her father, George Baxter (Sam Flint). Jealous of Mary's attention towards Gene, Conway joins Moore in his scheming actions and hires Bull Dural and his gang to dynamite the water gates and kill the ditch riders.
On his first night on the job, Gene and his friend Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) are almost killed. They apprehend Bull's henchmen and turn them over to the sheriff. Conway and Bull then rob the payroll, accuse Gene of the crime, and encourage Baxter's workmen to revolt by destroying the dam. Gene and Frog go after Bull, while Baxter and the railroad conductor hold off the men at the dam until Gene arrives with Bull and the payroll.
Conway and Moore steal the train in a desperate attempt to escape, but they are killed riding into dynamite. Baxter successfully finishes the irrigation, after which, Gene and Mary ride off on their honeymoon.

With the end of the American Civil War, military industrialists are left with an oversupply of weapons. Some of the more unscrupulous ones view the Indians as possible new customers.
Wild Bill Hickok (Gary Cooper) has just been discharged from the Union Army and is making his way back west. On a paddle steamer, he bumps into his old army scout colleague, Buffalo Bill Cody (James Ellison) and his new bride. Later, Calamity Jane (Jean Arthur) is the driver of their stagecoach to Hays City, Kansas.
John Lattimer (Charles Bickford), an agent for the gun makers, has supplied the Cheyenne Indians with repeating rifles, which enable them to kill half of the troopers at a United States Cavalry outpost. Hickok discovers the rifles and reports it to General George Armstrong Custer (John Miljan). Custer sends out an ammunition train to the fort with Cody as guide. Hickok tries to locate Yellow Hand (Paul Harvey), the Cheyenne chieftain, to find out why the Indians have gone to war.
When Calamity is captured by the Indians, Hickok tries to bargain for her release, but instead gets captured himself. Yellow Hand states that the Indians are fighting because the white man has starting settling land promised to the Indian and is killing off the buffalo. Yellow Hand promises to release his captives if they tell him the location of the ammunition train. After much prodding from Calamity, Hickok professes his love for her just before he is about to be tortured. Calamity then discloses the route of the ammunition train in order to save Hickok from being burned alive. Yellow Hand holds true to his word by releasing his two prisoners.
The Indians ambush the ammunition train. Hickok sends Jane to get reinforcements while he fights alongside the besieged soldiers. After a desperate six-day siege on a river bank, the survivors are saved when Custer arrives with the cavalry.
Back in town, Hickok catches up with Lattimer and tells him to get ready for a gun duel. Instead of going himself, Lattimer sends three cavalry deserters in his place. Hickok kills all three deserters in the gunfight, but this makes him a fugitive from the law. Hickok flees to the Dakota Territory. Calamity leaves for Deadwood separately when the townspeople find out that she was partly responsible for the attack on the ammunition train.
Custer sends Cody after Hickok. After meeting in the woods, the two friends capture an Indian and learn that Custer has been killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and that the Cheyenne are moving to join the Sioux Indians in the Black Hills. They also learn that Lattimer is sending more rifles to the Indians, to be picked up in Deadwood. Instead of arresting his friend, Cody rides off to warn the cavalry, while Hickok goes to Deadwood to deal with Lattimer. Hickok kills Lattimer and detains Lattimer's henchmen for arrest by the cavalry. Hickok is shot in the back by Lattimer's informant Jack McCall (Porter Hall) while he is playing cards with the henchmen. The film ends with a heart-broken Calamity Jane cradling Hickok's body.

Doris Halliday (Frances Farmer), the daughter of a wealthy banker, is about to marry a man she doesn't love so the family will become richer. Her outspoken aunt Penelope Ryland (Lucile Gleason), the owner of the Frying Pan Ranch in Arizona, objects to their marriage, claiming people should only be married if they love each other. Doris starts to see Penelope's point and eventually runs away the night before the wedding.
Doris hides in the wagon of a train owned by traveling cowboy Jeff Larabee (Bing Crosby). When they meet they take an immediate dislike for each other. Despite a few romantic moments, they fight all night long. The next day, Doris is to be left at a stop. When she is attacked by Jeff's prize cow, however, Jeff is forced to save her. The train eventually leaves without them. They decide to part their ways, until they discover it's a long way to the next stop. Doris secretly steals a car and gives Jeff a ride.
Penelope and her employee Buck (Bob Burns), who happens to be a friend of Jeff, try to find Doris. They take a train hoping to locate her. On the train, Buck meets Emma Mazda (Martha Raye). Emma is attracted to him and tries to flirt, but Buck isn't really interested. They both take off at a stop and decide to travel together. Meanwhile, Doris' father initiates a search to find his daughter and promises the one who brings her back a $5,000 reward. A couple of criminals, who have seen Doris, try to catch her and bring her back.
Jeff and Doris drive to his house, where they meet up with Buck and Emma, who are now in love and engaged. Buck suggests Jeff ask to marry Doris as well, but he is reluctant to. The moment they do fall in love, they are located by Robert and Penelope. Penelope blames Jeff for being a gold digger and tries to protect Doris from him. Offended and confused, Jeff runs away. Doris follows him and declares her love. Jeff gives in and they kiss.


A trucker and a train compete against each other in a race.

Unlike other Alamo films that concentrate on Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, the main protagonists are Almaron (Bruce Warren) and Susanna Dickinson (Ruth Findlay) and their daughter Angelina (Marilyn Haslett). The film gives a fictionalised fast moving account of the restriction on American emigration to Texas, the arrest of Stephen F. Austin by Santa Anna (Julian Rivero), Sam Houston (Edward Piel) appointed General to build the Texian Army, and Dickinson's participation in both the Battle of Gonzales and the Battle of the Alamo.

In 1859, Doc Watterson brings his traveling medicine show to Titusville, Pennsylvania. (In a deliberate nod to Kern and Hammerstein's classic musical Show Boat, which had been filmed with Irene Dunne the year before, it stars Irene Dunne as Doc Watterson's daughter Sally, with Doc in the mold of Dunne's Show Boat character's father, Cap'n Andy. In addition, Dorothy Lamour sings a torch song, much as Helen Morgan did in Show Boat.) When the medicine show wagon accidentally goes up in flames, Mrs Courland and her grandson Peter invite the Wattersons and their fake Indian, Mac, to stay with them. Peter and Sally fall in love.
Railroad tycoon Walt Brennan wants to take over the land of several oil-drilling farmers, led by Peter Cortlandt. Brennan wants to use the land to build a railroad. The townspeople block the plan, assisted by a herd of circus elephants, and instead construct their own oil pipeline.

An evil deputy is using Indian half-breeds to rustle cattles. This cause trouble between the cattlemen and Indian. Hoppy, Windy and Lucky see that justice is served. Songs abound.

As described in a film magazine review, Jeff Hillington (Fairbanks), son of railroad magnate Collis J. Hillington (Bytell), tires of the East and longs for the wild and woolly West. He has his apartment and office fixed up in his understanding of the accepted Western style, which he has gleaned from dime novels. A delegation from Bitter Creek comes to New York City seeking financial backing for the construction of a spur line, and go to Collis to explain their proposition. Collis sends Jeff to investigate. The citizens of Bitter Creek, Arizona, realizing that a favorable report from Jeff is necessary, decide to live up to Jeff's idea of a Western town. They set up a program with a wild reception for Jeff, a barroom dance, and a train holdup. Steve Shelby (De Grasse), a grafting Indian agent, knowing that he is about to be caught by the government, decides to do "one more trick" and enters into the plan to rob the train, turning it into a real scheme. Events turn earnest and Shelby kidnaps Nell Larabee (Percy), with whom Jeff has fallen in love. The entire crowd has been trapped in the dance hall, which is surrounded by Indians, and Jeff's revolver loaded with blanks. When the situation is finally explained to Jeff, by superhuman efforts (and typical Fairbanks surprises) he rounds up the Indians, rescues the girl, completely foils the scheme of Steve, and becomes the hero of the hour, getting to marry Nell.



Hoppy (William Boyd) and his pals must journey to Mexico after receiving a summons. Upon arrival, they realize that it was fake and that a good friend has been mysteriously murdered. They solve the puzzle with the assistance of the killer's feisty sister and a band of helpful caballeros.

A Judge Roy Bean figure dispenses justice in Arizona. He teams up with the Tonto Kid to fight the McQuinn gang.

A horse trader named Gene Autry (Gene Autry) arrives in Grainville with his horses and outfit prepared to put on a barn dance to attract potential horse buyers to an auction. The horse trading business has been affected lately by the increased use of tractors to replace horses for farm work. Radio station owner Sally Dawson (Joan Valerie) approaches Gene and offers him a contract to sing on a program sponsored by Thornton Farming Equipment, the area's leading manufacturer of tractors. Unconvinced that tractors could ever replace horses, Gene refuses her offer, but is still attracted to her and invites her to his barn dance that night.
Unknown to Gene, Sally is facing bankruptcy and needs to find a way to save the radio station. Knowing that Mr. Thornton (Ivan Miller), the tractor company owner, would sign a contract with her station if Gene would promote his product, Sally and her kid brother Johnny secretly broadcast Gene's show under the sponsorship of Thornton Farming Equipment. After hearing the broadcast and the audience reaction, Thornton agrees to give Sally an advance for Gene's upcoming shows, thereby saving the radion station. Later she tells Gene that if he signs a general contract with her, he would make enough money to offset his poor horse sales.
In the coming weeks, Sally broadcasts Gene's barn dances via remote control hook-ups, presenting them as promotions for the tractor company. The farmers of the area, believing that Gene is endorsing the use of tractors, begin to purchase them using loans from a finance company. As harvest time approaches, however, many of the farmers are unable to make their payments on time, and the finance company, conspiring with Thornton, threatens to repossess the tractors unless the farmers sign over a percentage of their harvest profits. The farmers are given less than a week to decide.
Believing that Gene is involved in the finance company's scheme, the farmers confront him at a barn dance and a major fight breaks out. Afterwards, when Gene learns the truth from Sally about how he has been used to promote tractor sales, he promises the farmers that he will provide horses to all of them to get them through the harvest. Meanwhile, Thornton demands that Sally return his advance payment since Gene will no longer be performing on the radio show. Fearing for her father's health and with no other option available, Sally agrees to broadcast recordings of Gene's barn dances to continue promoting the tractor company.
When Thornton learns that Gene and his men are rounding up horses for the farmers, he orders his henchmen to stampede the herd. During the stampede, a cowboy is seriously injured. Later, when the farmers hear Gene's voice on Sally's radio station, they suspect he has betrayed them, but when Gene arrives, they all realize they are listening to a recording. Angered by the deception, Gene heads over to the radio station with his sidekick Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) and destroy the records, leaving the station in ruins. Later, Sally's kid brother Johnny is able to restore a record he made of Thornton discussing the stampede.
At the county fair, Gene arrives with his horses, but the sheriff seizes them based on Thornton's claim for damages to the radio station. While Frog uses a tractor to destroy Thornton's platform, Sally and Johnny broadcast the incriminating record of Thornton discussing the stampede over the public address system. When Thornton and his men arrive at the station, Sally and Johnny drive off, with Thornton in hot pursuit. Gene chases after the cars on horseback, shoots one of the henchmen, and captures Thornton. Afterwards, Gene and Sally head back to town together on horseback.

A wagon train travelling from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe means trouble for Alfredo Dupray, his authority from Spain will end with the arrival of a Mexican Governor. He plots to solve this by intercepting a trade agreement, to be negotiated by Clark Stuart on the wagon train, and disrupt Mexico–United States relations.
Repeated attacks are thwarted, however, by the appearance of a mysterious Rider on a Painted Stallion who issues warnings with her whistling arrows. With her help Clark Stuart, along with historical characters, Kit Carson, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett work to defeat Dupray. Eventually, they assist the arrival of the United States Cavalry and the treaty is signed, leaving Stuart and the Rider to ride away together.

Lorna Drake (Gwen Gaze), is an aristocratic British girl and Hoppy's (William Boyd) new employer. When Cassidy refuses to be ordered, Lorna has him arrested for horse stealing. The dumbfounded sheriff (Earle Hodgins) is even more puzzled when Miss Drake turns right around and demands that Hoppy be released into her custody.


In the southwestern Pennsylvania region, of colonial America, in the 1760s, colonial distaste and disapproval of the British government is starting to surface. Many local colonists have been killed by Native Americans, who are armed with rifles supplied by white traders. Local adventurer, James Smith (John Wayne) and his followers complain to British officials, pressuring them to make it illegal to trade weapons to the Indians. Trader Ralph Callender (Brian Donlevy) and other businessmen are not happy with the new law, as it cuts into their profit. They continue to trade with the local Native American population, hiding rifles and rum inside military supply trains. When the British authorities fail to do anything to prevent this, James Smith organizes his men and heads out to intercept the wagon train. Smith's spirited and bold girlfriend, Janie McDougall (Claire Trevor), assists him and his men in posing as Indians to intercept the gun shipments.
Captain Swanson, a British army officer, is sent to protect the wagon train at all costs, following a complaint lodged by Callender, that Smith and his men intend to rob the wagon train, while neglecting to state that the train contains guns and liquor. Captain Swanson considers the involvement of Smith and his men as a revolt against his authority, and in retaliation, he jails more than half of the local colonists, holding them without trial. This sets Smith and Swanson on a collision course.

While driving a herd of cattle in northern Montana, cowboys Gene Autry (Gene Autry), Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette), and Steve (Tully Marshall) cross the border into Canada. Riding alone, Steve stumbles upon a convoy of fur smugglers who stab him and leave him to die in the woods. Before dying, he manages to scrawl the initials "HH".
After discovering the body of their murdered friend and his final cryptic clue, Gene and Frog ride to the nearby HH ranch, which is owned by Dorothy Hamilton (June Storey) and her partner, Hendricks (Harry Woods). Unknown to Dorothy, Hendricks is the head of the fur smuggling ring. Suspicious of Hendricks, Gene and Frog stampede their cattle into the HH herd as an excuse to spend time at the ranch and investigate. Soon they discover that the furs are being smuggled into a storehouse on the ranch and then shipped out of the country. While preparing to escort another shipment of pelts, the smugglers discover Gene and Frog in the storeroom and, deciding to use Gene as a cover for their illegal activities, hijack him and his wagon.
After the smugglers leave, Frog escapes from the storeroom and organizes a rescue party to search for Gene and his captors. As the smugglers hold up another warehouse of furs, Gene escapes and tries to prevent the robbery, but is shot in the arm. He manages to sound the alarm and then follows after the smugglers by dogsled. After catching up to the thieves, Gene sees them loading the furs into Hendricks' car. Gene causes a daring avalanche that traps the smugglers and exacts justice for the murder of his friend.

Cowboy Bob Blake receives a letter from his friend Joe Jackson, asking for help. Blake and his men travel to Jackson's ranch, only to discover from Jackson's sister Betty that Joe has been missing for three weeks. Meanwhile, Jackson's ranch hand (Slim Perkins) is learning to use ventriloquism to make the farm animals talk, and tries to convince the gullible Dusty to buy a talking mule.
Blake discovers that Jackson is being held by a local land grabbing rancher, Buck Thorne, who (with his partner Pete) has discovered gold on Jackson's ranch. They killed Joe's and Betty's father, and are trying to force Joe to deed the land over to Thorne. Blake develops a plan to rescue Jackson from where he is being held above the saloon, but runs into trouble. Betty sends Blake's men into the saloon as backup and is kidnapped by Thorne, who then threatens to kill Betty and Joe if they do not sign the deed. While Dusty rides for the sheriff, Blake and his men backtrack Betty's horse (who arrived home riderless). A gun battle ensues, with the sheriff arriving in the nick of time. The villains are hauled off to jail, and Blake rides into the sunset with Betty.

In the North Atlantic Ocean, Misty Knight stops some mercenaries from smuggling ancient Asgardian artifacts, though they manage to get away with their primary target. Misty takes the recovered artifacts to Dr. Annabelle Riggs, who is excavating a Viking burial site and inadvertently awakens the dead Vikings with one of the artifacts. Misty battles the Vikings and is soon joined by Valkyrie, who senses the commotion. When the fight is over, Valkyrie agrees to take Annabelle and Misty to Asgardia, to seek council on the matter.
The mercenaries kidnap Dani Moonstar and bring her to Caroline le Fey, who wants to become a valkyrie like Dani. In Asgardia, the All-Mother explains to Valkyrie, Misty and Annabelle that the dead Vikings signal the return of the Doommaidens; corrupted valkyries, who come to fill the void left by Valkyrie's inability to assemble a new Valkyrior. Hela, aware of the Doommaidens' return, brings Hippolyta from the Underworld to help set things right.
The All-Mother teleports Valkyrie, Misty, Annabelle and Hippolyta to Harrowpoint Island, Washington, where Caroline le Fey has taken Dani Moonstar to use in a ritual to summon the Doommaidens. Once inside Caroline's chamber, the heroes discover that the Doommaidens have already arrived. During the subsequent battle, Annabelle manages to free Dani before the Doommaidens halt their fighting, recognizing Valkyrie as their "sister".
The heroes retreat to Misty's safe house in New York City as the doom maidens give chase. There, Valkyrie has a vision from long ago of herself leading an attack against Odin. Valkyrie then decides to take Dani and Hippolyta and lead the doom maidens away from the city, while Misty and Annabelle call Heroes for Hire for help.
During the Age of Ultron, Wolverine and the Invisible Woman travel back in time and assassinate Ultron's creator, Henry Pym to prevent Ultron from taking over the world. In the divergent timelime created by Pym's death, Morgana le Fey and her husband Dr. Doom conquer half the planet. Morgana and Doom's daughter, Caroline recruits Hippolyta to seek revenge for abandoning Caroline as a child. In Latveria, Caroline and Hippolyta discover that Doom has died and has been replaced by Ares, Hippolyta's father. Hippolyta defeats Ares and takes back command of the Amazons, who have been subdued by Ares.
Valkyrie, Dani and Hippolyta lead the doom maidens to an Asgardian ruin in Descanso de Deus, Brazil. There, the three are outnumbered and near defeat before Misty and Annabelle arrive with reinforcements. Caroline reveals to Dani that Valkyrie intends to syphon Dani's powers at the ruin. With Dani's powers, Valkyrie transforms into the berserker-like maiden of rage.
Valkyrie, the maiden of rage, destroys the doom maidens and then turns on her allies, while Caroline escapes. After Valkyrie defeats the heroes, she sets her sights on a nearby village. Annabelle follows in pursuit and is able to quell Valkyrie's rage with her love, but Annabelle is killed in the process. Valkyrie returns with Annabelle's body and calls for the formation of a new Defenders, however the heroes rebuke Valkyrie's offer. Meanwhile, Caroline begins searching for new doom maidens amongst the villainesses of Earth.
In Valhalla, Annabelle struggles to adjust to the afterlife, while Valkyrie searches for Clea. After fending off some trolls, Clea agrees to help Valkyrie bring Annabelle back to life in exchange for a sacrifice. Clea transports Annabelle to New York City, where she reunites with Misty and discovers that her lifeforce has been merged with Valkyrie's and she is now Valkyrie's host.
Misty and Annabelle investigate a monster problem in New York's Chinatown and ask Elsa Bloodstone for assistance. They discover that the Ghost Boys gang have been using Brood hatchlings to carry out hits in the neighborhood. Valkyrie, Misty and Elsa track a hatchling to an underground lair, where Hai Dai ninjas are bio-engineering Brood eggs. The three aided by No-Name of the Brood defeat the Hai Dai and their master, Zheng Bao Yu. Afterwards, Bao Yu turns to Caroline for protection.
In New York City, the Fearless Defenders attempt to stop the Doom Maidens from awakening the Pandemonium Axles, evil sculpture-like creatures that have remained dormant underground for sometime. Meanwhile, the significant others of each of the Fearless Defenders have invited them to a bar in order to convince them to disband. The fight reaches the bar and together with their partners, the Fearless Defenders defeat the Doom Maidens and the Pandemonium Axles. However, the women decide to stay together without any assistance from their mates.
During the Infinity event, Ren Kimura, a dancer living in New York City, is exposed to the Terrigen Mist, causing the dormant Inhuman genes in her DNA to awaken. Meanwhile, the Wardogs of Thanos comb through the city, exterminating newly formed Inhumans, but are stopped by Caroline and her Doom Maidens, who seek the new Inhumans for their own purposes. Ren is rescued by the Fearless Defenders, but are cornered by the Doom Maidens. When the fight is over, Ren joins the Fearless Defenders as they push through the city and search for Ren's parents.
Hippolyta invites the Fearless Defenders to New Amazonia for some rest and relaxation. There, Hippolyta explains that she has been charged by the Death-Lords to rebuild the ranks of the Amazons in exchange for her resurrection. The following morning, New Amazonia is attacked by Aradnea, Echidna, and Echidna's sea-monsters on-orders from Caroline Le Fey. After the monsters are defeated, Caroline reveals that the attack was a test and offers to become the Amazons' queen.
In Los Angeles, Misty recruits Frankie Raye for a mission to put an end to the Doom Maidens once-and-for-all. The Fearless Defenders find the Doom Maidens in the final stages of a ritual to grant Caroline the powers that she has been craving. In the subsequent battle, the Fearless Defenders defeat the Doom Maidens while Frankie siphons the energy from the ritual before Caroline can complete her transformation. However, Caroline still manages to succeed in the secondary ritual of restoring her mother, Morgana le Fey.

Tired of traveling around the country performing their music, singing cowboy Gene Autry (Gene Autry) and his Texas Troubadors decide to purchase a cattle ranch and settle down. When they arrive at the ranch purchased for them by Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette), they cannot believe that the herd consists of milkcows rather than the cattle they had anticipated.
Soon they find themselves in the middle of a dairy war in which various farmers' trucks are being hijacked and destroyed in an attempt to drive them out of business. The town veterinarian, Dr. Rodney Blair (Robert Barrat), suggests that the Hall Trucking Company is behind the raids and proposes the establishment of a protective association. No one suspects that Blair and deputy sheriff Dave Haines (Buster Crabbe) are in fact the real masterminds behind the sabotage. When Gene vetoes Blair's idea of a protective association, the doctor directs his men to attack Gene's ranch, sending a secret code over the radio station owned by Haines's unsuspecting sister Carol (June Storey).
During the raid, Gene captures Clanton (Jack Ingram), one of Blair's men, and turns him over to Sheriff George Glenn (William Farnum). Soon after, Blair arrives at the jail, kills the sheriff, and frees his henchman. Suspecting that Blair and Haines are involved in the raids, Gene accepts decides to run for sheriff against Haines, and he wins. Gene then convinces the ranchers to contract with the Hall Trucking Company. When he discovers Blair's secret radio messages, he tricks Dr. Blair and his men into an ambush in which the milk trucks are overturned, and the hijackers are caught. Gene and his men emerge victorious in the dairy war.


In colonial America, Lana Borst (Claudette Colbert), the eldest daughter of a wealthy Albany, New York family, marries Gilbert Martin (Henry Fonda). Together they leave her family's luxurious home to embark on a frontier life on Gil's small farm in Deerfield, in the Mohawk Valley of central New York. The time is July, 1776, and the spirit of revolution is in the air. The valley's settlers have formed a local militia in anticipation of an imminent war, and Gil joins up.
As Gil and his neighbors are clearing his land for farming, Blue Back (Chief John Big Tree), a friendly Oneida man, arrives to warn them that a raiding party of Seneca led by a Tory named Caldwell (John Carradine) is in the valley. The settlers evacuate their farms and take refuge in nearby Fort Schuyler. Lana, who is pregnant, miscarries during the frantic ride to the fort. The Martin farm is destroyed by the Seneca raiding party. With no home and winter approaching, the Martins accept work on the farm of a wealthy widow, Mrs. McKlennar (Edna May Oliver).
During a peaceful interlude, Mrs. McKlennar and the Martins prosper. Then, word comes that a large force of British soldiers and Indians is approaching the valley. The militia sets out westward to intercept the attackers; but their approach is badly timed and the party is ambushed. Though the enemy is eventually defeated at Oriskany, more than half of the militiamen are killed. Gil returns home, wounded and delirious, but slowly recovers. Lana is again pregnant and delivers a son in May. That summer Indian and Tory raiding parties burn and pillage farms and small settlements. The harvest is small, and while Mrs. McKlennar's stone house is not burned, there is barely enough food to survive the winter. Lana bears her second child, another son, the following August. The raids continue but the crops fare much better, so there is plenty to eat that winter, although the cold is severe.
After the spring thaw, the British and their Indian allies mount a major attack to take the valley, and the settlers again take refuge in the fort. Mrs. McKlennar is mortally wounded and ammunition runs short. Gil makes a heroic dash through enemy lines to secure help from nearby Fort Dayton. Reinforcements arrive just in time to beat back the attackers, who are about to overwhelm the fort. The militia pursues, harasses, and defeats the British force, scattering its surviving soldiers in the wilderness. The Mohawk Valley is saved.
Three years later, with the war over, Gil and Lana return to their farm at Deerfield. They have a third child (a baby girl), and they look forward to a happy and peaceful life in the valley as citizens of the new, independent United States of America.

The film starts 11 July 1879 in Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory. A group of men who work for Major Harper, led by gunslinger Minniger, attempt to arrest rancher Alexander Kain and his English partner Jameson. They are stopped by William Bonney, aka Billy the Kid, who shoots and injures them.
Jameson offers Billy a job as a ranch hand. A drunken group of Harper's men attack the ranch and kill Jameson. Billy goes on a killing rampage, encouraged by the manipulative Kain, who publicly decries Billy's efforts. Governor Lew Wallace offers Billy a pardon which he turns down. Pat Garrett is sent to catch Billy.

Hoppy William Boyd) and his pal Lucky (Russell Hayden) head to South America to look after a herd of cattle sold by Cassidy's boss to an Argentine rancher. Villain Ralph Merritt (Sidney Blackmer) wants to get his mitts on that cattle, and he's not above hiring the scum of the earth to do his bidding. Fortunately, Hoppy, Lucky and their new Latino buddy Fernando (Sidney Toler) make short work of the bad guys in an outsized barroom brawl.

Because the corrupt sheriff, Jud Cronin, won't leave her alone, schoolteacher Virginia King decides to leave Mesa City for good. Cronin's cronies intercept her stagecoach, but a passenger, retired lawman Cliff Mason, foils their plans.
Virginia must accompany Cliff back to town because the stagecoach is damaged. There they discover a marshal has been murdered by Cronin's hired gun Pete Henderson, who gets away with the crime in court. Cliff is offered the marshal's badge and Duke Allison rides to town to become his deputy. In a shootout, Cronin is killed by Duke, who also perishes. Cliff and Virginia leave town together.

President Cleveland signs the bill allowing the sale of the Cherokee Strip (actually, the Cherokee Outlet) in the future state of Oklahoma. After the money arrives by train, it is then loaded onto a stagecoach which subsequently gets robbed by Whip McCord (Humphrey Bogart) and his gang. Jim Kincaid, also known as "The Oklahoma Kid", (James Cagney) sees the robbery, and then ambushes the gang and makes off with the money.
Settlers are arriving to stake their property claims in what would be the Cherokee Strip Land Run of 1893. At a settlers' dance, the Kid meets Jane Hardwick (Rosemary Lane), daughter of Judge Hardwick (Donald Crisp), dancing with her and asking if she can "feel the air." Before the new territory is opened, McCord sneaks in with his cronies and stakes a "sooner" claim. When John Kincaid (Hugh Sothern) and his son, Ned Kincaid (Harvey Stephens), arrive, they are swindled into granting McCord the saloon and gambling concessions in exchange for the site that they had planned to develop into a town. After the area is built and developed, it is overcome by crime and unlawful killings under McCord's influence. Hoping to bring about law-and-order, Judge Hardwick and Ned campaign to elect John Kincaid as mayor of Tulsa, but when another candidate is killed, McCord frames John Kincaid and has him arrested for murder.
While living with Mexicans in a small cabin, the Kid reads in a newspaper about the arrest of his father. Even though he was cast aside as the black-sheep son, he rides into town in order to free his father from jail. After the Kid raids the jail and enters his father's cell, John refuses to escape and instead wants to fight his arrest judiciously. The Kid leaves before being caught. Upon learning that the Kid is John Kincaid's son, McCord incites a mob at his saloon. Then, led by three of his own men, they break into the jail which allows McCord's cronies to lynch Kincaid over the outside balcony of the jailhouse.
In exacting vengeance, the Kid tracks down those who murdered his father. He kills three of them when they don't surrender peacefully, but brings back Ace Doolin (Edward Pawley) in order to testify against McCord. Ned and the Kid seek out McCord at his saloon. While attempting an arrest, Ned is shot by McCord. The Kid and McCord engage in fisticuffs, and the Kid is nearly killed, but Ned shoots down McCord before dying himself.
The Kid plans to continue on with his nomadic ways, but Jane and Judge Hardwick convince him to stay.

A banker named Cameron is suspected of a robbery because he was the only person who knew the vault lock's combination. When a corrupt land owner, Ross Daggett, tries to exact vigilante justice, rancher Clint Bradford goes to the aid of June Cameron, the banker's daughter, and hides her father.
June inadvertently leads Daggett and his men, including hired gun Dusty, to her father's hiding place, where Cameron is captured and taken back to town. Dusty is tricked by Clint into revealing a secret panel through which Daggett was able to view Cameron's use of the vault combination. June is grateful to Clint when her father goes free.

Billy the Kid (Bob Steele) and his friends Jeff (Carleton Young) and Fuzzy (Al St. John) are ambushed in a cabin. When Jeff is wounded during their getaway, they decide to hide out at Jeff's uncle's ranch in Little Bend Valley. While traveling to the ranch, they see henchmen Ed (Charles King) and Buck (Rex Lease) accosting Ann Roberts (Louise Currie) and throwing her goods from her wagon. After Billy chases them off, Ann tells him that she and her father Tom (Forrest Taylor) had recently purchased a ranch and that someone is trying to run them off their land. Traveling with Ann to protect her, they learn that the ranch she and her father had purchased was the one owned by Jeff's uncle, but that they failed to purchase the water rights. Discovering that other ranchers in the area had also purchased lands without water rights, Billy also learns that land baron Cobb Allen (Al Ferguson) had maliciously dammed the only free water stream in the area in order to force the group of ranchers to purchase water rights, or default on their loans. Billy and Jeff fight Allen's henchmen at the barricade, and after subduing them they return the water flow to its original channel.

In the American Old West of 1874, construction on a new railroad will soon be going through Rock Ridge, a frontier town inhabited exclusively by white people with the surname Johnson. The conniving State Attorney General Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) wants to force Rock Ridge's residents to abandon their town, thereby lowering land prices. After he sends a gang of thugs, led by his flunky assistant Taggart (Slim Pickens), to shoot the sheriff and trash the town, the townspeople demand that Governor William J. Le Petomane (Mel Brooks) appoint a new sheriff to protect them. Lamarr persuades the dim-witted Le Petomane to appoint Bart (Cleavon Little), a black railroad worker who was about to be hanged. A black sheriff, he reasons, will offend the townspeople, create chaos, and leave the town at his mercy.
With his quick wits and the assistance of recovering alcoholic gunslinger Jim, the Waco Kid (Gene Wilder), Bart works to overcome the townspeople's hostile reception. He subdues Mongo (Alex Karras), an immensely strong, dim-witted, but philosophical henchman sent to kill him, and then beats German seductress-for-hire Lili von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn) at her own game. Lamarr, furious that his schemes have backfired, hatches a larger plan involving a recruited army of thugs, including common criminals, Ku Klux Klansmen, Nazi soldiers, and Methodists.
Three miles east of Rock Ridge, Bart introduces the white townspeople to the black and Chinese railroad workers—who have agreed to help in exchange for acceptance by the community—and explains his plan to defeat Lamarr's army. They labor all night to build a perfect replica of their town, as a diversion; but with no people in it, Bart realizes it won't fool the villains. While the townspeople construct replicas of themselves, Bart, Jim, and Mongo buy time by constructing the "William J. Le Pétomane Memorial Thruway," forcing the raiding party to turn back for "a shitload of dimes" to pay the toll. Once through the tollbooth, the raiders attack the fake town populated with dummies, which are boobytrapped with dynamite bombs. After Jim detonates the bombs with his sharpshooting, launching bad guys and horses skyward, the Rock Ridgers storm the villains.
The resulting brawl between townsfolk, railroad workers, and Lamarr's thugs breaks the fourth wall—literally—spilling onto a neighboring set where director Buddy Bizarre (Dom DeLuise) is directing a Busby Berkeley-style top-hat-and-tails musical number; then into the studio commissary for a food fight; and then out of the Warner Bros. film lot into the streets of Burbank. Lamarr, realizing he has been beaten again, hails a taxi and orders the driver to "get me out of this picture." He ducks into Grauman's Chinese Theatre, which is playing the premiere of Blazing Saddles. As he settles into his seat, he sees Bart arriving on horseback outside the theatre. Bart blocks Lamarr's escape, and then, in a spoof of a classic cinematic gunfight, shoots him in the groin. Bart and Jim then go into Grauman's to watch the end of the film, in which Bart announces to the townspeople that he is moving on, for his work there is done (and he is bored). Riding out of town, he finds Jim (finishing his popcorn), and invites him along to "nowhere special." The two friends ride off into the sunset—in a chauffeured stretch limousine.

It tells the story of a cold hearted man named Jack Kells who falls in love with Miss Joan Randle, a girl his legion has taken captive near the Idaho border.

Tom Bryant exposes a corrupt sheriff.



Down and out rodeo stars Gene Autry (Gene Autry) and Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) leave New York City for California with their car and horse trailer. Along the way they discover young Ronnie Willoughby (Clifford Severn), a school boy from London, has accidentally stowed away in their car. Having just arrived from London by steamship, Ronnie climbed into the car and fell asleep, believing they were Jenkins and Carter, sent by his father to take him to his father's "ranch" in California.
Ronnie does not know that his father, Frederick Willoughby (Lester Matthews), is actually in San Quentin State Prison, framed for embezzlement by his employer, Edward Martin (Joseph Crehan) of the Western Packing Company, to cover his own criminal activities. Willoughby agrees to appear as a witness on behalf of the small independent ranchers of California in a lawsuit against Martin, who has been driving them out of business to gain a monopoly. To prevent Willoughby from testifying, Martin schemed to kidnap Frederick's son Ronnie by sending the boy the cable that invited him to visit his father's large spread, "Rancho San Quentin." The plot was momentarily derailed when the boy mistook Gene and Frog for his escorts.
Gene recognizes Willoughby's name and suspects that something is not right. He decides to retain custody of the boy until he can investigate. While driving along the road, they nearly collide with Joyce Halloway (June Storey) and her little sister Patsy (Mary Lee), whose car goes into a lake. Joyce is a socialite, a wealthy ranch owner, and a runaway bride who is wanted by the police for taking the jilted bridegroom's car. She and Patsy stow away in Gene's horse trailer, and after several spats, Gene agrees to drive them to their California ranch. Along the way, Jenkins and Carter, having picked up Ronnie's trail, try to kidnap the boy, but Gene and Frog foil the attempt.
After Gene and his group arrive at Joyce's ranch, she offers Ronnie refuge, pretending it is Rancho San Quentin. Gene sends Willoughby a wire telling him that Ronnie is with him, but the convict mistakes it for a kidnapping note and breaks out of prison to rescue his son. Martin sends his henchmen to join the posse in pursuit of the fugitive, which has orders to "shoot to kill." When he arrives at Joyce's ranch, Willoughby learns that Ronnie is safe and surrenders to the sheriff. When Martin and his henchmen attempt to hijack the train carrying the Willoughby back to prison, Gene saves the day. Frederick is exonerated and returns to Joyce's ranch claim his son, while Gene agrees to stay at the ranch as Joyce's new foreman.

Gene Autry (Gene Autry) returns to his hometown of Torpedo as guest of honor at the Frontier Days Celebration, where he meets his childhood enemies, the Wildhack brothers—Mark (Barton MacLane), Jasper (Joe Sawyer), and Bud (Horace McMahon)—who are now local gangsters. The Wildhacks own a saloon next door to the school, and when their shooting and brawling endangers the safety of the children, Gene protests and threatens to expose them during his next radio broadcast. The Wildhacks stop the broadcast and beat Gene up.
Realizing that Hollywood life has softened him to the extent that he can't hold his own against three assailants, Gene decides to remain in Torpedo and get into shape again. He is encouraged by his friend Cornelius J. "Corney" Courtney (Jimmy Durante) and Pop Laramie (George "Gabby" Hayes). Refusing to return to Hollywood, Gene now broadcasts his radio shows from Torpedo.
Julie Sheldon (Ann Miller), a debutante with theatrical aspirations, sees Gene in his natural setting and begins to take an interest in the cowboy she formerly scorned. Meanwhile, Gene rounds up the Wildhacks and fights them single-handed, forcing them to sing on his broadcast. When the brothers become determined to get revenge, Gene runs for sheriff so he will be in position to clean up the Wildhack political machine for good, and also make use of the "Vote for Autry" song. During the battles that ensue, one of Gene's friends is killed. Gene discovers evidence that identifies the Wildhacks as the killers.


Texas Ranger Captain Roy Colt (Roy Rogers) disapproves of the tactics of his superior, General Augustus LaRue (Henry Brandon), who is governing the Republic of Texas temporarily while Sam Houston (Davison Clark) is in Washington trying to get Texas admitted into the United States. LaRue is seeking to advance his own power, and he arbitrarily sets a tax on all wagons using the Santa Fe Trail (yes, check a map of the Republic of Texas before statehood), and orders Captain Colt and his Sergeant, Gabby Whittaker (George "Gabby" Hayes), to enforce this ruling. Colt, knowing that if he refuses he will be in no position to combat LaRue's outrageous plans, plays along. Among the first of the freighter wagon trains to be taxed is those belonging to Jane Tabor (Jacqueline Wells, before she became Julie Bishop) . When she and her old-time scout, Hank Purdy (Si Jenks), refuse to pay the tax, Colt places her under arrest and brings her before LaRue. But Jane charms LaRue into allowing her a monopoly of the freight lines using the Santa Fe Trail. Secretly, she is bent upon deposing LaRue, who was responsible for the death of her father. Colt misunderstands her motives, while she is equally contemptuous of his being a tool of LaRue. The other wagon train owners revolt and backed by Colt and Hank Purdy, who has deserted Jane because of her apparent bargain with LaRue, they use force to get the freight wagons through. Purdy is wounded and Jane comes to his aid. Through Gabby, Jane and Roy's misunderstanding are corrected, and they work together until LaRue's treachery is exposed and he is brought to justice.

A firing squad in Mexico is just about to be the end of former Army officer Gil Farra, former prizefighter George Bird and caballero Antonio Sierra when they get a last-second reprieve.
Along the trail, riding for the U.S. border, the men encounter a young woman known as "Squib" and her grandfather, Homer Clayborn, a newspaper publisher. He's been run out of the town of Santa Marta, where townspeople have come under the thumb of a wealthy landowner, Colonel Rebstock.
Accompanying them back into town, the men decide to avenge Clayborn after he is murdered. They apprehend and jail the culprit, Todd Shelby, after scheming to get George named the town's new sheriff. Squib writes a newspaper editorial denouncing Rebstock, then is killed, with her office set ablaze. Shelby and his men bust out of jail, but Gil, George and Sierra overcome him, then do likewise with Rebstock.

Singing cowboy Gene Autry (Gene Autry) and his sidekick Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) work on a ranch owned by Ann Randolph (June Storey). Gene is unaware that he has just inherited the Belmont Packing Company. While Gene and Frog take the cattle to market, Gene has an argument with Ann who fires them both, giving them one of the steers as back pay. Later the local sheriff, seeing a Randolph steer in the possession of the two cowboys, arrests Gene and Frog on suspicion of cattle rustling. Attorney Henry Walker (Forbes Murray), who has been searching for the singing cowboy, finally locates Gene at the jail and informs him of his inheritance.
After being released from jail, Gene takes possession of the Belmont Packing Company. Ann, who owns a rival packing company, had plans to merge the two companies under her ownership. Now she is dismayed to learn that the man she just fired is now her main business competitor. Ann's conniving general manager and fiancé, Donald Gregory (Warren Hull), convinces her to feign romantic interest in Gene and sweet talk him into selling his company to her. At first the plan appears to work, and Gene agrees to Ann's offer and signs a contract of sale. Later, when he learns that Gregory plans to close the plant putting all his employees out of work, Gene tears up the contract and decides to stay in the packing business.
Gene soon learns that his biggest business challenge is having enough cattle to fill the distribution demands. He initiates a campaign to convince the ranchers to sell their stock to his Belmont Packing Company, and soon the contracts start coming in. Ann responds with her own campaign, however, appealing to ranchers with a "helpless woman" routine. When he notices her success, Gene changes tactics and starts a new campaign, singing to the ranchers and organizing parades in an effort to win their business, and the campaign succeeds.
Unable to compete with legitimate business approaches, Gregory orders his men to use violence to stop the singing cowboy. Ann's little sister Patsy (Mary Lee), who has a crush on Gene, overhears Gregory's men plotting to dynamite the dam and flood the valley. After she warns Gene of Gregory's scheme, Gene rides off and intercepts Gregory's henchmen before they can plant their explosives. Soon after, Gregory is indicted for sabotage, and Gene and Ann form a business alliance as well as a romantic relationship.


The Carsons and the Pritchards have been feuding in the town of Carson's Corners for generations. The budding romance between Will Carson (Gene Autry) and Marjorie Pritchard (Marjorie Weaver) is now being threatened by the long-standing feud. Margorie's father, Calvin Pritchard (Frank M. Thomas), is the bank president and mayor of Carson's Corners. Calvin pretends to support Will's courtship of his daughter because he needs to acquire a piece of Carson property for a proposed highway through the area. When Will learns of Calvin's true motives, he accuses Marjorie of scheming with her father to steal Carson land.
The long simmering feud between the Carsons and the Pritchards erupts over Will's accusation. Just as the families renew their bickering, Gabby Cross (Jack Carson), a publicity agent for Spectrum Pictures, arrives in town and offers the townspeople $20,000 to use Carson's Corners as a filming location for a movie he is making about Wild Bill Carson, Will's grandfather and the founder of Carson Corners. Still angered by Will's undermining his highway plan, Calvin refuses Gabby's offer. His youngest daughter, Jane (Jane Withers), suggests a compromise that would allow Spectrum Pictures to use the town as a filming location if the highway proposal were approved by the Carsons.
With all parties agreeing to the proposal, the movie company arrives in town and begins production. The star of the film, Bob Merritt (Robert Lowery), begins to court Marjorie. Wanting her sister to marry Will, Jane and the sheriff devise a plan to frighten Merritt out of town, telling him a lynch party is after him. After Merritt leaves town, the head of Spectrum Pictures threatens to sue Pritchard for the defection. Gabby suggests giving the part to Will, who agrees on the condition that Pritchard extend the Carson mortgages.
While the movie is being filmed, three gangsters arrive in town. During a bank hold-up scene, the three gangsters put on actors' costumes and steal the money from the bank. Learning of the theft, Will pursues the gangsters on horseback, catches them, and brings them back to Carson Corners with the money. Will's heroic actions wins the respect of the Pritchards, as well as Margorie's respect and hand in marriage.





Twin brothers David and Tom Cook go their separate ways, David as a lawman, Tom as an outlaw. The latter is in league with a corrupt sheriff, McDaniels, and at odds with two members of his gang, Hardman and Marsden. The honest, upright David has few allies except for an elderly uncle, Hardtack.
Saloon singer Phyllis O'Conover is in love with Tom, even though he has gone bad. Due to a case of mistaken identities, she ends up married to his twin. Tom considers this unforgivable, even though Phyllis was sincerely in love with him, and kills her. David, meanwhile, falls in love with Phyllis's jealous older sister, Julie.
Hardman and Marsden are ultimately done away with, leading to a showdown between the twins. Tom has the drop on David and appears to be the victory until he is shot dead by their uncle.

Law-abiding farmers, the Dalton brothers move to Kansas to begin a new life. Bob Dalton meets lawyer Tod Jackson and persuades him to defend his kin Ben Dalton in a court case against a corrupt land development company.
A melee erupts during the trial, resulting in the Daltons needing to shoot their way out of the courtroom. A negative light is cast on the Daltons by cronies of the land developers and the press. Ben is shot in the back. Unable to get by lawfully, the Daltons rob a stage coach and their reputation as dangerous outlaws spreads.
Tod, meantime, has fallen in love with Bob Dalton's fiancee, Julie. He strongly urges the Daltons to change their ways, but they defy brother Bob and decide to pull one more bank job in Kansas, a decision that proves fatal.

An agent of an unspecified foreign power (John Miljan) plots to take over California during the confusion of the American Civil War. He uses Morrell and his Overland Raiders to prevent news from reaching the east. The Raiders rustle the stagecoach and Pony Express horses from the various relay stations to cut all lines of communication to and from the east. Bill Hickok is sent out to one of the relay stations in hopes that he would be able to keep the ponies from the raiders. Calamity and Gabby, horse traders for the relay stations, ride up with their Indian helpers just as Bill finishes off the last few Raiders that had attacked his post. Bill has been severely hurt so Calamity and Gabby stick around for a while.
During this time, Bill’s old fiancée, Louise Mason, shows up. She wants to make up after their breaking their engagement over her support for the Confederacy and Bil's for the North. They agree to forget the war; she and Bill are soon planning a wedding. However, Marshal Evans, head of the communication lines, wants Bill to take a shipment of gold through to the east to support the Federal war effort.
Bill knows it’s too dangerous to actually take it himself, the raiders would be sure to get it, so he sends the gold with Gabby and Calamity while pretending to take it himself. The plan backfires when Louise tells Tower that Bill isn’t taking the gold to protect Bill from attack. The Raiders attack Gabby and get away with the gold. Bill gets worried when the Raiders don’t attack him so he returns to town to see what happened to Gabby. The Marshal wants to know what went wrong and Bill asks for half an hour to find out. After he leaves, Tower convinces the men that Bill is really at the head of the Raiders and that he was getting away. Gabby overhears their conversation so he rides to warn Bill.
Bill gets away for the time being but is captured when he returns to town to search Tower’s office. Gabby helps him escape and they see Tower escaping with the gold and the Raiders. Riding back to the posse that pursued them, Bill convinces Marshal to follow them. With Tower and the Raiders locked up and the Civil War ended, Bill and Louise finally get married.

When an aircraft from the Yukon and Columbia Mail Service crashes, Sergeant Renfrew (James Newill) and Constable Kelly (Dave O'Brien), of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, suspect murder because they find the control stick jammed. Louise Howard (Louise Stanley), a mine owner reports that her superintendent is missing. When he is found murdered, it also is made to look like an accident.
The new mail service pilot, Bill Shipley (Warren Hull), had trained with Renfrew, is a good pilot but reckless. The Mounties find Louise's assistant Raymond (Karl Hackett) owns the airline managed by "Yuke Cardoe" (William Pawley) and both men had been stealing gold from the mine. They have been shipping it to Seattle by aircraft. When Renfrew sets a trap, Yuke and Raymond panic and try to escape in their aircraft, but Renfrew and Shipley bring them down, after which, Renfrew makes a recommendation for Shipley to join the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as a new pilot.

Tom Martel, a judge's son, returns to town out West after finishing law school. He becomes involved in a personal feud involving a banker's daughter, Hettie Huston, who attempts to railroad poor scrubwoman Mary Shoemaker in the theft of fifty dollars from a local widow.

After the war, with Confederate money now useless, many Missouri farmers find themselves unable to pay their bills. William Merrick and his men begin foreclosing on them or running them off, resulting in the death of Martha Adams, sweetheart of one of the Younger gang.
The brothers Cole, Bob and Jim Younger ride back to Missouri just as their father is shot by Merrick's hired gun, Greg Bilson. A sheriff is killed as well and the Youngers are falsely accused of murdering him, so they retaliate by joining Jesse James's gang and pulling off robberies, giving the money to the needy farmers to pay their taxes.
Merrick decides to flush out Jim Younger by arresting the woman he loves, Mary Hathaway, as an accomplice to the Younger brothers' crimes. He offers to exchange Mary for Jim behind bars, secretly plotting to kill Jim once he's in his custody. The Youngers turn the tables, leading Merrick and Bilson to their own accidental deaths. They leave town and head for Minnesota to pull off another theft, but Mary and the Missourians try to figure a way to bring them safely back home.

The townspeople of Sage City are celebrating the upcoming production of a motion picture in their community. The film's producers, Homer Gerard (Arthur Loft) and Ellery Gibson (Sidney Blackmer), assure the townspeople that if they invest financially in the production, that John Wayne himself will star in the movie, and the world premier will be held in Sage City, putting their community on the map. Singing cowboy Gene Autry (Gene Autry) and his sidekick Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) are caught up in the excitement and host a barbecue for the town and its good fortune.
Soon after, Gene discovers that the producers are in fact con artists who have swindled Sage City citizens out of $35,000. Gerard and Gibson, whose real names are Flood and Allen, travel to San Ramon, Mexico, where their bosses, the real Gerard and Gibson, are preparing to pull a similar swindle on the townspeople of San Ramon. Their primary target is the wealthy Don Carlos Alvarado (Julian Rivero), whose daughter Maria Elena (Fay McKenzie) has been promised a starring role in the film in return for his financial support.
Following the con artists' trail, Gene and Frog travel to San Ramon and meet beautiful Maria Elena on the way. They tell her about how the citizens of Sage City were swindled. Gene and Frog meet the real Gibson and Gerard, but do not recognize them, but Frog does recognize their car—the same one Flood and Allen drove in Sage City. Gene realizes that these men must be involved in some way. The following night, Gene accompanies Maria Elena to a fiesta. Afterwards, some of Gerard and Gibson's henchmen take shots at Gene, Frog, and their friend, reformed bandit Pancho Grande (Harold Huber), looking to put an end to Gene's investigation.
Determined to expose the con artists' latest scheme, Gene abducts Maria Elena during the first day of filming and convinces her that something is not right. At Gene's suggestion, Maria Elena persuades her father to request that Gerard and Gibson, as a sign of good faith, invest some of their own money in the production. The swindlers agree to the request, even though they have no money in the bank. They devise a plan to hold up the bank car bringing Don Carlos' share of the investment the following day and frame Gene for the crime.
When they learn about the plot, Gene and Frog go after Gerard and Gibson's henchmen while Pancho Grande reunites with his old gang who agreed to help. Following a dramatic chase, Gene captures the ringleaders and their henchmen. Afterwards, Rurale Captain Rodriguez (Thornton Edwards) gives Gene the money swindled from the citizens of Sage City, and to everyone's surprise, the former bandit Pancho Grande announces that he has become a policeman. Gene assures Maria Elena that he will return in a month to accompany her to another fiesta.

The town of Headstone eagerly awaits the arrival of their new sheriff, hoping that he will vanquish the dreaded outlaw, Killer Pete, who has murdered the last four sheriffs. Meanwhile, on the stage bound for Headstone, Tex Miller, the new sheriff, is making small talk with fellow passenger and former seminary student Belinda "Bill" Pendergast when the stage is attacked by a band of Indians. Taking aim at the Indians, Bill shoots them off their horses and then calmly explains to the astonished Tex that her father always wanted a son and taught her to handle a gun.
Back in town, Killer Pete and his gang strike again and rob the Crystal Palace saloon. After the outlaws abscond with the money, Judge Harmon hands saloon owner Jim Pendergast a letter from his recently deceased brother Joe, asking Jim to take care of Joe's progeny Bill. Jim insists that Bill be appointed as the new sheriff until the stage arrives and he discovers that Bill is a girl. Bill scandalizes the women of the town when she insists on living above the saloon with her uncle.
Weeks later, Tex visits Bill and asks her to marry him. She sends him to her uncle to ask permission, and in Tex's absence, Killer Pete enters the saloon with guns blazing. Upset that the sound of gunfire has caused a pie baking in her oven to fall, Bill proceeds downstairs and throws the pie at the outlaw, but misses and hits Tex, who has come running into the saloon. Blinded by the pie, the sheriff is unable to pursue the bandits, who hijack a carriage that is tied up outside the saloon. Unknown to the outlaws, Judge Harmon and Hank, the deputy, are hiding in the back of the carriage. Later, Killer Pete visits his girl friend Lola, a dancer at the saloon. The outlaw then removes his disguise and becomes Tom Hannegan, a respected and wealthy rancher.
Lola, jealous of Bill's presence in town, demands that Jim send his niece back East. When Jim broaches the topic with Bill, she insists on discussing the issue with Lola. After Bill informs Lola that she intends to remain in Headstone, Lola quits her job at the saloon, and Bill decides to take her place onstage. Embarrassed by his niece's unladylike performance, Jim orders her to return East immediately. Jim relents, however, when Tex asks for his niece's hand in marriage. Jim consents to the union and Tex rushes to tell Bill the good news, but is met by another pie in the face when Bill, unaware of Tex's presence, berates the pie for spoiling her engagement and then throws it. That night, Judge Harmon and Hank return from their buggy ride, having captured one of the bandits. After locking him in jail, they meet Hannegan and blurt out that they have captured bandit Dave Watson, who revealed the location of the gang's hideout. Soon after Hannegan shoots Dave in his jail cell. He arranges for Chief Big Thunder Cloud and his tribe to ambush the posse when they ride to the hideout. In the posse's absence, Hannegan and his gang plan to loot the town.
After Tex and the others ride out of Headstone, Bill begins to pack her suitcase and goes to Lola's dressing room to retrieve her costume. When Bill's dog Waffles uncovers Hannegan's disguise there, Bill visits Lola and tricks her into revealing Hannegan's plans. The two women fight and after Bill subdues Lola, the women of the town denounce her for being unfeminine. Bill changes their minds when she tells them of the planned robbery and ambush, and recruits Bertha, one of the wives, to warn the posse. When Hannegan and his gang stride confidently into the saloon, Bill and the women pelt them with pans and brooms. By the time the posse arrives, the women have captured the outlaws, and Bill, in her enthusiasm, flattens Tex with a frying pan.

Upon arriving at Painted Springs, Dr. Steven Monroe witnesses a clash between sheep herders and cattle breeders. As Monroe starts to investigate the cause of the conflict, he finds out about Fred Burns' diabolical scheme – he intends to steal John Richards' cattle and frame sheep rancher Ed Gordon for the deed. After a series of fights, during which Burns and his men kidnap Richards' daughter Nancy, Monroe rescues Nancy and manages to get Burns to confess. With his evil intentions revealed, the two camps cease battling, and Monroe quietly leaves Painted Springs.


The events depicted in Riders of the Purple Sage occur in mid-spring and late summer 1871. Early in Riders of the Purple Sage, Jane Withersteen's main conflict is her right to befriend a Gentile. (The word Gentile means "non-Mormon" and is used a lot in the book). Jane Withersteen’s father wished Jane to marry Elder Tull, but Jane refused saying she did not love him, causing controversy and leading to persecution by the local Mormons.
Jane’s friend, (cowboy) Bern Venters is "arrested" by Tull and his men, but is not clear under what authority. Jane defends Venters, declaring him her best rider. Her churchmen refuse to value the opinion of a woman:
"Tull lifted a shaking finger toward her. 'That'll do from you. Understand, you'll not be allowed to hold this boy [Venters] to a friendship that's offensive to your bishop. Jane Withersteen, your father left you wealth and power. It has turned your head. You haven't yet come to see the place of Mormon women ...'"
It is here we first hear of Lassiter. Ironically, at the moment when Venters mentions Lassiter’s name, the actual Lassiter is seen approaching in the distance by Tull’s men.
Upon his arrival, Lassiter expresses his trust in the word of women, at which Tull rebukes him, telling him not to meddle in Mormon affairs. Tull’s men begin to take Venters away, and Venters realizes who he is and screams "Lassiter!" Tull understands that this is the infamous Lassiter and flees.
Lassiter inquires as to the location of Millie Erne's grave, to which a transfixed Jane agrees to take him. Venters later tells Jane he must leave her. When she protests, Venters delivers this statement: " ... Tull is implacable. You ought to see from his intention today that ... but you can't see. Your blindness ... your damned religion! Jane, forgive me ... I'm sore within and something rankles. Well, I fear that invisible hand [of Mormon power in the region] will turn its hidden work to your ruin.", showing that Venters could see far into the future, and although Jane rebukes his statement, he is indeed correct.
Jane’s red herd is rustled shortly afterward and Venters tracks it and returns it to Jane. Bern finds the herd, but, in his travels, wages a gun battle with two of Oldring’s rustlers, killing one and managing to wound Oldring’s notorious Masked Rider. Upon further examination, he removes the mask and shirt of the wounded rider and learns that the Masked Rider is a young woman named Bess whom he believes had been abused by Oldring. Venters experiences a large amount of guilt about shooting a girl and decides that it is his duty to save her.
Venters discovers Surprise Valley and Balancing Rock, where he takes Bess, the girl he has found. Bess gradually gains health and begins to fall in love with Venters who begins to fall in love with Bess. Each explain their individual stories ambiguously, but through Venters' dedicated care for Bess, the pair forms a mutual love that leads to their resolve to marry. Bess also discovered the truth concerning Oldring’s rustlers, who rustled cattle only to disguise their true lifestyle of surviving off gold in the streams and business deals with the Mormons.
Venters then determines that there is a need for supplies warranting a trip back to Cottonwoods. On his way, Venters sees Jane Withersteen’s prize horses being stolen. He kills the thieves and retrieves the horses for Jane, but unfortunately loses his horse, Wrangle.
Jane’s horses are returned to her, and are locked in the entry hall to Withersteen's house. Venters officially breaks his friendship with Jane at this time. He goes into the village and proclaimed that he was breaking his friendship and leaving. After he leaves, Jane’s other herd gets stolen.
Jane at first pretends to love Lassiter — knowing he came to Utah to avenge his sister Milly Erne — to prevent him from murdering Mormon elders she knew were guilty. The two characters grow to love each other. Then Jane's adopted daughter Fay is kidnapped and Lassiter kills Bishop Dyer while risking his own life.
The four main characters — Venters, Bess, Lassiter, and Jane — realize that they can no longer safely stay in Utah. Lassiter convinces Jane to prepare to leave with him, Lassiter determines the name of a Mormon who contributed to the ruin of Milly and Jane implicates her father in the proselytizing of Milly. In a state of shock, Jane packs.
Meanwhile, in Surprise Valley, Venters and Bess are preparing to leave as Jane and Lassiter departing, except on burros. Lassiter sets fire to Withersteen House and flees on horseback with Jane. They encounter Venters and Bess in travel. Before they part, Lassiter explains that Bess is not really Bess Oldring, but actually Elizabeth Erne, the lost daughter of Milly Erne.
Jane gives Venters her horses, Venters and Bess gallop for Venters' Illinois home, and Lassiter and Jane find refuge in Venters' valley paradise. On the way, Lassiter rescues Fay, but they are pursued to Surprise Valley. As Tull and his men begin to climb up the cliffside, Jane shouts to Lassiter to "roll the stone," which he does. The ensuing avalanche closes the outlet to Deception Pass "forever." (This is, of course, not true, as Jane, Lassiter, and Fay return in Grey's sequel, The Rainbow Trail/The Desert Crucible.)

Singing cowboy and rancher Gene Autry (Gene Autry) arrives in the town of Riverton and helps his fellow cattlemen sell their herds for the first profit they've seen in four years. Gene convinces the cattlemen to deposit their money into Eben Carter's bank for safekeeping before going out to watch the parade. Captain 'Lijah Bartlett (Ferris Taylor) has just arrived on the riverboat Jolly Betsy with its troupe of entertainers who are now parading through town. While the townspeople are distracted, Matt Evans (Byron Foulger), a washed-up dancer looking to provide for his young daughter Patsy (Mary Lee), reluctantly assists Blake and Morrison rob the bank. Evans is shocked when they gun down Carter, but still agrees when the men order him to bring the money to them in nearby Colesburg.
Feeling responsible for the loss of his friends' money, Gene sets out to find the bank robbers and recover the stolen money, with the help of his sidekick Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) and Sheriff Jim Mason (Guy Usher). They track Evans to the showboat, but Evans is able to elude them after telling Patsy to meet him later in Colesburg. With Patsy as their only lead, Gene persuades the sheriff to go easy on her. As part of their investigation, Gene and Frog are hired as performers by Captain Bartlett, who does not know they are working with the sheriff. Genuinely concerned with Patsy's welfare, Gene tries to befriend the youngster, who is torn between telling the truth and her loyalty to her father. Patsy is able to convince Gene to let her go ashore alone at Colesburg, but when she sees the sheriff, who has arrived without Gene's knowledge, she assumes that Gene is going to double-cross her and informs the captain of Gene's identity.
Patsy gathers the stolen money her father had hidden on the boat and sneaks ashore to the inn where he is hiding. There she pleads with her father to turn himself in and return the money. Before they can leave, however, Blake and Morrison arrive at the inn. Patsy locks herself in the next room and listens in horror as the bank robbers shoot her father after he tells them where the money is stashed. Patsy gives her dog Spotlight her room key, helps him through a window, and tells him to go to the showboat, where the dog gives the key to Gene. Knowing what has happened, Gene, Frog, and the others rush to the inn and rescue Patsy just as the bank robbers are about to kidnap her. After giving his farewell performance on the showboat, Gene takes Patsy to live with him on his ranch.

In Sierra City, George Larrabee (Robert Homans), the president of the Western Stockman's Association, orders the ranchers of the area to burn their land in response to a poisonous "devil weed" that threatens to overgrow the rangeland and kill the cattle. The local bank president Stacy Bromfield (Frank M. Thomas), a long-time supporter of the ranchers, believes the burning has failed to control the epidemic. At a meeting with Larrabee and the ranchers, Bromfield announces that he contacted the Department of Agriculture and requested a weed control specialist be assigned to investigate. Although suspicious of government intervention, Larrabee and the ranchers agree to cooperate.
While riding to Sierra City, singing cowboy and government specialist Gene Autry (Gene Autry) meets Larrabee's daughter Sue (Fay McKenzie) who does not know he is from the Department of Agriculture. Later, Gene and his sidekick Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) rescue a wounded pilot from a crashed plane—a plane carrying a large loan to Bromfield for the ranchers. Gene leaves the pilot with a farmer and heads to the bank with the money. Believing that they have stolen the money, the farmer alerts the sheriff who organizes a posse, tracks Gene and Frog down, and arrests them. Gene's assistant, Jarvis (Kermit Maynard), arrives to identify them, and soon they are freed.
During his investigation, Gene has a confrontation with Larrabee's foreman, Brandywine (Earle Hodgins), who is attempting to burn Larrabee land at his boss' instruction. When Larrabee and Sue arrive, Gene is able to convince them to keep an open mind and that all ranchers must cooperate if they are to solve the problem. Later at the carnival, Gene romances Sue while Frog is seduced by fortune teller Verebel Featherstone (Dorothy Christy), who is paid by Gene to keep Frog distracted and away from Sue. Verebel hypnotizes Frog and convinces him to become a "human cannonball" and be shot from a cannon.
After his investigation, Gene attends a meeting with the ranchers and tells them that burning will not work—that in fact it will only cause regrowth—and that the only way to get rid of the "devil weed" is through chemical spraying. When the ranchers indicate that the chemicals will kill the cattle, Gene assures the ranchers that the cattle will not be harmed if they are moved away from the spraying area. The ranchers agree to follow Gene's recommendations—everyone but Larrabee who threatens to resign if anyone sprays his range.
The next day, Gene instructs the ranchers to move their cattle to a nearby canyon and keep them there until the next rainfall so they will not be harmed by the chemicals. Once again, Larrabee is the only one who opposes the plan and indicates that he will not comply. Meanwhile, in an effort to protect Larrabee's cattle from the spraying, Bromfield has his cattle moved to safety with the other herds. As Larrabee and his men prepare for a showdown, Gene devises a plan to thwart Larrabee's opposition without violence. Gene orders an airplane to spray the rangeland. Later with her father, Sue acknowledges that Gene handled the situation well and avoided a violent confrontation, and Larrabee agrees. Reluctantly he acknowledges that maybe now the problem will be resolved.
Brandywine, however, refuses to accept Gene's solution, and as the plane flies over the rangeland, he shoots the plane, disabling it. Although the pilot is able to bail out safely, the plane crashes near the herds and starts a stampede. As the cattle head toward the sprayed land, Gene creates a firebreak just in time to keep the cattle safely inside the canyon. Afterwards, Larrabee apologizes to Gene for his stubborn opposition, Verebel finally wins Frog's affection, and Gene and Sue ride through the valley together singing a romantic song.

Singing cowboy Gene Autry (Gene Autry) is the foreman of the Circle R Ranch, which has been in the Adams family for generations. The ranchers in the area have enjoyed free grazing rights on the Circle R for years. Recently, the madcap heiress of the ranch, beautiful Jo Adams (Virginia Dale), negotiated the sale of the ranch in order to pay off some of her debts. She accepted a $25,000 down payment, with an option to purchase in 60 days, from unscrupulous cattle broker John Ramsey (George Meeker) who is conspiring with Adams' business manager James Morgan (Harry Stubbs) to buy the ranch and cut off grazing rights to the ranchers.
As the head of the cattlemen's association, Gene is accused of betraying the ranchers after they learn that the Circle R is being sold and that their grazing rights, bequeathed to them by Jo's late grandfather, will be taken away. Without access to the Circle R pasture lands, most of the ranches in the area will go bankrupt. Determined to persuade Jo to change her mind, Gene and his pals, Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette), Cactus Mack (Cactus Mack), and Patsy (Mary Lee), drive to Jo's palatial house in the city. The scatterbrained Jo mistakes them for the band hired to play at her birthday party that evening, and they perform in order to stay.
After the party, Gene explains who they are and urges Jo to return to the ranch and run it the way her grandfather did. The frivolous heiress, however, has no intention of changing her extravagant lifestyle. With few options available to him, Gene abducts Jo and her butler, Dada (Gerald Oliver Smith), and takes them back to the Circle R Ranch, where Pop Sloan (Wade Boteler), a rancher who has known Jo all her life, has organized a welcoming party for her. Despite her appreciation, Jo tells Gene that she is broke and has to sell the ranch to pay her debts.
Soon after, Gene approaches Judge Henry Starbottle (Spencer Charters) and explains the impact the sale of the Circle R would have on the ranchers in the area. They conspire to have Jo declared legally incompetent in order to buy some time. At the hearing, Henry rules that she is to become a ward of the court, and Gene is placed in charge of the ranch until Jo can prove her competency.
In order to raise enough money to repay Ramsey his down payment, Gene and the ranchers drive their cattle to market. When Ramsey learns of their intentions, he sends his henchmen to blow up a dam and flood the valley through which the cattle are passing. The dam is destroyed and the cattle stampede. In the ensuing chaos, most of the cattle are drowned or dispersed, and Gene is barely able to save Pop from drowning.
Meanwhile, Jo wins her competency hearing, regains control over the ranch, and quickly fires Gene and the other Circle R cowboys. As the men are packing to leave, Jo arrives to say goodbye to the men, but is distressed to see families who will be displaced because of her actions. She drives away, but is stopped on the road by Judge Henry, who tells her that she must say goodbye to Pop before she leaves. Jo is overcome with grief when the judge brings her to the old man's funeral; the old man did not survive his ordeal.
Later, after Jo reveals that she told Ramsey about the cattle drive, Gene realizes that Ramsey was behind the dam explosion. When Jo tells him that she now intends to keep the ranch, Gene devises a plan, sending her to Ramsey's office where she tells him that Gene is holding Morgan in an attempt to get information from him. Worried that Morgan will implicate him in the dam explosion, Ramsey hires a group of gunmen to kill Gene. When the hired guns sneak onto the Circle R that night, they are beaten and captured by Gene and the ranch hands. Gene himself apprehends Ramsey after giving the corrupt cattle broker a beating. Afterwards, the ranchers are promised a good deal on their next herds, and Jo keeps Gene as her foreman.

Don, Smokey and Whopper stop a runaway stagecoach and save passenger Jenny Blanchard on their way to Placerville, where the marshal is Don's brother, Brad.
When he gets to town, Don finds someone impersonating his brother. The law counters by accusing Don and his pals of being horse thieves. Jenny vouches for their integrity with father Ben and sister Penny.
It turns out the stagecoach line owner's assistant is behind a gold-shipment theft and other crimes. Don and local miners get involved, saving the day.

George Armstrong Custer (Flynn) enters West Point and quickly establishes himself as a troublemaker by showing up in an outlandish uniform he had designed himself, which makes him appear to be a visiting foreign general. After the misunderstanding, he signs up as a cadet and begins to stack up demerits for pranks and a general disregard for rules while at the Point. When the Civil War breaks out, Custer is at the bottom of his class.
Custer's relationship with Libbie Bacon (from Monroe, Michigan) begins at the Point; walking a punishment tour, he is not allowed to speak, but he is approached by Libbie who asks him for directions. As soon as his punishment ends, he runs after her, explaining his rude silence, and asking if he may come by her front porch that evening. After speaking with Libbie, Custer and other members of his class are graduated early and ordered to report to Washington, D.C. for assignment. As a result, Custer misses his evening appointment.
Once in the capital, Custer makes the acquaintance of Gen. Winfield Scott (Sydney Greenstreet) while dining, who then aids him in getting placed with the 2nd U.S. Cavalry. He becomes a war hero after disregarding a superior's orders during a crucial battle, successfully defending a bridge for the Union infantry. He is awarded a medal while recovering in a hospital after being shot in the shoulder; he then gets leave to return to his home in Monroe, Michigan. He meets Libbie at her home but her father, who has been the butt of Custer's joke earlier that day, orders him to leave. Custer returns to his regiment.
Due to a miscommunication from the Department of War, he is promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and takes command of the Michigan Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg. He wins the day, and many victories follow him thereafter on his path to the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, which ends the Civil War.
Upon returning home to Monroe as a war hero, Custer marries Libbie in a big ceremony, which includes a regimental honor guard, but he soon grows bored with civilian life and begins drinking too much. Libbie visits Custer's old friend Gen. Scott and begs him to assign Custer to a regiment again. He agrees, and Custer is given a Lt. Colonel's commission in the Dakota Territory.
When Custer and Libbie arrive at Fort Lincoln, Custer finds the soldiers a drunken, rowdy and undisciplined lot in need of firm leadership. His old West Point enemy, Ned Sharp (Arthur Kennedy), who has a government license to run the fort's trading post and saloon, is providing Winchester repeating rifles to the local Native Americans. Furious, Custer stops the rifle sales and permanently closes the saloon. He then instills proper military discipline in his men and introduces a regimental song, "Garryowen", both of which quickly brings fame to the U.S. 7th Cavalry under Custer's command. The 7th has many engagements with Lakota tribal chief Crazy Horse (Anthony Quinn), who eventually offers peace, wanting a treaty that will protect the sacred Black Hills; Custer and Washington sign the treaty, but soon it is bankrupting Sharp's trading posts. Sharp spreads a rumor that large gold deposits have been discovered in the Black Hills. American settlers stream into the area in violation of the treaty, but Custer and his troops permit no infractions. To embarrass Custer, Sharp passes out free bottles of liquor to Custer's men hours before they drunkenly pass in revue, in complete disarray, before Commissioner Taipe, a politician in league with Sharp. Custer punches both Sharp and the commissioner in anger, and he is quickly relieved of his command.
Custer hears from Libbie about Sharp's attempts to start a gold rush in the Black Hills, a plan that would bring him much business and large profits. Outraged, Custer takes the information to the U.S. Congress, but they only ridicule him. When news arrives that the presence of gold miners has led to open conflict between the Indians and U.S. troops, Custer appeals in person to President Ulysses S. Grant, one soldier to another, who restores him to command.
Custer comes to realize that his men are marching into a valley where thousands of Indians are waiting. Knowing they will have no chance, he has a final, emotion-filled goodbye with Libbie and leads his men into battle. Arrows and bullets fly and horses trample into the valley, where all of Custer's forces are killed. Earlier, Sharp has been forced by Custer to ride with the 7th "to Hell or glory. It depends on one's point of view", Custer tells him, "At least you can take glory with you". Sharp admits with his dying breath that Custer may have been right about "glory". Custer is killed by a rifle shot fired by Crazy Horse.
A few corrupt politicians have goaded the western tribes into war for personal profit, threatening the survival of all white settlers in the Dakota Territories. Custer and his men have given their lives at the Battle of the Little Bighorn to delay the Indians' advance and prevent this slaughter. A letter left behind by Custer, now considered his dying declaration, names the culprits and absolves the Indians of all responsibility; Custer has won his final campaign.



The World Wide Wild West Show is a struggling rodeo outfit about to be taken over by the powerful Johnson Brothers rodeo. Daniel "Pop" McCracken (Lucien Littlefield) and Melinda "Ma" McCracken (Claire Du Brey) from World Wide get into a brawl with Jed (Tris Coffin) and Stag (Morgan Conway) Johnson after the brothers catch the desperate McCrackens vandalizing their advertisements. Singing cowboy Gene Autry (Gene Autry) and his sidekick Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) come upon the brawl and try to break up the fight, but Frog's little brother Tadpole draws the sheriff's attention, and soon they are all taken to jail, where Gene sings a song for his new friends.
The next day, Jennifer Benton (Virginia Grey), the owner of World Wide, bails Ma and Pop out of jail. After meeting Gene, she agrees to hire him hoping his singing will bring in people and improve business. Soon, Gene is drawing in the crowds eager to see the Singing Bronco Buster. Jed and Stag are not pleased with World Wide's new success, having planned to take over the company prior to their upcoming important engagements in Capistrano. As part of their efforts to acquire World Wide, Stag has been wooing Jennifer, telling his brother he will even marry her in order to close the business deal. Gene tries to warn her about Stag's motives, but she doesn't believe him.
Meanwhile, Jed and Jackie Laval (Marla Shelton), Stag's former girl friend, pay Gene a call and offer him a job with the Johnson Brothers rodeo for more money. When Gene declines, they warn him that they will take World Wide apart by force if they have to. When Gene gets into a fistfight with Jed, Jennifer mistakenly assumes it is Gene's fault. Determined to eliminate the competition, Jed returns to the World Wide camp with a gang of thugs, who proceed to destroy the camp's equipment. When Jennifer's horse bolts during the attack, Gene comes to her rescue, though she again blames him for the disturbance. When Stag offers to pay for the damage, a grateful Jennifer decides to marry him and sell him World Wide.
To prevent Jennifer from making a big mistake, Gene prevents the sale by having the deputy sheriff attach the rodeo for back wages. Broken-hearted by her failure as an owner, Jennifer hands the show over to Ma, Pop, and the other rodeo workers, telling them that she was going to give them the proceeds of the sale anyway. Later, when Jennifer tells Stag that she cannot sell the company after all, Stag's negative reaction convinces her that Gene was right about Stag's motives for romancing her. Jennifer returns to the World Wide camp, where her friends assure her that she is still the owner.
The World Wide Wild West Show travels to Capistrano and a big fiesta to celebrate their upcoming opening is organized. Unknown to Jennifer and the others, the Johnsons have planted one of their thugs, Jenkins, in Capistrano, and Jennifer unwittingly hires him. On the night of the fiesta, Jenkins sets fire to their campground, and Pop is injured while trying to rescue the horses. When Gene learns that a special doctor is needed to perform a delicate operation on Pop, he accepts a position with the Johnson Brothers who agree to advance him the money needed for Pop's operation—it's the only way he can raise that much money.
Without revealing the seriousness of Pop's condition to Jennifer and the others, Gene leaves for the Johnson Brothers rodeo. When Gene discovers the connection between the Johnson Brothers and Jenkins, he agrees not to turn them in for arson if they pay Pop's medical expenses and buy new equipment for World Wide. The Johnson Brothers agree to Gene's proposal. Later, Jennifer and the others are relieved to learn that Gene did not desert them. After Pop recovers from his operation, Gene performs in a special show attended by a booking agent from New York City. The agent is so impressed, he books the entire group for a rodeo at Madison Square Gardens.

Imprisoned and sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit, Billy, Fuzzy and Jeff break out of jail. The three escapees discover that there are three impersonators who dress as them committing the crimes. On their mission to clear their names and bring the three impersonators to justice, the trio discovers the town of Mesa Verde where outlaws are given sanctuary in exchange for paying for legal protection.

As president of the Flagpole Cattlemen's Association, singing cowboy Gene Autry (Gene Autry) entrusts the sale of the association's large cattle herd to young Jimmy Agnew (Rand Brooks), who is so thrilled with the opportunity that he proposes marriage to his girlfriend, Millie Jackson (Linda Leighton). The next day, while traveling to Hays City with the cattle, Jimmy is persuaded to join a poker game by two crooked gamblers, Dixie Trambeau (Tristram Coffin) and Joe Crowley (John Berkes), who fleece the naive cattleman and force him at gun point to turn over the power of attorney authorizing them to sell the cattle. Ashamed at his blunder, Jimmy goes into hiding.
Back in town, the distraught cattlemen prepare to swear out a warrant for Jimmy's arrest. Gene and his sidekick Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) ask them to hold off, offering to go to Hays City to search for him. At Hays City, Gene and Frog meet with District Attorney Stevens (Forbes Murray), who tells them about Trambeau's crooked gambling ring, which is responsible for fleecing many ranchers. Stevens explains that the spur railway line on which Trambeau and Crowley operate is out of his jurisdiction, and that he cannot investigate it without the permission of the line's owner, Asa Lock (Addison Richards). Stevens does not know that Trambeau and Crowley receive their orders directly from Asa, the secret leader of the gambling ring.
Gene and Frog go to Asa's office seeking his help, but learn he is out of town. They meet his daughter Stephanie (Fay McKenzie), who hires them as ranchhands, assuming they are looking for work. Soon, Gene is romancing Stephanie, while her aunt, Priscilla Smythe (Cecil Cunningham), pursues Frog. The romancing is interrupted, however, when Asa returns to the ranch. Gene reveals the purpose of his visit and asks Asa to allow an investigation of the spur line. Asa refuses to cooperate, and goes off to contact Trambeau and Crowley, ordering them to hide out near the ranch. Unaware of her father's criminality, Stephanie tells Gene that she can prove her father's innocence, and soon gives Stevens permission to conduct his investigation.
Despite several attempts by Asa to have him killed, Jimmy finally comes out of hiding and rides to the ranch with Gene to tell his story. Later, Gene and Frog discover the gamblers' hideout, but Trambeau and Crowley are able to escape with the help of Priscilla and the Locks' Chinese servant and ride back to the ranch. There they learn that Asa sent Jimmy a false message directing him to Stevens' office, having planned for a truck to run Jimmy off the road. When Asa finds out that Stephanie is in the car with Jimmy, he rushes off to save her. Just before the collision, Gene jumps into Stephanie's car and steers it away from the oncoming truck, which then collides with Asa's car. As Asa lays dying, Gene assures him that he will take care of his daughter.
Afterwards, at Jimmy and Millie's wedding, Priscilla catches the bouquet from the bride as Gene and Stephanie look on in laughter.

The Rough Riders protect a wagon train and supplies for the railroad against a power hungry businessman who dresses his army of henchmen as Indians.

A statue is being dedicated to the late founder of Hoyt City, and reporters from around the country have gathered, speculating that "the old lady's going to talk." When the anticipated "old lady" does not appear at the event, they rush to her home. She is centenarian Hannah Sempler (Barbara Stanwyck), who lives in an old mansion among the skyscrapers of Hoyt City. As she confronts the press who have barged in, a photographer says, "Hold it, Mrs. Hoyt!" She replies that her name is Hanna Sempler, and refuses to answer their questions as to whether she and Hoyt had been married, which as another reporter says, would make him a bigamist. The intruders leave, having learned nothing to prove or disprove the many rumors, but Hannah is persuaded to tell her story to a young female biographer who lags behind. She reminisces about her experiences with Ethan Hoyt (Joel McCrea) in the American West.
In 1848, a teenaged Hannah Sempler is squired by her wealthy father's associate, Mr. Cadwallader (Lloyd Corrigan), but she is not interested. Hannah meets and flirts with a young pioneer and dreamer, Ethan Hoyt, who comes to her home seeking financial backing from her father (Thurston Hall) in order to build a city in the western wilderness. Her father rejects Ethan's proposal, stating that it is too risky. Hannah, however, falls in love with the young man, and quite impulsively, they elope and head west. The first years of their marriage are not easy, but the couple are happy. When Ethan loses all his money and possessions in a drunken gambling spree to Steely Edwards (Brian Donlevy), Hannah wins back his losses and befriends Steely, who accompanies the couple to Sacramento, where they hope to strike it rich mining.
In Sacramento, Hannah and Ethan spend less time together, with Ethan working long hours in the mines. One day, Hannah discovers silver on Ethan's boots, carried from the Virginia City mine where he had been working. Hannah knows she is pregnant, but does not reveal this to Ethan, knowing he would never leave her behind in that condition. Instead she encourages Ethan to go to Virginia City and find his fortune in the silver mines. Thinking his wife wants him gone so she can be with Steely, Ethan leaves her with no intention of returning.
After he leaves for Virginia City, the friendship between Hannah and Steely grows. Steely in fact looks after Hannah and her twin babies. When Sacramento is threatened by torrential flooding, Hannah plans to travel to San Francisco. But knowing that Hannah still loves Ethan, Steely arranges for her to travel by coach to Virginia City to be with her husband—he will go to San Francisco alone. As the coach crosses a bridge near Sacramento, the river overflows and washes away the coach and its passengers. Hannah alone survives; the babies perish.
After burying the twins, and believing that Hannah is also dead, Steely travels to Virginia City to tell Ethan the tragic news. It has been years since they've seen or spoken, and by now Ethan has become a wealthy man. When Steely tells him that Hannah is dead, Ethan shoots him, saying, "He killed my wife." Thinking that Hannah and Steely are now dead—Steely actually survives the shooting—Ethan continues his dream of building a great city.
Steely returns to Sacramento and discovers that Hannah is still alive. He tells her that Ethan, who believes she is dead, has married another woman. Steely and Hannah move to San Francisco and open a gambling casino. Years later, Hannah's father visits her and urges her to "disappear" so as not to threaten the political future of Ethan Hoyt, who is now representing her father's railroad interests. Hannah refuses her father's request, and travels to Hoyt City, where she watches Ethan giving a political speech. No longer a champion of the people as he once dreamed of becoming, Ethan is now a man of wealth and power, participating in corrupt practices to achieve private goals. Ethan sees Hannah in the crowd and they meet. She tells him that she had divorced him, knowing his political future would be ruined by scandal if it were known they were still married. She reminds him of the dreamer he once was. He goes off with a renewed idealism, devoting the rest of his life to helping the less fortunate, even at his own expense.
The story concludes as it started, with the aged Hannah and the young female biographer discussing Ethan Hoyt, standing beneath the impressive statue. Hannah has been alone for many years now, Steely having died in the 1906 San Francisco fire, the same year that Ethan returned to Hoyt City, to die in Hannah's mansion. No one knew why he chose to do this, and for some thirty more years Hannah has remained silent about their marriage. The biographer now realizes the profound role that Hannah played in Ethan's life and success, and in the founding of this now great city. Also aware of Ethan's mythic reputation, she kisses Hannah sweetly, saying, "I'm kissing my biography [of Ethan] goodbye." Before Hanna leaves the statue, the old woman tears up the marriage certificate she has kept all these years, saying of his myth (and perhaps their relationship), "Forever, Ethan. Now no one can change it. Forever."

Spoiled teenager Connie Lane (Edith Fellows) has no desire to join her classmates on a two-month vacation at the Smoke River Dude Ranch. Even her caring teacher, Alice Bennett (Fay McKenzie), is unable to persuade her. Connie runs off to her father, business tycoon Randolph Lane (Pierre Watkin), and pleads with him not to send her away. Preoccupied with business matters and too busy to notice how spoiled his daughter has become, Lane dismisses her and sends her away to spend the summer with her classmates at the ranch.
Meanwhile, Smoke River's ex-foreman, Hap Callahan (William Haade), is not pleased with the new foreman, Gene Autry (Gene Autry), and how he turned the place into a dude ranch. Gene reminds him that ranch owner "Skipper" Forbes (Sarah Padden) hired him because Hap's mismanagement drove the ranch into debt. When the train arrives at Smoke River carrying Alice and the girls, Connie bribes the porter to keep her luggage on the train. In the confusion, no one notices that Connie hasn't disembarked until the train pulls away. Gene races after the train on his horse, Champion, and brings the willful youngster back to the ranch.
While Gene and his sidekick Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) compete for Alice's attention, Connie complains about being stuck on an unsophisticated ranch. Despite the best efforts of Alice, Connie quickly manages to turn everyone at the ranch against her—everyone except Gene. The next day, after Hap ignores Gene's order to fix the brakes on the ranch truck, Connie steals the vehicle in another attempt to escape. When the brakes fail and Connie's life is endangered, Gene rides to her rescue, but not before the truck crashes. Instead of being grateful, Connie is angry with Gene for preventing her escape. Looking to exact revenge, she uses lipstick to mark up her back so it looks like she's been whipped, takes photographs of her injuries, and then sends them off to her father.
Later, when she learns that Gene took responsibility for the truck's destruction, a grateful Connie tells him she wants to reward him for the favor. Gene tells her that people should do favors for each other out of friendship, not for rewards. When Gene and Hap stage a contest to determine the better rider, Connie sees her opportunity to repay the favor—she tampers with Hap's saddle. During his ride, the saddle comes loose and Hap is hurt in a fall. When Gene discovers the sabotage, Connie admits to her mischief. Angered by Connie's actions, Hap draws his gun at Gene, who fires him.
Surprised that Gene would come to her defense, Connie is finally won over, and as the weeks pass, the two become good friends. Connie's happiness is short-lived, however, when her father arrives at the dude ranch, enraged by the photographs he received from her. When he demands that she leave with him immediately, she explains that the photos were a prank, but he is unconvinced. After Frog disables his plane and Gene goads him into accompanying them on a roundup, the business tycoon decides to stay.
During the roundup, Lane discovers that he enjoys the outdoors and spending time with his daughter. As the group moves through a narrow mountain pass, Hap shoots at Gene and misses, but the sound causes the horses to stampede. Just as Connie is about to be trampled, Gene rides in and saves her. After they return to the ranch, Lane finally acknowledges that his daughter is more important than his business. Sending his secretaries away, he joins the others on a music-filled hayride.

Singing cowboy Gene Autry (Gene Autry) appears on a radio program to promote U.S. Defense Bonds. In the audience, wisecracking photographer Clementine Benson (Fay McKenzie) and reporter "Hack" Hackett (Chick Chandler) make fun of the singer and his devoted fans. After the program, Clementine and Hack try to get an embarrassing story on Gene, who knows their game and eludes the pair, who previously ridiculed him in print.
Gene is approached by Pop Harrison (Forrest Taylor), the owner of the rodeo troupe that gave Gene and his sidekick Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) their start. Pop is worried that his son Tex is destroying their rodeo through his irresponsible drinking and gambling. Always ready to help out a friend, Gene decides to drive to Gold Ridge, Wyoming to lend a hand with the rodeo and straighten Tex out. Frog and Frog's brother Tadpole accompany him to Wyoming. They are followed by Clementine and Hack, who were ordered to follow Gene.
When they arrive at Bartlett's dude ranch in Wyoming, they watch Tex and the boys are preparing for their next rodeo. Hack's laughter at Tex's drunkenness provokes a fistfight, and Hack, a former prizefighter, easily beats up the drunken cowboy. Afterwards, Gene uses the incident as an opportunity to give Tex a stern lecture. Tex agrees to start acting more responsibly, and Gene tells him to attend that night's barbecue so the others can see that he's changed his ways.
That night, Hack follows three suspicious ranch guests to a saloon, where he joins them in a card game along with Tex and Sunrise (Olin Howland), an eccentric miner who shows off some gold he found. Hack quickly wins several hands, happy to take their money and Sunrise's gold. The leader of the three suspicious ranch guests, Crowley (George Douglas), is unnerved when Hack implies that he knows them from Chicago and is aware of Crowley's shady past. Gene comes to the saloon and retrieves Tex. After Hack leaves the saloon, Crowley, who is actually a gangster named Luigi Scalese, and his men follow him. On the road, someone takes a shot at Hack, nearly missing him.
The following day, as Tex performs in a staged shootout during the rodeo, Hack is shot and killed in the audience by someone who then loads a real bullet in Tex's gun which was dropped during the confusion. When the sheriff (Hal Price) investigates, he discovers the real bullet in Tex's gun and arrests him, despite the protests of Gene and his friends. Later, Clementine tells Gene about Hack's suspicion of Crowley, and Gene prevents Crowley and his men from leaving the ranch.
Crowly sends letters to Clementine and Gene, making it appear that each is inviting the other on a date that evening. While Clementine is away, Crowley breaks into her room and steals her photograph case in order to destroy pictures of himself in the crowd. Later Gene sends the remaining photographs off for fingerprinting, and soon after, Pop receives a telegram identifying the fingerprints on the photographs as belonging to Chicago mobster Luigi Scalese, Crowley's true identity.
Later that day, someone breaks into Pop's home, shoots him, and takes the incriminating telegram. Gene suspects Crowley and races off to arrest him. Clementine stays behind and learns from Pop that there is a secret entrance to a mine beneath his house. Clementine asks Sunrise to lead her through the tunnels of the mine, and quickly discovers that Sunrise is insane, and that he killed Hack and wounded Pop fearing they would divulge the location of his precious gold. As Sunrise attempts to kill Clementine, Gene arrives and saves her, as the crazy miner falls down a mine shaft to his death. Afterwards, as Pop recovers from his wound, Tex promises him that he will really straighten up this time, and Clementine and Gene ride off together singing a song.

Into the town of Resurrection rides a lawman, "Sundown" Jim Majors, who finds himself in the middle of a feud. A rancher's daughter, Tony Black, is angry because her father was shot by hired guns working for rival rancher Andrew Barr, including outlaw Ben Moffitt.
Jim intervenes, retrieving U.S. mail stolen by the gang and meeting Barr's daughter Catherine, who knows that her father hired gunmen after causing anger with recent land transactions. Moffitt eventually double-crosses Barr, killing him, before Jim defeats him and his gang with Tony's help. Offered to stay as the town's new marshal, Jim accepts and begins planning a wedding with Catherine.

Set in the legendary town of Tombstone, Arizona, the plot centers on former gunslinger Wyatt Earp, who helps the sheriff round up criminals. Earp becomes a lawman after he sees an outlaw accidentally kill a child during a showdown. Earp's brothers and Doc Holliday help him take on the outlaw and his gang. More trouble ensues when the sheriff becomes involved with the gang. Earp manages to get them on robbery charges and the situation finally culminates at the infamous O.K. Corral.

Marshal Steve Langdon hears a rumor that the legendary criminal Billy the Kid is maybe still alive. Langdon finds Billy's coffin empty and believes that the respected older citizen Wilfred Barnet is Billy the Kid. He informs Wilfred’s lovely daughter Carol about. When Barnet confesses his true identity to his daughter and says that he got a second chance by Pat Garrett to start a new life. His clerk overhears the conversation and informs his old gang and this leads to trouble. Barnet helps Marshal Langdon against the gang. They defeat the gang but Barnet is mortially wounded. Steve decides to let the old man rest in peace and reports that Billy the Kid died long ago.

Hopalong Cassidy and his sidekicks California Carlson and Lin Bradley leave their Bar 20 ranch for a cattle buy from the Stevens spread. Along the way, they encounter Mrs. Stevens, her daughter Marie and ranch hand Mark Jackson, whose stagecoach has been robbed by the Quirt Rankin gang.
Marie's stolen jewels are held for ransom and her sweetheart Richard Adams intends to raise the money. Jackson, secretly the boss of Quirt's gang, tries to swindle Richard out of his land and lends him cash that was Hoppy's cattle money before the robbery. He also kills Quirt.
Hoppy mistakenly believes Richard to be the thief and takes back the money. The honest Richard forms a posse that places Hoppy, California and Lin under arrest. A scheme to trap Jackson pays off, however, and once he's apprehended, all is well.


Kansas settler Jeptha Marr is leery of the railroad intruding on his territory and opposes railroad representative Stephen Bent, only to be surprised when daughter Vinnie returns to the town of Pawnee after a long absence and is already acquainted with Stephen.
A rival railroad interest spearheaded by Champ Clanton tries to muscle its way in, trying to taint Stephen's reputation by insinuating a relationship with Rita Molyneaux, a woman with a bad reputation. By the end, though, Vinnie is reassured that Rita is actually interested in Gideon Skene, and the railroad is headed Pawnee's way under Stephen's watch.

A crooked businessman tries to get control of an area with his gang. The Range Busters are called in to try to stop his plan. It was filmed at the Corriganville Movie Ranch and starred Ray "Crash" Corrigan.


In 1863, a sheriff named Steve Upton (Randolph Scott) tries to keep the law in Red Valley, a small town in Utah. While he's away, the bank is robbed. The holdup was secretly masterminded by corrupt banker Stanley Clayton and the livery stable's boss, "Uncle Willie" McLeod, with the help of ruthless gunman Jack Lester, who shoots three innocent men.
Cheyenne Rogers rides to town. At the stable, Allison McLeod, daughter of Uncle Willie, recognizes the horse as one belonging to Steve. As the stranger goes to the saloon for a drink, Allison rides out to find Steve, whose mount was stolen on the trail.
"The Countess," who runs gambling at the saloon, is in love with Cheyenne, who was hired to help rob the bank but arrived too late. She blames herself for steering Cheyenne toward crime in the first place. Cheyenne finds a legitimate job, breaking broncos at a ranch.
Steve returns to town and is glad to see Cheyenne, an old friend. Lester turns the town against Cheyenne, revealing his outlaw past, and then his sidekick Nitro pulls off another robbery of the bank. A posse rounds up Cheyenne and Nitro and a judge sentences them to hang. But they are sprung from jail by Steve, who is then placed behind bars himself.
Alison goes to the Countess to beg for her help. She does, even though Cheyenne now loves Allison instead of her. Cheyenne slips a gun to Steve through a jailhouse window, and together they set about making things right. Uncle Willie, feeling guilt about his part in the robbery, ends up shooting Clayton in a gunfight. Allison is wed to Cheyenne while her father goes off to jail.
At one point while a heavily armed group of bad guys is waiting for Cheyenne to show up and rescue Steve one of the men remarks that when he does arrive, Cheyenne will think that he rode into "Custer's Last Stand." In reality, the Battle of the Little Big Horn does not take place for more that a dozen years after the film's 1863 setting.

Eastern school teacher Catherine Allen becomes notorious in 1906 when it is learned that she has authored a romance novel. She decides to move West and begin a new life.
On the train, oil man Jim Gardner makes a pass at her. Catherine asks a cowboy, Dan Somers, to sit nearby as a safety measure. Both are on their way to Oklahoma, with stagecoach driver Despirit Dean tagging along with his friend Dan.
Many people in Sapulpa are upset with Jim's business tactics. A farmer feels he was paid too little for his property after Jim discovers oil there. Jim is furious when Dan strongly discourages Chief Big Tree from selling Indian land at too low an offer.
Dan travels to Washington, D.C., to ask President Theodore Roosevelt about oil rights. He fought for Teddy and the Rough Riders a few years before. Teddy offers him a chance to transport thousands of barrels of oil to a Tulsa refinery to win the rights over Jim, which leads to Jim's hired man, the Cherokee Kid, setting off an explosion and sabotaging the trip.
Catherine and Dan fall in love, with hotel owner Bessie Baxter playing matchmaker. A final fistfight between Dan and Jim settles matters once and for all.


Sheriff Pat Garrett (Thomas Mitchell) welcomes his old friend Doc Holliday (Walter Huston) to Lincoln, New Mexico. Doc is looking for his stolen horse and finds it in the possession of Billy the Kid (Jack Buetel). Despite this, the two gunfighters take a liking to each other, much to Pat's disgust. This does not prevent Doc from trying to steal the horse back late that night, but Billy is waiting for him outside the barn.
After that, Billy decides to sleep in the barn, and is shot at. He overpowers his ambusher, who turns out to be curvaceous young Rio McDonald (Jane Russell), out to avenge her dead brother.
The next day, a stranger offers to shoot Pat in the back while Billy distracts the lawman. However, he is only setting the Kid up. Billy, suspicious as always, guns him down just before being shot himself. There are no witnesses, and Pat tries to arrest Billy. Pat does not understand when Doc sides with the Kid. As the pair start to leave, Pat shoots Billy, forcing Doc to shoot the gun out of his hand and kill two of Pat's men.
Doc flees with Billy to the home of Rio and her aunt, Guadalupe (Mimi Aguglia). With a posse after them, Doc rides away. Instead of killing the unconscious Kid, Rio instead nurses him back to health, a process that takes a month. By the time Doc returns, Rio has fallen in love with her patient. Doc is furious that Billy has stolen his girlfriend. After Doc's anger subsides a bit, the Kid gives him a choice: the horse or Rio. To Billy's annoyance, Doc picks the horse. Angered that both men value the animal more than her, Rio fills their canteens with sand. The two ride off without noticing.
On the trail, they find themselves being pursued by Pat and a posse. The pair surmise that Rio tipped the sheriff off. Doc kills a few men from long range, but leaves Pat unharmed.
When Doc wakes up one morning, he finds Billy gone and Pat waiting to handcuff him and take him back. Stopping at Rio's, the two men find that Billy has left Rio tied up in sight of water out of revenge. Suspecting that Billy loves Rio (even if he himself does not realize it) and will return to free her, Pat waits. Sure enough, the Kid comes back and is also captured.
On the way back to town, however, they find hostile Mescaleros all around. Pat reluctantly frees his prisoners and returns their revolvers after extracting a promise from Doc that he will give them back and make Billy do the same. They manage to elude the Indians, but Doc refuses to honor his word.
As Doc tries to leave with his horse, Billy stops him. The two men decide to duel it out, with a pleased Pat expecting Billy to lose. However, as they await the signal (the end of a cuckoo clock signalling eight o'clock), Billy realizes that Doc is a true friend, and moves his hands away from his guns. Doc tries to provoke him, inflicting minor wounds in one hand and both ears, but the Kid still will not fire. The two reconcile. Furious, Pat calls Doc out, despite not having a chance. Doc makes no attempt to shoot his friend and is himself fatally wounded. Pat is aghast.
After Doc is buried, Pat offers to give Billy their friend's revolvers. He also persuades Billy to give him his guns, saying that he can then claim that it is Billy in the grave. The Kid can leave his past behind him and have a fresh start in life. However, it is all a trick. Pat had removed the firing pins from Doc's revolvers. Fortunately for Billy, while comparing the guns, he had inadvertently switched one of Doc's for his. As a result, neither his gun nor Pat's fires. Billy pulls out a second, working gun. He handcuffs Pat, judging that the lawman will still state that Billy is dead rather than admit the Kid left him helpless. As he is riding away, Billy stops and looks back; an overjoyed Rio gets on his horse.

In Bridger's Wells, Nevada in 1885, Art Croft (Harry Morgan) and Gil Carter (Henry Fonda) ride into town and enter Darby's Saloon. The atmosphere is subdued due to recent incidents of cattle-rustling. Art and Gil are suspected to be rustlers because they have rarely been seen in town.
A man enters the saloon and announces that a rancher named Larry Kinkaid has been murdered. The townspeople immediately form a posse to pursue the murderers, whom they believe are cattle rustlers. A judge tells the posse that it must bring the suspects back for trial, and that its formation by a deputy (the sheriff being out of town) is illegal. Art and Gil join the posse to avoid raising even more suspicion. Davies (Harry Davenport), who was initially opposed to forming the posse, also joins, along with "Major" Tetley (Frank Conroy) and his son Gerald (William Eythe). Poncho informs the posse that three men and cattle bearing Kinkaid's brand have just entered Bridger's Pass.
The posse encounters a stagecoach. When they try to stop it, the stagecoach guard assumes that it is a stickup, and shoots, wounding Art. In the coach are Rose Mapen (Mary Beth Hughes), Gil's ex-girlfriend, and her new husband, Swanson (George Meeker).
Later that night in Ox-Bow Canyon, the posse finds three men sleeping, with what are presumed to be stolen cattle nearby. The posse interrogates them: a young, well-spoken man, Donald Martin (Dana Andrews); a Mexican, Juan Martínez (Anthony Quinn); and an old man, Alva Hardwicke (Francis Ford, brother of film director John Ford). Martin claims that he purchased the cattle from Kinkaid but received no bill of sale. No one believes Martin, and the posse decides to hang the three men at sunrise.
Martin writes a letter to his wife and asks Davies, the only member of the posse that he trusts, to deliver it. Davies reads the letter, and, hoping to save Martin's life, shows it to the others. Davies believes that Martin is innocent and does not deserve to die.
The Mexican "Juan" is recognized as a gambler named Francisco Morez. He tries to escape and is shot and wounded. The posse discovers that Morez has Kinkaid's gun.
Major Tetley wants the men to be lynched immediately. A vote is taken as to whether the men should be hanged or taken back to stand trial. Only seven, among them Davies, Gerald Tetley, Gil and Art, vote to take the men back to town alive; the rest support immediate hanging. Gil tries to stop it, but is overpowered.
After the lynching, the posse heads back towards Bridger's Wells and encounters Sheriff Risley, who tells them that Lawrence Kinkaid is not dead and that the men who shot him have been arrested. Risley strips the deputy of his badge.
The men of the posse gather in Darby's Saloon and drink in silence. Major Tetley returns to his house and shoots himself after his son condemns him for being sadistic. In the saloon, Gil reads Martin's letter while members of the posse listen. In the final scene Gil and Art head out of town to deliver the letter and $500 raised by those in the posse to Martin's wife.


Eastern school teacher Catherine Allen becomes notorious in 1906 when it is learned that she has authored a romance novel. She decides to move West and begin a new life.
On the train, oil man Jim Gardner makes a pass at her. Catherine asks a cowboy, Dan Somers, to sit nearby as a safety measure. Both are on their way to Oklahoma, with stagecoach driver Despirit Dean tagging along with his friend Dan.
Many people in Sapulpa are upset with Jim's business tactics. A farmer feels he was paid too little for his property after Jim discovers oil there. Jim is furious when Dan strongly discourages Chief Big Tree from selling Indian land at too low an offer.
Dan travels to Washington, D.C., to ask President Theodore Roosevelt about oil rights. He fought for Teddy and the Rough Riders a few years before. Teddy offers him a chance to transport thousands of barrels of oil to a Tulsa refinery to win the rights over Jim, which leads to Jim's hired man, the Cherokee Kid, setting off an explosion and sabotaging the trip.
Catherine and Dan fall in love, with hotel owner Bessie Baxter playing matchmaker. A final fistfight between Dan and Jim settles matters once and for all.

In 1919, Bat Masterson, now a newspaperman in New York City, reflects back on the previous century and his experiences in the American West.
Traveling to Dodge City, Kansas to look up Inky, an old friend, Bat becomes actively involved after the town's sheriff gets shot. He takes over as lawman, his major concern the ruthless rancher King Kennedy's band of rowdy cowboys.
Dora Hand's singing of a hymn in church leads to Bat becoming infatuated with her. He and the Rev. Small are surprised to discover that Dora works in the saloon, which is owned by "Dog" Kelley, who is also Dodge City's mayor. The reverend finds this inappropriate, but Bat writes a newspaper article condemning prejudice of any kind.
Dora has a good heart. She takes care of a sick child, impressing others in town. She also wants Bat to give up his dangerous life, so she asks her uncle in Kansas City to hire Bat for his newspaper there. The uncle is appalled by Dora's line of work and consents with one stipulation, that she never set foot in Kansas City again.
Back in Dodge, she declines Bat's marriage proposal, knowing she can't join him at the new job. She begins seeing King socially instead. But when a fight breaks out, the mayor is killed by King, whose errant gunshots also hit Dora by mistake. After her funeral, Bat buries his guns and leaves town.

Honest Plush Brannon (Wallace Beery) is a confidence man from the Barbary Coast in San Francisco. He is engaged to Li'l Damish (Binnie Barnes) who is a saloon owner. Plush is in need of money to prove he can stand on his own. His plan to come by some money is disturbed by his ex-companion, Duke Cleat (John Carradine), who accuses Plush of doing him wrong in the past. After a quick showdown, Plush manages to shoot and wound Duke badly. Because of this, Plush is forced to leave town, and decides to take the train to Denver to find his luck. Aboard the train he meets an industrial railroad Millionaire, Bradford Bellamy I (Donald Meek) and convinces him he is about to serve the man in a blackmailing process. Bellamy I wants to throw Plush off the train, but instead they make a deal, that Plush will hold a speech in Bellamy I's name in Gold Town. Plush pretends to be Bellamy I's financial voice and is greeted as such in Gold Town. Even his old partner with whom he used to rob stage coaches, Johnny Adair (Ray Collins), believes him. Johnny's daughter, Portia (Frances Rafferty) is engaged to Bellamy I's grandson, Bradford Bellamy III (Bruce Kellogg). When Plush is attending a ceremony and is about to dedicate a cornerstone in the city, he accidentally discovers that the stone has gold in it. Plush prevents an article declaring that Bellamy III is engaging another woman, an Eastern debutante, to reach the press, and since Bellamy III have no intentions of engaging anyone but Portia, he is grateful to Plush. When the gold finding in the cornerstone is confirmed, Plush clais the ground where the stone is, and everyone in Gold Town wants to invest in his newly founded gold-mining company. Back in San Francisco, Duke has recovered from his injuries and seeks revenge. He finds out about Plush's luck, and at gun-point he forces Plush to give all his earnings to him. Broke and homeless, Plush is forced to rob a Wells Fargo payroll stagecoach. He leaves a poem at the crime scene, and after a few more robberies, he is known as the outlaw "Jingle Bill". The only stage coach that never gets robbed is the one Johnny drives. Plush uses his booty to start up the mining for gold in his company, and soon enough he strikes gold. In an attempt to catch the robber, Plush is forced to stage a robbery against Johnny's coach, in which Plush participates. Plush is shot and wounded by Johnny. Meanwhile, Li'l has come to Gold Town to warn Plush that Duke has been at her place, stolen a bunch of Plush's poems, and is headed to Gold Town. After the fake robbery, suspicion falls on Plush to be the robber. When Duke confronts Plush in the street, the two men once again have a showdown, ultimately shooting each other. Duke dies from his wounds, and the stolen poems are found on his body. Duke is taken for Jingle Bill, but Plush steps up and confesses he is the robber. He waves goodbye to Li'l, Bellamy III and Portia, as he is off to serve a one-year sentence in prison.

In a Yukon town called Malemute, a saloon owned by "Honest" John Calhoun gets a new star performer, Belle De Valle, while he's away. A stranger in town, Sam Slade, offers to keep an eye on things until the boss returns, while saloon manager Pop Candless and crooked town marshal Maitland keep a suspicious eye on him.
As soon as Honest John gets back, Belle hits him with a vase. They were acquainted in Seattle, where according to Belle, he was actually a con man known as Gentleman Jack who ditched her after becoming wanted by the law for his dishonest ways.
Pop's attractive daughter Lettie is attracted to Steve Atterbury, the piano player. Pop is leery and finds a letter indicating that Steve is already married with children. Steve is ambushed and put on a boat to Nome, giving the impression that he has coldly left Lettie behind.
Honest John is secretly plotting a gold theft. He gains the town's trust and is named bank president. Belle discovers the scheme and starts a run of the bank, making Honest John pay off customers with money he'd planned to use in his scam.
Everything turns out for the best, though, because Steve jumps ship and makes it back to Malemute to win Lettie back, helped by the arrival of his sister, Cherie, and their wealthy father, C.V. Atterbury, who vouches that Steve is unmarried and, as a gesture of good faith, places $100,000 in the bank. Honest John promises to actually be honest from now on.




Cattle Call follows the three male protagonists as they hold a fake casting call in Hollywood for a fictional independent film entitled Perfect for Me with the hope of meeting women. Richie is looking for a relationship, while Sherman and Glenn are more interested in sex. After going on dates with the girls, they eventually chose three women to be in their "film": Marina, Laurel and Nikita.
When Marina checks Richie's computer to find a dating site called Perfect for Me, he feels guilty and reveals to her that the whole thing was set up for the three men to find women. She storms out of his house and meets up with the other two girls at the empty 'casting studio'. It turns out that one of the other women isn't really an actress at all, and is investigating the three guys following complaints on the internet that the casting was a scam.
The girls ask to have a first read through audition of the 'script' (a translation of an old foreign language film that the guys had seen) and then tell the guys that they want to make the script 'sexier' and that they want to have lots of sex with the three producers to practice. The women set up a hotel room with cameras, and film Sherman and Glenn preparing to have sex with them - Richie refuses and leaves. They then send in two masculine women with whips and sex toys instead, and then the police burst in and arrest Sherman and Glenn.
After a night in jail, the two go to court facing 10–15 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000. The judge, Solomon Mendel, allows 24 hours for the defence to prepare evidence. Richie, stuck for ideas whilst watching a reality show Real Cops on TV, suddenly realises he can make a film from the footage of the casting that they have. He reaches the court the next morning just as a verdict has been announced, but the judge allows the evidence and finds Sherman and Glenn not guilty.
In the final scenes before the credits, Richie apologises to Marina again and as her (ex-)boyfriend departs he realises that she isn't leaving and they kiss. Three final quick closing scenes follow this. The first show Nikita running a casting call with men, in a project called Fresh Meat. The second shows Glenn working as the director on a Spanish-speaking set, pretending to speak Spanish to the production crew. The very final scene shows Sherman revealing to Richie that he is a sex addict; Richie doesn't believe it, and jokes that next Sherman will be starting a therapy group so he can meet female sex addicts. After a long pause Sherman replies "That's a great idea."

The president of Blue Springs Bank, Jason Hopkins (Tom Chatterton), seeks to entrap his cashier, Harrison Colby (Tom London), whom he suspects is exchanging the bank’s gold certificates with fake ones. Colby is caught and confesses but also incriminates his partner, Dandy Joe Meeker (Roy Barcroft). The worried Colby consults Meeker, who engages a gunslinger (Kenne Duncan) to kill Hopkins and then to pin the murder on Jim Douglas (Francis McDonald). Douglas, soon to be paroled from prison, had formally been arrested and convicted for a similar crime that he hadn’t committed. Hopkins meets Douglas in order to tell him the truth regarding his imprisonment but is killed by the gunman. Douglas is subsequently jailed for the murder. However, the gunman is captured by Red Ryder (Wild Bill Elliott) and his Indian ward, Little Beaver.
Douglas is hesitant to explain his situation for fear that his daughter, Betty Lou Hopkins (Peggy Stewart) will discover that he, not Jason Hopkins, is her real father. The now jailed gunman is stabbed in the back and the sheriff, convinced that the gunman was killed to silence him, frees Douglas. He is hired by Colby as a bank guard, where he uses the name Johnson in order that he can see his daughter every day.
Meeker has Colby steal the forged certificates before they are discovered as fake and then claim that Hopkins embezzled the originals. To cover the losses, Betty Lou decides to invest her inheritance in the bank. Red Ryder and his Aunt, the Duchess (Alice Fleming) contribute as well. But, still wanting to take over the bank, Meeker instigates a run on the bank, which he hopes will close it down. Thanks to Red and Little Beaver, Meeker's plan is foiled and the bank remains solvent.
The bank receives a shipment of money which Meeker’s gang steals. Betty Lou, seeing only part of the robbery, mistakenly assumes that Douglas was in on the heist, although in reality, he was forced at gunpoint to accompany the fleeing criminals. Suspicious of Colby's insistence that only Meeker can help them now, Red, however, decides to investigate, and near the open vault, he discovers a pocket watch, inscribed "to Jim Douglas from Jason Hopkins." The watch contains a picture of Betty Lou's mother, leading Red to deduce Douglas' real identity and his relationship to Betty Lou.
Red plants newspaper stories that Betty Lou was seriously injured in the robbery. This lures Douglas back to Blue Springs, but in the meantime, Meeker pressures a bank commissioner to take control of the bank. Red's newspaper ploy works, and Douglas admits to him that he is Betty Lou's father, but insists that he is innocent of any wrongdoing. Red continues to gather evidence proving that Douglas was framed for the robbery, and then informs Betty Lou that Douglas is her real father. The delighted Betty Lou has Douglas released from jail, but Meeker tries to organize a lynch mob by telling the townspeople that he will not invest in the bank if Douglas is freed. However, Red' Ryder’s evidence proves Meeker's guilt. Now caught, Colby and Meeker take the Duchess hostage in an attempt to escape. Red fights with Meeker, who is killed with his own knife after he tries to stab Red. After the rest of the gang is rounded up, Betty Lou hosts a party to celebrate the re-opening of the bank, which they intend to run together.


Roy and his sidekick Teddy Bear are mistaken for the kidnappers of a runaway teenager. After escaping from a posse the two find the teenager, Chip who explains their innocence and has her sister Ysobel and her soon to be husband the rich Craig Allen give the pair jobs. Chip tells Roy she is sure her late father had riches hidden away that the unscrupulous Craig Allen tries to take for himself. The film opens and closes with musical numbers.


A gang of cattle rustlers and claim jumpers are terrorising the town of Wolf Valley and hire a fast gun to get rid of Billy Carson by running him out of town. To the villain's surprise Billy comes to a saloon frequented by the villains and runs the frightened gunslinger out of town. When the gunslinger tries to shoot Billy in the back with a concealed derringer Billy finishes him off. Though Judge James Ryan is well aware of the true situation he sentences Billy to a jail sentence of 30 days but secretly lets Billy loose to finish off the villains. Billy disguises himself as a Mexican Charro interested in buying Barlow's rustled cattle in order to gain information to bring the outlaws to justice.
Meanwhile, the outlaws threaten the feisty owner of the Circle C Ranch Ma Clark, but Ma is not the type to be pushed around; and she has her sights set on marrying Judge Ryan.

San Francisco, 1807, the successful show of two vaudeville artists, Jerry Miles and Mike Strager, is suddenly interrupted by the news that gold has been discovered. Broke, the two men promise their dancers to take them to Broadway. After six weeks, they still haven't found a gold nugget. But as they are dining in the small town of Red Creek, they're suggested to take their show in one of the local saloons.




A tough quiet cowboy named Rocklin (John Wayne) boards a stagecoach headed for the Arizona town of Santa Inez in the late 1800s. He takes a seat alongside the old cantankerous driver, Dave (George "Gabby" Hayes), who enjoys giving his two women passengers—overbearing Miss Elizabeth Martin (Elisabeth Risdon) and her kindhearted niece Clara Cardell (Audrey Long)—a rough ride through the mountain roads of the sage country. When they stop to rest the horses at a roadside inn, they meet Sheriff Jackson and Bob Clews from Santa Inez, who are investigating the theft of cattle. When Rocklin asks about Red Cardell, the owner of the stolen K.C. Ranch cattle, he learns that he is Clara's great uncle and was recently murdered. A drunken Dave insults them and, pretending to be his friends, they take him to the barn for a "short laydown". Later Rocklin discovers him unconscious after being pistol-whipped. Rocklin drives the stage the rest of the way to Santa Inez.


In Zorro's Black Whip the word Zorro never occurs, but a female who behaves like Don Diego in Idaho fights a cabal of corrupt politicians as "The Black Whip" after her brother (the original Black Whip) is killed.
Hammond, owner of the town's stagecoach line and a leading citizen on the council, is secretly opposed to Idaho becoming a state—because government protection would destroy the system and organization he has constructed—and conducts raids against citizens and settlers alike to prevent order, while keeping his own identity as the organization's leader secret. The town marshal is meanwhile powerless to act outside his jurisdiction beyond the town boundary. Randolph Meredith, owner of the town's newspaper, as the Black Whip, opposes this scheme to defeat statehood, but one day he is killed after preventing yet another coup. Meredith's sister Barbara, expert with a bullwhip and pistol, dons Randolph's black costume and mask and becomes "The Black Whip" in her brother's place, dealing a blow to Hammond and his gang each time they perform some heinous act in their efforts to keep the town, and their power over it, unchanged.
Aided by recently arrived undercover US government agent Vic Gordon, Barbara (Linda Stirling) as The Black Whip is quite obviously female but, even after a bout of wrestling, the villains do not realise they aren't fighting a man. Some reference is made to this in the script, however, when the villains are trying to determine who the Black Whip's secret identity could be:


Sue Farnum (Dale Evans) is cheated out of her inheritance by her late father's business partner Ripley (Grant Withers). Rogers, with the help of others, rescues her.

Lawyer Butler, wanting Jeff Carson's ranch, has the Sheriff and his gang frame the bank holdup on him. Then they kill a witness that could free Carson and blame the murder on his son Sunset. But Sunset escapes, frees his father, and then sets a trap to catch the real killers.

Naive Montana cowboy Duke Fergus (John Wayne) arrives in San Francisco and visits the notorious Barbary Coast. He becomes smitten with the lovely star attraction of the fanciest gambling hall, "Flaxen" Tarry (Ann Dvorak), the "Flame of the Barbary Coast". He gets talked into gambling against the owner (and Flaxen's lover), card shark Tito Morell (Joseph Schildkraut). Predictably, Fergus gets cheated and loses all his money.
He sets himself to win Flaxen's affections and decides the best way to do it is to take over. He gets his friend Wolf Wylie (William Frawley) to teach him everything about gambling, including how to spot cheating. When he's ready, he sells all he owns and returns to the city to challenge Morell's rule of the Barbary Coast. He goes from casino to casino, challenging each one's resident poker champion to a heads-up game, starting with Morell. Duke wins every time.
Fergus then builds an opulent new gambling establishment, catering to the upper class. To make it a success, he needs to persuade Flaxen to come work for him, but she is initially not interested. Only when Morell offends her does she decide to accept Fergus's offer. And then the fireworks begin. Morell does not take the challenge lying down. In the midst of it all, the Great Earthquake of 1906 strikes, both Fergus' and Morell's businesses are destroyed, and Flaxen grievously injured. They rebuild and recover. Throw in a political battle, and someone gets the girl.

Johnny Hart heads for Red Gulch, looking for the mystery man who murdered his partner. He quickly meets Lorena Dumont, a beautiful barkeep who is loved by Blackie, a jealous crook who doesn't like her interest in Johnny one bit.
After he resists her seduction by saying he has another girl back home, Johnny is forced to wed an angry Lorena at gunpoint. She then turns him over to the sheriff after learning that Johnny is a wanted fugitive with a price on his head. He escapes, spends a night of passion with Lorena, then is recaptured by the law.
Six years in prison later, Johnny returns to Red Gulch seeking revenge. He now knows Blackie's the one who killed his partner. Johnny's former girlfriend is summoned to meet him, but it turns out he fathered a child with Lorena who's now five years old. Blackie takes the little girl hostage, but Johnny kills him and reunites a grateful Lorena with their little girl.

When a group of gunmen are running sharecroppers off their land, rancher Andy Jones sends for his friend Billy Carson to organise the sharecroppers to fight. Andy is soon mortally wounded by the gunmen, but before his death schemes for his no good twin brother Fuzzy to be sent for to impersonate him. The gunmen, witnessing Andy's funeral fear that Fuzzy is Andy's avenging ghost.

Tom Kirk, the "Navajo Kid", (Bob Steele) is determined to find his adoptive father's (George Morrel) murderer. When he finds Honest John Grogan (I. Stanford Jolly) with his father's ring, he immediately arrests him. While Honest John was indeed part of the gang which killed Joe Kirk, the gang-leader was Matt Crandall (Stanley Blystone). As Tom begins hunting for Matt, he soon discovers who his true biological father is.


Katie Wells (Martha O'Driscoll) is part of a traveling musical troupe that arrives in town after having been waylayed by local bandit King Carlos Randall (Leo Carrillo) who is smitten by the pretty entertainer. Randall and his gang follow the troupe into town and disrupt the show when Sheriff James Whitcolm Wyatt (Irving Bacon) accosts them.
Rim Rock school teacher Tod Howell (Noah Beery, Jr.) begins courting Wells, but plans are thwarted when Randall kidnaps Wells. Sheriff Wyatt rescues Wells, and she and Howell are married.

In the years following the Civil War, Kansas is in the middle of a difficult time. Homesteaders are moving into the west, trying to start new lives, and are going head to head against cattlemen who have been settled in that territory for years. In Abilene, one of the biggest cattle towns of the west, the town is on the brink of a confrontation between the cattlemen and the homesteaders.
Marshall Dan Mitchell (Randolph Scott) has the job of keeping the peace between the two groups. For a long time, the town had been divided, with the cattlemen and cowboys having one end of town to themselves, while townspeople occupied the other end. Mitchell liked it this way, it made things easier for him, and kept problems from arising between the two factions. However, when homesteaders decide to lay stakes in the cowboy's end of town, that balance is upset, and leads to a deadly showdown.
The leader of the homesteaders is Henry Dreiser (Lloyd Bridges), a young man with good common sense, and the local sheriff is Bravo Trimble (Edgar Buchanan), a lawman who would rather play cards than be involved in any confrontation. Mitchell not only has the difficult job of juggling the upcoming confrontation, but also his love life.


Just north of Texas and west of the Oklahoma border is "Badman's Territory", a region not yet governed by statehood. This is where Jesse James and brother Frank head after a train robbery, along with their partner, Coyote.
Mark Rowley, a lawman, and his deputy brother Johnny are after the James gang. So is a ruthless U.S. marshal named Hampton who shoots anybody who gets in his way. He even wings Johnny Rowley just to take the newly captured Coyote away from him.
In the town of Quinto, newspaper editor Henryetta Alcott is a crusader for law and order. Mark takes an immediate liking to her. He also helps Belle Starr's horse win a big race.
Johnny's injuries mend, but the Dalton gang persuades Johnny to go bad and join them. Mark tries to dissuade him. He shoots a man named McGee who stole his horse. Hampton puts up wanted posters on both Rowleys.
Henryetta spreads the word that Oklahoma has annexed this territory into the union. Mark is appointed a "regulator" and proposes marriage to Henryetta before he rides to Coffeyville, Kansas, where the Daltons are about to pull a job with Johnny as part of the gang.
Johnny is shot and killed, and Hampton also kills Coyote. A determined Mark Rowley must deal with Hampton once and for all if Henryetta and he are to have a future together.

In 1856, ambitious freight company and store owner Logan Stuart (Dana Andrews) agrees to escort Lucy Overmire (Susan Hayward) home to the settlement of Jacksonville, Oregon, along with his latest shipment. Lucy is engaged to Logan's best friend, George Camrose (Brian Donlevy). The night before they depart, however, Logan has to defend himself from a sneak attack in his hotel room; though it is too dark to be sure, he believes his assailant is Honey Bragg (Ward Bond). Later, he explains to Susan that he once saw Bragg leaving the vicinity of two murdered miners. Despite Logan's unwillingness to accuse Bragg (since he did not actually witness the crime), Bragg apparently wants to take no chances.
On their journey, Logan and Lucy become attracted to each other. They stop one night at the homestead of Ben Dance (Andy Devine) and his family. There, Logan introduces Lucy to his girlfriend, Caroline Marsh (Patricia Roc).
In Jacksonville, Logan tries to get George to stop playing poker with (and losing to) professional gambler Jack Lestrade (Onslow Stevens), even giving him $2000 to pay off his debts, but George is more interested in the prospect of getting rich quick without hard work. What Logan does not know is that George has been stealing gold dust left in his safekeeping by the miners to pay some of his losses. George also has a secret he is keeping from Lucy; he keeps propositioning Lestrade's wife Marta (Rose Hobart), though she shows no interest in him.
Meanwhile, the burly Bragg keeps trying to provoke Logan into a fight. Finally, he succeeds. Logan wins, but does not kill his opponent when he has the chance. A humiliated Bragg tries to ride Logan down on his way out of town.
George decides to move away to make a fresh start and finally gets Lucy to agree to marry him. Logan then proposes to Caroline and is accepted, much to the disappointment of Vane Blazier, Logan's employee, who is in love with Caroline himself.
Lucy decides to accompany Logan to San Francisco to pick out a wedding dress. Along the way, they are ambushed by Bragg. Though their horses are shot dead, they get away and return to town, only to discover that George is in grave trouble.
When a miner appears months earlier than George had expected and informs him that he wants to get his gold the next day, George kills the drunk man late that night. However, his crimes are traced to him; shopkeeper Hi Linnet (Hoagy Carmichael) saw him stealing some gold, and the miner's lucky gold nugget is found in George's possession. The locals, led by Johnny Steele (Lloyd Bridges), find George guilty of murder and lock him up, intending a late-night lynching. However, when one of the settlers rides in with the warning that the Indians are on the warpath after Bragg killed one of their women, Logan helps his friend escape in the confusion.
Logan organizes a party to fight. When Bragg seeks their protection, Logan drives him off, to be killed by the Indians. They are then driven off by Logan's men.
Afterward, Logan and Lucy learn that George was found and killed by one of the townsfolk. Caroline also has second thoughts about marriage to a man who is away so frequently on business; she breaks their engagement and accepts Vane. Logan and Lucy are free to follow their hearts.

Art Parker grows up on a ranch in Montana in the early 1900s and has worked with horses. At the age of 17, he lies to enlist in the U.S. Navy. During World War II, he is stationed in the Solomon Islands and befriends a local rancher.
After a Japanese bombing raid, the rancher asks Parker for help rescuing a filly that has been injured. Parker ends up taking the horse to the Navy base and training her. She eventually becomes a morale booster for the sailors, as well as the unit's mascot.
Bess learns a number of tricks, including running to a sandbagged cave for protection whenever the air raid siren sounds. This leads to those who knew her giving her the nickname "Foxhole Flicka", after the horse in the 1941 children's book My Friend Flicka.
When Parker receives his orders to return to the U.S., he is denied permission to take Bess with him. He eventually either receives permission, or makes the right people think he received permission, and is allowed to build a stall on a ship for Bess.

Roy Rogers is a Captain in the Nevada Rangers who plans to take some well earned leave to go to Helldorado celebrations. His leave is interrupted when the Sheriff of Clark County, Nevada requests his help to investigate money laundering being done by an organized crime syndicate. The Syndicate uses impoverished local playboy Alec Baxter to launder thousand dollar bills at the gaming tables of the casinos of the state.
During this time socialite Carol Randall is elected Queen of the Helldorado Rodeo and is also made a deputy sheriff. When Alec is murdered Carol uses her badge and wiles to investigate Alec's murder that brings her into conflict with Captain Rogers. The Syndicate is awaiting a new shipment of funds to launder and tries to assassinate Roy during the Helldorado treasure hunt.


In 1882 (in reality, the gunfight at the O.K. Corral happened on October 26, 1881), Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil, and James Earp are driving cattle to California when they cross Old Man Clanton. When they learn about the nearby boom town of Tombstone, the older brothers ride in, leaving the youngest brother James to watch over the cattle. The Earps soon learn that Tombstone is a lawless town without a marshal. Wyatt is the only man in the town willing to face the drunk Indian shooting at the townspeople. When they return to their camp, they find the cattle rustled and James murdered.
Seeking to avenge his brother's murder, Wyatt returns to Tombstone. To identify the perpetrator, he takes the open position of town marshal and meets with Doc Holliday and the Clanton gang several times. During this time, Clementine Carter, Doc's ex-love interest from his hometown of Boston, arrives in town on the stagecoach, having searched for him for some time, and is given a room at the same hotel where both Wyatt and Doc Holliday are residing.
Chihuahua, a hot-tempered woman who loves Doc, sings in the local saloon. Doc tells Clementine to return to Boston, or he will leave Tombstone. Clementine stays, so Doc leaves, much to the displeasure of Chihuahua, who starts an argument with Clementine. Wyatt walks in on the two and breaks up the women. Chihuahua then reveals a silver cross that belonged to James Earp. She claims Doc gave it to her.
Wyatt chases down Doc, who is headed for Tucson, and shoots a pistol out of Doc's hands. The two return to Tombstone, where after being questioned, Chihuahua reveals that the silver cross was actually given to her by Billy Clanton. Billy shoots Chihuahua through a window and takes off on horseback, but is shot by Wyatt. Billy keeps riding, so Virgil pursues him to the Clanton homestead, where Billy dies of his wounds. Old Man Clanton then kills Virgil.
In town, a reluctant Doc is persuaded to operate on Chihuahua, his medical training being her only chance. The Clantons then arrive, toss Virgil's body on the street and announce they will be waiting for the rest of the Earps at the O.K. Corral.
Chihuahua dies and Doc decides to walk alongside Wyatt and Morgan to the O.K. Corral at sunup. A gunfight rages in which most of the Clantons are killed, as is Doc.
Wyatt and Morgan resign as law enforcers. Morgan heads out in a horse and buggy. Wyatt speaks with Clementine one last time, telling her if he is ever this way again, he will look her up at the school house. Mounting his horse, Wyatt says, "Ma'am, I sure like that name...Clementine," and rides off after his brother.


Red is working as a stagecoach driver with one of his passengers being Dickie, a recently orphaned young child travelling on his own. Red puts him on the inaugural stagecoach from Elkhorn to Denver, Colorado where he will meet his only surviving relative, an Aunt that he has never met. Dickie is riding with the Land Commissioner on his way to Denver to report the dishonest dealings of the town's boss Big Bill Lambert. Lambert owns the new Denver stagecoach line so he can control communications as the telegraph line to Denver has not been opened, and wants to ensure that the Land Commissioner does not make it to Denver.
One of Big Bill's henchmen stops the stage on the excuse that the driver forgot a bag of US Mail. Once the driver places the bag of mail with the other mail sacks the henchman sabotages the horse harness that leads to the stagecoach going off a cliff killing the driver and commissioner but leaving Dickie paralysed. The town Doctor's diagnosis is that Dickie's only chance to walk again would be a risky operation that can only be approved by Dickie's next of kin, the aunt in Denver. Red has the idea to use the telegraph at a mine that has a connection with a mine near Denver where the news requiring Dickie's Aunt and a new Land Commissioner to come to Elkhorn can be relayed. Worried about the Commissioner's message, Big Bill sends some henchmen to stop Red from sending his message but fail miserably.
In Denver, Big Bill's associates have the idea to waylay the stagecoach carrying the real replacement Land Commissioner and Aunt and replace them with an impersonator to masquerade as a Land Commissioner and to establish his veracity, sends a tough woman in the gang to impersonate the Aunt. Once in town the phony Commissioner follows Big Bill's orders to resurvey the lands of the area for Big Bill's benefit, but the woman impersonating the Aunt is touched and reformed by Dickie and endangers herself when she won't go along with Big Bill's schemes and stands up to him.

Wounded and on the run, notorious gunman Quirt Evans (John Wayne) gallops onto a farm owned by Quaker Thomas Worth (John Halloran) and his family and collapses. When Quirt urgently insists upon sending a telegram, Thomas and his daughter Penelope (Gail Russell) drive him into town in their wagon. After wiring a claim to the land recorder's office, Quirt passes out and Penny cradles him. Ignoring the doctor's advice to rid themselves of the gunman, the compassionate Worth family tends to the delirious Quirt, and Penny becomes intrigued by his ravings of past loves.
Days later, when Quirt regains consciousness, Penny patiently explains the family's belief in non-violence. Three weeks later, Laredo Stevens (Bruce Cabot) and Hondo Jeffries (Louis Faust) ride into town looking for Quirt. When Penny's younger brother Johnny (Stephen Grant) rushes home to inform Quirt of his visitors, Quirt quickly prepares to flee. Penny, now smitten with Quirt, offers to run off with him. At the sound of approaching horses, Quirt grabs his gun and discovers that it has been emptied. Training his gun on the doorway, Quirt calmly greets Hondo and Laredo. Thinking that Quirt has the upper hand, Laredo offers to buy his claim. When Quirt sets the price at $20,000, Laredo hands over $5,000 in gold and challenges him to come for the balance when he is able – if he has the nerve.

When oil is discovered on a Vegas ranch, Mexican gambler Carlos is in a deadly fight with his enemies for the oil, putting his girlfriend (Dale Evans) at risk as well as his female cousin whom the bad guys shoot in the arm. His girlfriend then masquerades as his wounded cousin narrowly missing getting killed but cowboy hero Roy Rogers catches wind of the plot and rescues Dale aka Carlos' cousin. Eventually the bad guys are brought to justice after a tense battle on the seashore with guns and fists. Overall, very good songs are interspersed throughout, most notably Roy & Dale serenades and humor when Roy discovers Dale's masquerade due to Dale's horrible Spanish. Also good Mexican dancing!


The town of Liberal in southwestern Kansas needs the help of a lawman; so does the law-abiding land baron Allen Harper. Deputy Billy Burns hence sends for his longtime friend, the legendary Bat Masterson.
Allen's sweetheart, Susan Pritchard, is pursued by Logan Maury, a corrupt cattleman. Hired gun Lance Larkin, who works for Maury, beats up a farmer until Bat arrives and throws him in jail. Bat is appointed the town's marshal and appoints Billy as his deputy.
Ruby Stone, a saloon singer in love with Maury, tries to keep him away from good girl Susan. When a farmer is murdered, Allen is framed and faces a lynch mob. Ruby ends up betraying Maury and gets shot in the back. Maury's own men are offended by the death of Ruby and gun down Maury. Allen can now marry Susan, while the town makes Billy the new marshal as Bat rides away.

Cattle rustlers Robert Hightower (John Wayne), Pedro "Pete" Rocafuerte (Pedro Armendáriz), and William Kearney (Harry Carey, Jr.) rob a bank in the town of Welcome, Arizona, but William is shot in the shoulder and they have to flee into the desert, pursued by a posse led by Sheriff Buck Sweet (Ward Bond), who shoots a hole in their water bag (that they do not notice until after all the water has leaked out). They eventually lose their horses in a desert sandstorm and end up walking. Desperate for water, they head for a water hole, which has, however, been destroyed by the misguided efforts of a bumbling tenderfoot, who then chased after his lifestock and did not return.
In a covered wagon left nearby lies the man's wife (Sheriff Sweet's niece), who is about to give birth. With the help of the trio, she has a boy, whom she names Robert William Pedro after her benefactors. Before dying, she extracts a promise from them that they will take care of him. Moved, the three desperadoes try to keep their promise despite the acute lack of water.
William is certain a higher power guided them there and likens their situation to the Three Magi finding the baby Jesus in a manger. He convinces the others to head for the town of New Jerusalem, which lies across a wide expanse of desert. While crossing a salt flat, William dies; later, Pete falls and breaks his leg. He asks Robert to leave him his pistol, for "protection from coyotes." As Robert walks away, he hears a single gunshot.
Finally at the end of his strength, Robert nearly loses hope, but in his delirium, the ghosts of his two friends appear and refuse to let him give up. He contemptuously tosses away the woman's Bible, then goes back for it and reads a passage telling of the appearance of a donkey and a colt. Just then, the animals actually show up. With their help, he finally reaches New Jerusalem and enters a cantina where people are singing Christmas carols (it being Christmas or Christmas Eve), and then collapses just as Sheriff Sweet catches up with him.
Robert is arrested, but because of his heroism and refusal to give up custody of his godson to the Sweets (whom he has now befriended), he is viewed by the townspeople as a hero even before the trial comes to its conclusion. In the end, he is sentenced to the minimum of a year and a day and, as he leaves to serve it with a promise to return, he is given a rousing farewell by the entire town.

After the town marshal of Antioch is shot by Bob Yauntis, the newly appointed Tom Jackson sets out to apprehend the killer. But when he and his posse get to the ranch of bandit queen Belle Starr, they discover her dead body and the house on fire. Seeing this from a distance, Belle's daughter Rose mistakenly concludes Marshal Jackson killed her mother.
Rose works as a waitress and Jackson attempts to romance her, but she is cold to his advances. Rose begins pulling off robberies along with Bob, who shoots the ranch's foreman, Lafe Bailey and attempts to avoid detection as a ruthless outlaw called "Bitter Creek" who is being sought by lawmen.
Bob eventually turns his wrath on Rose, striking her and holding her captive. Rose escapes and turns to Jackson, who is in love with her. After being taken into custody, Bob is able to wing Jackson with a concealed weapon, whereupon Jackson shoots him dead.

Cowboy drifter Jim Garry is summoned by his friend, smooth-talking Tate Riling. Garry rides into an Indian reservation and finds himself in the middle of a conflict between a cattle owner and some homesteaders. He meets cattle owner John Lufton, and eventually his daughters Amy and Carol. The Luftons suspect that Garry is on Riling's side and are initially hostile, especially Amy. Garry readily admits that he is going to work for his friend.
Riling tells Garry that he and Indian agent Jake Pindalest have devised an elaborate scheme to force Lufton into selling his herd cheaply. Pindalest has gotten the government to order Lufton to remove his cattle from the reservation in a week. Meanwhile, Riling has organized the homesteaders into blocking the move, conning them into believing that he is working in their best interests. With no other option, Lufton would have to sell his herd at bargain prices or lose everything. Lufton would never sell to Riling, but he would to a stranger like Garry. Pindalest would then see that the government buys the herd at an inflated price. Garry would get $10,000 for his part in the swindle.
Lufton manages to outsmart Riling and move his herd unimpeded, but Riling and his men stampede and scatter the cattle back onto the reservation. It would take several days to gather the herd, more time than Lufton has before the deadline. Garry becomes disgusted when a man is killed in the stampede, and he switches sides. Amy still does not trust him. She suspects Garry of betraying the contents of a letter to Riling, unaware that Carol is enamored with Riling and is the one passing information to him. Eventually, Amy comes to trust (and fall in love with) Garry, especially after he defends her father from two of Riling's men.
To buy time, Garry persuades Pindalest, who is unaware of his break with Riling, to send a messenger to the government to extend the deadline. Garry then takes Pindalest prisoner. Riling and his gang track them down. Garry flees to the cabin of Kris Barden, the father of one of the men killed; they are joined by Amy. A gunfight erupts. Though wounded earlier, Garry sneaks out at night and dispatches Riling's men and knocks out Pindalest. Then he and his old friend face each other. Riling is fatally wounded. Pindalest is taken into custody, and Garry decides to give up his wandering ways, much to Amy's delight.

Vowing revenge after his fiancée is abducted from a stagecoach and ends up dead, Chris Denning (Randolph Scott) rides into the town of Coroner Creek seeking the man responsible.
Hotel owner Kate Hardison (Marguerite Chapman) asks him to escort home Abbie (Barbara Read), the inebriated wife of rich rancher Younger Miles (George Macready), but his motives are mistaken and Chris is beaten by Younger's men. A widow, Della (Sally Eilers), tells him that Younger is trying to drive her off her land, and Chris begins to believe Younger could be the man he's after.
Younger and his men kill a friend of Chris's and the sheriff as well, also setting a fire that leads to Della losing all her cattle. A showdown ensues and Chris gets the best of it, returning to town and to a possible romance with Kate.


A gunsmith and a marksman, Daniel Bone closes up his Brooklyn, New York business and travels west, where he feels he belongs. On a train, he encounters passenger Liza Crockett, then sees her purse being stolen by a man Dan confronts, disarms and throws off the train.
The man turns out to be a notorious outlaw, the Pecos Kid, who vows revenge against "the dude" who interfered with his holdup. Liza, however, mistakenly believes Dan was the one who tried to steal her bag. On their way to Arsenic City, Nevada, where a map to her father's gold mine might make Liza a wealthy woman, both she and Dan end up traveling from Carson City in a buckboard. Indians capture them, but Dan's knowledge of their language impresses the tribe's chief.
After arriving in Arsenic City, the two encounter another outlaw, Texas Jack Barton, and a corrupt saloonkeeper, Kiki Kelly, who are all interested in the mine. Dan finds the map, memorizes it and burns it. He falls in love with Liza and leads her to the gold. When the outlaws ambush them, their new Indian friends ride to their rescue.

Ross McEwen pulls an unusual bank job in the New Mexico town of Santa Maria, taking the banker Frenger with him, then letting him go a few miles away, minus boots but with an I.O.U. for the $2,000 he robbed.
Pat Garrett, the new marshal, will try to catch the thief, as will bounty hunters after Frenger's reward offer of $3,000. McEwen is bitten by a rattlesnake before he can board a train, where he is helped by a couple of passengers, Monte Marquez, a gambler, and Fay Hollister, a nurse.
The train tracks are washed out near Albuquerque, so the small group goes off alone via a route used to deliver mail. Fay finds out a posse from Santa Maria is after a wanted man and recalls that's where McEwen came on board. But he and she have developed an attraction.
When they reach an Alamogordo saloon that Marquez's cousins run, a cattleman named Burnett is willing to take on McEwen as a hired hand. Garrett and deputy Clint Waters come to town, so McEwen must leave but offers her an engagement ring. Fay rides along, but ends up separated and captured by Garrett's men.
After crossing the desert with difficulty, McEwen comes across a Mexican rancher named Florencio's family that is ill. He stays to help and starts a fire to signal the lawmen, needing their assistance. Marquez gets there along with Garrett and Fay, but because Florencio is another relative of his, pretends that McEwen is a total stranger.
Garrett isn't fooled, though, and McEwen is convinced to turn himself in, the marshal promising to vouch for his good deed.

Troops are massacred at a Furnace Creek fort in 1880 after an army captain, Walsh, cites orders forcing him to abandon a wagon train. Apache Indians hid inside the wagons to gain access to the fort.
General Blackwell is blamed for the incident and court-martialed. Denying that he sent any such order, the general has a stroke and dies on the witness stand. No written evidence of the order is presented.
One of his sons, Rufe, a captain from West Point, travels west to find out what happened. His brother, Cash, reads of their father's death in a Kansas City newspaper and also heads toward Furnace Creek in search of answers.
Using an alias, Cash learns that Capt. Walsh has become a drunkard. A mining boss, Leverett, is impressed by the stranger in town and hires him, not knowing Cash's real name or intent. Rufe arrives in town and also assumes a false identity.
Cafe waitress Molly Baxter, whose father was killed at the fort, still considers General Blackwell the man to blame. But the real villain is Leverett, who bribed Walsh and organized the Apache raid. A guilty conscience causes Walsh to write a confession. Leverett sends one of his henchmen to do away with Walsh, but the confession is found by Cash.
Rufe is framed, arrested and tried, but escapes. Cash gives him the confession and tells him to take it to the Army as proof. Wounded in a gunfight with Leverett but victorious, Cash recovers and reads in the paper about the proof of General Blackwell's innocence.

A ranger tracks down agents who steal weapons from the army and sell them to a foreign power.

Following the death of his friend Ed Norton who was killed during a dice game, Gene Autry (Gene Autry) sets out in search of the killer. His search takes him to an old house where Larry Evans (Russell Arms), who was accused of the murder, is in hiding. Larry's sister Mary (Barbara Britton) defends her brother, claiming they both loved Ed, who acted as their guardian after the death of their father. Mary is able to convince Gene that Larry is innocent. Gene offers to help him evade the sheriff until he can discover the real killer.
Later, Gene discovers that Larry's gun, which was used in the killing, was offered as collateral during the dice game, and anyone could have taken it and shot Ed when the lights in the room went out. To allude a posse, Gene takes Larry to a cabin belonging to his prospector friend, Jim Hedge (Clem Bevans). When Gene questions him about the game, Larry tells him that either Dave Randall (Jack Holt) or Don Mason (Robert Shayne), who were both playing in the game, suggested that he put up the gun. Gene rides back into town to continue his search for the real killer.
Meanwhile, Mason offers to purchase the Evans ranch from Mary and help Larry to escape across the border. Gene overhears the conversation and is surprised by the large amount of money Mason is proposing to pay for the property. When Gene returns to Jim's cabin, he is followed by the sheriff. Although Gene manages to warn Larry of the lawman's presence, Larry is convinced that Gene has betrayed him.
The following morning, Gene and Jim ride to the ranch where Larry is hiding. After a struggle, Larry realizes that Gene is on his side. Gene notices that Jim's compass is behaving strangely. He sets a trap for the killers and exposes Don Mason and his cohorts, Bill Otis and Dave Randall, who murdered Ed Norton in order to obtain the rich lode of iron ore on his ranch. Larry's name cleared, and he and his sister return to their ranch and its valuable iron ore.

In Colorado near the end of the American Civil War, Union Colonel Owen Devereaux (Glenn Ford) orders his regiment to fire on a detachment of Confederate soldiers, even though he (and only he) has seen that they are signaling their surrender with a white flag. Afterward, his best friend and second-in-command, Captain Del Stewart (William Holden), finds the flag and buries it as a surviving Confederate officer secretly looks on.
Immediately after the battle, the war ends. As the soldiers celebrate, Sergeant Jericho Howard (James Millican) gets drunk while on duty and is insubordinate to Devereaux, who has him arrested. At a ball, the mayor announces Devereaux's appointment as the federal judge for the region. Stewart asks Caroline Emmett (Ellen Drew) to marry him, but she later marries Devereaux instead.
When the Confederate survivor confronts Devereaux about the white flag, Devereaux shoots him, even though the man has already been subdued. Stewart realizes that Devereaux must have seen the flag and concludes that the war has unhinged Devereaux's mind. He agrees to serve as Devereaux's marshal after Devereaux promises not to participate in arrests.
Many of Devereaux's men owned mines before the war began, but a wealthy businessman named Big Ed Carter (Ray Collins) claimed the mines for himself. As federal judge, Devereaux upholds Carter's claim based on a legal technicality involving the soldiers' absence during the war.
Meanwhile, Howard escapes and stages a series of gold robberies. Devereaux's uncle, Doc Merriam (Edgar Buchanan), hopes that the end of the war and marriage to Caroline will restore Devereaux's sanity, but Devereaux hangs Howard's partner after a summary trial, prompting several other men to join Howard. Devereaux also threatens to hang Howard's younger brother Johnny (Jerome Courtland) based on circumstantial evidence after another robbery, even though Johnny is not part of his brother's gang. After warning Devereaux not to hang Johnny, Stewart finds Howard and persuades him to turn himself in, but Devereaux hangs Johnny despite Stewart's warning. Stewart resigns in disgust and joins Howard's gang.
After Stewart helps to rescue some men from being hanged, Devereaux lures him into town by spreading a rumor that Caroline is in danger, arrests him, and puts him in jail. When Caroline sees this, she breaks into Devereaux's desk and reads his diary, finally realizes that he has lost his mind, and persuades Doc Merriam to rescue Stewart. She begins to put Stewart and Doc Merriam on a carriage to alert the state government of Devereaux's insanity, but Devereaux shoots Stewart, so she joins Stewart and the doctor as they flee to a nearby mining town. Devereaux sets fire to the town. When Carter accuses him of being mad with jealousy over Caroline's loyalty to Stewart, he rides into town, confronts Stewart and Howard, and is killed when a wall from a burning building falls on him. Howard is also killed.
Stewart says goodbye to Caroline and others before traveling to Washington DC to plead on behalf of the dispossessed miners.


When Bill Stockton arrives in the town of Old Los Angeles to meet his brother he quickly figures out that the outlaws rule. He is then confronted with the reality that his brother Larry has been murdered for gold. This sets him off on a quest to avenge his brother's death which comes hand in hand with even more trouble.

Unruly cowboys Rondo, Jeb, Mule and Davy ride into town. They can't pay for their drinks, so Sheriff McCauley jails them for a night. Then they refuse to pay clerk Ellie Walters at the general store, and take rooms at Kate Miller's hotel.
The rancher Sam Christy is asked for help. He is an American Civil War hero, but has lost an arm and is tired of fighting. When the cowboys beat up the saloon keeper and McCauley is killed by Jeb, however, Sam offers to do what he can.
He is ambushed by the cowboys at the ranch, beaten and his horses stolen. Ellie tends to him and they kiss. In town, Davy is upset by what's happening and wants the cowboys to leave. Ellie is attacked by Rondo, who then comes at Sam with a knife. Ellie shoots him. Sam then kills Mule in a fight and shoots the fleeing Jeb. He allows the remorseful Davy to leave town.

In colonial America, David Harvey (William Holden), a recent widower living in the wilderness, decides that his young boy Davey (Gary Gray) needs a woman around to help raise him. He goes to the nearest settlement and consults Parson Jackson (Tom Tully). David gets talked into buying the contract of an indentured servant named Rachel (Loretta Young) and marrying her.
Their marriage, however, is in name alone. Rachel serves more as a servant than a wife and Davey resents what he sees as an attempt to replace his dead mother Susan. Jim Fairways (Robert Mitchum), a family friend (and former suitor of Susan's), visits and falls in love with Rachel. When he offers to buy her, David must fight to keep her and discovers his love in the process.

In the 1870s, in a logging town on the Mississippi River, a conflict exists between the people of a mill town and the lumberjacks who work downriver. Romance and deceit are catalyzed by the arrival of the gambling riverboat, River Lady, owned by a beautiful woman called Sequin.
Bauvais, a representative of the local lumber syndicate and Sequin's business partner, is trying to convince H.L. Morrison, the mill owner, to sell his business. Morrison refuses, and Sequin eventually buys part of the struggling business in order to provide a reputable job for her boyfriend, Dan Corrigan, a lumberjack.
Dan eventually takes the job and he and Sequin become engaged. But, when Dan discovers that Sequin manipulated Morrison into giving him the job, he gets drunk and marries Stephanie, Morrison's daughter. Sparks fly between Morrison's business and Sequin's syndicate instigated by a vengeful Dan.
In the following battle, Bauvais is killed and Dan is shot. After the battle, Sequin visits a healing Dan and asks to get back together (Dan and Stephanie are separated). Dan tells Sequin he has actually fallen in love with his wife and wants to stay with her. On her way out of town forever, Sequin tells Stephanie that Dan wants her thereby reuniting the couple.

King Russell (Kirby Grant) is a hillbilly singer whose show is canceled by its sponsor. The Hoosier Hot Shots and Russell must try to win over the sponsor's young son in order to get the sponsor to change his mind.

Two soldiers have been robbed and murdered while guarding a shipment of gold. Into town rides Haven, a military intelligence officer traveling incognito.
A beautiful saloon singer catches Haven's eye. After he meets Mrs. Caslon, who owns the gold mine, Haven hears that someone called "Charlie" is the brains behind the scene. He finds out to his surprise that Charlie is the singer.
Charlie's lawyer, Bristow, is $6,000 in her debt and therefore might be involved in the gold theft. Haven beats up Charlie's saloon bouncer in a fight and is offered a job as transport chief for the gold. Charlie's friend, Prince, meanwhile, is growing jealous of her interest in Haven.
While transporting a shipment of gold, the man riding shotgun, Goddard, is killed and Haven knocked cold. When he comes to, he manages to track, catch and kill the robber carrying the gold. He shoos away the dead man's horses and follows them to their home stable, at the sawmill owned by Charlie. Haven pretends to be an ignorant hand working for Charlie, and is charged with transporting the stolen gold in the horses' saddlebags back to town to Charlie and Prince.
He hides the gold, and confronts Prince and Charlie. After some to-ing and fro-ing with the gold and an affidavit dictated to Bristow by Haven, Charlie convinces Bristow that he ought to confront Haven. Haven convinces him rather that he is the next target of Prince and Charlie as he knows too much. Bristow, terrified, tries to get away but is shot by Prince. Haven is pinned down, but after persuading the sheriff to arrest him for the crime, Haven escapes, and learns that Charlie's men plan to disguise themselves as military officers to steal more of Mrs. Caslon's gold.
He foils this plot, then arrives back at the saloon, to arrest Charlie, but also because he is in love with her. Prince sneaks up intending to shoot Haven, but his bullet hits Charlie instead. Haven kills Prince and rushes to Charlie's side. She tells Haven she loves him before dying, and he that he loves her.
He rides away as Burl Ives sings that a man can't grow old where there's women and gold.

Joe is paralyzed by a wild horse, a strawberry roan. His father, Walt, tries to kill the horse in anger but is unsuccessful and the horse escapes. Autry, who stopped Walt from killing the animal, is asked to leave the ranch. He finds the horse and trains it in the hopes of returning it to Joe to give him the will to overcome his disability.

When Tex Granger rides into Three Buttes, Helen Kent persuades him to buy the local newspaper. However, loan shark Rance Carson appoints the bandit Blaze Talbot as town marshal to act as his enforcer and soon the town is in chaos. With fighting between rival gangs, Tex dons a mask to become The Midnight Rider of the Plains and bring the criminals to justice.

The bad Barton boys—Blake, Leroy and Gabby—rob a train and shoot a guard. Luke Smith, known as "Whispering" to some for his quiet, sly ways, is a detective for the railroad, sent to investigate.
Murray Sinclair, an old friend of Smith's, is in charge of the railroad's wrecking crew. He's glad to see Smith, who shoots Leroy and Gabby and is saved when a bullet is deflected by a harmonica in his pocket, given him long ago by his sweetheart Marian, who is now Sinclair's wife.
It saddens Smith to find out that Sinclair might be in cahoots with Barney Rebstock, a rancher with a bad reputation. Rebstock has been hiding the remaining Barton brother, Blake, who is tracked down by Smith.
Whitey DuSang is a hired gun for Rebstock, who wants to see Smith dead. When the railroad's boss gives Sinclair an order, Sinclair rebels and is fired. Rebstock hires him to pull off a string of daring train holdups.
Smith forms a posse. Whitey kills a guard and betrays Rebstock, shooting him. Sinclair is wounded. Smith does away with Whitey but gives his old friend Sinclair a last chance. When Sinclair rides home, he finds Marian packing and strikes her, accusing her of leaving him for Smith.
Smith shows up and Sinclair apologises for his actions. He seems sincere, but when Smith's back is turned, Sinclair pulls a hidden gun. Before he can fire, Sinclair falls over and dies. Smith leaves town, his work there done.

In 1867, a gang led by James "Stretch" Dawson (Gregory Peck) robs a bank and flees into the desert. Out of water, the outlaws come upon a ghost town called Yellow Sky and its only residents, a hostile young woman called "Mike" (Anne Baxter) by her prospector grandfather (played by James Barton). Stretch is attracted to Mike. While the men recover from their ordeal, Dude (Richard Widmark) snoops around. Dude tells the others that the old man is mining gold, but Stretch is unimpressed. The next day, Mike and Grandpa take to the hills. A confrontation between Stretch and Dude over the leadership of the gang is interrupted by Mike shooting at them. However, when Grandpa is hit in the leg by a ricochet, Mike surrenders.
Back in the house, Grandpa offers to split his gold, worth roughly $50,000 by his estimate. Later, Lengthy (John Russell) grabs Mike, and youngster Bull Run (Robert Arthur) tries unsuccessfully to intervene. Stretch rescues him and holds Lengthy's head underwater until he nearly drowns. That night, Stretch assures Mike and Grandpa that he will keep to the bargain, with Dude eavesdropping. The next day, a large band of Apaches appear while the gang is at the mine digging up the gold. Stretch sneaks into town. Grandpa tells him that he convinced his friends to return to the reservation. In gratitude for the old man not sending the Indians to wipe out his gang, Stretch tells his men that they will share the gold, but Dude draws his gun and fires. The rest of the outlaws follow his example. Mike shows up and helps a slightly wounded Stretch back to her home. Not wanting to spend the rest of their lives looking over their shoulders for Stretch, the gang surrounds the house.
In the ensuing gunfight, they think that Stretch has been killed. Dude takes the opportunity to shoot at Lengthy, but misses. He then runs off to try to take all the gold for himself, with his would-be victim in pursuit. Bull Run is fatally wounded, and Walrus (Charles Kemper) and Half Pint (Harry Morgan) decide to switch sides. Stretch then goes after Dude and Lengthy. A deadly three-sided shootout in the unlit saloon follows. Afterwards, a frantic Mike finds Dude and Lengthy dead and Stretch wounded. After Stretch recovers, he, Walrus and Half Pint, who is now wearing Dude's clothes, return to the bank they robbed and give back the stolen money. Then, they ride off with Mike and Grandpa.

Tom Horn tries to steal back $200 he lost in a poker game. He is thrown into a jail cell with outlaw William Morgan, whose gang members Red, Curly and Mingo break them out.
Tom wins their trust by robbing a Colorado mining company. He is recognized by Julie, the company's bookkeeper, but she is attracted to him.
The gang rides to Tombstone, Arizona, unhappy that Tom has married Julie and brought her along. A posse shoots Curly, who informs on the whereabouts of the rest. Red is murdered by Mingo, not wanting to split the loot. Tom is able to kill both Mingo and Morgan, but can't outdraw the law.


Hot-headed Winifred "Freddie" Jones (Betty Grable) is a saloon singer in the Old West who catches her boyfriend, gambler Blackie Jobero (Cesar Romero), flirting with another woman and takes a shot at him with the six-shooter she always carries. Unfortunately, she hits a Judge (Porter Hall) instead, so she and her friend Conchita (Olga San Juan) take it on the lam. When they get to a tiny hole-in-the-wall town, Freddie and Conchita are mistaken for the new schoolmarm and her Indian maid. They meet the local muckety-mucks, including wealthy Charles Hingelman (Rudy Vallee), owner of a valuable gold mine, who starts to romance Freddie. When Blackie shows up while tracking Freddie down, complications ensue.

Mavra Mesanychta. is a black comedy that shows how can a man from a sheep gets to become a wolf, how money and power can change the people or make them change because they don't have a choice, to show how far can people go and what they are willing to do and what they are willing to lost in order to achieve what they want no matter the cost they have to pay. It shows the true face of the underworld what really happens and most people don't know about it or they don't want to. It is an anxious comedy but also very funny.

Sheriff Will Egan doesn't want any gamblers in Denton, Texas and is suspicious when stranger Sam Bass arrives in town. The sheriff's daughter Kathy likes the newcomer, though, while Calamity Jane is impressed with Sam's way with horses, even more so when Sam spots a poorly shod favorite in a horse race and bets against him, winning a tidy sum.
Sam buys the losing horse with his wager winnings and intends to race him. But when a hired guy poisons the horse, Sam shoots him. Sam tries to turn himself in, but feels he can't get a fair trial and busts out. He ends up shot, dying in Jane's arms, yet seemingly in love with Kathy.

John Breen, a Kentucky militiaman, falls in love with French exile Fleurette de Marchand (Vera Ralston). He discovers a plot to steal the land that Fleurette's exiles plan to settle on. Throughout the film, Breen's soldiers sing:
Only six hundred miles more to go
Only six hundred miles more to go
And if we can just get lucky
We will end up in Kentucky
Only six hundred miles more to go
When the song is first heard, there are eight hundred miles to go (the tune is She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain).



Bob Ford of the Jesse James gang is wounded during a bank robbery. He mends at Jesse's home in Missouri for six months, although Jesse's wife Zee doesn't trust him.
Cynthy Waters, an actress Bob is in love with, comes to town to perform on stage. Bob catches her speaking with John Kelley, a prospector, and is jealous. He knows that Cynthy wants to get married and settle down.
In need of money, Bob hears of the governor's $10,000 reward for Jesse. He betrays his friend, shooting Jesse in the back. Bob is pardoned by the governor but receives a reward for just $500.
He spends the money on an engagement ring. Harry Kane, who manages Cynthy's career, books Bob for stage appearances in which he re-enacts the shooting of Jesse. He is booed by audiences and mocked in public for his cowardly deed.
Bob goes to Colorado to try prospecting and runs into Kelley, who is rejecting offers to become Creede's town marshal. Bob wakes up one day to find both Kelley and the engagement ring missing. Cynthy arrives just as Kelley returns, having captured the ring's thief. Kelley is disappointed when Cynthy accepts Bob's proposal, so he accepts the job as marshal.
Frank James, brother of Jesse, overhears a conversation in which Cynthy confides to Kelley that he's the one she truly loves. Frank makes sure that Bob learns of this, knowing Bob will make the fatal mistake of confronting Kelley face to face. In the street, Bob draws on Kelley and is shot dead. Kelley gets the girl and Frank avenges his brother's death.

In modern times, a newspaper reports that "noted explorer and writer" Floyd Buckley (Hayden Rorke) claims to have discovered the location of the lost gold mine. He is approached by Barry Storm (William Prince), who believes he has some claim to it, as the Dutchman was his grandfather. Buckley brushes him off, but when he heads into the Superstition Mountains, Storm secretly follows him.
However, an unseen killer shoots Buckley, making him the fourth recent murder victim. Storm notifies Sheriff Early (Paul Ford) and his deputies Covin (Will Geer) and Walter (Jay Silverheels). Covin tells Storm more about the mine; a hundred years before, Pedro Peralta had hidden $20 million in gold in the most inaccessible of his mines, only to be killed by the Apaches for defiling a place holy to their "thunder god". His greed whetted, Storm investigates further.
A flashback follows. In 1880, Jacob "Dutchy" Walz (Glenn Ford) and his friend Wiser (Edgar Buchanan) overhear Ludi (Arthur Hunnicutt) carelessly call his companion "Peralta" (Antonio Moreno). Recognizing the name, they trail the pair into the mountains. After Ramon Peralta finds his brother's mine, Walz and Wiser gun the two other men down in cold blood; then Walz treacherously shoots Wiser too.
When Walz returns to Phoenix with huge gold nuggets, the news spreads quickly. Scheming, discontented Julia Thomas (Ida Lupino) becomes acquainted with Walz, without telling him she is married to Pete (Gig Young). His suspicions of her motives are allayed by the fact that she can speak German. They soon fall in love. When she finally tells him about her husband, Walz gives her money to bribe Pete into giving her a divorce. However, Walz later learns that Julia has lied to him repeatedly. Unseen, he watches as Julia placates her husband by telling him she will soon learn the location of the mine.
Walz gives Julia directions to the treasure. Though Julia seems to care for Walz, Pete forces her to show him the map. When the couple reach the mine, Walz pins them down with his rifle. In the ensuing gunfight, Pete eventually runs out of bullets. Walz cruelly toys with them, letting them go without water. Finally, Julia stabs Pete in the back and pleads with Walz to believe she loves him. Before he can act, an earthquake triggers a rockfall that crushes her and closes the mine.
The film returns to the present. Storm has uncovered enough information that he believes he knows where the mine is. When he gets to the key landmark, he encounters Covin, who pulls a gun on him. It turns out that the deputy has been searching for the mine for twenty years and has been disposing of his competitors. A fight breaks out; Covin is about to push Storm off the mountain when a poisonous snake bites him; he falls to his death. Afterwards, Sheriff Early points out that, even with the new clue, Storm does not know the exact location and would have to dig up the entire mountainside. At that point, Storm gives up the search.

In the North Woods, Forester Charles Carter (Jason Robards Sr.) discovers that a Tussock Moth infection is threatening to devastate the great woods. This threatens the plans of Henry Mitchell (Douglass Dumbrille), who holds exclusive logging rights for the forest. Mitchell figures that if the moths infest and kill the trees, he can harvest all the dead trees, unencumbered by logging restrictions. When Carter tries to phone in the infestation threat, Mitchell covertly cuts the line, forcing Carter to ride into town to report the problem. Meanwhile, along the trail, Gene Autry (Gene Autry) and Forester Joe Lucas (Jimmy Lloyd), who have been drinking, come across a mountain lion, and Gene fires several shots at the wild animal. Mitchell, who has been following the forester, uses the last shot as cover to shoot Carter in the back, leaving him where Autry will assume Carter was killed by his errant shot.
At the inquest, Gene is cleared of any charges, and he is freed. He sells his interest in his forest camp, leaving the money to Carter's daughter, Helen (Patricia Barry). In grief, he decides to leave the area, but then discovers the moth infestation for himself. Reporting it to the forest service and discovering that his shot could not have killed Carter, he is hired to run a program of aerial spraying of DDT to kill the moth larva before the forest is destroyed. Gene includes his pal, Joe, in the aerial program, but Joe's problems with alcohol, triggered by the death of his wife, lead to trouble.
Meanwhile, Mitchell has hatched a plot to stop the DDT spraying by covertly spraying a very potent poison over the local livestock, blaming the resulting sickness and death on the DDT. Joe, who has returned to sobriety with the help of Autry, finds the plane and poison being used by Mitchell, but is shot by one of Mitchell's henchmen, Bill Wright (Damian O'Flynn), as he rides to report the problem. Helen finds Joe and, with the help of Dr. Chadwick (Harry Cheshire), brings him back from the brink of death. When Joe recovers consciousness, he reports his findings to Gene.
When he learns that Wright has aroused the locals to stop the spraying operation, Gene rides to intercept them before they can destroy the planes. He reports Wright's scheme, and convinces some of the locals to go with him to check it out. Wright has dismantled the plane, and when the locals leave, he captures Gene and Forester Jerry (Jerry Scoggins). They soon escape, however, and arrive at the airfield on time for a brawl to save the aircraft. The sheriff shows up, breaks up the fight, and confiscates everyone's weapons.
With the help of Helen and Dr. Chadwick, Gene makes Mitchell and Wright believe he is holding the bullet removed from the injured Joe, and that it will be traced to Wright's confiscated rifle. Mitchell, Wright, and Pete ride to confront Autry, with Mitchell dropping off at a shack along the way to ambush Gene, should he get away. Wright confronts Gene, and after more fighting, he gets away. Pete, however, is captured and leads Gene to a trap by telling him he can find Wright at the shack where Mitchell is waiting.
Later, Pete tries to cut a deal by confessing the truth. Joe realizes he will never catch up to Gene in time to save him, so he rides to the airfield to try an aerial intercept. Wright forces his way onto the plane at gunpoint to escape justice, but once in the air, Joe points out that if he is shot there is no one to fly the aircraft. Joe flies over Gene to warn him, and when that doesn't work, he selflessly crashes the plane into the shack, killing Wright, Mitchell, and himself. Gene returns to finish the spraying job, with the clear understanding that his future includes a permanent forestry job and married life with Helen.




During the Civil War, Kip Davis (Joel McCrea), Charlie Burns (Zachary Scott), and Lee Price (Douglas Kennedy), are run out of town by the guerilla raider and Union Army leader Luke Cottrell, who burns down their ranch. Though Kip's fiancee, Deb (Dorothy Malone) begs them to stay in the small Texas town of Edenton, the three ranch owners vow vengeance on the Cottrell and decide to head south to find him. When they get to Brownsville, Texas, Lee decides to join the Confederate Army, while Kip and Charlie attempt to rebuild Three Bell ranch. Before they do, however, they take on offer from an attractive local lounge singer, Rouge de Lisle (Alexis Smith), to transport a box of furniture for fifty dollars. It turns out, however, that the box is instead filled with an illegal shipment of firearms and Kip is subsequently arrested. Before he is punished, however, he is freed and is picked up by Rouge, who offers him a job gun-running for the Confederacy. He accepts the offer, hoping to get enough money smuggling to rebuild the ranch. The trio then hires a group of gunmen, one of which is Slim Hansen, who used to work for Cottrell, and heads to Matamoros, Mexico to pick up a shipment of guns for the Confederacy.
As they attempt to cross the border, they run into Cottrell and his gang. In the ensuing gunfight, Kip and Charlie are saved by a company of Confederate soldiers led by Lee, one of which is Lee. The three return to Edenton, where Kip's fiancee again attempts to convince him to stay. Kip is determined, however, to get enough money to restart his farm and instead continues to smuggle guns. When Brownsville is finally captured by rebel soldiers, the three must decide what the next course of action is. Lee continues to fight with the Confederate army, Kip wants to restore Three Bell ranch, and Charlie, more interested in the money, opts to continue smuggling guns. When Deborah refuses to leave her duties as a nurse to join him at the ranch, Kip decides to go with Charlie and return to smuggling. This pleases Rouge, who has fallen in love with Kip.
As they near the border, they get word that Cottrell has threatened to kill Charlie and Kip if they return to Matamoros. At Slim's suggestion, they decide to steal the shipment of guns before it even reaches Mexico. The men dress up as Union soldiers in order to steal the guns, but then run into Confederate soldiers who confuse them for the enemy and open fire. Lee, who suspects that Kip and Charlie are behind the attack, breaks off all connections with his two former friends.
When Cottrell kills one of Kip's men, Kip resolves that he must kill him. Before he can, however, Slim warns Cottrell, who ambushes Kip. Kip avoids the ambush, but Cottrell is killed by Slim before he is able to tell Kip about Slim's treachery. When Kip returns to Edenton, he finds out that his fiancee has fallen for Lee. Realizing that he has lost both of his closest friends and his fiancee, he leaves with Rouge to Matamoros.
After the war is over, Lee joins the Texas Rangers. While serving in Brownsville, he is threatened by his former friend, Charlie. Hoping to resolve the situation, Deb goes to Matamoros to ask Kip for help. With the help of Rouge, Deb convinces Kip to go to Brownsville. Kip gets there just in time to stop the fight, but Charlie is shot by the treacherous Slim. With Charlie dying in his arms, Kip promises Charlie that he will rebuild the Three Bell ranch.

One day in contemporary Mexicali, a poker game in the back room of a cantina includes horse breeder Jim Carey, cowboys Shep and Johnny, a prospector called Old Willy, a stranger in town named Frazee and a drifter, Chalk. Guitar player Josh and bartender Bibbs are kibbitzing. Conversation turns to a legendary wagon train carrying gold bars worth $5 million lost 100 years ago in the Walking Hills, a huge area of shifting dunes across the border in the United States. Johnny, not paying attention, casually mentions how his horse recently tripped over an old wagon wheel in the hills. To keep the discovery a secret, they agree that all of them including Jim's man Cleve must join the search for the wagon train.
The nine reach the apparent site but all the dunes have shifted since Johnny was there. Bibbs discovers an ox skull and Old Willy an oxen yoke and they begin digging. The group is joined by Chris Jackson, a woman who followed them from Calexico, where she works in a diner. Shep is really former rodeo rider Dave Wilson with whom Chris, herself a rodeo performer, fell in love at a rodeo in Denver, breaking off her engagement to Jim. Dave abruptly disappeared and Chris saw him again in Calexico after he showed up there as Shep, heading for the border.
It turns out that Dave Wilson had fled because he accidentally killed a gambler who accused him of cheating at cards. The man's father, King, hired a detective who turns out to be Frazee, and who has been sending signals to King and a posse with a heliograph. Johnny, Chalk and Cleve are also on the run and each believes Frazee is after him. Frazee shoots Johnny during a fight. Jim, told by Johnny that he would rather die than go to prison, has Cleve hide the horses to keep Johnny from being found out if someone goes for help.
A wagon is uncovered and tempers flare when no gold is found. Johnny dies right after Frazee admits he watched Chris as "hangman's bait," waiting for Dave to show up. A terrible sand storm develops, and Chalk tries to stampede the horses, killing Frazee with his own gun. Jim kills Chalk as he tries to escape. The storm uncovers the entire wagon train. Old Willy finds it, but it's empty. Dave decides to turn himself in to the law and Chris, still in love with Dave, rides after him. Jim has a hunch, meanwhile, that the wagons weren't entirely empty when Old Willy found it. He is right.

Determined to reform from their outlaw ways, Cole, Jim and Bob Younger ride to Cedar Creek, Minnesota, where a parole hearing will be held. If they steer clear of trouble, the Youngers will be free to return home to Missouri and their farm.
A detective who blames the Youngers for losing his Pinkerton's job, Ryckman, is eager to get even. He goads a younger Younger brother, Johnny, into a situation at a saloon where a man is killed. Ryckman urges townspeople to turn Sheriff Knudson against all the Youngers.
Katie Shepherd, who has a lawless band of her own, fails to persuade the Youngers to side with her, so she sets a trap. Cole, taken hostage, is forced to join Katie's gang on a bank robbery or else Johnny will be harmed. Jim and Bob see their brother armed and riding with the outlaws, not knowing Cole's been given an unloaded gun.
The robbery goes wrong and Katie is killed. Ryckman continues to come after the Youngers, surrounding their campsite with the intent to lynch them. In the end, though, the Youngers are cleared of wrongdoing and able to ride away free and clear.


The notorious attempt by swindler James Reavis to claim the entire territory of Arizona as his own before it was granted statehood in 1912 is recounted years later by John Griff, who works for the Department of the Interior.
In 1872, Reavis went to great lengths to forge documents in Spain and create the illusion that he had a legal right to claim all of Arizona his own. He began by seeking out Pepito Alvarez to inquire about Sofia, an infant abandoned by Reavis many years before.
Reavis decides to take Sofia home with him, hire governess Lorna Morales to refine her, then marry her, using fabricated proof that identifies Sofia as the rightful "baroness" of Arizona. A suspicious U.S. government, unable to disprove Reavis' claim, offers him $25 million for the rights to the land. He declines.
The surveyor general, Miller, is sure Reavis has somehow doctored the documents. He brings in Griff, an expert on forgery. In the meantime, Reavis orders settlers and families off "his" land. A displaced rancher, Lansing, tosses a bomb into Reavis' office. It still does not discourage him, so Pepito finally threatens to reveal that Sofia's parents were not Spanish land barons at all, but native Indians.
Reavis is revealed as a charlatan. He manages to talk his way out of a lynching, but ends up behind bars.


A prospective settler, pioneer Bob Davis, is gunned down by hired guns Grif and Brag, who work for saloonkeeper and prospective land baron Harvey "Deacon" Grimes. The killing is witnessed by insurance investigator Rocky Lane, who decides to go undercover and help the dead man's daughter, Susie.
Rancher's daughter Gail Warren gets acquainted with Rocky, but inadvertently reveals his true identity to Grimes and his men. Rocky is able to prevail, however, and leaves town, promising to come back.

Tom, a secret service agent on the hunt for gang of counterfeiters, gains the confidence of one of the gang's ringleaders.

The Civil War may be over back East, but prejudice still rules the West. A full-blooded Shoshone Indian named Lance Poole distinguished himself in the war, winning the Congressional Medal of Honor, only to return home to Medicine Bow, Wyoming, to something a far cry from a hero's welcome.
Townspeople resent the fact that Lance and his father own a large and valuable piece of land. A doctor refuses to treat Lance's father, who dies, while Lance himself is unable to even buy a drink in the local saloon. A loophole in a law involving homesteaders is used by biased attorney Verne Coolan to strip Lance of his property. Lance turns to a female lawyer, Orrie Masters, who fails to acquire the necessary petition signatures they need to overturn the law.
Coolan organizes sheepherders and attempts to drive out Lance by force. Shoshone tribesmen fight by Lance's side, using his cabin for a fort. Orrie calls in the U.S. Cavalry to create a truce, only to have them side with Coolan and the town. It's a lost cause. Lance is at least able to kill Coolan, but not before being already seriously wounded himself at the Shoshone barricade.
Lance Poole then turns the responsibility for the surviving women and children over to the only surviving male child, who leads them away from the barricade and presumably in the direction of the reservation. Afterward, Lance puts on his civil war sergeants major uniform, and walks out to the cavalry commander and his former lawyer. The commander salutes Poole first, as that is the custom when greeting a medal of honor recipient. Lance then dies from exsanguination.

Frank Dawson is killed in the town of Bottleneck by his double-crossing partner Jack Lambert, leaving a young girl without a father. For the next 15 years, she lives in orphanages and works for the Fontaines, originally from Paris, earning her the nickname "Frenchie."
Now grown, she makes a fortune running a casino in New Orleans, then returns to Bottleneck to finally try to find her father's killer. She buys the casino the Scarlet Angel but learns that sheriff Tom Banning has cleaned up the town, forcing gamblers to go to nearby Chuckaluck, where the man in charge is Lambert.
Frenchie gets in touch with Lance Cole, a man who helped her in New Orleans, and asks him to come to Bottleneck to run the Scarlet Angel with her. Lambert's gambling interests are threatened, so he plans to ambush Cole's stage. Tom intervenes and prevents bloodshed.
Cole is in love with Frenchie and suspicious that Tom might be taking an interest in her. Tom's former fiancee, Diane, is jealous, too. She ended up marrying a rich banker, Clyde Gorman, only for his money. She and her husband rally the Bottleneck townspeople to get rid of these new gamblers in town.
Frenchie visits her father's grave, seen by Tom, who guesses correctly that she is Dawson's daughter. He rides to Chuckaluck to prevent trouble, but Lambert tries to shoot him.
The men of Bottleneck who want Frenchie gone head for the hills when she lies to them about a gold discovery there. Diane declares her love to Tom, who rejects her. Diane goes to the Scarlet Angel to confront Frenchie and lets it slip that her husband is Lambert's silent partner. The women get into a fight, which Tom breaks up.
Frenchie now knows the identities of the two men who murdered her dad. When she decides against vengeance, Cole figures she won't kill Gorman because that would make Diane a widow, free to be with Tom.
An unknown figure shoots Gorman in the back. Tom is accused and locked up in his own jail. Frenchie organizes a jailbreak, but Tom is suspicious because he thinks Frenchie could be setting him up to be gunned down by a posse.
Lambert draws and Tom kills him in self-defense. When things look bleak for him, Diane confesses that it was she who killed her husband. Tom assumes that Frenchie will leave town now, but Frenchie goes into a cell, closes the door and throws away the key, letting Tom know she's not going anywhere.


A young, reckless cowboy named Eddie (Richard Jaeckel) deliberately provokes an argument with the notorious gunfighter Jimmy Ringo (Gregory Peck). Ringo is widely known as the fastest draw in the West, making him the perpetual target of every young gunslinger eager to become famous as "the man who shot Ringo". When Eddie ignores Ringo's warnings and draws his weapon, Ringo has no choice but to kill him. Eddie's three brothers pursue Ringo as he leaves town, seeking revenge, but Ringo ambushes them, takes their guns, and drives off their horses, telling them to walk back to town; instead, they follow him on foot.
In the nearby town of Cayenne, Ringo settles into a corner of the largely deserted saloon. The barkeeper (Karl Malden) alerts Marshal Mark Strett (Millard Mitchell), an old friend of Ringo's. Strett urges Ringo to leave, since his presence has already created a sensation in town, and it is only a matter of time until the brothers show up. Ringo agrees to go as soon as he sees his wife, Peggy (Helen Westcott), whom he has not seen in eight years, and the son he has never met; but Strett says that Peggy has changed her surname to conceal their relationship and has no interest in seeing him.
Meanwhile, Ringo has to deal with Hunt Bromley (Skip Homeier), another young gunslinger keen to make a name for himself, and Jerry Marlowe (Cliff Clark, uncredited), who mistakenly believes Ringo killed his son. The bar girl, Molly (Jean Parker)—another old friend—eventually persuades Peggy to talk to Ringo. Ringo says that he is now older and wiser, and wants to leave his gunfighting past behind. He intends to settle down to a peaceful life in California, where people do not know him, and he wants Peggy to come with him. She refuses, but agrees to reconsider in a year's time, if he has kept his word and abandoned his past for good. Ringo meets his son at last, although he does not reveal that he is his father.
Ringo's business in Cayenne is finished, but he has lingered too long. The three vengeful brothers have arrived, and lie in wait, but Strett and his deputies intercept them and bring them in. Ringo bids farewell to Peggy, his son, and his friends; but as he departs the saloon, Bromley shoots him in the back, mortally wounding him. As Ringo lies dying, he tells Strett that he wants it known that he drew on Bromley—that Bromley shot him in self defense. Bromley protests that he doesn't want Ringo's help—but Ringo explains to his killer that he is doing him no favors. Bromley, he says, will soon know how it feels to have every hotshot two-bit gunfighter out to kill him. He will become a magnet for trouble. He will learn, as Ringo did, that notoriety as a gunfighter is a curse that will follow him wherever he goes, making him an outcast and a target for the rest of his life. Strett orders Bromley out of his town, punctuating his order with a beating, which he warns is "just the beginning" of what Bromley has coming.
In death, Ringo has finally found what he sought for so long: his wife's forgiveness and reconciliation. At his funeral, as Peggy proudly reveals to the townspeople for the first time that she is Mrs. Ringo, a silhouetted, unrecognizable cowboy rides off into the sunset.

In 1757 the French around Montreal are poised to move south. A young American volunteer in the British Army Sergeant Tom Cutler is sent northwards carrying a dispatch which orders the garrison of Fort Williams to reinforce the vulnerable Crown Point outpost. Cutler is murdered on the way by two men acting as British scouts, one of whom is an Ogane, a French-allied Huron posing as a Mohawk. Crown Point is not relieved in time and falls to the French
Returning home after two years away, Sergeant Cutler's elder brother Nat "Hawkeye" Cutler and his companion, a Delaware Indian Chief Sagamore investigate the killing of Tom, who is now wrongly believed to have been a traitor by the authorities. Nat and Sagamore enlist as scouts for the reinforcements being sent out to Fort Williams. They escort the British Captain West carrying important despatches, and Marion Thorne, the daughter of the Fort's commander. They foil an attempt by Ogane to betray them to the Hurons and bring them safety to Fort Williams. However, their apparent insubordination leaves their commander's suspicious of their loyalty.
General Montcalm is being supplied with information by a spy inside the Fort, which is carried out to him by Ogane. Montcalm ambushes a force of American infantry and advances with the French Army to lay siege to the Fort. Hawkeye is able to expose the traitor as Captain Brownwell a French-born officer serving as quartermaster to the British forces, but is too late to stop further information passing out to Montcalm. Aware that the Fort is indefensible, Montcalm offers it favorable peace terms. This outrages Ogane who wants vengeance against the Anglo-Americans, and he leads his Hurons in a night attack in which they kill many of the Fort's defenders. Marion Thorne is kidnapped by Ogane who wants her as his wife.
Hawkeye, Captain West and Sagamore follow the Hurons and rescue Marion. They are then pursued by Ogane until they reach the shelter of the Ottawa tribe, rivals of the Hurons. The Ottawa leader suggests they can go free if one of them can defeat Ogane in single combat. Hawkeye fights and kills Ogane, and they are allowed to return home. Hawkeye is appointed as chief scout to the British forces as they prepare a fresh offensive for the following year.

The film starts 11 July 1879 in Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory. A group of men who work for Major Harper, led by gunslinger Minniger, attempt to arrest rancher Alexander Kain and his English partner Jameson. They are stopped by William Bonney, aka Billy the Kid, who shoots and injures them.
Jameson offers Billy a job as a ranch hand. A drunken group of Harper's men attack the ranch and kill Jameson. Billy goes on a killing rampage, encouraged by the manipulative Kain, who publicly decries Billy's efforts. Governor Lew Wallace offers Billy a pardon which he turns down. Pat Garrett is sent to catch Billy.


United States Marshal Andrew Barclay (Randolph Scott) arranges the escape of outlaw Tom Tanner (Forrest Tucker) in order to locate the $250,000 in gold stolen by Tanner in stagecoach robbery. Tanner notices he's being followed by Barclay, whose appearance suggests he is a greenhorn. Tanner ambushes Barclay and forces him to trade clothes and accompany him to a bank, where Tanner retrieves an envelope containing a map from a safe deposit box showing the location of the stolen gold.
On the road, Tanner and Barclay are stopped by two brothers, Jeff and Bart, who pull their guns and demand the map. To Tanner's surprise, Barclay disarms the brothers and takes their horses. Later he explains that he is a fugitive just like Tanner and proposes that they work together as a team. That night, while Barclay is asleep, Tanner rides on without him.
The next day, Barclay stops at a ranch owned by beautiful Karen Galt (Dorothy Malone) and trades his lame horse for a fresh one. He continues on to the nearby town of Twin Forks, which is run by Karen's father, Edward Galt (George Macready). At the local saloon, Barclay sees Tanner who pretends not to know him. Galt watches their exchange and later questions Barclay about Tanner's stolen gold, which was never discovered following the robbery. When Barclay denies knowing Tanner, Galt orders his henchmen to beat him up.
Later that night, Tanner kills an intruder in his room. In an effort to force Tanner to reveal the location of the gold, Galt sets him up, making it look like cold-blooded murder rather than self defense. After being taken to jail, Tanner escapes with the help of Barclay after agreeing to share the gold. The two men ride out to the old Galt ranch, now used as a pasture for sick horses. When Karen discovers them hiding there, Barclay takes her aside and reveals that he is in fact a U.S. Marshal.
Meanwhile, Galt recognizes the escape horses used by Tanner and Barclay as belonging to his ranch. Later he questions his daughter about them, and she reveals Barclay's secret, unaware that her father is after the gold himself. When Karen overhears Galt plotting with his henchmen, however, she realizes that Barclay's life is in danger and rides to the hideout to warn him. One of Galt's men follows her, however, and summons the others to the old Galt ranch. When they arrive, Karen meets them with gunfire, which gives Barclay and Tanner a head start on their escape.
Galt catches up with his daughter and has her put in custody while he and the others track Barclay and Tanner to an old mine shaft where Tanner has hidden the stolen gold. During the ensuing gunfight, Galt and his men are killed. Barclay reveals that Tanner was allowed to escape so that the gold could be retrieved. When the mine shaft caves in, Barclay overcomes Tanner and takes his prisoner back to jail. Karen knows he will return to her because he has left his horse in her care.



With the Civil War nearing an end, rebel soldiers Will Owen, Jess Wallace and Clint Priest are released in Missouri from a Union stockade. A bandit leader and Confederate sympathizer, Keeley, recruits them to join a wagon train run by Don Chaves that is carrying a million dollars' worth of gold bullion.
The men see it as a chance to help the South and also profit. Don Chaves is suspicious of them, but permits them to be outriders, accompanying the wagon train but staying 200 yards from the others. Apaches attack and the three men help fend them off, gaining the Don's trust.
The beautiful widow Jen Gort attracts the interest of Will and Jess, who have a falling out. She is escorting teenaged Roy, her young brother-in-law, who is eager to prove his courage to the older men by fighting Indians by their side. The boy ends up inadvertently causing a stampede, however, then drowns while attempting to cross a raging river.
News comes that the war is over. Because of that, plus his love for Jen and admiration for the Don, the robbery no longer interests Will, but Jess is determined to go through with it so that he and Keeley can split the money. A gunfight ends in Jess's death, so that Will and Jen can go on with their lives.

After the territory of Laramie, Wyoming has had law and order restored by men known as the Frontiersman, sheriff Sam Barrett has a peaceful town. At least until a fight breaks out between his grown son, Logan, and a man named Kearney who's been wounded by one of Logan's bullets.
Newspaper editor Larrabee explains to the sheriff what happened. Larrabee was accused of cheating at cards by Kearney, who drew a gun on him. But because the editor was unarmed, Logan stepped in and shot the gun from Kearney's hand.
Sam believes the fair thing is to give Logan and Kearney each 10 days in jail. Kearney is livid, though, accusing the sheriff of favorable bias toward his son. Later that day at Kearney's ranch, Ryan, a ranch hand, sees Logan standing over Kearney's dead body.
A posse is formed. Logan runs into a doctor's daughter, Janie Martin, and explains his situation. A bank is robbed and the banker shot by a man fitting Logan's description, riding off on a pinto, which is what Logan rides. Larrabee helps him get away.
Janie spots a man in similar garb on a pinto and realizes Logan's been telling the truth about being innocent. Sam goes to help his son and discovers Larrabee is behind the killing and robbery. Janie is held hostage, but Logan and his father, fighting side by side, save the day.

A gun smuggler, Fowler, is selling weapons to an outlaw, Bragg, inside the baggage of dance-hall girl Peppie. It leads to Kansas and Chito coming to town to investigate.

Ghost-town crooks make a lawman (Allan "Rocky Lane) and two others look for hidden gold.


A range war develops between cattlemen and sheepmen. A couple of cowhands, Dave Saunders and Chito Rafferty, get caught in the middle when they rescue Tug Campbell, who's about to be lynched by sheep ranch foreman Jess Rawlins and his men without a fair trial.
In town, Rawlins seeks revenge, but saloon singer Ruby slips a gun to Dave, who shoots Rawlins' pistol from his hand. Ranch owner Chris Marvin returns to town and she believes her foreman Rawlins's lies, including his attempt to frame Dave and Chito after they catch one of Rawlins' men red-handed, rustling sheep.
Rawlins shoots the rustler with a rifle, then takes Dave and Chito prisoner and intends to hang them. Ruby intervenes again, sneaking a gun to Chito inside a guitar. The cowhands prove to Chris that the rustler was killed with a rifle, which neither of them carries. A gunfight leads to Dawkins being dealt with, Dave and Chris forming a bond. But when Ruby begins feeling romantic, Chito has other ideas and rides off.

In 1876, Johnny Jameson (Dan Dailey), a "drummer" (traveling salesman), is the only passenger on the inaugural run of the Tomahawk and Western Railroad's narrow gauge train through the Colorado Rockies. During the ride, the conductor tells Johnny that certain people, stagecoach operators for example, would like to see the railroad's franchise fail. Soon afterwards, Dakota (Rory Calhoun), Trancas and Gila, who work for Colonel Dawson, the area stageline operator, cause a giant boulder to fall directly in the path of the train. Engineer Terence Sweeny (Walter Brennan) manages to stop the train in time, and he and the crew then disembark to move the rock.
Johnny decides to walk to the town of Epitaph and hitches a ride with Trancas and Gila. At the sheriff's office, when Johnny tries to report the train's delay to deputy Chuckity Jones (Charles Kemper), he is knocked out by Trancas. U.S. Marshal Kit Dodge, meanwhile, is in the room next door getting ready to welcome the train with help from his tomboyish, knife-wielding granddaughter Kit (Anne Baxter). As they leave for the depot they are surprised by Trancas and Gila. The marshal shoots Trancas but is wounded by Gila. Johnny comes round and Kit suspects that he may also be one of the gang. Despite Chuckity intervening on his behalf she orders him to leave town before sunset.
Kit is deputized as a U.S. Marshal by her grandfather, who now cannot travel because of his wound. She and an Indian companion named Pawnee (Chief Yowlachie) are assigned to escort the train to Tomahawk. Colonel Dawson orders Dakota to join the posse that is escorting the train and also an Indian scout, Black Wolf, to stir up the local Arapahos. Other gang members plot to blow up the engine during a night stop.
Only after he has bought his ticket out of town does Sweeny learn that there is no track laid for the next forty miles. He is informed by local railway entrepreneur, Bishop, that the rails were lost at sea en route from England. Bishop explains that as the train must reach Tomahawk to fulfill the requirements of the franchise contract, he has arranged for the engine car to be hauled by a team of mules. Another condition is that the train must reach Tomahawk by a rapidly approaching deadline with at least one paying passenger. Kit is not pleased to discover that the passenger assigned to her care is Sweeny. Johnny, now reluctant to travel on the train, is roped alongside the cab as the locomotive, minus its passenger car, sets off pulled by the mules and accompanied by assorted wagons. Chinese laundry man Long Time (Victor Sen Yung) joins the group with much delayed laundry for Tomahawk, together with Madame Adelaide (Connie Gilchrist) and her dancing girls, Annie, Ruby, Clara (Marilyn Monroe) and Julie. A musician with pionola accompanies them.
As planned, Dawson's men Bat, Charley and Fargo show up at a night stop claiming to be telegraph men who are there to repair lines cut by the Arapahos and Kit gives them permission to bunk in the camp. Gradually Kit softens her attitude towards Johnny. When all are asleep, Bat and Charley leave while Fargo tosses sticks of dynamite under the engine. Johnny, sleeping alongside the train, smells the lit fuse and alerts the others. Kit then cuts the fuse with a shot and disables Fargo but before he can talk Dakota kills him.
Some time later, a few miles beyond where the track restarts, Bat and Charley are placing dynamite charges on a trestle bridge. Johhny, Kit and Pawnee are scouting ahead and stop at the bridge. Bat and Charley consider shooting them but are then themselves attacked and killed by Indians and the dynamite is set off prematurely. Kit, Johnny and Pawnee are chased back to the train which is then attacked by the war party. Johnny identifies the Arapaho chief, Crooked Knife, having previously worked with him in a travelling western show. After the war party is driven off, Johnny volunteers to talk peace with him. He has learned that Long Time is carrying a load of fireworks and develops a plan. He is welcomed by Crooked Knife, who agrees to allow the train safe passage. However, some of the braves distrust Johnny and ask him to produce a sign that he is "big medicine." Johnny sets off a rocket, signaling Kit and Dakota to set off the rest of the fireworks on a nearby hill, and the Indians are impressed. As the railway bridge is now out, Kit intends to take the thirty-three-ton locomotive over a mountain by dismantling it and carrying it in sections. Dawson, meanwhile, thinks he has been double-crossed and shoots Black Wolf. He then rounds up his men for a final showdown.
After Kit discovers that Dakota has sabotaged a vital water tower, Dakota jumps aboard the train, slugs Johnny and at gunpoint makes the fireman start the engine rolling and takes off at high speed down the tracks. Kit jumps into the cabin but is knocked out by Dakota. Johnny revives and while he and Dakota fight on top of the cabin, Kit comes round and throws her knife at Dakota, causing him to fall into a ravine. Dawson and his gang then ambush the train but cannot catch up with it. However, they manage to shoot up the boiler and the train slows to a halt within sight of Tomahawk. A posse, headed by Marshall Dodge, rides out from the town and, together with the Araphoe, subdue Dawson's gang. Dawson flees but is pursued by Pawnee who throws a tomahawk at him which hits home off camera. As the train has stopped just short of its goal, Johnny talks the mayor of Tomahawk into extending the town limits, thereby fulfilling the requirements of the franchise. He does so, with seconds to spare. By now Kit has fallen in love with Johnny but he says he cannot be with her as he could not give up his travelling life. She grabs her knife and threatens to cripple him to stop his wandering ways. In the next scene it becomes apparent that Johnny is now working as a train conductor. As the train sets off he quickly limps after it, waving to his wife, Kit, and their five young daughters...

Roy is a conservation agent preventing loggers from poaching Jack Holt's Christmas trees.


The film opens with a prelude showing a murderous robbery by the outlaw Clegg family (the patriarch Shiloh (Charles Kemper) and his four "boys"). The credits then follow the prelude, which was a stylistic innovation at its time.
A Mormon wagon train led by the Elder Wiggs (Ward Bond) around 1880 has reached Crystal City, and needs a wagon master to lead it further to its destination—the San Juan River country in southeastern Utah Territory. Their wagon train is being expelled from Crystal City by the townspeople there, and at the last minute horse traders Travis Blue (Ben Johnson) and Sandy Owens (Harry Carey, Jr.) take the wagon master job.
After resuming its journey west, the train finds and adds the wagon of a medicine show troupe, who, en route to California, have become stranded without water. The onward passage of the wagon train is marked by the beginnings of romances between Travis and Denver (Joanne Dru), a female entertainer with the medicine troupe, and between Sandy and a Mormon's daughter, and also by a Mormon square dance celebrating a successful desert passage, and by a pow-wow dance with a band of Navajo. All goes well enough until the Cleggs, fleeing a posse from Crystal City, force themselves into the wagon train. The train surmounts an encounter with the posse, a washed out trail blocking the way west, and ultimately a violent confrontation with the homicidal Cleggs.
The film's conclusion leaves the wagon train and its wagon master on the verge of entry into the San Juan country. There is a final montage, which Richard Jameson characterizes as follows: "Wagon Master has scant interest in the prosaic, being preeminently a musical and a poem. ... it's the final montage that lifts the movie into another realm entirely. There are shots we've seen before—landmarks, vistas, the communal dance—but also shots we haven't. ... It's a subtler, deeper variation on the closing, transfiguring memory images of How Green Was My Valley (1941)."

In 1876, Lin McAdam (James Stewart) and friend 'High-Spade' Frankie Wilson (Millard Mitchell) pursue outlaw 'Dutch Henry' Brown (Stephen McNally) into Dodge City, Kansas. They arrive just in time to see a man forcing a saloon-hall girl named Lola (Shelley Winters) onto the stage leaving town. Once the man reveals himself to be Sheriff Wyatt Earp (Will Geer) Lin backs down. Earp informs the two men that firearms are not allowed in town and they must check them in with Earp's brother Virgil. Lin and Dutch Henry see each other in the saloon, but are unable to fight due to the presence of Earp. Lin enters a shooting competition, contending against Dutch Henry among others, that is held on the Fourth of July. They end up the two finalists for a highly coveted "One of One Thousand" Winchester 1873 rifle. Lin wins by betting that he can shoot through a stamp placed over the hole of round piece from an Indian necklace. Dutch Henry claims that he is leaving town, but instead goes to Lin's room at the boarding house and ambushes Lin, stealing the rifle. Dutch and his two cohorts leave town with Lin and High-Spade in hot pursuit.
Dutch Henry and his two men ride to Riker's Bar. Because they left town in a hurry, they left the rest of their guns behind. This puts them in a bad position because of the Indians in the area. Indian trader Joe Lamont (John McIntire) sees the perfect rifle, he raises the price of his guns high enough that Dutch and his men can not afford to buy any. Dutch's only option is to trade the perfect rifle for three hundred dollars in gold and their choice of weapons from the pile that Lamont is going to sell to the Indians. Lamont feigns inexperience at cards and Dutch attempts to win back the perfect rifle. Instead, he ends up losing the three hundred in gold to Lamont. Lamont takes his guns to meet his Indian buyers, but their leader Young Bull (Rock Hudson) doesn't like the old, worn-out merchandise Lamont is offering; he wants the guns that Crazy Horse used at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Young Bull sees the perfect rifle and wants it. When Lamont refuses to sell, he is robbed and scalped.

Federal marshal Len Merrick and his two deputies rescue cattle rustler and murder suspect Tim "Pop" Keith from a lynch mob headed by grieving rancher Ned Roden, whose beloved son was shot in the back. Merrick insists on taking Keith to Santa Loma to stand trial.
The other ranchers are unwilling to go against a marshal, but Roden vows to administer his own brand of justice. He sends his other son, Dan, to gather his ranch hands while he attends to the burial. Merrick offers to help, but is met with implacable hostility. After Roden leaves, Merrick finds a pocket watch.
Keith suggests that they spend the night at his home, as it is nearby. Merrick accepts, but has cause to regret his decision when Keith's daughter Ann ambushes them. Fortunately, Merrick is able to disarm her with no harm done. When they leave, Ann decides to go with them.
After he is warned of Roden's intentions by fellow ranchers, Merrick decides to take an unexpected desert route, where he can see if he is being trailed. The ploy fails, however, and the party is overtaken by Roden and his men. In the ensuing gunfight, Merrick's best friend and deputy, Billy Shear, is wounded. Merrick forces Roden to go away by capturing his son Dan. As they travel on, Billy dies.
Merrick and Ann start falling in love. The marshal reveals that his unswerving devotion to duty is because the one time he neglected it, it cost his father his life. He was a deputy to his marshal father, and refused to help escort two prisoners. All three were lynched. Ann sympathizes, but warns him that her first loyalty is to her father.
Meanwhile, Dan convinces the remaining deputy, Lou Gray, to help him escape by the bribe of a ranch. When the group reaches a waterhole, only to find the water undrinkable, a disagreement breaks out. All but Merrick want to head to a river half a day to the south. Worried because the river is on the Mexican border, Merrick insists on continuing on to Santa Loma. Gray quickly draws his gun, but Merrick is faster on the draw and shoots it out of his hand. Now, he has three prisoners.
After two days without sleep, an exhausted Merrick drops from his horse. Keith grabs his gun, but is unwilling to shoot. When Gray goes for his rifle, Keith kills him, then hands the gun back to Merrick.
Keith is tried in Santa Loma. Merrick tells the jury that he is sure Keith is not a killer, but all the evidence and witnesses are against him, and a guilty verdict is reached. Just before Keith is to be hanged, Merrick notices that the watch he found has an inscription to Dan. Confronted with the proof that he killed his own brother, Dan draws his revolver and grabs Ann as a shield. When his father approaches, Dan kills him and tries to flee on horseback, but is shot in the back, just like his brother, by Merrick.

A notorious gambler is thrown out of a small town named Spanish Boot, but he quickly returns when he discovers the town is threatened by the Mescalero Apaches led by Chief Victorio.

In 1850 in Natchez, Mississippi, Sally Sinclair (Vera Ralston) is sentenced to prison as an accessory to murder. Upon her release five years later, she vows to get the money to take care of her young sister, Nan, and by the 1860s, has used her skill at gambling to amass a fortune. Soon she is a successful casino owner in San Francisco and using the name Belle Le Grand. Belle becomes involved in a silver mine intrigue between rivals Lucky John Kilton (John Carroll) and Montgomery Crane (Stephen Chase), a longtime nemesis of Belle's. When Nan Henshaw (Muriel Lawrence), now a trained and talented opera singer thanks to lessons paid for by Belle, gives a concert in San Francisco, she catches the eye of Kilton, though it's apparent Belle is interested in him. The story takes the characters to Virginia City, Nevada, where Belle must try to use her wits and wealth to help her sister even as she fights her feelings for Kilton and battles their mutual enemy, Crane.


The Pike gang steal $30,000 from the Adams Bank, but one of them double crosses the rest of the gang and hides the money in Fort Dodge, Nevada. As Fort Dodge is out of his jurisdiction, Deputy Sheriff 'Rocky' Lane (Allan Lane) takes a vacation there and finds that everything is owned by 'Skeeter' Davis (Chubby Johnson), who knows nothing about the hidden money. But the Pike gang is also in town looking for the money. When settlers come to town, Rocky devises a plan to catch the outlaws and retrieve the money for the Adams Bank.


Roy is sent to investigate when a greedy land owner tries to capitalize on a drought, cheating property holders like Madge Adams and her grandmother out of the property with the help of ruthless gunman Clint Burnside.


Gregory Peck, in a role he considered a low-point of his career, plays Captain Richard Lance, a by-the-book West Point graduate who is not very popular with the men under his command.
Following the American Civil War, peace is maintained in the New Mexico Territory by Fort Invicible, a fortification set up outside a mountain pass that blocks marauding bands of Apache. The Apache are able to eventually take the fort by cutting off its water supply, then assaulting the fort when its garrison is at its weakest and killing all the defenders.
Captain Lance arrives with a patrol soon after the battle and captures Tucsos, the charismatic leader of the Apache. Lance's scout advises the captain to kill Tucsos, but Lance will not shoot a prisoner.
Back at the headquarters of the 5th Cavalry, the invalid commanding officer orders Lance to assign an officer to command an escort to take Tucsos to a larger post. Lance decides to lead the patrol, but at the last minute, the colonel says he needs Lance at his fort in case of Apache attack and to assign a popular officer, Lieutenant Holloway, to lead the small group of men escorting Tucsos. The Apache free Tucsos and Lieutenant Holloway ends up dead. The men at the fort blame Captain Lance, unaware of the colonel's order. They believe that his decision to assign Lieutenant Holloway to the dangerous mission was for a personal reason (both officers were vying for the affection of the same woman). The woman believes it too, and bitterly breaks up with him.
Lance's standing with the soldiers at the fort only gets worse when he assembles a group of misfit cavalrymen to hold off rampaging Indians at the ruins of Fort Invincible, which is considered a suicide mission.

Felice Moran falls in love with ranch hand Tim and intends to marry him. She is the ward of rancher Terry Moran, who decides to buy a piece of land for the couple as a wedding gift. But the $30,000 he plans to use for the purchase is stolen in a holdup masterminded by a business rival, Elias Norton.

Pablo Morales, part-owner of the Foster & Morales Wild West Show, is killed during a stunt on horseback. Steve Lacey plans to replace him in management and in the act, so he is irate at learning Rex Allen is going to be the show's new star.
Pablo's young daughter Juanita takes an immediate liking to Rex and his talented horse, Koko. But when another accident results in a broken leg for Koko that could prove fatal for the horse, Rex and his sidekick Muscles Benton suspect foul play.
Koko recovers thanks to the care of Juanita and her governess, Janet Wells, and Rex feels he should give the horse to the girl. After a fight with Lacey, he intends to leave until he learns that Juanita, now the show's co-owner, has just $2,000 left. After a lab analysis proves the chicanery involved, Foster shoots a sheriff, but Rex manages to make sure the guilty parties both end up behind bars. A grateful Juanita feels that Koko's rightful place is with Rex.

When a town drunk, Gabe, causes a cattle stampede, then shoots the rancher who fires him, cowboys Dave and Chito bring him to a new doctor in town, Dr. Ann Rollins, and then to justice after Gabe conspires with wealthy Ace Kelso and other rustlers.

In 1871, six convicts escape from a Carson City prison. A posse loses them in a mountain blizzard, and after the posse turn back, the convicts continue on foot and one of the fugitives freezes to death. The five remaining are Canfield, Greer, Cockerell, Anderson and Maxwell. They make it to a lake called Monte Diablo, where five women live in a settlement while their men are away prospecting for silver. Granny is the elder, watching over Marcia, Rachel, Harriet and Barbara.
Frightened by these men who arrive at night, the women however permit them to use an empty cabin. Granny hides guns where the unarmed men can't find them and they soon realise that the men are escaped convicts. In exposition, it becomes clear that Canfield (Glenn Ford) has returned to this small town for a reason and the other convicts suspect that he has money hidden somewhere in the small settlement. Canfield, we learn, had been convicted of killing a mine owner, Morgan, and $40,000 had gone missing, unfound after the murder.
Canfield learns that the local woman Marcia, to whom he is attracted, is engaged to be married to a man named Rudy Schaeffer. It was Rudy Schaeffer whose testimony led to Canfield being sent to the penitentiary. Canfield claims it was Rudy behind the robbery, that Rudy took the $40,000 and unfairly swore testimony against Canfield, who then reveals that he has returned to the town to seek revenge and kill Schaeffer. Marcia finds it hard to accept his version of events, a damning version against her fiancé, while at the same time she is attracted to Canfield.
A barn catches fire due to Rachel's carelessness and the convicts help put it out. The women are grateful and treat them more kindly. Canfield seems the most decent. The other four plot to get firearms and escape as soon as there is a thaw in the frigid cold, as they continue to suspect that Canfield has returned here for the missing money they. too, want to find. In private conversation it is revealed they have no compunction in killing Canfield once they have all that they want.
Meanwhile, the men of the town are returning from their silver prospecting and stop in a saloon along the way. Rudy Schaeffer spots a wanted poster identifying Canfield and the other fugitives as escapees. He and his men head back on horseback to the lake and their families. Meanwhile, Greer has worked his charms on Rachel (who is Rudy's sister) and she reveals to Greer where the hidden guns are. He, Cockerell and Anderson burst in on Granny, remove her from her bed and find them under her mattress. Marcia meanwhile, terrified that her fiancé is targeted for a revenge killing, rides out of the small settlement to raise the alarm, but is followed by Canfield who eventually catches her settling down to camp for the night in a cave. He convinces her that he is indeed an innocent, good man. She believes him and tries to talk him out of his revenge plot. He says that the mine owner Morgan had swindled him out of the money, that he had come to talk to Morgan about it. Morgan had pulled a gun on him, they had scuffled and the gun had gone off accidentally, killing Morgan. Rudy had witnessed this, but in order to get the money had falsely testified that Canfield had killed Morgan in cold blood.
Canfield and Marcia kiss and both then plan to return to the settlement in the morning. Clyde, the younger convict, who is revealed to have been in jail for being a psycho woman killer is attracted to the youngest, Barbara, and takes her on a long walk and tries to kiss her. Barbara resists, but when she does, he starts to get agitated and attacks her. Canfield, returning to the settlement on horseback with Marcia hears Barbara's cries and goes to help her. In arriving to assist, Canfield sees Clyde pull a knife, about to stab Barbara when Canfield lurches in and fights him, getting stabbed in the shoulder. Barbara escapes screaming and runs through the clearing towards the group of other women who are out looking for her, some carrying pitchforks. Canfield, stabbed, cannot chase Clyde, who runs after Barbara through the trees like the lunatic he is, waving his knife. Unfortunately he runs into the women with their pitchforks and they kill him.
Back at the settlement, Marcia confronts Rachel and tells her that her fiancé Rudy (Rachel's brother) may very well have been guilty of the robbery and not Canfield. Rachel has looked for the missing $40,000 and found it in a trunk belonging to Rudy. She gives it to Marcia who then takes it and gives it to Greer, exhorting him to leave them all alone and go.
Rudy Schaeffer and his men arrive back in the small town and confront the convicts who are attempting to escape. In a gunfight, Cockerell and Anderson are shot. Greer flees and runs up a mountain, the $40,000 flying from his pants in the wind. He stops to try and pick it up and is shot, falling from a ledge on a high cliff to his death. Canfield finally comes up behind Rudy Schaeffer and holds a gun on him, telling him to confess to all the others about the true story of the robbery and the mine owner's death. Marcia runs up behind screaming, scared about what is about to occur. As Canfield turns to see her, Rudy spins around and pulls a gun. However, Canfield turns back and kills Schaeffer in self-defense.
Soon after, the townsfolk are standing around 5 graves. (The 4 dead convicts and Rudy.) They all see a posse arriving on horseback in the distance. Marcia pleads with them all to tell the Sheriff when he arrives that Canfield is innocent and killed Rudy in self-defence. Rachel wants to turn Canfield in for killing her brother, whether he meant to or not, since he had returned to the town initially with the sole purpose of killing Rudy. The others all think that Canfield should go to trial and let a jury decide. Marcia pleads again that the only fair trial he will receive is here and now.
When the sheriff arrives, he walks in on the end of the burial ceremony and sees the 5 graves. He says to Granny that he is looking for 5 convicts, (having found the 6th frozen on the mountain). She points to the five graves and says that the convicts are buried, not revealing that Rudy is in one of the graves rather than Canfield. The Sheriff, believing Granny, then asks if anyone here wants to add anything or make a statement. One by one they all decline. The last person asked is Rachel. She hesitates, then quietly says she has nothing to add. Marcia and Canfield end up together as the posse leaves and the townsfolk file away.


A trio of masked bandits rob a stagecoach secretly assisted by one of the passengers. The fleeing bandits come across some unarmed Navajo who they shoot and steal their horses. One of the Navajo survives and informs the tribe who sets his tribe on the warpath against all whites. The commander of the US Cavalry fort who is friendly with the Navajo chief is caught in the middle.

Fifteen years ago, wealthy but crippled Colorado cattleman Arch Strobie (Ray Collins), whose own son Lee (Robert Walker) is wild, took in young Owen Daybright (Burt Lancaster) as a foster son to help raise him. Now Owen is ranch foreman, but Lee, despite being married to Jen (Joanne Dru), is wilder than ever.
Unmarried Lily Fasken (Sally Forrest) gives birth but refuses to identify the father. After Owen gives Lily $500 to help care for the baby, her brothers Hub (John Ireland) and Dick (Hugh O'Brian) believe that he is the guilty party, unaware that he did so on Lee's behalf. The brothers try to beat up Owen and he lodges a complaint against them. Sentenced to a week in jail, they vow to get even as soon as they're out.
When Arch chides Lee for overdrawing his bank account by withdrawing $500 in gold, Jen realizes that Lee fathered Lily's baby. She confronts him and Lee tries to lie his way out. She decides to leave him but is persuaded by Owen and Arch to stay. Lee inveigles Arch to make him a partner in the ranch by saying that he will strike out on his own unless he gets a half-interest and learns that the other half will go to Owen once Arch retires.
Jen locks Lee out of their bedroom. Lee gets drunk, mistakenly believing she and Owen are carrying on behind his back. He schemes to get rid of Owen and make a fortune at the same time by conspiring with Hub and Dick to ambush Owen during the spring cattle roundup. On the trail, Lee secretly sells 3,000 head of the cattle, planning to run off with it, but Owen learns about it.
Lee pretends to change his mind. He persuades Owen to ride in with him to stop the sale, but in fact he lures Owen into a trap. Hub and Dick, waiting in ambush, wound Owen as Lee casually rides away. In the ensuing gunfight, Owen Kills Dick. Hearing shots, a group of trailhands ride to Owen's rescue. They chase down and shoot Hub. Owen catches up with Lee and tells him he is going to confess everything to Arch. Lee draws his gun, forcing Owen to kill him. Owen breaks the news to Arch and Jen.

In 1851, Roy Whitman (John McIntire) decides to bring marriageable women west to California to join the lonely men of Whitman's Valley, hoping the couples will put down roots and settle there. Roy hires a skeptical, experienced wagon master, Buck Wyatt (Robert Taylor), to lead the wagon train along the California Trail. In Chicago, Roy recruits 138 "good women", after they have been warned of the journey's hardships and dangers by Buck, who flatly states up to a third of them might not survive the journey. The women range from Patience (Hope Emerson), an older widow from New Bedford seeking a new start after losing her sea captain husband and sons when their clipper went down while attempting to round Cape Horn, to Rose Meyers (Beverly Dennis), a pregnant, unmarried woman running from her shame. Telling the women about his valley, Roy encourages them to pick their prospective mates from daguerreotype pictures he has tacked to a display board. Two showgirls, Fifi Danon (Denise Darcel) and Laurie Smith (Julie Bishop), hastily change their flashy clothes when others like them are rejected, and return to try and sign on again. Whitman is not fooled by their disguise, but convinced their wish to reform is sincere he adds them to the group, bringing the number of women on the wagon train up to 140.
Roy and Buck take the women to St. Joseph, Missouri, where Conestoga wagons, horses, and mules are awaiting them, along with the men Buck has hired to protect the wagon train. Their number includes Ito (Henry Nakamura), a wiry Japanese who signs on as Buck's cook and personal assistant. Before setting out, Buck warns the trail hands that, "On most wagon trains, the penalty for bundling is 30 lashes. On my train, it's a bullet." He has seen wagon trains torn apart by unmarried men taking up with unmarried women and won't tolerate it on this crossing.
The four women who have experience handling teams teach the others how to harness up the animals and drive the wagons, assisted by the men Buck hired. After a week's training, Buck leads the train west.
Buck is as good as his word about bundling. During the journey, he shoots one of his men as punishment for raping Laurie. As a result, all but two of the trail hands desert the train in the middle of the night, taking eight of the women with them. This leaves only Buck, Roy, Ito, and Sid Cutler (an uncredited Pat Conway), who has fallen in love with the pregnant Rose, to lead the train. Buck, feeling he cannot continue without more experienced hands, decides the group must turn back. The women, knowing they have come halfway on their journey, refuse to accept his decision. Roy believes the women can learn to "do a man's job", so Buck starts training them to shoot so they can defend the train. However, young Tony Maroni, the only boy on the train, is accidentally killed during firearms practice. When his mother (Renata Vanni) refuses to leave her son's grave in the desert Buck is forced to knock out the distraught woman, hogtie her, and put her in Patience and Rose's wagon. The problem is worse than it looks: Mrs. Maroni speaks only Italian, and no one else on the train does. The wagon train continues on its way.
The women perform heroically, persevering through hardships including a stampede and a wicked descent down a steep, rocky trail that kills one of them when an iron hook attached to the restraining lines straightens under load and sends the wagon plunging out of control. An Indian attack kills Roy, Sid, and six of the women. When a rainstorm causes flooding and undercuts the riverbank her wagon is parked on, Laurie is trapped inside and drowns. However, Fifi's bravery and determination begin to thaw Buck's attitude towards women in general and her in particular, and they fall in love.
On the edge of the desert, Buck orders the women to lighten the wagons, explaining how difficult the crossing will be. Reluctantly, the women leave everything from furniture to fancy clothing behind. As they proceed, Rose goes into labor and delivers a male baby. The train is nearly at the end of its tether when they come to a small lake that marks the border of Whitman's Valley and slake their desert thirst. Buck rides on ahead to inform the men of the valley that their brides are nigh.
Now that the survivors have finally reached their destination, the women balk at entering the town where their prospective grooms are waiting. They refuse to go any further until Buck brings them decent clothing and "pretty things" so that they will look presentable, telling him to warn the men anyone approaching the wagon train will be shot on sight. The men of the valley gather together curtains, tablecloths, Indian blankets, any material they can find, for the women to make into new clothes.
Back in proper dresses instead of the pants and working skirts they had worn crossing the continent, the ladies drive triumphantly into town and pair up with the men whose pictures they carried across the country, with Patience warning the men that it is the women and not the men who will be doing the choosing. All of them find mates, including Mrs. Maroni, who pairs off with a citrus farmer born in Genoa, and Rose, who is chosen by a gentleman who does not care she has an infant son. Some of the happy couples get in line before the preacher, while others dance inside a large open air gazebo. Ito coaxes Danon to swallow her pride and go to Buck, who is preparing to ride out, instead of waiting for him to come to her. Fifi and Buck join the line to be married as Ito watches the weddings.

Tom Herrera (Robert Horton) the head of a stagecoach station in New Mexico prepares to defend against an attack by an Apache party, seeking revenge for the killing of several Indians by an outlaw. When a stagecoach arrives at the station with passengers Nancy Dekker (Barbara Ruick) Cyril R. Snowden (Gene Lockhart) Lorraine Sayburn and Fanny Webson (Glenda Farrell) they are stranded at the station with Tom and his outlaw father Peso Herrera (Gilbert Roland). Peso is the most wanted outlaw in the country and is after the gold contained in the casket of the stagecoach. Tom knowing about his father's intention takes his guns away as a precaution. As the Apaches begin their attack, suspicion is immediately cast on Peso as the reason for the Apaches attack. Tom and Fanny defense Peso when others in the station suggest Peso be turned over to the Indians to end the conflict quickly. Tom eventually wins the argument and Peso stays in the station.
However, with the help of Fanny who gives her guns to Peso, he holds up Tom and the others and demands that they hand over the gold. Tom shoots the gun out of his father's hand. Despite the robbery attempt Tom continues to believe that his father is not responsible for the Indians attack. A fierce battle begins with the Indians and those trapped inside the station. During the fighting, a Indians emissary tries to negotiate the surrender of the murderer, but Tom again refuses to turn his father over and the fighting resumes. During the battle, Peso knocks out Pike Curtis (Myron Healey) who Peso knows is the killer and turns him over to the Indians. With all doubt about his father removed Tom joins Fanny on her journey to San Francisco. Later, Nancy informs Tom that the gold is not as safe as he thinks because the young boy assigned to guard the gold is actually another one of Peso's sons.

In 1862, as the Civil War rages in the Southeastern states, the Southwest is far away from the battle lines, but in New Mexico Territory, good relations between Fort Buchanan's commanding officer, Maj. Colton (John Lund), and Chiricahua Apache chief Cochise (Jeff Chandler) are threatened by the arrival of venal government agent Baylor (Bruce Cowling) and his equally dishonest scout Mescal Jack (Jack Elam).
In breach of existing treaties, Baylor plans to resettle the Apaches to the San Carlos Reservation, and when Geronimo (Jay Silverheels), the chief of the rival Mogollon Apaches, attacks the Tucson stagecoach and kills women and children, Baylor threatens to also transport the Chiricahuas to San Carlos. When confronted by Colton and Baylor, Cochise calls a council of Apache elders and they vote to banish Geronimo, who must also give up one of his stagecoach captives, schoolteacher Mary (Beverly Tyler). After assuring his pregnant wife Nona (Susan Cabot) that his interest in the attractive young schoolteacher is not romantic, Cochise brings Mary to Fort Buchanan and entrusts her to Maj. Colton, counseling him that she would be a fine wife.
At the same time Baylor and Jack plot with Geronimo to frame Cochise for Geronimo's attack on a ranch. During Colton's inquiry into the attack, his subordinate, Lt. Bascom (John Hudson), is promised a promotion by Baylor for rescuing the boy who was kidnapped during the attack. Cochise tells Bascom that it was Geronimo who committed the attack, but Bascom accuses him of lying and takes Nona hostage, while executing by hanging three braves, including Cochise's brother, Little Elk (Tommy Cook). As Cochise mourns and then prepares to retaliate against Bascom's position, Mescal Jack goes to him on the pretense of warning him about an Army attack, but Cochise calls him a liar and puts him to death. Colton's trusted Sgt. Bernard (Richard Egan) informs him of the situation, causing Colton to shut down Fort Buchanan and prepare to transfer everyone, including Mary and Baylor, to Fort Sheridan, a more secure redoubt, some distance away.
From the hills along the trail, Cochise watches the procession, as does Geronimo and, as shooting begins, the wounded Baylor goes towards the Indians' positions, shouting that he is their friend, but Geronimo kills him. Colton and Sgt. Bernard use the expedition's cannon to rout the warriors, as Cochise finds Nona, who has been hurt, and takes her to the wagons so that Army Dr. Carter (Regis Toomey) can treat her. Geronimo calls Cochise a weak leader, but in a one-to-one battle, Cochise wins and, instead of killing Geronimo, banishes him. Nona's son is born and Nona gives her friend Mary a precious Apache bracelet. Colton and Mary look at each other with affection and Cochise tells them that time has come for peace, as he rides away with Nona.

Conflict between Ottawa Native Americans, led by Chief Pontiac, and the British.

In 1866, remorseful former border raider Glyn McLyntock (James Stewart) is scouting for a wagon train of settlers to Oregon. While he is checking the trail ahead, he rescues Emerson Cole (Arthur Kennedy) from being lynched for stealing a horse. Cole, who says the horse is "not exactly stolen," thinks he's heard of McLyntock, but doesn't pursue the subject. One of the pioneers in the wagon train is the eligible Laura Baile (Julie Adams). That night, they are attacked by five Shoshone Indians and Laurie is wounded by an arrow. McLyntock and Cole go out to deal with the Shoshones and Cole saves McLyntock's life in the process. McLyntock welcomes Cole, but Jeremy Baile (Jay C. Flippen), the leader of the settlers, does not trust Cole and does not believe that a man can change from bad to good.
When they reach Portland, Oregon, Laura remains there to recover. Cole also leaves the party saying that he wants to go to California to find gold. The rest, including McLyntock, go on to establish a settlement in the wilderness after making arrangements with a man named Tom Hendricks to send the supplies they need for the winter to be sent on later ("the first week in September"). That night, they have a big party and meet a professional gambler named Trey Wilson (played by Rock Hudson).
With winter fast approaching and the supplies at least six weeks late, they begin to worry when the food supply runs low. McLyntock and Jeremy Baile go back to Portland to investigate. They find that a gold rush has inflated prices enormously. Laura and Cole are working for Tom Hendricks and have no intention of going to the settlement. McLyntock is not happy to see them together as a couple. Hendricks (Howard Petrie), their greedy supplier, has reneged on their business deal and has decided to sell their supplies at the new higher prices to a mining camp. Cole helps McLyntock round up some bad men to load the food and take it back to the settlement. Laura joins them. When they are pursued, McLyntock sets up an ambush. Hendricks and some of his gang are killed, and the rest are driven off.
On the way to the settlement, some of the miners show up and offer an exorbitant price for the food. The hired men begin thinking about ways to commandeer the wagon train. Cole cannot resist the temptation of all that money and double-crosses his friend but doesn't kill him. That proves to be a mistake. McLyntock tracks them down and retakes the supplies with the assistance of Jeremy, Laura, and Trey. Cole brings the miners to help him retake the supplies, but they are miners, not gunfighters and they lose to the more experienced gunhands. In a climactic brawl in the river, McLyntock kills Cole and they watch the current take his body toward the falls. At the end, they finally reach the settlement with the supplies and it's apparent that Laura and Glyn are now a couple.


Bill Doolan (Audie Murphy) is released from jail and is going home on the train when it is held up by his boyhood friends, the Dalton Gang. Doolin finds himself accused of helping the crime and winds up an outlaw.

Luke Cromwell, aka the "Silver Kid" (Audie Murphy), loses his father to mining claim jumpers. He is deputised by Marshal Lightning Tyrone (Stephen McNally) of Silver City, who wants to defeat the claim jumpers. The two men fall for different women, Tyrone for the treacherous Opal Lacey (Faith Domergue), who is secretly in league with the claim jumpers, and Cromwell with tomboy Dusty Fargo (Susan Cabot) who pursues Lightning.

A mysterious outlaw, known only as The Sidewinder (Victor Jory), is terrorizing Arizona settlers. A rancher whose property was raided, Tex McCloud (Sterling Hayden), and a U.S. Cavalry officer named Blaine (Forrest Tucker) both decide to seek justice. They even make a friendly wager over which one will get to The Sidewinder first.
A wealthy saloon entertainer, Carolina (Arleen Whelan), tries to persuade Tex to also go after Lucky Lee, a mine owner who owes her $20,000. She also tries to seduce Tex, but he's not interested.
After he changes hotel rooms with Lucky's longtime sweetheart, Nora Logan (Barbara Rush), an ambush is attempted by gambler Showdown Calhoun (Richard Arlen) and his partner, who come to the wrong room. Nora is the one they're after, and she becomes a kidnap victim on the stagecoach. For the second time, though, Tex rides to her rescue.
Nora explains that she's involved with Lucky only out of gratitude for one saving her from a similar assault. Lucky offers a theory that Tombstone Jack is the notorious Sidewinder, but after Carolina sneaks up on Tombstone and kills him, Tex and Blaine begin to suspect that Lucky is the man they're after. Turquoise (Carol Thurston), a Ute woman who loves Lucky, knows for a fact he's the outlaw.
Now the marshal for the territory, Tex and a posse go after Lucky, who has snatched Nora and ridden off to a hideout. Lucky conspires with a band of Utes to attack the posse. Carolina and Showdown are killed. Tex and Blaine get to the hideout, but the jealous Turquoise has already killed Lucky, beating them to the punch. The men call off their wager.

In Hadleyville, a small town in New Mexico Territory, Marshal Will Kane (Cooper), newly married to Amy Fowler (Grace Kelly), is preparing to retire. The happy couple is departing for a new life, raising a family and running a store in another town; but word arrives that Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), a vicious outlaw whom Kane sent to jail, has been released, and is arriving on the noon train. Miller's gang—his younger brother Ben (Sheb Wooley), Jack Colby (Lee Van Cleef), and Jim Pierce (Robert J. Wilke)—await his arrival at the train station; it is clear that Miller intends to exact revenge.
For Amy, a devout Quaker and pacifist, the solution is simple—leave town before Miller arrives; but Kane's sense of duty and honor is strong. "They're making me run," he tells her. "I've never run from anybody before." Besides, he says, Miller and his gang will hunt him down anyway. Amy gives Kane an ultimatum: She is leaving on the noon train, with or without him. While waiting at the hotel for the train, she meets Helen Ramírez (Katy Jurado), who was once Miller's lover, and then Kane's, and is leaving as well. Amy understands why Helen is fleeing, but the reverse is not true: Helen tells Amy that if Kane were her man, she would not abandon him in his hour of need.
Kane's efforts to round up a posse at the tavern, and then the church, are met with fear and hostility. Some townspeople, worried that a gunfight would damage the town's reputation, urge Kane to avoid the confrontation entirely. Others are Miller's friends, and resent that Kane cleaned up the town in the first place.
Kane's young deputy Harvey Pell (Lloyd Bridges), who is bitter that Kane did not recommend him as his successor, says he will stand with Kane only if Kane goes to the city fathers and "puts the word in" for him. Kane rejects the quid pro quo, and Pell turns in his badge. Kane visits a series of old friends and allies, but none can (or will) help: His predecessor, Marshal Howe (Lon Chaney Jr.) is old and arthritic; Judge Percy Mettrick (Otto Kruger), who sentenced Miller, flees on horseback, and urges Kane to do the same; townsman Herb Baker (James Millican) agrees to be deputized, but backs out when he realizes he is the only volunteer; Sam Fuller (Harry Morgan) hides in his house, sending his wife to the door to tell Kane he isn't home.
Kane writes out his will as the clock in his office ticks toward high noon. At the stables, Pell saddles a horse and tries to persuade Kane to mount it and leave town. Their conversation becomes an argument, and then a fist fight. Kane finally knocks his former deputy senseless, then goes into the street to face Miller and his gang. In one of the most iconic shots in film history, the camera rises and widens to show Kane standing alone on a deserted street in a deserted town.
The outlaws approach and the gunfight begins. Kane guns down Ben Miller and Colby, but is wounded in the process. As the train is about to leave the station, Amy hears the gunfire, leaps off, and runs back to town. Choosing her husband's life over her religious beliefs, she picks up Ben Miller's gun and shoots Pierce from behind, leaving only Frank Miller, who grabs Amy as a shield to force Kane into the open. Amy claws Miller's face and he pushes her to the ground, giving Kane a clear shot, and he shoots Miller dead.
Kane helps his bride to her feet and they embrace. As the townspeople emerge and cluster around him, Kane surveys them with bitter contempt, wordlessly throws his marshal's star in the dirt, and departs with Amy on their wagon.

Dan Hammond returns to Texas after the war, as does brother Neil, who simply wants to run a small ranch. Dan's ambition is to build an empire the way ruthless Cord Hardin has.
Hardin's wife, Lorna, begins to have romantic designs on Dan as he becomes a powerful figure, rustling horses and buying up land. Dan is making many enemies, too, and when Neil becomes a lawman in Austin, a showdown between the brothers is inevitable.

In the early 19th century, Jim Bowie leaves his home in the bayou to sell lumber in New Orleans. He inadvertently offends Narcisse de Bornay by defending the artist James Audubon and is challenged to a duel, but charms his way out of it, and Narcisse becomes his friend.
Narcisse notices that his sister Judalon has caught Jim's eye and is concerned, knowing how haughty and spoiled she is. Henri Contrecourt, a man who has been courting her, kills Narcisse and challenges Jim to a fight, his sword versus Bowie's knife. To the surprise of everyone watching, Jim kills him. Later on, a blacksmith creates a special new knife for Bowie, partly made from the remains of a meteor.
Judalon rejects his proposal to marry wealthy Philippe de Cabanal instead. A disappointed Jim returns home and gets into the cotton business, upsetting Juan Moreno, a wealthy Mississippi cotton grower. He soon encounters Judalon, who says she wants to divorce Philippe and hints she would then marry Jim, if only he could help them erase a huge gambling debt Philippe has incurred to dangerous Bloody Jack Sturdevant.
Jim learns he has been betrayed by her again, that Judalon actually intends to wed Moreno for his money. In a fight, he kills Moreno, upsetting her. Jim is wounded and nursed to health by Ursula Veramendi, daughter of the Texas territorial governor. And when both Philippe and Sturdevant come to kill him, they accidentally end up murdering each other. Realizing once and for all that Judalon only wants money, not love, Jim begins a new life with Ursula.


When longtime professional rodeo competitor Jeff McCloud (Robert Mitchum) is injured by a Brahma bull he was trying to ride, he decides to quit. He hitchhikes to his childhood home, a decrepit place now owned by Jeremiah (Burt Mustin). Run down as it is, it is the dream home for Wes Merritt (Arthur Kennedy) and his wife Louise (Susan Hayward). They are painstakingly saving up the money to buy it from Wes's meager wages as a cowhand. Wes recognizes Jeff as a once-prominent rodeo rider, and introduces himself, then helps Jeff gets a job at the same ranch. Wes has competed in some local rodeos, but has the ambition to do more, and wants Jeff to help him improve his skills.
Wes enters a local rodeo behind his wife's back. When he does well, he decides to join the rodeo circuit, with Jeff as his partner and trainer. Louise is wholeheartedly against the idea, but goes along. She makes her husband promise to quit once they have saved enough for the house.
As Louise becomes acquainted with rodeo life, she becomes more and more disenchanted. Jeff's friend Booker Davis (Arthur Hunnicutt), once a champion competitor himself, is now a crippled old man with little to show for his efforts. When Buster Burgess (Walter Coy) is gored and killed by a bull, leaving a bitter widow (Lorna Thayer), Louise can no longer bear to watch her husband compete. However, Wes is seduced by his great success and the money he is winning. He refuses to quit when they have enough for the house.
Matters come to a head when Babs (Eleanor Todd) invites Wes to a party she is throwing, and makes a play for him. Louise fights back by putting on her only good dress and going to the party with Jeff. She pours a drink on her rival's head before leaving. In the hallway, Jeff asks her if she could love another man, but she is true to Wes. Coming on the tail end of the conversation, Wes tells Jeff that he is tired of taking all the risks and giving him half the prize money.
Jeff decides to go back to the rodeo, despite not being in shape. He gains back Wes's respect by doing well. Then, in the bronc riding event, his foot gets stuck in the stirrup after a successful ride, and he is fatally injured. Seeing this, Wes comes to his senses and quits.

Oklahoma outlaw Belle Starr meets the Dalton gang when rescued from lynching by Bob Dalton, who falls for her. So do gang member Mac and wealthy saloon owner Tom Bradfield, who's enlisted in a bankers' scheme to trap the Daltons. Dissension among the gang and Bradfield's ambivalence complicate the plot, as Belle demonstrates her prowess with shootin' irons, horses, and as a saloon entertainer.

Taking after her mother, a western sheriff known as "Oklahoma Annie" to all, Judy manages to persuade new sheriff Dan Fraser to deputize her. After she helps capture outlaw Curt Walker, who's in cahoots with county supervisor Haskell, the sheriff feels confident enough in Judy to leave her in charge by herself while he rides to get the judge for Walker's trial.
Things instantly go wrong for Judy, whose shooting skills are so ineffective that she attempts to use fireworks instead. Walker gets away and Dan ends up in grave danger, but with all the men gone in a posse, Judy rounds up other women in town and together they ride to Dan's rescue. He decides to take the county supervisor's job and appoints Judy as the new sheriff.

In 1876, the North-West Mounted Police send Constable Duncan MacDonald (Tyrone Power) and a blackmailed Blackfoot scout (Thomas Gomez) to get the Cree to sign Treaty 6 with The Crown. Initially hostile, the Cree are influenced by a Fata Morgana type mirage that they mistake for the power of Queen Victoria.
In addition to negotiating with the Cree, MacDonald of the Mounted rescues white hostages (Robert Horton and Penny Edwards) arrests a murderer, and adopts a Cree son (Anthony Earl Numkena).

Wyoming ranch hand Vern Haskell is enraged when his fiancee Beth Forbes is abused and murdered during a store robbery. He sets out after the two thieves, first with a posse, then by himself. He finds one of them, Whitey, shot in the back by his partner after a quarrel. Whitey's dying words, "Chuck-a-luck", are the only clue to the second man's identity.
After questioning everyone he meets, Vern finally finds someone who lets slip that a woman named Altar Keane is connected with Chuck-a-luck. When the man realizes that Vern is just fishing for information, Vern is forced to kill him in self-defense. Vern is taken into custody, then released when the dead man is identified as a wanted outlaw. By a stroke of luck, a deputy knows Altar as a saloon singer from his past, though not her current whereabouts.
Vern learns that after Altar quit working for saloon owner Baldy Gunder, she bet her last $20 on his rigged chuck-a-luck game and won a lot of money, with gunslinger Frenchy Fairmont stepping in to help her. In the town of Gunsight, Vern learns that Frenchy is in jail, so he deliberately gets himself arrested.
After they break out, Frenchy takes Vern to the Chuck-a-Luck, a horse ranch near the Mexican border owned by Altar. The ranch is a hideout available to any outlaw who is willing to pay 10% of his ill-gotten gains. Vern finds a bunch of men in residence, but has no idea if the killer is one of them. One does, however, recognize him.
The newcomer quickly catches Altar's eye. One night, Vern notices that Altar is wearing a brooch that he gave to Beth. He sets out to romance Altar to find out who gave it to her. This makes Frenchy very jealous.
Vern is forced to go along on a bank robbery, during which one of the others, Kinch, secretly shoots at him. When he takes Altar her share of the proceeds, she finally informs him that Kinch gave her the jewelry. Vern reveals his true purpose and his disdain for Altar's profession. Altar is shamed, and decides to give it all up. However, before she can leave, a gunfight breaks out between Vern and Frenchy on one side and the rest of the outlaws on the other. Altar is killed protecting Frenchy. Kinch also dies, ending Vern's quest.

Celia Evarts and her brother John inherit the valuable Hatchet Ranch after their father dies in a blizzard. Other cattlemen and cowboys in the region immediately try to take advantage, grazing on the land and using its water for free. Celia's brother is also shot and killed.
Will Ballard, her foreman, sets out to protect Celia's interests, with sheriff Joe Kneen's help, particularly after Celia's fiance, Sam Danfelser, betrays her and sides with Bide Marriner, a rich rancher who hopes to gain control of Hatchet for himself. Bide seizes a watering hole and the only way Will can think of to defeat him is to destroy it. Bide then tries to shoot the sheriff in the back, but Kneen gets the better of him. Sam rides in for one more confrontation, but before he and Will can come face to face, Celia slips away and takes care of matters herself.

Jim Scott attempts to bring peace between west-bound settlers and native Apaches. This task is made harder by a band of local outlaws.



The Denbow family hope to freeze out homesteaders by denying access across their land; but to evade a murder charge, Glenn Denbow marries the only witness, Jane, who's conveniently in love with him, but favors the settlers. When Glenn goes back to his blackmailing old flame Lottie, a warm regard develops between Jane and cousin Kirk Denbow. Things come to a head when an impending range war coincides with a rustling foray.

In 1875 Argentina, a young gaucho kills another man in a duel. His prison sentence is commuted to join the army. He serves under the tough Major Salinas, but soon grows tired of military life and deserts. He becomes Val Verde and leads a band of gauchos to resist the increasing encroachment of railroad agents into the Pampas. In the meantime Salinas quits the army and becomes chief of police, so he can continue his vendetta against him. After falling in love with an aristocratic woman, Martin decides to escape with her to Chile, crossing the Andes on horseback. On the way Teresa tells him that she is pregnant, so they decide to return and get married instead, because of her safety and that for them is inconceivable for the child to be raised without a legitimate last name. When they arrive at the Cathedral, the police follows them so Martin has to escape again, leaving Teresa in the care of Father Fernandez. That night Miguel talks with Teresa about a deal he reached with the Governor, in which Martin voluntarily turns himself in, in exchange for a 3 year prison sentence and a clean slate. Teresa tells Miguel where Martin is hiding, but Salinas also follows, prompting a horse chase through a cattle run, that causes Miguel to fall from his horse and be trampled to death by the herd of cows. That same night, Martin returns filled with guilt to meet Teresa and while she offers to escape to Brazil or Europe, he declines and tells her to meet him at noon at the Cathedral. The next day Father Fernandez arranges a meeting alone with Salinas, where Martin agrees to turn himself in and face the consequences of his actions, as long as he can first marry Teresa as a free man.

Jules Vincent, a French-Canadian trapper (Stewart Granger), while in a northern Canadian town, helps an attractive Indian singer (Cyd Charisse), fend off unwanted attentions of a drunken Max Brody (Howard Petrie). The next day, Vincent sets off by canoe into the Canadian wilderness, taking the Indian girl up north to her tribe, now accompanied by a contrite Brody.
When the group arrives at her Chippewa village, Vincent tells the chief (John War Eagle), after Brody had acted recklessly on the rapids that he wanted to send him a warning, shooting into the air but accidentally killing Brody when the canoe pitched wildly. Frightened by the prospect of arrest, Vincent heads into the wilderness. After Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Constable Pedley (Wendell Corey) arrives at the village on another matter, he learns about Brody's death.
Pedley finds Vincent's cabin where the Indian girl tells him that Vincent is not a murderer. The RCMP Constable, however, is determined to bring Vincent in, saying running away makes the trapper look guilty.
While on his trapline, Vincent finds a half-frozen Father Simon (Morgan Farley) who had gone into the wilderness, to try to persuade the trapper to turn himself in. As Father Simon pleads with Vincent, Pedley arrives to hear the dying priest's last words. Despite Vincent's warnings that the weather will turn worse, Pedley takes Vincent into custody and starts a long trek back to the RCMP station.
The treacherous trip back puts both men in peril as two other trappers, Ruger (Ray Teal) and Sloan (Clancy Cooper) menace them. Facing harrowing conditions and the attack of wolves, the unlikely bond that forms between the trapper and the constable allows both to survive.


A foreign power, which is represented by their agent Marlof, attempts to set up secret missile bases in Canada to target the United States for their planned summer invasion. Meanwhile, acting on intelligence following the smashing of a spy ring in Montreal, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers Don Roberts and Kay Conway go undercover in a settling party headed for the Yukon. Marlof also has agents, Beck and Reed, in the party en route to the site of the planned missile bases. Their attempts to disrupt the party only call the attention of the Mounties to the larger plot who, once the settlers finally reach their goal, continue to pursue the troublemakers, uncover their plot against the free world, unmask Marlof and bring them to justice.

A heavyweight championship fight between James J. Corbett and Bob Fitzsimmons is coming to Carson City, Nevada at exactly the same time outlaw Brett Stanton and brother Gar return to town.
Away for six years, Brett has alienated his former love, Linda Culligan, who is now involved with Jim London, the fight's promoter. London's sister, Cynthia Castle, tries to attract Brett's interest, but he's only got eyes for Linda.
Because the bout could sell as much as $100,000 in tickets, law-breakers like Johnny Ringo are also milling around, keeping Sheriff Bill Gifford on his toes. He ends up asking Brett to be a deputy, just for the week of the fight, not knowing Brett's actually scheming to rob the proceeds himself.
A fight-day decision by Linda to end her engagement to Jim changes the plans of Brett, who decides to go straight. Alas, his brother Gar betrays him to Ringo, who goes through with the daring robbery. Brett has to exchange gunfire with both Ringo and Gar, and when he's successful, Linda returns to his arms.

Immediately prior to the American Civil War, a Union officer (Audie Murphy), tries to prove local Navajo Indians are innocent of killing a prospector. He has to fight the anti-Indian attitudes of his superior officer (Robert Sterling) and North-South tensions within the soldiers. He discovers Confederate sympathizers are planning to cause the Indians to go on the warpath for their own benefit.

Ben Anthony runs a freight line in Texas. He disappointed cattleman Walt Garnet by not going into that business. Walt's beautiful daughter Linda returns to town after a long absence and Ben still carries a torch for her, but she's now involved with another man, Harry Odell.
The cattle business is in trouble. Beef prices have dropped so low, cattle companies are being urged to sell their stock to a rendering plant. Ben tries to intervene, and eventually learns that banker Parker is colluding with Odell and the plant's owner, Sledge, to gain control of the ranchers' valuable land.
Melba Sykes and her father Tim are squatting on Walt's ranch. It turns out that Odell is not only hiding his business schemes from Linda but also the fact that he's been romancing Melba behind her back. Tim Sykes is killed, and when Sledge produces a bill of sale from the man, Ben knows it's been forged because Tim did not know how to write.
Melba boasts to Linda that her lover Odell will look out for her interest now. Linda realizes she's been betrayed and turns to Ben for solace and advice. Melba becomes furious when Odell breaks off their relationship and snaps a bullwhip at him.
A showdown ensues in a box canyon, where Parker and Sledge are planning to destroy the cattle they have rustled. Ben gets there in time to shoot them both. He is wounded himself, but will survive and also will now have Linda.

Fort Bravo is a Union prison camp run by a strict Captain Roper (William Holden). A pretty woman named Carla Forester (Eleanor Parker) shows up to help free the prisoners, especially Confederate Captain John Marsh (John Forsythe). Roper falls in love with her (and she with him), so he has an additional motive to recapture the escapees. He does just that, but on the way back to the fort, they are attacked by fierce Mescalero Indians who are hostile to both sides and trapped in a shallow exposed depression. Roper frees and arms his prisoners, but even then, it looks like the Indians will wipe them out. Bailey (John Lupton) escapes to call for help. One by one, they are killed, including Campbell (William Demarest), Young (William Campbell), and the American Indian guide. Marsh and Lieutenant Beecher (Richard Anderson) are wounded. The next morning, to try to save Carla, Roper makes it look like he is the only one left alive and walks out in plain view. He is wounded, but the cavalry comes to the rescue just in time. Roper thanks Bailey for coming with help, while Marsh dies after smiling at Bailey.

During the Civil War, in Wyoming, horse dealers Joan Britton (Faith Domergue) and Stephen Cook (Lyle Bettger) are competing to supply the Union Army with horses. A Cherokee, Stan Watie, is in the area to stir up the Sioux against the Union just as Cook decides to steal a herd of Sioux horses. Ex-army doctor Jonathan Westgate (Jeff Chandler) opposes Cook’s unscrupulous methods as well as being Cook’s rival for the affections of Joan. It seems Westgate is the only one able to prevent a new Indian war.

Bus Crow (Macdonald Carey), a professional gunfighter from Texas arrives in Pearl City looking for work, where he makes an impression on the locals at "Hannah's Place", a saloon run by Hallie (Joanne Dru). This leads to him being hired by ranchers to convince squatters to leave the area. U.S. Marshal Sam Rochelle (John Ireland) is brought in to investigate some murders and suspects Crow is responsible.


Sgt. Matt Trainor (Broderick Crawford) leads the survivors of a massacred cavalry troop from the ruins of the destroyed frontier town of Dry Buttes, along with a ragtag group of stagecoach passengers, in a fight for survival against fierce Comanches led by Black Cloud (John War Eagle) at a desert ruin.

Working as an undercover agent, Ransome Callicut travels west by stagecoach. Notorious bandit Vic Sutro tries to rob it, but Callicut captures him and turns over Sutro to an Army captain, Roy Giles, upon arrival in California.
School teacher Lora Roberts, another passenger, has made the trip to marry Giles, but she becomes ensnared in Senator Mark Sheldon's nefarious schemes and also discovers Giles has been seeing Chona Degnon, a singer.
Sheldon murders a rival senator, Creegan, and fakes his own death. He kidnaps Lora as well. After she realizes that Callicut is actually a government agent, Lora persuades Chona that she can have Giles for herself if only she'll come to her aid. Sheldon also kills Chona before she can betray him, but he is brought to justice by Callicut, who is kissed by a grateful Lora.

During the siege at the Alamo, John Stroud (Glenn Ford) is chosen to leave the fort and warn the families of the mission's defenders of the impending arrival of General Santa Anna. But when everyone around him is wiped out by the Mexicans, Stroud has no proof that he was ordered to leave his post, and is therefore branded a coward.

After his wife's death, Ben Dawson retires and forms a traveling medicine show. His infant daughter Laurie grows up to be a sharpshooter and performer in the show.
A banker named Anderson is behind a criminal scheme cheating ranchers out of their money. He hires notorious gunslinger Trigger Gans for protection. Ben realizes that Gans was the one who killed his wife.
Laurie is glad that rancher Russ Mason is in love with her but, knowing something must be done about the unlawful deeds going on, disguises herself as "El Coyote" and conducts a form of vigilante justice. She ultimately fights Anderson one-on-one in a canyon. Victorious, she sheds her costume upon returning, but Russ spots it and realizes her secret identity, but her father does not.

Wes Anderson has been "moonlighting," rustling cattle. A lynch mob led by rancher Alex Prince hangs the wrong man. Wes escapes.
Rela, his former sweetheart, is now involved with Wes' younger brother Tom, who works in a bank. Tom has always admired Wes, who begins burning Prince's ranch and killing some of Prince's hands who lynched the innocent man.
Tom is fired at the Rio Hondo bank by Mott, his boss. Cole Gardner, an outlaw, persuades Wes to rob the bank, and Tom decides to join them. Rela angrily warns Wes that if any harm comes to Tom, she will hold him responsible.
During the robbery, Wes and Cole get away with the money but Tom is shot by his former boss. A posse is formed and Rela demands to be deputized. Cole double-crosses his partner, taking the money and leaving Wes tied up. When he encounters Rela on the trail, she shoots Cole and then finds Wes, taking him prisoner.
On the way back to town, Rela slips and nearly drowns. Wes saves her life. Ashamed of his ways, Wes offers to ride back to town alongside Rela to turn himself in to the law and accept his fate.

In March 1868, Howard Kemp (James Stewart) is tracking Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan), who is wanted for the murder of the marshal in Abilene, Kansas.
On the western slope of the Rocky Mountains in Southwestern Colorado, Kemp meets a grizzled old prospector, Jesse Tate (Millard Mitchell), and offers him $20 to help. Tate assumes that Kemp is a sheriff, and Kemp does nothing to disillusion him.
They trap someone on top of a rocky hill who Kemp is convinced must be his wanted man. Rockslides force a retreat. Looking for a way around the hill, Kemp and Tate encounter a Union soldier, Lieutenant Roy Anderson (Ralph Meeker). He has been discharged from the 6th Cavalry at Fort Ellis in Bozeman and is heading east. Tate questions why Anderson isn't on the Bozeman Trail. Anderson's story is that there are some "bad tempered Indians" whose chief's daughter fell in with a handsome young army lieutenant. Kemp has a chance to see Anderson's discharge order in which he is described as "morally unstable" and given a dishonorable discharge.
Tate tells Anderson that Kemp is a sheriff. With the aid of Anderson, who scales a sheer cliff face, Vandergroat is caught, along with his companion, Lina Patch (Janet Leigh), the daughter of Vandergroat's friend, Frank Patch, who was shot dead trying to rob a bank in Abilene.

Set in 1867 in the newly formed state of Nebraska, cavalry scout Wade Harper (Phil Carey) attempts to make peace with the Sioux Indians, who demand the handover of Wingfoot (Maurice Jara), an Indian scout who is believed to be responsible for the murder of their chief Thundercloud. While being held in the guardhouse at Fort Kearny, Wingfoot escapes with Reno (Lee Van Cleef), an army private awaiting trial for murder.

The film begins with scenes of life in Wyoming Territory, where new settlers join the cattle business by finding stray, unbranded cattle, called "mavericks", on public land. The narrator explains that established ranchers use the so-called "maverick law" against the settlers, while "sharp-witted men" take advantage of the resulting conflict. After this introduction, Jim Averell (Bishop) is shown exhorting settlers to elect him governor to defend them against cattle barons such as Reece Duncan (Scourby). When Averell's speech is over, the famous stage performer Kate Maxwell (O'Hara) arrives with a group of showgirls. Averell has arranged for Kate to operate both a cattle-buying business and a saloon. Duncan warns Kate that he will kill anyone caught stealing cattle on his land, and Sheriff Stan Blaine (Nicol) warns her of an impending war over the cattle business.
The tension between Duncan and the settlers rises as the settlers search for mavericks on Duncan's land and outlaws hired by Averell steal Duncan's cattle. Averell designed the "K-M" brand for Kate's cattle business in such a way that her branding iron completely covers Duncan's "bar double check" brand when applied directly over it. When Averell explains this trick to Kate, he makes it clear to her that she will be hanged as a rustler if she informs the authorities, and Duncan refuses her offer to support him against Averell.
Meanwhile, unknown gunfighters assemble in the nearby hills, and one of them shoots a settler. After Duncan attempts to stop a cattle roundup organized by Averell and the settlers, one of his men is killed, with Kate's branding iron left near the body. To further increase the tension, Averell offers Duncan his support against the settlers immediately after inciting their anger against Duncan. Averell's plan is to ignite a cattle war and promote his own political career by providing leadership once the war has begun.
However, Blaine discovers Averell's plan. After Blaine and Kate have explained it to their men, they stage a fake war, and Blaine forces Averell to signal his men. When the outlaws ride into town, they begin a gunfight against both Duncan's men and the settlers. After Averell shoots Blaine, Kate catches him stealing money from the saloon, and when he tries to shoot her, she and Blaine kill him. After the fight, Blaine prepares to leave town, but Kate persuades him to stay with her. The film ends as they ride away to inspect some farmland for a new home.

Mexican bandit Jose Esqueda resents settlers in the Brownsville, Texas region, and conducts raids against them. He threatens to burn down homes, including the ranch house King Cameron has just built for his wife Cordelia.
Rio, raised like a brother to Esqueda, joins forces with him at first. But in time he forms a partnership with Cameron instead, and even saves his life, although Cordelia continues not to trust him.
Complications arise when Cordelia's distrust turns to desire. Cameron must save both his property and his marriage after Esqueda goes on a rampage, robbing Brownsville's bank and killing the sheriff.
Shot several times by Esqueda and close to death, Cameron is once again saved by Rio, who confronts Esqueda in a final gunfight. Cameron forgives Cordelia for her feelings toward Rio.

Jeff Travis (Randolph Scott), a former spy for Quantrill's Raiders, rides to Arizona to start a new life. Finding that his reputation has preceded him, crooked Jules Mourret (George Macready) hires him to monitor a series of gold shipments, in preparation for a major robbery. Travis falls in love with Shelby Conroy (Joan Weldon), daughter of freight-line operator Jason Conroy (Pierre Watkin), and decides to turn honest.

On the lam after a robbery and needing a place to hide out, Vermilion O'Toole and her partner, Newt Cole, settle down in a new town.
Going by a new name, Mae Madison, the lady outlaw is surprised by three young boys who are looking for a new wife for their recently widowed dad, Will Hall. A complication or two arises when the new gal and Will begin to hit it off.

Mexico, 1911: An expatriate American known as "Irish" Gallagher joins up with Mexican revolutionaries when the mine where he and partner Marco have just struck gold is seized by Colonel Paco Ruiz, a corrupt official who rules the province. Marco is killed by Ruiz.
A band of rebels saves Irish from certain death, with a particularly brave one, a woman, Raquel Noriega, being wounded by gunfire. The rebels aren't sure about Irish so they take him back to their leader, Arturo Torres. As they talk, Raquel faints from her injury, and Irish offers to remove the bullet.
Raquel is engaged to marry Arturo. Her sister Elena has been kidnapped. When they go search for the sister, Raquel and Irish are taken prisoner by Ruiz and locked in a cell. Elena is not a captive after all and says she intends to marry Ruiz. She mistakenly trusts the villainous Ruiz, who coldly executes the mother of one of Arturo's loyal rebels, Tomas.
Irish and Raquel are broken out of jail by the rebels, but Arturo is killed. Irish, realizing how much Ruiz values the gold in the mine, booby-traps it with dynamite and sets off the explosions while Tomas kills Ruiz to avenge his mother's death. When asked by Raquel why he destroyed his own mine, Irish says there is something he loves more, and they kiss.

Civil War factions along the Arkansas-Missouri border are warned by Border City's mayor, Delilah Courtney, to stay five miles from her neutral town or risk arrest. Quantrill, a former Confederate officer gone rogue, brings his gang of marauders to the region, including wife Kate, who he kidnapped from Border City two years ago.
Another new arrival is Sally Maris, who has traveled from Michigan to join her brother, Bitterroot Bill, the owner of a saloon. Kate takes an immediate dislike to Sally and challenges her to a fight, which Sally wins, then a gunfight, where Sally also surprises Kate with her skill with a weapon. Bill is killed, and has left behind so many debts, Sally must stay to run the business.
Quantrill's interest in a mine, owned by Delilah, pits him against foreman Lance Horton, who is secretly a Confederate spy. Sally falls in love with Lance, who is wounded in a gunfight. After saving Kate's life during the melee, the women join forces. Sally prevents the arrest of Lance by claiming to be the spy herself. She is about to be hanged by vigilantes, but Kate reveals the truth, then rides off with the men in hot pursuit, saving Sally.

Cavalry deserter Bart Laish comes upon an ambushed wagon and a mortally wounded major. The officer's dying request is for Laish to catch up to the remainder of the wagon train and help guide it safely to a fort.
Laish transports the major's body, then dons his uniform and assumes his identity when joining up with a wagon train that has been repeatedly attacked by Indians. He is resented at first by Christella Burke, who owns one of the wagons, and Lt. Steve King, who until now has been leading the wagon train. Laish also shoots a crew boss who challenges him.
Unable to understand why the Indians keep staging raids against these same wagons, Laish and scout Crowshaw distract them with cases of liquor. They also anger Tillotson, a trader, by using his large wagon as bait. Christella is impressed by Laish's bravery, then accidentally learns of his true identity. Crowshaw ends up shooting Tillotson, whose wagons are filled with guns and ammunition that the Indians have been after all along. Christella falls in love with Laish, who decides to turn himself in, with Lt. King offering to vouch for his character.

In the Oregon Territory prior to the American Civil War, Chief Mike (Michael Granger) has fought the US Army and the white settlers to a standstill. As a result, the post commander Major Wallach (Willis Bouchey) is replaced by Major Archer (George Montgomery). On the way to the fort, Major Archer's troop of cavalry accompanied by two field guns spot an ambush by Chief Mike's Indians. Major Archer orders one of the guns to fire knocking down a tree and panicking the "braves" who suffer no casualties.
On arrival at the Fort, Major Wallach has allowed the use of his barracks to recruit more Irregulars for Stacey Wyatt (Richard Denning) who accompany the regulars on their military expeditions. As the recruiting involves free alcohol and kisses by women to the volunteers (and to their Regular comrades-in-arms) Major Archer is furious and immediately takes command of the post to reinstall military discipline, retrain the men and plan another expedition. No one is more outraged than Sergeant Major McClain's (Emory Parnell) daughter Brett (Martha Hyer) who thinks Archer inhuman.
An emissary of Chief Mike comes to arrange a meeting between the new commander to discuss peace but Major Archer initially refuses until orders come for him to negotiate with the Indians. The Major and Chief meet with each respecting each other and arranging a thirty-day truce with the Indians and whites not crossing either side of the Rogue River.
Wyatt is secretly employed to keep the Indian wars going by a consortium of the territory's business community (mining, ranching, lumber, fur trade) who oppose Statehood that would ruin their profits. Wyatt tricks Sgt Major McClain into breaking the treaty by telling him the Indians have attacked a white settlement leading to all but McClain killed after they attack an Indian settlement.

Over footage from The Man from Colorado, opening titles inform the audience that during the Civil War the Confederate States of America sent agitators to the American West to incite Indian tribes against the Federal Government to draw troops away from battles in the East.
In 1864 a stagecoach containing two passengers is attacked by an armed band who kill the driver and stop the stage. One of the passengers, Zachary Paige offers the armed but polite band his money but is surprised when they inform him that they are not interested in his money but know his identity as a diplomatic emissary of President Abraham Lincoln sent to the Dakota Territory to negoitate a treaty with the Sioux than includes payment of $130,000 in gold to the tribe. The band take his credentials and Paige is further surprised when his travelling companion, Brock Marsh tells him he is a secret agent of the Confederacy who will impersonate Paige in his diplomacy but will use the opportunity to break the promises and lure the Sioux into attacking the white settlements. The leader of the band John Lawrence informs Paige he will be held until after Marsh completes his mission then released. As Lawrence goes away Marsh further explains his mission in a courteous manner, then shoots and kills Paige to protect the mission to the surprise of Lawrence and his band.
Arriving in the nearest city, Marsh as Paige informs the town authorities of his mission and tells them his stage was attacked by an armed Indian band. Marsh meets "Gimpy" Joe Woods who offers to take him to the Sioux, but Marsh chooses Daugherty to take him. Before their departure a posse bring in John Lawrence who they have identified as a Confederate agent and seek to lynch him. The lynch mob becomes an impromptu court run by Judge Baker who try Lawrence for treason on the spot and sentence him to hanging. Gimpy implores Marsh as Paige to use his Federal authority to make the case a Federal matter and delay Lawrence's fate to a trial by Federal authorities. Marsh refuses and is hanged in front of his daughter Ruth, who swears vengeance on the town and its population. Gimpy takes Marsh aside and reveals himself as Lawrence's second in command and asks him why he did not save Lawrence with Marsh replying that his mission is more important to the Confederacy.
Daugherty informs Marsh that though Chief War Cloud is a reasonable man his son Black Buffalo desires the extermination of all whites. Proving his point, the pair are attacked by a war party led by Black Buffalo where his brother is killed by a proficient pistol shot by Marsh. The pair split up where Daugherty escapes but Marsh is captured. When Marsh realises Black Buffalo is not interested in the peace treaty and will burn him alive the clever Marsh shames the Indians that they are cowards and will be punished in the afterlife for not giving a prisoner a fair and sporting chance for his life. Marsh is pitted against a brave, both armed with knives in a fight to the death that Marsh wins by throwing his knife into the brave's back gaining him time for a rescue by Daugherty's posse.
Upon return to the town where Marsh intends to buy drinks for the posse he is called into the office of Judge Baker and Marshal Collins who show him the body of the real Paige who was buried in a shallow grave dug up by coyotes. As he is dressed as an Easterner and not dressed for riding the only possible way he could have come to the area would be as a passenger on the stage that Marsh came in on. Marsh denies he had a travelling companion; as the Marshal and Judge examine the body they find a label in the dead man's jacket with the name of Zachary Paige. As Marsh draws his pistol the pair are shot in the back from an open window by Gimpy armed with a rifle. When the townspeople burst in and see Marsh's weapon unfired they believe Ruth Lawrence is responsible.
Gimpy and his band discover the hard way that in addition to starting an Indian uprising, Marsh wants the $130,000 in gold for himself alone.

Matthew Devereaux (Spencer Tracy) is a ranch owner who has built an enormous ranch and mining empire. He raised his sons to carry on his fierce, hard-working Irish settlement spirit, that helped make him a success. However, as a consequence, he's never shown his three older sons by his late first wife, Ben, Mike, and Denny (played respectively by Richard Widmark, Hugh O'Brian, and Earl Holliman), his affection as a father and treats these grown men (in their 30s to their 40s), a little better than the hired help.
Even though they are managing the day-to-day operations of the ranch and other enterprises full time, Matt Devereaux still retains complete decisional authority right down to the smallest decisions which angers his eldest son in the process. So, the three elder sons are united against him, for reasons that have nothing to do with either the ranch, or its management.
Joe (Robert Wagner) is Matt's son by his second wife, a Native American princess, "Señora" (Katy Jurado). Because of Joe's mixed ethnicity, he is treated prejudicially by his three half-brothers—all Caucasian sons of Matt's first wife. The town's people call her Señora out of respect for Matt, but not out of respect for her. Matt Devereaux's power and prestige keeps the discrimination by the townspeople towards Joe to a minimum, so long as Joe, an emerging young adult, is principally interested in riding the range alone, and spending time at his mother's native American reservation and with its people.
Joe loves his father and would do anything for him. Because of his wife's insistence that he change his attitude towards their son, Matt Devereaux comes to appreciate his youngest son's love, and allows Matt to converse with the son, who shows no interest in owning and running the ranch empire. For the older brothers, this seems as a rejection by their father, and an attempt to live the lie that he has only one son and not four. So, they resent Joe even more.
The two middle sons rustle cattle and get two Mexicans killed, then get caught by two Indians workers whom they sacked the year before and shot by Matt. After 40 head of cattle die, Matt discovers a copper mine 20 miles away is polluting a stream where he waters his cattle. He becomes furious and leads a raid on the mine. The mine is on Matt's land, but he does not have the mineral rights. The law issues a warrant to arrest whoever was responsible for the attack. To spare his father the agony and humiliation of a stay behind bars, Joe claims responsibility and is sentenced to three years in prison.
Ben and his other brothers rebel against their father in Joe´s absence with such fierceness that the old man suffers a fatal stroke. Joe is permitted to leave prison long enough to attend his father's funeral, during which he formally severs his ties with his brothers and proclaims a blood feud.
Released from prison several years later, Joe returns to the ranch. Señora, his mother, persuades him to forget revenge and leave the country. Joe decides to take her advice, but Ben, fearing his revenge because he killed his father in the end, crosses his path and tries to kill him. The two half-brothers fight until Two Moons, the ranch foreman, shoots Ben dead to save Joe´s life. Time passes, and Joe and his new wife Barbara (Jean Peters) visit Matt's grave. There, Joe sees the down-turned lance, the Indian symbol for a blood feud, and breaks it in half, thus ending the feud.

A small plane carrying Frank Munson and a handcuffed prisoner, Ed Stone, crashes in the California wilderness. Ed knocks out Frank, unlocks the cuffs and flees, coming upon a woman called Cally tending to sheep, seemingly by herself in a remote cabin.
Frank follows and identifies himself as a Utah lawman who after tracking Ed for nearly two years finally caught up with him. Cally is hesitant to trust either stranger. She is an educated woman whose father, a former college professor, is living with her but is currently away.
As a torrential rain falls, Ed attempts to escape, but the passage is flooded. Cally tries to warn him, but pulls a knife when Ed tries to kiss her. At the cabin, Frank has no weapon and searches for a rifle Cally has hidden. Ed returns and, while trapped there during the storm, explains to Cally that he shot Frank's brother in self-defense, whereupon Frank had himself deputized but intends to kill him rather than bring him to justice.
Cally's father returns and is startled to find two men there. He hears their stories and, aware that his daughter is falling in love with Ed, offers him a chance to turn himself in to other authorities. With a gun in his hand and a single bullet in the chamber, Ed proves his intent by refusing to shoot Frank when he has the chance. He sets off to surrender himself to the actual police.

Pop Jones inherits a piece of family land in Montana, so he and his daughter, Sierra Nevada, decide to leave their Texas ranch and move there. As she bathes in a pond along the trail, Sierra Nevada encounters a stranger, Farrell, a hired gunman who warns her about dangerous Indians nearby.
Farrell is on his way to work for Tom McCord, a rich rancher. Quite a bit of rustling has been going on in the territory of late. McCord is in cahoots with Indians, in particular Natchakoa of the Blackfoot tribe, whose braves stampede the Jones family's cattle, knock Sierra cold, wound her cowhand Nat and kill Pop, after which McCord steals a document from Pop's dead body that grants rights to the land.
Sierra is nursed back to health by Colorados, a young Blackfoot who attends school among the whites, to the displeasure of the tribal chief, his father. McCord offers a $2,000 bounty to Farrell if he kills Sierra, but instead Farrell comes to her rescue.
Farrell reveals that he is actually an agent for the U.S. Cavalry, investigating the rustling and killing. With the help of Sierra, he blows up a McCord wagon filled with ammunition being sold to the Indians, doing away with McCord once and for all and bringing peace to the territory at last.

In 1881, a quartet of bandits have their eye or robbing the bank of Cholla. Though several attempts have ended disastrously for the bank robbers, Cully, the leader, has a plan. On their way they meet Simon Bhumer and Lolly, his daughter. Dutch, one of Cully's gang, was a former friend of Simon when both were gunfighters until Simon gave up gunslinging to settle down and raise a family, though his wife was later killed in an Indian attack.
The gang meets up again with Simon and Lolly at their friend Greasy's general store and see signs of Apache activity leading to war. Cully and Lolly hate each other at first, but each senses something good in the other. They separate after the bank robbery. Simon and Lolly ride to their new farm at Shadow Valley.
Cully's plan is to ride into his former town of Cholla, where he was expelled by rival Jim Flannery, now the town sheriff. As all the men in town watch Cully and Jim beat the living daylights out of each other, the others rob the bank without incident or witnesses. Heading for the Mexican border, the gang sees that the Apaches are on the warpath. Cully has to choose between being safe and rich in Mexico or rescuing Simon and Lolly from an Apache war party.

En route to California to prospect for gold, Hooker (Gary Cooper), Fiske (Richard Widmark), and Luke Daly (Cameron Mitchell) stop over in a tiny Mexican village. The three men and Vicente Madariaga (Victor Manuel Mendoza) are hired by a desperate Leah Fuller (Susan Hayward) to rescue her husband John (Hugh Marlowe), who is trapped in a gold mine in hostile Indian territory.
During the harrowing journey, the party's already frayed nerves are aggravated when the men become attracted to the woman. The group then arrives at the mine site—called the "Garden of Evil" because the Indians regard it as the domain of evil spirits. They find an injured, but living John Fuller.
As they leave, they are pursued by Apaches. Eventually, only Hooker, Fiske and Leah are left alive. At a choke point in the cliff-hugging road, the two men draw cards to see who will stay behind to hold off pursuing Indians while the other two ride to safety. Fiske "wins" and succeeds in killing or driving off the enemy. After seeing that Leah is safe, Hooker returns to talk with a dying Fiske, who urges him to settle down with Leah.

Joe Branch (Brett King) rumored to be the son of outlaw Jesse James, sets out to contact the infamous Dalton Gang and to learn the truth about his legendary father.

On the outskirts of a wind-swept Arizona cattle town, an aggressive and strong-willed saloonkeeper named Vienna maintains a volatile relationship with the local cattlemen and townsfolk. Not only does she support the railroad being laid nearby (the cattlemen oppose it), but she permits "The Dancin' Kid" (her former amour) and his confederates to frequent her saloon. The locals, led by McIvers but egged on by Emma Small, a onetime rival of Vienna, are determined to force Vienna out of town, and the hold-up of the stage (they suspect, erroneously, by "The Dancin' Kid") offers a perfect pretext. Vienna faces them down, helped by the mysterious and just arrived Johnny Guitar. McIvers gives Vienna, Johnny Guitar and "The Dancin Kid" and his sidekicks 24 hours to leave. Johnny turns out to be Vienna's ex-lover and a reformed gunslinger whose real name is Johnny Logan. A smouldering love/hate relationship develops.
The Dancin' Kid and his gang rob the town bank to fund their escape to California, but the pass is blocked by a railroad crew dynamiting a way in, and they flee back to their secret hideout behind a waterfall. Emma Small convinces the townsfolk that Vienna is as guilty as the rest and the posse ride to her saloon. Vienna appears to be getting the best of another verbal confrontation when one of the wounded bank robbers, Turkey, is discovered under a table. Emma persuades the men to hang Vienna and Turkey, and burns the saloon down. At the last second Vienna is saved by Johnny Guitar.
Vienna and Johnny escape the posse and find refuge in The Dancin' Kid's secret hideaway. The posse tracks them down, and the last two of Kid's men are killed by infighting. A halt is called to the bloodbath by the posse's leader, McIvers. Emma challenges Vienna to a showdown; The Dancin' Kid calls to Emma but is killed by a bullet to the head by an angered Emma. Emma then shoots Vienna, but only in the shoulder, where Vienna shoots Emma in the head. The posse allows Johnny and Vienna to leave the hideout in peace, and watches them go.

Cheated out of a day's pay, William Bonney takes his money anyway and rides off. He kills one of the men who pursues him and soon becomes better known in the territory as Billy the Kid.
Pat Garrett, a cowboy who considers Billy a friend, finds him a job at British land baron John Tunstall's giant ranch in New Mexico. Rustlers are causing Tunstall trouble and he asks Garrett and Billy to help protect his property. Billy tries to go straight, partly because he's fallen in love with a local beauty, Nita Maxwell.
Bob Ollinger, a brutal foreman, takes a dislike to Billy and beats him up. Ollinger also goes to a crooked lawman, Watkins, to dig up a wanted poster on Billy and insist on his arrest.
A posse comes looking for Billy and kills Tunstall by mistake. Billy guns down the man who pulled the trigger. The governor of New Mexico wants to replace Watkins and asks Garrett to take the job. Garrett declines until the governor vows to institute martial law and have Billy shot on sight. Billy tries to go along with Garrett peaceably, but others like Ollinger demand that he hang.
Billy kills Olinger and flees. He tries to get to Nita with a wedding ring and a proposal they begin a new life in Mexico, but then he is shot dead by Garrett.

After he drifts into town with Fairweather, a card-playing partner, Cruze accepts a job as town marshall and takes on corrupt locals who are cheating rancher Charlotte Downing and her brother.

Ross Granger is hired by the Overland Pacific railroad to investigate sabotage. Posing as a telegraph operator, Granger goes to Oaktown, where a fellow Civil War veteran he knows, Del Stewart, is now owner of the Silver Dollar saloon.
Del is engaged to Ann Dennison, whose father runs the railroad. A jealous Jessie Lorraine, his dance-hall girl, loves Del as well. Del and his cohorts are secretly selling repeater rifles to Chief Dark Thunder and the Comanche Indians, who do not want the railroad crossing their land. Del and rancher Broden want the Overland Pacific to re-route through Oaktown, where they own property.
A hired gun and corrupt sheriff both end up dead. Ann breaks off her engagement upon learning Del's scheme, pleasing Jessie until she discovers the true nature of Del, then is shot by him. It is left to Granger to win a shootout with Del, after which he and Ann commence a romance.

Sheriff Fred (Paul Birch) and lawyer Tom (William Pullen) conspire to have dance hall girl Kate (Abbe Lane) entertain the hired hands of the O'Mara ranch whilst the Sheriff and the lawyer rustle the O'Mara's stock. Tom shoots both the father and teenage O'Mara son to leave no witnesses.
Surviving son Clay (Audie Murphy), a railroad surveyor in Denver, is informed of their deaths and comes back to his home where the identity of the murderers is unknown. Clay is talked out of revenge by the town Reverend (Denver Pyle) but Clay makes his own enquiries to the sheriff and Tom. When Clay asks the sheriff if he can become his deputy in order to make an investigation, the sheriff at first refuses. Tom advises the sheriff that it would be a good idea with Clay sent on a false trail to arrest notorious gunslinger Whitey Kinkaid (Dan Duryea) in the town of Diablo. Kinkaid has no connection with the murders, but the corrupt pair plan that Kinkaid will kill the pesky Clay. Ringer (Russell Johnson).
To everyone's surprise Clay outdraws Kinkaid, arrests him, thwart's Kinkaid's escape attempts and successfully fights off an ambush from three men. Kinkaid, who spends his life by hanging and idling about, is bemused by the unstoppable Clay and watches him go after the real killers; at first he does this for amusement, but gradually he realizes that the moral attitude of the much younger Clay is like a valuable lesson in living a worthwhile life. It is amusing to see how he accepts him finally as an exemplar. Kinkaid's identification goes so far as to sacrifice himself to save the younger hero's life in several gunfights, all in accordance with the fact, that he said that if ever he feels he's become "like a human being", he will shoot (meaning here, sacrifice) himself.
Hence the moral lesson of the film is to show how right thinking and acting may sometimes turn the attitudes of depraved characters inside out; the audience are presented with a character in moral transformation, Western style. Murphy, as Clay, has top billing, showing successive bouts of corruption-busting action aided by his new friend, Kincaid, who ultimately demonstrates he'll make the ultimate sacrifice if needs be.

Set in the Northwestern United States in 1875, the film focuses on taciturn widower Matt Calder (Robert Mitchum), who has recently been released from prison after serving time for killing one man while defending another. He arrives in a boomtown tent city in search of his ten-year-old son Mark (Tommy Rettig), who was left in the care of dance hall singer Kay (Marilyn Monroe) after the man who brought him there as Matt had arranged took off for the hills. Matt promises Mark, a virtual stranger to him, the two will enjoy a life of hunting, fishing and farming on their homestead.

In Ohio in 1865, a Gatling gun is being carried by a Confederate Army officer in civilian clothes, calling himself Jim Farraday, and a sergeant, going by Benjy, to aid the Southern cause in the war. They come to the aid of a Rebel-hating Yankee nurse, Nora Curtis, whose wagon is stuck in the mud.
Stopping off in a town for supplies and information, Farraday falls under the suspicion of a Pinkerton detective, Frank Kelso, who has been assigned to locate the stolen Gatling gun. Behind her back, Farraday and Benjy smuggle the gun out of town in Nora's wagon.
A mercenary, Brett Manning, befriends the soldiers on the trail, then betrays them, shooting Benjy and stealing the gun. He sells it to tribal leader Chief Yellow Hawk, who uses it during an attack on a fort against soldiers, women and children. Farraday joins forces with Kelso to overcome Yellow Hawk's men and take the gun back, turning the battle in the fort's favor. Nora successfully argues that Kelso should reward Farraday by letting him go home to Georgia. Knowing that the war is nearly over, he allows Farraday to leave.

Three years after the end of the Apache Wars, peacemaking chief Cochise dies. His elder son Taza (Rock Hudson) shares his ideas, but brother Naiche (Bart Roberts) yearns for war...and for Taza's betrothed, Oona (Barbara Rush). Naiche loses no time in starting trouble which, thanks to a bigoted cavalry officer, ends with the proud Chiricahua Apaches on a reservation, where they are soon joined by the captured renegade Geronimo, who is all it takes to start a war.

Returning from a patrol, a well liked officer of the 14th Cavalry is wounded in the leg by a renegade Kiowa's arrow. Brought back to the post, their incompetent surgeon kills him through a lack of knowledge of stopping bleeding. As the previous post surgeons were an alcoholic and a drug addict a new surgeon is requested who is competent. Surgeon Lieutenant Seward arrives at the post with the wife of Colonel Waters, commanding the regiment, and his flirtatious niece Laurie.
Waters and Captain Peter Blake are concerned with recovering ten stolen repeating rifles and preventing the so far peaceful Kiowa from leaving their reservation to join up with the warlike Comanche. Both treat the Kiowa roughly as enemies without concern for their welfare as government wards and human beings. Doctor Seward accompanies Blake to the reservation to recover the rifles and meets a white woman who has become Manyi-ten, and the tribal medicine man, Isatai, gaining compassion for the Kiowa. The woman's son has malaria but Blake prevents Seward from treating him.
Seward tries to prevent an epidemic and suggests that the Kiowa move off their fetid reservation to the high country. An angry Colonel Waters at first places him under house arrest but then sends him on a combat patrol that is ambushed when the two tribes combine against them. With a number of troopers killed and wounded, the command turns on Seward as a "wood hawk" (traitor). Only Laurie, with a growing compassion for the Kiowa, remains loyal to Seward.
Manyi-ten brings warning of a combined attack on the fort by both the Comanche and Kiowa. The fort is besieged and half of the garrison comes down with malaria. Seward leaves the post to persuade Isatai into making peace but Blake follows in the dark to kill him as a traitor. Instead he shoots Spotted Wolf, the warrior son of chief Satanta. Seward brings Spotted Wolf back to the fort to operate on him and possibly stop the war. Despite his enmity, the colonel acquiesces in the face of the threat of overwhelming attack. Seward saves Spotted Wolf's life and Satanta calls off the war. Colonel Waters, in turn, vows to do all he can to allow the Kiowa to continue to live peacefully in the high country.

Jim Guthrie (Dana Andrews) returns to town three years after being falsely accused of murdering Carter Mastin (Richard Webb). Jim finds that his old friend Ben East (Stephen Elliott) is now the sheriff. In a flashback, Jim recounts his near-lynching by a mob convinced he had shot Carter in the back. Laurie (Donna Reed), Carter's sister, who was planning on marrying Jim, disrupts the lynching, and Jim narrowly escapes. He still bears a neck scar from his ordeal. Ben gives Jim three hours to find the true killer. Through confrontations with several of the men who had been eager to hang him, Jim is led to the guilty man.

A couple of cowboys, Johnny Colt and Tony Ballew, both have a romantic interest in tomboy Rusty Blair while working for her father. Tony loses his wages gambling, then borrows money from Johnny and wins $700, which they intend to put toward a ranch of their own.
Johnny's nervous because his father Jim is also a gambler. Jim goes to Mexico, gets drunk, catches a man named McAdoo cheating at cards, then shoots him in self-defense. McAdoo's two associates, Catur and Joe, decide to blackmail Jim into helping them rob a train of its $50,000 in payroll loot. If he refuses, they'll tell the law Jim shot their friend in cold blood.
To help his father, Johnny robs the train first. He hides the money with the $700. A posse is formed, which Johnny joins to go search for a thief who is actually himself.
McAdoo turns out to have been wounded, not killed. He turns up and Tony is shot in the back. McAdoo and Catur are done away with in a gunfight, and when Joe flees on horseback from Johnny, he falls to his death over a cliff. Johnny returns the robbery money, then ends up with a $10,000 reward and Rusty to boot.

Major Howell Brady (Jeff Chandler), a cavalry officer, is sent from Washington D.C. to Fort Clark, Texas, to subdue a Kiowa uprising that has been raiding both white settlements and villages on Seminole reservations. Brady requests that the post commander Colonel Meade (John McIntire) send his troops out in fast moving small units to engage the Kiowa but the Colonel fears his men would be slaughtered in piece meal actions and only feels the Kiowa are impressed by large numbers of troops.
Together with his two sergeants, Brady enlists the help of the Seminole chief, Maygro (Henry Brandon}, by giving him $500 and promising his people food and land. The three of them arm 25 Seminoles with state of the art Henry repeating rifles and train them as counter guerillas; luring the Kiowa in then ambushing them. Col. Meade and his officers resent Brady’s interference and mistrust the Seminoles.
At Fort Clark, Brady meets and falls in love with Elaine Corwin (Maureen O'Hara), the widow of a cavalry officer. However, when "Brady's Bunch" of Seminoles successfully repel a Kiowa attack, Brady spots a white man with the Kiowa. Although he does not get a good look at him, he recovers his sabre. The engraved sabre turns out to belong to Captain R. G. Corwin, the supposedly deceased husband of Elaine. The Seminoles confirm Corwin is still alive through torturing a Kiowa prisoner.
Meanwhile, Meade fails to deliver promised food to the Seminole so Maygro leads his people from the fort. Brady steals the food from the fort and delivers it himself to Maygro, for which Meade jails Brady. Brady is freed by Elaine and some of the Seminoles.
Brady discovers the Kiowa are preparing to attack the fort that is defended by only 20 men due to Meade's forces being away pursuing the elusive Kiowa. He returns to warn Meade, but he ignores him. He is about to throw Brady back in jail when a cavalry patrol returns with the same news that the Kiowa are preparing to attack. A fierce battle ensues and the Kiowa are defeated. Amongst the dead is the traitor R. G. Corwin, whom it turns out has been collaborating with a group of Mexicans to incite war.

Two former partners ("Andy Martin" and "Pete Menlo") from a previous mining claim are working in the strike town of "Goldfield", one running a saloon/ casino/ brothel (the "Fandango") and the other providing mining advice and management for the claims that the casino takes in as security against player's stakes. A regular gambler is "Jackpot" (whose daughter, Nevada, is the films love interest and the town's ore assayer).
Buying up a mine stake, the partners make a rich strike. But their miners are taken away by a better pay offer from the town's other main mining magnate, "Bannon". A confrontation in the street with one of the hired guns escalates tension and sparks a price war. But neither mine can keep the loyalty of mule drivers to transport the ore to the smelter to turn into cash and continue the price war. The partners plan to ship a load out of town, but are betrayed by their lawyer to Bannon. (Continuity error - far too large a couple of ore wagons for the number of horses towing it.) The wagons are bushwhacked by Bannon's men outside town and crash. Martin is left unconscious to die in the desert. Fortunately he is found by a passer-by and taken back into town.
As Martin is returning to town, there is a cave-in at the mine with three men trapped. While the men work to free the trapped men, Menlo and Bannon discuss an offer from a state-wide magnate to run a railway to the town and the smelter, in return for a 50% stake in the town's mines. Martin arrives and incorrectly detects a double cross (financial and romantic) where there was none, and dissolves the partnership and the romance.
Martin and Jackpot meet in a casino, and Martin wins Jackpot's mine, but by an obscure mining law it turns out that the rights to the mines are all controlled by the owner of Jackpot's mine (now Martin). The lawyer is run out of town. Menlo attempts to buy the mine from Jackpot, and discovers that it now belongs to Martin, so attempts to buy it back via Jackpot. This alerts Martin that Menlo is up to something. He is then attacked again by Bannon's hoodlums and dragged to a meeting with Bannon, who also tries to buy the mine. Martin, Nevada and Jackpot figure that something is up, work the mine, find high-quality ore that will control the whole area's strikes but are observed by one of the hoodlums.
Bannon wants to kill the prospectors, but Menlo argues against it. After a fight, Menlo is knocked unconscious and Bannon and his hoodlums head to the claims registration office to prevent the prospectors party from registering the claim. A gunfight ensues, in which the hoodlums are killed, and Menlo reappears just in time to prevent Bannon from killing Jackpot. All ends in sweetness and light, with a fight scene between the two original partners which throws back (or forward) to "Gilligan's Island".

Scout and tracker Adam Reed is handed a yellow tomahawk by Cheyenne warrior Fire Knife to deliver to a U.S. Army fort commanded by Major Ives as a proclamation of war, a warning to evacuate women and children before the attack.
Ives is known as "the butcher" for having given Cheyenne women and children no such warning during previous bloodshed. Ives scoffs at the tomahawk and Adam decides the major's superior officers at another fort must be notified of his actions.
The only woman who heeds Adam's warning to leave is Kate Bohlen, sweetheart of Lt. Bascom, who misses her native Boston. An attack is mounted before Kate can safely get away. Adam is knocked unconscious, but Fire Knife makes sure his life is spared. Bascom and many others are killed.
Extending the bow as a gesture of peace, Adam appeals to Fire Knife to let the major's fate be left up to the Army's justice. Fire Knife's thirst for vengeance is too great, so he prepares to kill Ives, who in desperation reveals that he is actually of Cheyenne descent himself. Adam cannot allow Ives to be killed in cold blood, so he kills his Indian friend.
Riding off toward the next fort to report what has happened, Adam leaves with Kate as a humiliated Ives pleads with him not to reveal his secret.

During the last days of the Civil War, President Lincoln (James Griffith) selects Indian scout James Kingston (Bill Williams) to facilitate a cattle shipment from Texas to the north. He is helped by cattle driver O’Roarke (Ray Teal) and Maj. McGuire (Don Harvey). Mexican fanatic Joaquin Jironza (Alex Montoya) wants the Henry Repeating Rifles that Kingston has. Embittered ex-rebel leader Lee Parker (Richard Jaeckel) is also an obstacle to Kingston's mission, as he tries to get the cattle through Apache territory.

The Apaches are being rebellious and government agent Rex Moffett is called in to get to the bottom of who is behind it. Possible suspects include half Apache Anne Libeau and her brother Armand Libeau.

In late 1945, one-armed John J. Macreedy (Spencer Tracy) gets off a passenger train at the isolated desert hamlet of Black Rock. It is the first time in four years that the train has stopped there. Macreedy is looking for a man named Komoko, but the few residents are inexplicably hostile. The young hotel desk clerk, Pete Wirth (John Ericson), claims he has no vacant rooms. Macreedy is threatened by Hector David (Lee Marvin). Later, Reno Smith (Robert Ryan) informs Macreedy that Komoko, a Japanese-American, was interned during World War II.
Certain that something is wrong, Macreedy sees the local sheriff, Tim Horn (Dean Jagger), but the alcoholic lawman is clearly afraid of Smith and is impotent to help. The veterinarian and undertaker, Doc Velie (Walter Brennan), advises Macreedy to leave town immediately, but also lets slip that Komoko is dead. Pete's sister, Liz (Anne Francis), rents Macreedy a Jeep. He drives to nearby Adobe Flat, where he finds a homestead burned to the ground and wildflowers. On the way back, Coley Trimble (Ernest Borgnine) tries to run him off the road.
When Smith asks, Macreedy reveals he lost his left arm fighting in Italy. Macreedy says the wildflowers at the Komoko place lead him to suspect that a body is buried there. Smith reveals that he is virulently anti-Japanese; he tried to enlist in the Marines the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, but failed the physical.
Macreedy tries to telephone the state police, but Pete refuses to put the call through. Doc Velie admits that something terrible happened four years ago and that Smith has everyone too terrified to speak up. Velie offers Macreedy his hearse to leave town. Hector rips out the distributor cap and spark plug wires. Macreedy goes to Hastings' (Russell Collins) telegraph office and writes a telegram addressed to the state police. At the town diner, Trimble picks a fight with Macreedy, but Macreedy uses martial arts to beat him up. Macreedy tells Smith that he knows Smith killed Komoko and that he was too cowardly to do it alone, so he involved Hector, Pete, and Coley; Macreedy also warns that when Smith's hoods eventually realize they're being played by Smith one of them will turn against him.
When Macreedy goes to the hotel lobby, Smith and his henchmen are already there, as are Doc Velie and Sheriff Horn. Hastings arrives and tries to give Smith a piece of paper, but Macreedy snatches it away and discovers that it is his own unsent telegram. Macreedy and Doc Velie demand that Sheriff Horn do something. When Horn tries, Smith just takes away his sheriff's badge and pins it on Hector. Hector tears up the telegram form.
After Smith and Hector leave, Macreedy reveals that the loss of his arm had left him wallowing in self-pity, but Smith's attempt to kill him has reinvigorated him. Macreedy finally reveals why he is there: Komoko's son died in combat while saving Macreedy's life. Macreedy intended to give his posthumous medal to Komoko. In turn, Macreedy learns that the elder Komoko had leased some farmland from Smith, who was sure there was no water there. Komoko had dug a well and found water. After Smith was turned down for enlistment after Pearl Harbor, he and the other men spent the day drinking, then decided to scare Komoko. The old man barricaded himself inside his home, but the men set the place on fire. When Komoko emerged ablaze, Smith shot him.
Later, Macreedy and Doc Velie devise a plan for Macreedy to escape under the cover of darkness. Hector is standing guard outside the hotel; Pete lures him into the hotel office, where Doc Velie knocks him out. Liz drives Macreedy out of town in her Jeep, but stops in a canyon. Macreedy realizes he has been betrayed. When Smith starts shooting at him, Macreedy hides behind the Jeep. Liz rushes to Smith despite Macreedy's warning. Smith tells her that she has to die along with the rest of his accomplices. He shoots her in the back as she runs away. Macreedy finds a bottle and fills it with gasoline, creating a Molotov cocktail. When Smith climbs down for a better shot, Macreedy lights and throws it, setting Smith on fire.
Macreedy drives into town with the injured Smith and Liz's body. The state police are called in. As Macreedy is leaving, Doc Velie requests Komoko's medal to help Black Rock heal. Macreedy gives it to him just before boarding the train.

Near Moab, Utah, mining engineer Larry Kendall (Richard Basehart), is searching for large uranium deposits and joins forces with Katherine Rand (Phyllis Kirk) and her father, Dr. Andrew Rand (Russell Collins). When Dr. Rand is hurt in an accident, Kendall and Katherine continue on, enlisting the help of an Indian guide, Charlie Rivers (Alan Wells).
Larry realizes Larson (Stephen Elliott), a rival mining engineer has sent Pete Barnwell (Charles Wagenheim) to trail them. After finding uranium ore in a series of caverns, they send Charlie back with ore samples to take to the Atomic Energy Commission office in Moab, while Larry and Kathy stay behind to protect their claim. While they had been at odds earlier, the pair now realize they are falling in love.
Barnwell finds their location and attacks them, shooting Kathy, and setting off an explosion that seals the entrance to the cavern. Knowing that Charlie has ore samples, Barnwell kills him in an ambush and steals the samples.
In the morning, when Kathy sees bats returning, they both realize that there is a small opening that at least Larry can climb through. Finding a horse that they had tied up, Larry heads off to town, but Barnwell is already at the Atomic Energy Commission office, plotting to turn the samples in for himself, when Larson shows up.
The two thieves employ a helicopter to get back to the mine where Kathy is still trapped. While Barnwell is left to guard the cavern entrance, Larson takes to his helicopter to chase down Larry. When Charlie's brothers find his body, Joe (Richard Hale) and Mickey Rivers (Tommy Cook), follow his tracks to the cavern where Joe forces a confession from Barnwell and kills him.
The two Rivers brothers set out for Moab and find Larry on the way who tells them that Kathy is wounded and trapped. The group gets back to the cavern just as Larson returns. In the ensuing shootout, Larry kills Larson, then radios in for help. With the rescue service on its way, Larry and Kathy comfort each other.

In 1896, Jeff Webster (James Stewart) hears of the Klondike gold rush and he and friend Ben Tatem (Walter Brennan) decide to drive a herd of cattle to Dawson City. On the way, he annoys self-appointed Skagway judge Gannon (John McIntire) by interrupting a hanging, so Gannon "confiscates" (basically, steals) his herd. Jeff and Ben steal the animals back and take off with Gannon and his men in hot pursuit. After crossing the border into Canada, Jeff uses a few well-placed warning shots to persuade Gannon's gang to give up the chase, but the judge promises a hot reception when Jeff returns.
When Jeff gets to Dawson, he finds widespread (though relatively peaceful) lawlessness, and ignores it as none of his business. He auctions off his herd to new arrival Ronda Castle (Ruth Roman), a saloon owner and one of Gannon's business associates, when she outbids Hominy (Connie Gilchrist), Grits (Kathleen Freeman) and Molasses (Connie Van), co-owners of the local hash house. Both Ronda and French-Canadian gamine Renee Vallon (Corinne Calvet) are strongly attracted to Jeff.
Ronda sets up a saloon in partnership with Gannon, who begins cheating the miners out of their claims. Gannon and his gunmen show up to grab their share (and then some), making Dawson much more dangerous. Jeff stays out of it, instead planning to sneak out by river while Gannon is otherwise occupied. However, Gannon is tipped off when Ben buys extra coffee for the long trip; his men kill Ben and wound Jeff, finally forcing him to take sides.
Jeff calls Gannon out to settle the dispute man to man, but the villain arranges an ambush. Ronda rushes out to warn Jeff and is fatally shot in the back. Jeff kills Gannon in the ensuing gunfight and the rest of his gang agree to leave town, rather than fight all the fed-up longtime residents, who have finally found their courage and armed themselves to resist the gang.

Colonel Carrington (Roy Gordon) and his command are assigned the job of constructing a chain of forts in the Sioux Indian territory of Wyoming during the 1880s. The Colonel recruits former cavalry soldiers turned frontier scouts Jim Bridger (Dennis Morgan) and "Dakota Jack" Gaines (Richard Denning), now running a Wild West Show, to head the fort building.
Bridger and Gaines are friendly with Sioux chief Red Cloud (Robert Bice) but have reservations about the chief's 2nd in command, Afraid of Horses (Michael Morgan). Both Bridger and Gaines are confident a peace treaty with the Sioux can be made. However, if war breaks out, the cavalry is depending on getting a new type of breech loading Springfield Model 1865 rifle. Gaines, Mrs. Gaines (Paula Raymond), and Bridger arrive at the fort for the conference. Gaines gets drunk and attempts to intimidate the Indians into signing a treaty. Chief Red Fox threatens war if his territory is invaded by any troops building forts.

A stranger comes to the town of Tomahawk to investigate who's behind a series of stagecoach holdups.

Clint Tollinger arrives in town, and is recognized as the "man in grey", a gun for hire who had a reputation for cleaning up other towns. After 14 killings in a year are followed by a night shooting and the burning of a house under construction, and the town marshal tells the town council he's not sure what can be done, the council hires Tollinger as their new "town tamer". The marshal deputizes Tollinger, then tells him he is on his own. Tollinger begins by warning two known gunmen to leave town. He then begins to disarm everyone in the town. Then in an unseen confrontation he kills the two gunmen he'd previously warned to leave town.
A group of gunmen shoots up a poster warning of the gun ordnance at the edge of town. As they ride in, they yell that they are looking for Tollinger. Forewarned by the shots, he gets the drop on them from the loft of the town stable with a shotgun. He orders them to drop their guns and they do so. One trades small talk with him while reaching for a derringer in his hat, but Tollinger shoots him.
At a social event, one of the town women advises Tollinger that his job won't be finished until the dance hall girls also leave town. She criticizes them for dancing and carrying on, unaware that Tollinger is an old friend to the madam who manages them. But not all is well in their relationship. When Tollinger warns Nelly Bain that her girls also have a curfew, she replies that she knows what happens in a "Tollinger-tamed town". She tells him she and the girls will be moving on further west, and asks him for suggestions. She asks for the name of any town where he won't be. But there's a hidden history between the two of them, and everything isn't what it seems.
Two gunmen from a large cattle spread ride into town to tell Tollinger that they've detained Jeff Castle for trying to build a house on disputed land. They appear to have set a trap, inviting Tollinger to the ranch to pick him up, where they will have the advantage. Tollinger arrests the two for carrying guns in town. Some of the town's citizens suddenly have second thoughts, worrying that others from the ranch will come in and shoot up the town. But the arrest proves a good tactical move; the other ranch hands deliver Castle into town, trading him for the two prisoners.
Nelly Bain tells Tollinger something she's kept from him since he arrived in town, that their daughter had died, and Tollinger takes it badly. His patience and calm demeanor suddenly gone, he resolves to clean up the town the quick and dirty way; he burns the saloon, which is owned by Dade Holman, the cattleman who had sent the gunmen.
Holman sets up a trap for Tollinger, and rides into town in a surrey to see that it works. Tollinger kills his assailant but is shot by Holman. Castle shoots Holman, and at the end Nelly and Tollinger (who apparently survives) kiss and are reconciled.

Easygoing cowboy Dempsey Rae (Kirk Douglas) and his impressionable young friend Jeff Jimson (William Campbell) wander into town and are hired to work for an absentee rancher named Reed Bowman. When Bowman finally shows up, Dempsey is surprised to find that he has been working for a very attractive woman (Jeanne Crain), one who has very ambitious plans. Her plans lead to a range war with her neighbors.

The story focuses on a poor but proud farmer named Manuel and his wife Maria. When glib-tongued drifter Santiago tries to get Manuel mixed up in a robbery, the farmer is at first resistant, but is goaded into joining Santiago. Corrupted by the prospect of untold wealth, Manuel begins plotting the murder of Santiago; meanwhile, Maria makes plans to run off with the handsome stranger.

U.S. Cavalry trooper Dan Parker is asked by Major Cooper to catch a Nevada rustler known as "Black Jack." He does, but then is double-crossed and shot by a fellow soldier, Lt. Burke, who is in cahoots with the thief.
Not knowing about Burke's deceit, the major sends him to California to investigate a land swindler, Sam Casey. It turns out Casey is pretending to be "Black Jack" and is part of the Jesse James outlaw gang. Parker recovers from his gunshot wound and leaves for California, where his father owns a ranch.
Casey, helped by hired gun Ace Harkey and a crooked sheriff, is trying to move a half-million dollars in stolen gold. His honest secretary, Rita Starr, tries to inform the law, but Dan's dad is killed. Burke objects to Casey's methods and is also murdered. Dan shoots it out with Casey, is victorious and stays in town, retiring from the Cavalry, to settle down with Rita.

In this film's version of the story, four of the Reno Brothers are corrupt robbers and killers while a fifth, Clint (Denver Pyle) is a respected Indiana farmer. A sister, Laura (Mala Powers), who has inherited the family home, serves as a housekeeper and cook to the brothers. Some of them served in the Civil War, which has given them a hardened attitude toward violence. One brother is killed when they go after a bank in a nearby town, leading them to draw the conclusion that someone that they know is an informant, as the men of the town appeared to have been waiting for them. They soon learn that it was Murphy, a local bartender, whom they then murder by knocking him out, and tying him up in his barn, which they then set ablaze. The bartender was in fact an agent employed by the Peterson (in real life, Pinkerton) Detective Agency sent to investigate and provide information about the Reno Brothers' crimes.
His replacement is Scott's character, James Barlow, a former secret agent for the Confederacy, who determines to join the gang by posing as a train robber, a ploy which is aided by his being allowed to pull off a staged train robbery (with the full cooperation of the train crew) in the area. (He also begins courting the sister.) Grudgingly accepted by the brothers (led by Tucker's character, Frank Reno), he soon learns that they have corrupted local officials, including a judge (played by veteran character actor Edgar Buchanan), allowing them to operate in that part of the state with near-impunity. The brothers plan a train robbery with Barlow, but this proves to be a setup in which they are captured following a shootout and taken to an area jail outside the jurisdiction of the corrupted officials. (In the shootout, Barlow's fellow Peterson agent, Monk Claxton, is killed.) Townspeople are incited to mob violence and break into the jail and lynch the brothers before they can be brought to trial despite Barlow's best efforts to stop this. (Apparently the sister accepts his efforts as genuine; in the film's final scene she is still with Barlow.)

Bill Mayhew is constantly getting his wild younger brother Sam out of trouble, even serving a prison sentence in Sam's place once. Because of their reputation, the brothers change names and head their separate ways.
Bill lands a job with John Sutton, a livery stable owner, and is attracted to Sutton's daughter, Elizabeth. He likes Sutton's idea of starting a stagecoach line to Denver, and intends to go along on the stage's first journey, guarding a shipment of gold.
Sam turns up and is hired by saloonkeeper Jim Donovan, who wants to control all businesses, Sutton's included. When he deduces they are brothers, Donovan pretends to hold Sam hostage until Bill brings him the gold. Bill double-crosses him and makes sure the gold is safe. Sam, feeling his brother a fool, demands a showdown. Bill outdraws him, shoots the gun from his hand, then turns his back. Sam finally reforms, even becoming a stagecoach driver for Sutton.

Kirby Randolph (John Payne) is a veteran scout who comes to hate all Indians after being betrayed by a Kiowa chief called Satank (George Keymas), whose massacre killed many men and ruined Kirby's reputation.
Kirby and his sidekick Sam Beekman (Slim Pickens) are offered work by Jess Griswold (Rod Cameron), who believes a man deserves a second chance. Kirby immediately demands that an old Indian woman, Ptewaquin (Irene Tedrow), be ordered off the wagon train, but her young companion Auriele St. Clair (Faith Domergue) refuses to part ways with her.
Auriele has a half-interest in a shipment of ammunition being delivered to Mexican soldiers. The antagonism between her and Kirby changes to a mutual attraction after Kirby heroically saves several lives along the trail.
Jess, who also loves Auriele, picks a fight with Kirby by disclosing that Auriele is a "half-breed." The two men's differences are forgotten during an attack by Satank's men. A broken leg slows Jess, who volunteers to remain behind and keep fighting while the others escape.
Kirby ends up face-to-face with Satank, who is about to kill him when the old woman, Ptewaquin, saves him by killing the Indian chief at the cost of her own life. Kirby discovers that the woman was Auriele's mother. His hatred gone, he and Auriele plan to be married in the manner of her mother's people.

1880: Dr. Julia Garth, traveling from Boston, arrives near Santa Fe, New Mexico, where her brother David is a U.S. Cavalry lieutenant. She soon meets the town's respected physician, Dr. Rourke O'Brien, as well as Father Gabriel Mendoza, who has helped establish a new hospital.
Spurs O'Brien, the tomboy niece of the doctor, has a crush on David. She helps Julia buy a horse and teaches her to ride. Julia begins seeing patients, including a boy having vision problems and a toothache sufferer Billy the Kid has brought to her, but encounters resistance from Dr. O'Brien, who doesn't believe women should be practicing medicine.
David shoots a man who accuses him of cheating at cards, pleading self-defense. Dr. O'Brien can't help but admire and be attracted to Julia, but she declines his marriage proposal, citing prejudices like his toward women as the reason she left Boston in the first place. He is irritated again when Julia gives medical advice to his most distinguished patient, New Mexico's governor, General Lew Wallace.
At a party, David strikes an Army captain who accuses him of cheating and rustling. David admits to Julia that the charges are true, then robs a bank and rides off. Julia and Spurs manage to talk David into surrendering, whereupon he is shot. Julia elects to leave New Mexico for good until Dr. O'Brien speaks up on her behalf.

Rick Thorne, a circuit judge, rides into Bannerman and discovers everything in town is controlled by rich rancher Josiah Bannerman and his kin. He meets sheriff Nat Bell and district attorney Buck Streeter and asks why Bannerman's arrogant son, Tom, got away with killing a man without an arrest or trial.
Offered no assistance, Thorne stands up to Tom and then jails him. He becomes acquainted with Bannerman's beautiful niece, Amy Lee, who is attracted to Thorne but doubts her cousin Tom is a cold-blooded killer.
Thorne finds allies in Caroline and Vince Webb, who own a gun shop and are willing to testify with evidence against Tom in court. Thorne realizes he needs to sneak Tom and the Webbs to a different town if he's to get a fair trial. Bannerman and his men pursue them, and Amy Lee watches as Tom deliberately causes Vince Webb's death. In time, Thorne gets the prisoner to the next town safely, and Amy Lee goes to court to back him up.

Adam Stewart (Lester Matthews), a lawyer heading west with grown son Howie (Skip Homeier), is persuaded by brother John Stewart (Randolph Scott) to settle down near him in Ocatilla, Arizona, where he has a ranch and romantic interest in a widow, Corinne Michaels (Jocelyn Brando).
The menacing rancher Wick Campbell (Richard Boone) has an attractive ward, Maria Segura (Donna Martell), and also lusts for her, but she wants no part of that. Her interest in Howie strikes a jealous chord in Campbell, who hires gunfighters led by Frank Scavo (Leo Gordon) to rid the region of the meddlesome Stewarts once and for all.
Campbell's thugs kill a rancher and stampede cattle. One picks a fight with Howie, who surprisingly beats him to the draw in self-defense, only to be locked up by Sheriff Gibbons (Dennis Weaver), falsely accused of murder. Howie busts out and flees with Maria.
Adam is killed in cold blood by Campbell, for which Howie blames himself while promising to get even. During a gun battle, the cowardly Campbell uses the sheriff's wife as a hostage. Scavo kills him, intending to take over the territory himself.
With assistance from the sheriff, John and Howie take on Scavo's men and prevail. The town has law and order at last, while the Stewarts celebrate a double wedding.

On a riverboat, gambler Chris Mooney loses heavily to Prudence Webb, borrows another $30,000 and loses that to her, too.
He offers her a partnership. Prudence declines, informing him that her father embezzled funds to gamble with Chris, then committed suicide after he lost. Prudence has her revenge and the money to pay back her late father's employer.
She rides to Fort Ralston, Texas to claim her inheritance, the Clarion newspaper, which her dad won in a card game. Stringer Winfield, the postal carrier, warns her that town founder Micah Ralston and ranch partner Sturdy own practically everything and everybody.
Clarion editor Clay Ballard tries to get Prudence's ownership overturned, but drunken lawyer Cass Gower sobers up and wins her case, even though Judge Herzog is in Ralston's pocket. A hired gun, Jess Foley, acting as a "deputy," kills Gantz, a rival rancher. Foley then makes a play for Prudence, asking her to dance and to teach him to read.
Chris shows up. Foley objects to his romantic interest in Prudence, who warns Chris to beware of Foley's jealousy and gun. Chris manages to hold off Foley, who also has Gantz's widow after him.
The crooked sheriff, Herndon, on orders from Ralston, gives 24-hour notice to Prudence to repay $6,000 in back taxes or forfeit her property. Prudence concedes defeat and intends to ride out of town with Chris, who gambled and failed to raise the money.
Her new neighbors collect the $6,000 on her behalf, also naming Chris as the new mayor, Cass as the new judge and saloon owner Moore as the new sheriff. Stringer rides for the Texas Rangers as soon as Ralston's men come with guns blazing, Cass getting killed. Law and order arrive in town, with Ralston & Sturdy finally relenting.

Cattle ranchers Chalk Reynolds (Barton MacLane) and Walt Payne (Charles Fredericks) ousted many small ranchers from the government-owned range in the Ruby Hills country. Now they have to fight each other to get sole control over the place.

A newly ordained minister, Rev. Macklin, catches a ride to the town of Lodestone in a stagecoach carrying six dancehall girls. They are on their way to work for saloon owner Marty Callahan, including one, Laura, who once loved Callahan but no longer does.
Macklin explains that his father once built a church in this town, but it burned to the ground. He now wants to rebuild it, but Callahan is opposed and persuades others not to help the preacher in any way. Only the saloon girls attend his first service.
A gang of outlaws led by one called Lou robs the saloon and hides the loot in the church. Lou and his men pretend to be religious converts until an opportunity can arise to retrieve their money. Macklin, trying to raise money, enters a rodeo and wins a $300 prize, but Laura also competes, is thrown from a bronco and ends up in a wheelchair.
Macklin befriends a band of Indians, who assist in his endeavors. Lou sincerely does become a convert and even Callahan has a change of heart when Macklin returns the stolen money. Laura, seeing a new side of Callahan, agrees to marry him, so Macklin conducts their wedding.

Parrish (Ford), a Union Army ex-officer, plans to sell his land to Anchor Ranch and move east with his fiancée, Caroline (Wynn), but the low price offered by Anchor's crippled owner, Lew Wilkison (Robinson), and the outfit's bully-boy tactics make him think again. When one of Parrish's hands is murdered, he decides to stay and fight, utilising his war experience.
Not all is well at Anchor with the owner's wife, Martha (Stanwyck), carrying on with his brother, Cole (Keith), who also has a Mexican moll in town. Parrish eventually gets the upper hand, and when the Wilkisons' daughter, Judith (Foster), comes to understand what her family is like and what Parrish has been up against, she realises they can join forces as peaceful neighbours and perhaps more.

The film opens long ago in Monument Valley, after tribes of Native Americans have defeated other ancient cliff dwellers; afterwards, Europeans arrived to conquer the Native Americans. Later, in the early 20th Century, a tribe of Navajo are living on a reservation overseen by an individual who hates Native Americans, named Booker. He and his men steal the best Native American's horses for their own profit. Nophaie, a tribal leader, complains to Booker's superiors, but he is unable to gain fair treatment from the whites. When World War I breaks out, Army Captain Earl Ramsdale comes west in search of the horses that Booker was supposed to have bought from the Natives for a fair price. Marian Warner, the teacher at the Native American School, befriended Nophaie, teaching him to read; she convinces him that the Great War is a fight for a more just world, and that, when that world comes, the Native Americans will be treated better. Nophaie, not only brings horses for the Army, he and many others enlist, and distinguish themselves in battle. But when they come back after the war is over, they find life for the Native Americans even worse than when had they left. When they go on the warpath, Nophaie rides to warn the Whites. Nophaie and Booker die in the fighting, and Nophaie's sole comfort is dying in the arms of Marion, whom he loved. The film is a mixture of contradictory stereotypes that aims to show its viewers the subjugation of the Native American people during the time of World War I. Nophaie and his people ultimately come to realize that their traditional ways of life may be coming to an end. They also note that there is an equal place for them within White America. 

Jim Vaus returns from the war and marries Alice. He struggles to make a living. He was hired by Charles Rumsden to fix a doorbell, and realizes that his client is a mob boss. Alice discovers the source of Jim's income and their relationship was expired and strained to the breaking point. She forces Jim to attend a Billy Graham's Los Angeles Crusade, in her attempt to save their marriage and Jim's soul.

Wanted outlaw Tris Hatten turns up in Apache Bend, looking for former sweetheart Millie Street, a saloon girl. Clay Gipson, the little brother of Sheriff Wade Addams' girlfriend, spots the fugitive and informs the sheriff, who knocks Hatten cold and takes him to jail.
Town opinion turns against the popular Wade, who is suspected by girlfriend Linda's father, rancher Tom Gipson, of being after a reward for Hatten that rightfully should go to the boy, Clay. In truth, Wade is trying to protect the child, particularly when the notorious Barlow gang rides into town to try to spring Hatten.
A reporter named Tatum helps damage the sheriff's reputation by revealing Clay to be the informant. Clay is wounded by a gunshot, bringing dad Tom to his senses. After shooting two of the Barlows, proving his courage, Wade must apprehend Hatten, who has had a gun smuggled to him in jail. Hatten shoots the reporter, but can't outdraw Wade.

When Trace Jordan's brother is murdered and several of their horses stolen, Trace sees by the tracks that three men are involved. One man wears Mexican spurs, one walks with a limp, and one smokes cheroots. Upon arriving in the town of Esperanza, Trace sees a destroyed sheriff's office and discovers the only law in Esperanza is Joe Sutton. He also discovers that the stolen horses have been rebranded with the Sutton brand, and their riders who match the description of their tracks work for Sutton. Trace enters Joe Sutton's (Ray Teal) ranch and wounds him in a shooting.
The enraged Sutton sends his son Jack (Skip Homeier), his foreman Ben (Claude Akins) and ten ranch hands to track down Trace before he goes to an Army fort to bring law to Esperanza. Wounded in his escape, Trace is helped by courageous half Mexican woman named Maria Colton (Natalie Wood). Unable to locate the hidden Trace, Joe Sutton enlists a half Indian tracker Jacob Lantz (Eduard Franz).

A gunslinger named Jagade happens upon a stranger in trouble on the trail and saves his life. Jagade immediately regrets it upon learning the man is Alan Burnett, who is now only a U.S. Marshal but on his way to the town of West End to marry Jagade's former sweetheart that very day.
Jagade gets to town first and disrupts the proceedings. He taunts the betrothed woman, Sharman Fulton, in public. She was once a dancehall girl of low repute, but has since been taken into the home of the honorable Judge John J. McLean and has redeemed her reputation. Preacher Jason, nevertheless, calls off the wedding after Jagade sullies her name.
Burnett arrives but has no call to arrest Jagade and remains indebted for the gunfighter's aid on the trail. Jagade provokes him, forcing open the saloon on a Sunday against the town's regulation, infuriating the meek Miss Timmons and the Preacher, who now intends to burn the saloon down. To stop him, Sharman agrees to Jagade's condition that she don her red dancehall costume of old. She is called a harlot in town and kicked out of the Judge's home.
A young cowboy, Billy Brand, who admires Jagade shoots the preacher. But he is overcome with remorse when Miss Timmons is humiliated by Jagade and hangs herself. A church bell distracts Jagade during a shootout and Burnett's bullet fatally wounds him. As he dies, Jagade realizes the bell was rung in honor of the preacher he killed.

Rick Largo and the Banner brothers hold up a bank. Frank is persuaded to shoot brother Johnny by the greedy Largo, so the loot can be split just two ways.
Johnny, left for dead, recovers and rides to town. He challenges his brother to a showdown, then spares his life but orders him out of town. He gives no such chance to Largo, gunning him down.
Deciding to leave for Wyoming to buy a ranch, Johnny is asked to drive the stagecoach through dangerous Indian territory when no one else will. Aboard are saloon singer Amy Clarke, her piano player Minstrel, gold speculator Chester, bank clerk Hamilton and a senator named Blakeley who is sympathetic toward the Indians in spite of all the violence.
Frank's lifeless body is found on the trail, filled with arrows. A wheel breaks, forcing the travelers to stop for repairs. Chester is killed in an Indian ambush. Hamilton, who was falsely suspected in the bank job Johnny pulled, nearly dies before Johnny saves his life.
Heat and thirst get to the survivors as the Indians wait them out. Minstrel sees a mirage, wanders off and is shot. Blakeley is mocked by Amy for his kindness toward the Indians, so he ventures out, hoping to reason with them. He, too, is killed.
Hamilton's life is slipping away, so Johnny makes a try for a canteen left out by the Indians as bait. He is attacked by a Cheyenne brave and spares his life, telling him to return to his people and admit being saved by a white man. Hamilton expires, but the Indian returns with fresh horses for Johnny and Amy, who ride back toward town so Johnny can turn himself in for the robbery.


Son of a notorious fast-drawing sheriff, George Kelby Jr. (Ford) and his wife Dora (Jeanne Crain) settle down in the peaceful town of Cross Creek under assumed identities to avoid having to continually face men out to become famous for shooting down the "fastest gun alive". Now known as George Temple, he becomes a mild-mannered teetotalling shopkeeper, little respected by the other townsfolk.
One day comes news that outlaw Vinnie Harold (Crawford) has gunned down Clint Fallon (Walter Coy, reputedly the "fastest draw in the west." George listens to the townsmen talk about Wyatt Earp, Wes Hardin, and other so-called "fast guns". They are also laughing at George, seeing him as nothing but a "ribbon clerk".
His pride stung, George retrieves a gun from hiding (he told his wife he had tossed it into a river years ago) and—over her desperate pleading not to destroy the peaceful life they have built—says "they have to know who I am." The men are astonished at seeing George wearing a gun, believing him to be drunk. He sets about destroying the myths these men have about gunmen, displaying a detailed knowledge of guns and gunmen they never suspected he had. George then blurts out his secret that he is the fastest gun alive, "...faster than Earp, faster than Hardin, faster than Fallon, and faster than the man who killed him."
With the citizens understandably skeptical, George takes them into the street and gives them a demonstration of his skill. First, with only two shots, he hits two silver dollars tossed into the air on the count of three. Following that, he shoots a beer glass full of beer dropped from Harvey Maxwell's (Allyn Joslyn) hand at 20 feet, hitting it almost immediately after it left the man's hand.
Later, while everyone is in church, where they have taken an oath not to tell George's secret, Harold rides into town. A local boy tells him about George's display of gun skill. Though he is on the run—and over the objections of his fellow bank robbers, Taylor Swope (John Dehner) and Dink Wells (Noah Beery, Jr.), who just want to escape the law—Harold is intent to remain in town until he can see this George Temple face-to-face.
Harold finds out that the "fast gun" is in the church. He sends Swope there to call him out. When the townspeople refuse to send out "the man who shot two silver dollars at the same time," Harold gives an order to Dink to find some kerosene and pour it everywhere. He then instructs Swope to deliver a message to the people in the church that if their fast gun does not come out in five minutes, Vinnie and his men will burn down the whole town.
The townspeople now try to force George into the street. George must reveal the whole truth, explaining that he is no gunman, that he has never been in a real gunfight. The gun with the notches in the handle actually belonged to his father George Kelby (a famous lawman shot down in an ambush) and he is terrified at the prospect of actually facing a man in a gunfight.
Swope and Wells elect to abandon Vinnie. Dink stays for a while, but he also rides off. Swope, who decides to take his share of the gang's loot, is told by Vinnie to either draw or ride out, but without any of the loot. Swope toys with the idea of drawing on Vinnie, but thinks better of it and leaves.
Realizing that George is too terrified to face Harold, Lou Glover asks George for his gun. Glover intends to pose as George for the sake of the town. Reluctantly, George straps on his gun and walks toward the door, warning everyone not to say anything because it will not take much for him to change his mind.
George meets Vinnie in the street, where both men draw their guns and fire. When a posse pursuing the outlaws shows up, the townspeople are attending the burials of both Harold and Kelby, telling the posse how the two men shot each other dead. Both the tombstones of Harold and Kelby are dated November 7, 1889. After the posse leaves, it is revealed that Kelby was not killed. A coffin filled with stones, Kelby's gun, and his reputation as "the fastest gun alive", was buried, instead. This allows George and Dora to resume their peaceful existence in Cross Creek.

Sam Houston, a lawyer and former Governor of Tennessee, travels to San Antonio, Texas to begin a new life. He encounters Jim Bowie, who is determined to free the territory from Mexico's rule.
Bowie is tried for treason. Houston represents him in court and successfully argues that the charge against Bowie must be dismissed because Mexico was not under martial law at the time.
Katherine Delaney comes into Houston's life. He is still married back home, but separated and dictates a letter requesting a formal divorce. Katherine will not become involved with Houston unless he promises not to become actively involved in the fight to free Texas.
Davy Crockett relays a message from U.S. president Andrew Jackson, who wants Houston to lead the revolution. There are not enough troops at the Alamo to hold off General Antonio López de Santa Anna and the large Mexican army. And when Houston appears to be in full retreat, some of his men begin to feel he must be replaced.
It turns out Houston was planning a surprise attack. His forces are told to "remember the Alamo" and they proceed to overwhelm Santa Anna and his men. Texas is declared a free republic and Sam Houston its first president, a movement that eventually will lead to statehood.

Corset company owner and independent-thinking suffragette Rose Gillray has her wagon struck by a 'horseless carriage' in 1897 New York. This early automobile is driven by Charlie Masters, who tells her it's the transportation means of the future.
At work, Rose is helping singer Molly Wade into a boldly designed new corset when she gets the idea that using it for Molly's costume on stage would help to promote sales, but instead the show is shut down by the police.
With her business failing, Rose owes money to Jim Carter, whose steel business manufactures the metal used for a corset's stays. Jim takes a shine to Rose and offers her a chance to sell his barbed wire, which is not selling well out west, where his salesmen get run out of town - or worse.
Ending up in Kansas City, accompanied by Molly and followed by Charlie, a cattlemen's association convention seems a good place to try to sell the barbed wire. But cattle rancher Joel Kingdon gives her the runaround, attracted to her personally but warning her against peddling wire. She tries his home state of Texas next, but once again, Joel interferes, putting the women out of business temporarily.
Joel and Jim both end up in love with Rose and proposing marriage, but she rejects both. Charlie, though, comes along offering a ride to California, where he's got another new notion that he wants to explore: machines that fly.

Tanner is a desperate prisoner who escapes from jail and promptly murders an innocent farmer named Matthew Random. Stealing Random's horse and gun, the outlaw promptly makes his escape. Finding his twin brother murdered, Lucius Random (Agar) vows revenge and sets off to find the killer.
Although he does not know the identity of the killer, Random knows that he is part of the nefarious "Checker Gang" and can be identified by the gun he stole from Matthew, which is one of a unique set of two that the brothers Matthew and Lucius owned between them.

Three outlaws rob a bank, but one of them is wounded. His two partners kidnap his girlfriend, take his share of the money and run off, leaving him to be captured by the sheriff. Years later, after he gets out of prison, he goes in search of his double-crossing partners and his girlfriend. He finds them in a semi-deserted, run-down town, but instead of killing them right away, he decides to play cat-and-mouse with them first.

Johnny Hawks is a man who made his name fighting Indians. Returning to the West after the Civil War he must now keep wronged Sioux warriors from massacring the Oregon-bound wagon train he is leading and the nearby fort. Tensions between the two races are building with Indians trading gold to the whites for whiskey.

The story involves a middle-aged cowboy adventurer (Clark Gable) who learns that a stolen fortune remains buried on a ranch that serves as home to four gorgeous young widows and their battle-axe mother-in-law; the drifter turns on the charm.

Sandy McKenzie (Stewart Granger) sets out on his last hunt with his new partner, the obsessive Charles Gilson (Robert Taylor). While McKenzie has grown tired of buffalo hunting, Gilson derives a pleasure from his "stands" – killing an entire herd of buffalo at one time. When Gilson chases down and kills an Indian raiding party, he takes an Indian woman and her child captive. The presence of the native woman causes tension and Gilson becomes increasingly paranoid and deranged, leading to a stand-off between the two former partners.
In the final scene, Granger and the woman emerge from shelter to find that Gilson, though wearing a buffalo hide as protection from the cold, has frozen to death during the night, while waiting to ambush them.


A stranger, calling himself Jeff Young, imposes on rancher Lucy Lee for a meal and a night's rest, then saves her from being robbed. Jeff helps deliver her cattle to town, where he encounters Kit Banion running her saloon, the Maverick Queen.
Kit is secretly in cahoots with the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang, led by Butch Cassidy and Sundance, and a jealous Sundance is angered when Jeff beats him at poker and attracts romantic interest from Kit, who offers Jeff a job as a faro dealer. He reveals he is actually Jeff Younger, a relative of the Younger Gang outlaws, and wants to help Kit and her associates with their illegal holdups.
Lucy is held captive by Sundance after a train robbery, and Jeff ends up killing him to save her. Holding off the other outlaws while their cabin is on fire, Jeff is helped by Kit, who is shot and dies in his arms. The posse arrives, whereupon Jeff confesses that he is actually a Pinkerton detective, working undercover to catch the thieves.

Masked raiders led by Sam Hollis attack the "K" Ranch, where owner Wade Kingsley and partner Slim Mosley bravely defend their property after Matilda Kingsley and infant son Wade Jr. safely return east to New York, her hometown. Wade and Slim (played by Martin and Lewis) are murdered, but vow before they die that their sons someday will avenge them.
Many years later, the wealthy Matilda receives a visit from her niece Carol and cowboy Slim Mosley, Jr. (Dean Martin again), who has come to New York City to compete in a rodeo. They intend to use Slim's earnings to buy a prized bull called Cuddles and take him back west to replenish the K Ranch's stock.
Sweet but inept Wade, Jr. (Jerry Lewis again) has always wanted to be a cowboy. He goes to the rodeo, where his bungling interference costs Slim first prize. To make amends, Wade buys the bull for Slim and accompanies them back west by train.
After a while, Slim warms up to Wade and agrees to become partners, like their dads. Out west, to keep townsfolk from mocking the tenderfoot, Slim decides to introduce Wade to one and all as "Killer Jones," a tough hombre. Due to his heroic actions in stopping a runaway stagecoach, with Slim performing the actual heroics, Wade ends up being elected sheriff, impressing dance hall girl Dolly Riley.
Ranch hand Pete Rio is secretly working with banker Dan Hollis, who is every bit as corrupt as his father was. Dan's got his eyes on the K Ranch so he can sell the land to the government, which wants to build a dam. Dan tries proposing marriage to Carol, but she rejects him, so he announces that the bank will begin foreclosure proceedings against the ranch.
In disguise, Wade infiltrates the gang of masked raiders. He is caught and bound to a chair, strapped to sticks of dynamite, and when Slim comes to his rescue, Dan Hollis knocks him cold. All seems lost until the boys manage a last-second escape. Dan is dealt with accordingly, after which the pardners and their romantic partners celebrate their success.

Oregon Country 1868: Indians of many tribes trust Sgt. Emmett Bell, who rides into Dr. Joseph Holden's mission with his Indian scouts. However, troop and weapon movements by new U.S. Cavalry commanding officer Col. Steadlow has endangered the peace and angered the chiefs, in particular one called Kamiakin. An outraged Bell tries to appeal to Steadlow as well as Capt. Tom Gaxton, whose wife Calla was once in love with him. Calla and another woman are taken captive but are rescued by Bell, rekindling his and Calla's romance.
The Indians ambush a large cavalry patrol and, after a fierce fight, the soldiers break through the Indians and manage to escape to Holden's mission, using it as a fortification against an expected attack. Appeals for a truce go in vain. However, a particularly bloodthirsty act by Kamiakin results in his being killed by one of his own, whereupon Bell and the chiefs agree to do whatever is necessary to restore the peace.


In 1842, before law and order has come to Oregon, a wealthy man named Montgomery makes the rules, including one that any unmarried woman must go with whichever man puts in a claim for her. After his wife Hannah is attacked by an unseen man, Montgomery uses the opportunity to blame his rival, Dan Kirby, and lynch him.
Dan was married to an Indian woman, Paca, who attempts to return to her people. Before she can, tribesman Five Crows is murdered and Paca is claimed by a white man named Sile Doty, who forces her to return to town. There she meets a stranger, Tex, who turns out to be her late husband's brother.
Hannah ultimately realizes that Tarp Penny was the one who attacked her that night. Tarp kills her father and wounds Hannah in the shoulder. He ends up in a shootout with Tex that turns into a violent fistfight after both run out of ammunition. Tex prevails when Tarp is accidentally impaled, after which Hannah wishes to join Tex when he rides out of town.

Ben Matthews gives up the flashy life of a riverboat gambler, hoping to settle down in Galena with his girlfriend, luscious entertainer Zoe. But, Galena's leading citizen is murdered on the riverboat while on their way. Ben is implicated on arrival and flees, all the while working both sides of the law to clear his name. Three years of wandering later, Zoe's letters stop coming and Ben returns to find her. Encountering Rick Harper, whom he initially takes as a would be bandit, they develop a friendship that winds up with both men saving the other's neck.

Home from the Civil War, where he fought for the Union army, John Willoughby now lives in the western town of Kittreck Wells with wife Nora and their 7-year-old son, Petey. An appeal for help from Marshal Russell comes when a band of former Confederate soldiers are seen pulling a robbery in a neighboring town. John, who hates all rebels, agrees to go, against his wife's wishes that all his fighting must end.
The rebel clan of Bedloe Mason and three of his four sons comes to town for supplies. Petey, who shares his father's dislike of rebels, aims and fires a cap pistol at them. Startled by the sound, Wesley Mason shoots and kills the boy.
Gray Mason, not having been present, hears what happened in town and appeals to his father and brothers that they go back to face the consequences. Wesley is dead-set against this and the others take his side. Gray rides off alone, but Wesley ambushes his brother by throwing a knife into his back, as the horse gallops off with Gray in the saddle.
Wesley lies to his father that Gray will meet them in the next town. Gray's horse wanders into town, where John and Nora remove the wounded man from the saddle and take him into their home. John is still determined to learn who killed the child, and an eyewitness accuses Gray of being one of the gang. Nora has to stop her husband from attacking Gray with an axe.
The marshal places Gray under arrest until a trial can be convened. A lynch mob threatens to drag him out of the jail. Bedloe, meanwhile, realizes Wesley has been lying. He ties his son to a tree and whips him until Wesley confesses what really happened. Just as the vigilantes are about to hang Gray, the Masons ride into town. Wesley pulls a gun but John, finally aware who really killed the boy, shoots Wesley dead, saving Gray's life.

Alec Longmire (Rory Calhoun), a gunfighter, decides to change his ways after nearly losing his life. He reforms, becoming a deputy to an honest sheriff, Jade Murphy (Dean Jagger), and falling in love with the sheriff's daughter Caroline (Martha Hyer).

In 1868, Ethan Edwards returns after an eight-year absence to the home of his brother Aaron in the wilderness of West Texas. Ethan fought in the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy, and in the three years since that war ended he apparently fought in the Mexican revolutionary war as well. He has a large quantity of gold coins of uncertain origin in his possession, and a medal from the Mexican campaign that he gives to his eight-year-old niece, Debbie. As a former Confederate soldier, he is asked to take an oath of allegiance to the Texas Rangers; he refuses. As Rev. Captain Samuel Clayton remarks, Ethan "fits a lot of descriptions".
Shortly after Ethan's arrival, cattle belonging to his neighbor Lars Jorgensen are stolen, and when Captain Clayton leads Ethan and a group of Rangers to recover them, they discover that the theft was a Comanche ploy to draw the men away from their families. When they return they find the Edwards homestead in flames. Aaron, his wife Martha, and their son Ben are dead, and Debbie and her older sister Lucy have been abducted.
After a brief funeral the men set out in pursuit. They come upon a burial ground of Comanches who were killed during the raid. Ethan mutilates one of the bodies. When they find the Comanche camp, Ethan recommends a frontal attack, but Clayton insists on a stealth approach to avoid killing the hostages. The camp is deserted, and further along the trail the men ride into an ambush. Though they fend off the attack, the Rangers are left with too few men to fight the Indians effectively. They return home, leaving Ethan to continue his search for the girls with only Lucy's fiancé, Brad Jorgensen (Harry Carey, Jr.) and Debbie's adopted brother, Martin Pawley. Ethan finds Lucy brutally murdered and presumably raped in a canyon near the Comanche camp. In a blind rage, Brad rides directly into the Indian camp and is killed.

Ben Stride (Randolph Scott) walks into a desert cave encampment during a nighttime rainstorm. He encounters two men taking shelter next to a fire and asks to join them. Stride tells the men he's from the town of Silver Springs, which provokes a mysterious reaction from the two men. They discuss a robbery and murder that recently occurred there. The men become suspicious of Stride, and when they realize his intentions, he guns them down.
The following day Stride tracks someone through the Arizona wilderness and comes upon a wagon stuck in the mud. Stride uses the two horses he confiscated from the men at the encampment to help pull the wagon clear, and the wagon's owners, John and Annie Greer, are grateful. Travelers from Kansas City, they admit they are inexperienced at frontier life and ask Stride to ride with them as they head south to the border town of Flora Vista on their way west to California. Greer says he hopes to find a sales job there, but has been taking odd jobs along the way. The mention of Flora Vista arouses Stride's curiosity and he agrees to take them to the border. As the trio travels, Annie shows a growing attraction to Stride. At one point they are stopped by a US Army detail, whose commanding officer (Stuart Whitman) tells them to go back, as Chiricahua Apache have been spotted in the area and he cannot guarantee their safety.
Stride and the Greers travel on, finding a stagecoach relay station and encountering Bill Masters (Lee Marvin) and Clete (Don Barry), two former nemeses of Stride's. As they all spend the night at the station, Masters tells the Greers that Stride was once the sheriff of Silver Springs, and his wife was killed during the robbery of the Wells Fargo freight office. Stride has been tracking and killing the seven men who performed the robbery, and Masters intends to abscond with the $20,000 dollars in gold they stole once Stride has accomplished his task. Annie feels sympathy for Stride, who confesses that he feels guilty about his wife's death because at the time he was no longer sheriff and didn't have another job, so she took one at the freight office and was working the night of the incident. Before the wagon heads out of the station, with Masters and Clete tagging along opportunistically, they are met by Chiricahua warriors. The Apache leave when Stride gives up one of the horses to the hungry tribesmen.
The group encounters one of the Wells Fargo robbers, who is being chased by Indians. Unaware of the man's part in the robbery, Stride saves him from the Apache. The man, however, recognizes Stride and nearly kills him, but Stride is saved when Masters shoots the man in the back.
One night, Masters "reminisces" about a woman stolen away from her husband by a tall stranger, clearly suggesting that Stride is doing just that with Annie Greer. Furious at Masters's impropriety, Stride sends Masters and Clete away into the night.
Masters and Clete reach Flora Vista ahead of the wagon, and there meet with the Wells Fargo bandits waiting for delivery of their gold. Masters tells their leader, Payte Bodeen (John Larch), that Stride is heading in their direction to kill all of them and avenge his wife's death. Bodeen dispatches two of the bandits to meet Stride before he can reach Flora Vista. Meanwhile, Stride leaves Greer and Annie, telling them to continue on without him. Stride rides ahead into a canyon alone and is ambushed by the two bank robbers but kills them both. Wounded in the leg, Stride is knocked unconscious while trying to ride away with one of the bandits' horses.
Bodeen tells Masters that Greer is the man he paid to deliver the gold from the robbery to Flora Vista, and Masters berates himself for letting this escape him. Meantime, Greer and Annie come upon the unconscious Stride and nurse his wounds. Greer admits to his wife and Stride that he was paid $500 to deliver the Wells Fargo box containing the gold hidden in the wagon. Stride takes the gold away from Greer to draw the rest of the bandits out from town, and Greer and Annie head into Flora Vista to notify the local sheriff.
Greer arrives in town without the gold, telling Bodeen that Stride has it, and as he walks down the street toward the sheriff's office, Bodeen guns him down. The last two bandits, Bodeen and Clint, ride out to confront Stride, but are killed by Masters and Clete instead. Masters then kills Clete and walks out into the clearing where Stride has placed the box of gold. They face off, and Stride kills Masters before he can pull his guns.
Stride returns the gold to Wells Fargo and tells Annie that he is going to take a job as a deputy sheriff in Silver Springs. He puts her on a stagecoach bound for California, then rides away. Annie, however, tells the stage driver she isn't going.

Cal Wayne accidentally kills a fellow Confederate soldier during the Civil War. He returns to his hometown of Abilene, Kansas after the war and ends up replacing the corrupt Joe Slade as the town's sheriff.
A feud is ongoing between local cattlemen and farmers. Cattle baron Grant Evers takes it upon himself to exact harsh justice against rustlers, with or without proof. A grudge exists Evers and the new sheriff because Cal's fiancee, Amy Martin, believing he was dead, is now engaged to marry Evers.
Evers learns that it was his own brother who was shot by Cal during the war. But he is killed by Slade in a quarrel, whereupon Slade is shot dead by Cal.

Gunlock's town sheriff (Agar) is planning to hang Sam Hall (Boone) for shooting three farmers found on cattle land at sundown. At the casino, betting odds are 8 to 3 he won't make it. The cattlemen are set to rescue Sam; the farmers hope to lynch him before he can be rescued. Hall schemes for escape with his girl Nellie (Coleen Gray). Sheriff Jorden is most concerned with finding out who hired Hall; a leading suspect is the sheriff's future brother-in-law.

A rich city woman and murder witness on the run from her psychotic husband takes refuge in the barn of a Texas dirt farmer. The farmer is also on the run from the law and has been for years and finally must confront the police when they come for the woman.

After killing a man whom many thought was his friend, Wes Tancred is assaulted and immortalized in an uncomplimentary song about one man shooting his best friend in the back; when in fact Wes' friend was reaching for his gun to shoot Wes in the back as he started out the door. Wes leaves town and winds up working as a hostler at a Stagecoach Outpost. He adopts an alias and befriends the father and son who run the outpost. Three outlaws arrive with plans to rob the stagecoach when it arrives. The father is killed in a showdown with the three outlaws. Wes kills them and takes the boy to live with his aunt and uncle, who is the Sheriff in Table Rock. A reckless band of herders that are running a cattle drive come to town with revelry and kill a sodbuster. In court there is testimony presented that the murder was self-defense because the ramrodder had placed a weapon in the victim's hand. Both the Sheriff and Wes are aware of this; however, the Sheriff who was traumatized from a previous beating, states in his report, that it was self-defense. He revises his report when Wes steps forward with testimony to the contrary, challenging him to overcome his fear. Wes shoots down a hired gun that comes to town to kill the Sheriff and the Sheriff, in turn, shoots the man who hires the gunman when he attempts to shoot Wes in the back.


Rustlers rob horses belonging to wealthy Wyoming rancher Jeremy Rodock and shoot him. He is found by young cowboy Steve Miller, who digs out the bullet, saves Rodock's life and is offered a job at the ranch.
Rodock believes in lynching rustlers personally without arrest or trial. His wrangler McNulty describes it as "a hanging sickness" to Rodock's woman, Jocasta Constantine, a former dance-hall girl ashamed of her past.
McNulty makes a pass at Jo. A jealous and suspicious Rodock sees them leave a barn together and jumps to the wrong conclusion. He fires McNulty, then beats him viciously before ordering him off the ranch.
Rodock sets out to find the men who stole his stock and murdered Whitey, a ranch hand. He rides to former partner Peterson's spread and demands to know if Peterson and son Lars were involved. They deny it, but Rodock soon comes to believe that Peterson and partners Hearn and Barjak are the thieves. He kills Peterson and hangs Hearn.
Lars vows to avenge his father. He joins up with McNulty and Barjak and plan to steal every horse Rodock owns. Steve is sickened by watching a man hang and Jo urges him to speak with Rodock about his vigilante ways. Steve has fallen in love with her and begs her to leave with him, but she will not.
Valuable horses are stolen and McNulty files down the hoofs into bloody stumps. Rodock catches up to the three thieves, makes them dismount and remove their boots. At gunpoint, he forces them to walk to jail through sand, rock and cactus. Barjak ultimately passes out and McNulty begs for mercy.
Rodock comes to his senses. He lets the other rustlers go and returns Lars to the Peterson ranch, where he offers to make restitution. Upon returning home, he finds that Steve is leaving forever and taking Jo with him. Rodock can't blame either, but when he rides out to bring her some jewelry she left behind, Jo has a change of heart and stays with Rodock after all.

A small group of families join together to travel to Oregon in 1846. Their leader is ostensibly James Stephen (George Reeves, TV's Superman), who has made the trip before, and is now bringing his family along. John Grayson (Fess Parker, TV's Daniel Boone), known as Doc for his ambition to study medicine, however, proves to be the real leader of the wagon train.
The pioneers deal with the elements and occasional raids, but after hostile Pawnees drive off their spare horses, they realize they may not make it to the Oregon Territory. While stopping at Fort Laramie, the pioneer children make friends with Sioux children. After the Sioux chief's son is injured in an accident, Doc Grayson helps heal him, earning the trust of the Sioux. As the story ends, the Sioux warriors escort the wagon train safely through Pawnee territory.

Back home in Texas following the Civil War, former Confederate officer Chad Morgan (Alan Ladd) leads a cattle drive to Missouri, assuring fellow ranchers that their stock will bring $20 a head at auction. Instead, ruthless cattle baron Brog (Anthony Caruso) has scared off all competition and offers much less.
Blamed for what happened, Morgan chooses not to return to Texas. He spends a night in a livery stable and meets town drunk Joe Jagger (Edmond O'Brien), who is nearly lynched for trying to steal whiskey. Chad helps keep Joe sober after they leave town.
They meet farmers who need a better way to sell their wheat, so Chad and Joe ride to Kansas City to meet Tom Draper (Don Castle), a railroad man who is engaged to Joe's sister Helen (Virginia Mayo), a singer in the saloon. Tom likes the idea of a railroad spur to aid the farmers.
Helen is pleased at the change in her brother and thanks Chad, which brings out some jealousy in her fiance. Brog and his henchman disrupt the town's construction attempts while Chad is out of town. Joe tries to stand up to him, resisting the strong temptation to drink, but when he does, Brog guns him down.
Her brother's death causes Helen to turn on Chad upon his return. Brog stampedes cattle through the town. He and his henchman then attempt to ambush Chad, who kills them both in self-defense. Helen embraces him and Tom realizes he has lost her for good.


Wagons converge in the middle of nowhere. One is carrying Army captain Matt Riordan, the only survivor of an ambush by Chief Yellow Claw and his Apache braves. Another is a prison wagon carrying accused killer Link Ferris and a second man, known as Tioga, to town for trial, escorted by Marshal Bill Haney.
A stagecoach turns up next, owned by Jonah McAdam and carrying Matt's former sweetheart, Ann Bradley, with her new beau, wealthy Philip Scott, as well as Mara Fay, an entertainer. The passengers are warned that Yellow Claw is in the area. Link and Tioga have their shackles removed so they can assist the others when the Apaches attack.
Matt discovers that McAdam is smuggling weapons to the Indians illegally. At a relay station, a young girl is the only one left after the Apaches have burned it to the ground. Ann looks after her while Tioga sacrifices his life to save the child. Matt falls in love with Mara and joins forces with Link to defeat the raiders. For his help, Link is granted his freedom by Haney. As he rides away, Link is followed by Ann.

Union officers Major Drango and Captain Banning ride into a Georgia town ravaged by the Civil War and still bitter about the lives and property lost. Drango is the new military governor, but townspeople including Judge Allen and his son Clay make it clear that these Yankees are not welcome.
A local man seen as disloyal to the Confederacy is lynched. The man's daughter, Kate Calder, blames Drango for letting it happen.
Drango attempts to bring the men responsible to justice, but wealthy Shelby Ransom harbors the fugitives, including Clay, her lover. Union colonel Bracken finds fault with Drango for not being tough enough, so he confiscates the town's food supply and rations it. Clay's men stage a raid.
A doctor and newspaper editor offer Drango their support in restoring order. The newspaper office is set ablaze and the editor's young son is accidentally killed. Kate now sides with Drango, and an angered Shelby tries to order Clay from her home, but he slaps her and makes her lure Capt. Banning to an ambush.
Now even the judge is appalled by Clay's unlawful acts. He warns his son this must stop. Clay refuses to listen and shoots Drango, wounding him. He is about to kill Drango when a bullet from his father ends Clay's life, restoring law and order to the town.

After years of absence, Johnny Shattuck (Ben Cooper) returns home, only to find a gang after his father's ranch and his girlfriend (Anna Maria Alberghetti).

Tanner is a desperate prisoner who escapes from jail and promptly murders an innocent farmer named Matthew Random. Stealing Random's horse and gun, the outlaw promptly makes his escape. Finding his twin brother murdered, Lucius Random (Agar) vows revenge and sets off to find the killer.
Although he does not know the identity of the killer, Random knows that he is part of the nefarious "Checker Gang" and can be identified by the gun he stole from Matthew, which is one of a unique set of two that the brothers Matthew and Lucius owned between them.

In the 1880s, Griff Bonnell (Barry Sullivan) and his brothers Wes (Gene Barry) and Chico (Robert Dix) arrive in the town of Tombstone in Cochise County, Arizona. Griff is a reformed gunslinger, now working for the Attorney General's office, looking to arrest Howard Swain (Chuck Roberson) for mail robbery.
Swain is one of landowner Jessica Drummond's (Barbara Stanwyck) forty hired guns. She runs the territory with an iron fist, permitting the town to be terrorized and trashed by her brother, Brockie Drummond (John Ericson), and his boys. Brockie is an arrogant drunk and bully, but he goes too far by shooting vision-impaired town Marshal, Chisolm (Hank Worden), in the leg. Thereupon, Brockie and his drunken friends start trashing the town.
Griff intervenes and pistol-whips Brockie with a single blow while Wes covers him with a rifle from the gunsmith shop. Aware of how close Brockie is to his sister, Griff makes it a point not to crack Brockie's skull. Jessica delivered Brockie when their mother gave birth for the last time.
Wes falls in love with Louvenie Spanger (Eve Brent), the daughter of the town gunsmith, so he decides to settle down and become the town's marshal. Griff becomes romantically involved with Jessica after she is dragged by a horse during a tornado.
Two of Jessica's forty dragoons, Logan (Dean Jagger) and Savage (Chuck Hayward), attempt an ambush of Griff in an alley. He is saved by youngest brother Chico (Robert Dix), who was supposed to be leaving for California for a new life on a farm. Chico's shot kills Savage, after which Jessica's brother and hired guns try to turn the town against the Bonnell brothers.
On his wedding day, Wes is gunned down by Brockie, who is really aiming at Griff (who leans forward to kiss the bride, thereby unknowingly saving himself). Brockie is jailed for the murder. He tries to escape by using his sister as a shield, daring Griff to shoot, and is shocked when Griff does exactly that. Griff's expertly-placed bullet merely wounds Jessica, and the cowardly Brockie then becomes the first man Griff has had to kill in ten years. Brockie's last words are "Mr. Bonnell, I'm killed!"
Chico remains behind to take the marshal's job. Griff rides out, certain that Jessica hates him for killing her brother, but she runs down the dirt street after his buckboard - repeatedly calling out "Griff! Mr. Bonnell!" - and they appear to ride off together for California.

Will Keough is a rancher with two younger brothers, who are called Bless and Hade. They live with their widowed mother, Hannah, whose husband was bitten by a rattlesnake when Bless was a young boy. Ever since that day, Hannah has been determined to shield Bless from the hard life of the West and turn him instead into a refined, gentler soul. In so doing, she sometimes embarrasses Bless in front of the ranch's other men.
Hannah wants to move to the big, sophisticated city of St. Louis and take her middle son with her. Bless refuses at the last minute, then feels guilty when the months go by and his unhappy mother becomes ill and passes away.
Will, meanwhile, builds the ranch into one of the territory's largest. His primary concerns are rustlers and neighbor Audrey, whom he loves and intends to marry, although he has been slow to commit. What he doesn't know is that Audrey has fallen in love with Bless.
Before and during a cattle drive to Abilene, more than once Bless is accused of being cowardly. He fails to adequately back up Hade in a bar fight. A fake rattlesnake is placed on Bless while asleep on the trail, terrifying him.
Bless then alienates Will by confessing that he and Audrey wish to marry. Rustlers stampede the cattle, and Hade is shot to death by a rustler. Will blames Bless, and they fight to a draw after the funeral. Will then allows Bless to lead the posse riding out to confront the rustlers, whereupon Will rides out of town right after he tells Audrey that he approves of their future together.

In Fort Griffin, Texas, Ed Bailey (Lee Van Cleef) comes looking to avenge the death of his brother at the hands of gunslinger John H. "Doc" Holliday (Kirk Douglas). Seeing him in a bar, Holliday's girl, Kate Fisher (Jo Van Fleet), returns to Holliday's room, where the two argue—while Holliday throws knives at the wall—once she brings up Holliday's once-prominent family. At the same time, well-known marshal Wyatt Earp (Burt Lancaster) arrives in Fort Griffin thinking he will take outlaws Ike Clanton (Lyle Bettger) and Johnny Ringo (John Ireland) into custody, but instead finds out that the local sheriff, Cotton Wilson (Frank Faylen), released them despite the outstanding warrants for their arrest. Holliday refuses to help the lawman, holding a grudge against Wyatt's brother, Morgan. Holliday kills Bailey with a knife-throw when Bailey attempts to shoot him in the back. Holliday is arrested for murder, though Wyatt and Kate allow him to escape from a lynch mob.
In Dodge City, Kansas, Wyatt finds out that Holliday and Kate are in town. Holliday tells him he has no money, so Wyatt allows him to stay if he promises to not fight while he is in town. Meanwhile, gorgeous gambler Laura Denbow (Rhonda Fleming) is arrested for playing cards since women are not allowed to gamble. She is released and allowed to play in the side rooms of the saloon. Wyatt is forced to deputize Holliday because a bank robber kills a cashier and Wyatt's other deputies are out in a posse catching another outlaw. The bank robbers attempt to ambush Wyatt outside of town, but are instead killed by Wyatt and Holliday.
Back in Dodge City, Holliday learns Kate has left him for Ringo, who taunts Holliday to a shootout and throws liquor on him. Holliday steadfastly refuses to fight him. Shanghai Pierce (Ted de Corsia) and his henchmen ride into town, wound deputy Charlie Bassett (Earl Holliman) and attack a dancehall, but Wyatt and Holliday hold the men and defuse the situation. As Ringo attempts to intervene, Holliday shoots him in the arm. Holliday returns to his room and Kate is waiting for him, but he refuses to take her back. She swears she will see him dead. By now, Wyatt and Laura have fallen in love, but when he receives a letter from his brother, Virgil, asking him to come clean up Tombstone, Arizona, she refuses to go with him unless he changes. Holliday catches up to Wyatt on the trail and both head to Tombstone.
In Tombstone, Wyatt finds out that Ike Clanton is trying to herd thousands of head of Mexican cattle but cannot as long as the Earps control Tombstone's railway station. Morgan Earp (DeForest Kelley) criticizes his brother's association with Holliday, but Wyatt insists the gunslinger is welcome in Tombstone as long as he stays out of trouble. Cotton, the cowardly county sheriff from Fort Griffin, offers Wyatt a $20,000 bribe (about $496,000 today) if he allows the stolen cattle to be shipped, but Wyatt refuses. He rides out to the Clanton ranch, returning young Billy Clanton (Dennis Hopper) to his mother after finding Billy drunk. Wyatt informs Ike that he has been made a U.S. Marshal and has legal authority in every county in the United States. Finding no recourse, the Clantons decide to ambush Wyatt as he makes his nightly rounds, but kill his younger brother James Earp (Martin Milner) by mistake.
The next morning, Ike and five of his henchman go to Tombstone to face off against the Earps at the O.K. Corral. Holliday, who is sick from tuberculosis, joins them. Though Virgil and Morgan are wounded in the gunfight, all six in Clanton's gang are killed, including Billy, who is given a chance to surrender but refuses. After the fight is over, Wyatt joins Holliday for a final drink before heading off to California to meet Laura, as promised.

Tom Early rides into a Wyoming town where he once lived with his wife and son. In the general store, owner Wainscott is annoyed when he believes clerk Jo is flirtatious with Early.
At his old ranch, Early finds his wife's grave and his 17-year-old son, Tom Jr., embittered by his father's having abandoned them.
Jo takes a job as housekeeper at Early's ranch. She resists the advances of Tom Jr., whose resentment of his father grows. When they attend church, Wainscott turns the preacher's congregation against them, insinuating Jo is living there in sin.
Townspeople need help, though, when gunmen working for the villainous cattleman Grimsell ambush one of their own. A posse is formed, but by the time Early gets there, the preacher is dying and Tom Jr. is wounded.
Tom uses TNT to start a rockslide, stampeding Grimsell's cattle and killing some of his men. In a showdown, Early fights with Gunn, one of Grimsell's men, and just in the nick of time, Tom Jr. comes to his rescue. They return home to a relieved Jo.

A number of stagecoach holdups has taken place in Arizona Territory. One of them occurs when Mike Ryan, an undercover agent for the stage line, is on board -- posing as a paying customer. Another passenger on that trip is the sheriff's daughter, Molly Jones. During the robbery, one of the bandits lets his bandana slip, revealing his face. Because the gunman's identity is now known, he is killed by Velvet Clark, the gang's leader. Once in town, Clark assumes the role of a respectable member of the community. When the townspeople become fed up with the crime spree, they call for the resignation of the Sheriff, Tom Jones. He asks to be given one more chance and, once granted, deputizes Ryan. Jones finds evidence that implicates Clark. When confronted, Clark kills the sheriff and escapes. It is left for Ryan to track down Clark. The two have a showdown at Gunsight Ridge. During the ensuing gunfight, Clark is killed. Ryan returns to the Jones Ranch and expresses regret to Molly for being unable to prevent her father's murder. At the same time, he reveals that he has been offered the job of sheriff and asks her opinion. When she approves, he announces that he will accept the position, implying the two will marry and settle down.

In 1864, during the American Civil War, Texan Lt. Frank Hewitt (Audie Murphy) is serving with the U.S. Cavalry under Colonel John Chivington. On patrol, Hewitt meets a group of Indians who are unarmed and returning to the Sand Creek reservation which they were not supposed to leave. While being briefed by Hewitt, the colonel orders the attack known to history as the Sand Creek Massacre. Hewitt not only disagrees with the punishment of the Indians, but realizes they will use the attack as an excuse to unite and spread terror throughout the Southwest, including his own hometown in Texas which has been emptied of the majority of its men who are fighting for the Confederacy. Colonel Chivington sees Indian attacks on Texas as a bonus to create havoc in the Confederacy. Violently objecting, Hewitt is placed under arrest and confined to quarters.
Hewitt deserts to warn the Texans but is hated and ignored as a traitor by his now Confederate former neighbors, who despise him for serving with the Union. No one believes him until he brings home the dead body of a woman murdered by Comanches who have joined the uprising. Hewitt organizes a brigade of women training them in marksmanship and combat tactics. Armed and given military ranks, Hewitt and the women seize the day and hold on to the only safety they have in an abandoned mission (The Guns of Fort Petticoat). Hewitt, the "blue belly traitor", and the petticoat brigade face desertion from the only remaining man and fight off scavengers and Comanches as they struggle to build trust and work together during the ensuing attacks. As the final gun fight is over, Hewitt and his greatest female critic fall in star-crossed-love left over from childhood memories. But Hewitt cannot reciprocate because as an honorable soldier he must return to his post at Sand Creek and face charges for desertion. Col. Chivington's commanding general happened to enter the trial room in the final hour as Hewitt is being renounced as a deserter and a liar about a most fantastic story of helping to rescue the women in Texas and training them to fight off Comanches. As the guilty sentence and execution is about to be pronounced, the female confederates return the favor marching armed into the trial to stop the proceeding. The commanding general, in amorous good will, orders a surrender to the armed ladies who have saved the day and proved Hewitt's truthfulness. Hewitt's testimony snares Col. Chivington (who is relieved of command and ordered held for trial) and his hopes in his new-found Confederate love are restored.

Clay Halliday meets up with his estranged brother Daniel to tell him that their father, Big Dan, is dying and that Clay is engaged to Aleta Burris. Daniel is surprised to hear that their father would give his blessing to the engagement. When they return to the ranch, there are obvious sparks between Daniel and Aleta.
Before he enters his father's room, Daniel has a flashback remembering the time before they became estranged. His father is a lawman. He finds out that his daughter, Martha, is in love with Jivaro Burris (Aleta's brother), a half-breed who works on the Halliday ranch. Big Dan orders Jivaro off the ranch. When a rider is attacked and killed, Jivaro is also attacked as he happened to be riding in the vicinity. Big Dan arrests Jivaro and puts him in jail.
Big Dan leaves with a posse to hunt down the rest of the suspected attackers despite a plea from Daniel to, leaving his son Clay as the only deputy to guard Jivaro despite an angry mob outside the jail. Daniel and Clay try to help Jivaro escape but the mob enters and he is lynched.
Daniel leaves the ranch vowing never to return and goes to Aleta's home to say goodbye. Her father, Chad Burris, overhears Daniel and Aleta saying that they should not tell him about Big Dan's role in the lynching. Big Dan and Clay go to the Burris ranch. A face-off between Big Dan and Mr. Burris occurs with Big Dan killing Burris.
After the funeral for both Burris men, Daniel again leaves. Martha brings Aleta to the Halliday ranch to recover from an illness following the burials. Clay begins to fall in love with Aleta.
Several unusual events happen to the Halliday ranch, all caused by Daniel, including a stampede of Halliday's cattle. Big Dan forms a posse to hunt for Daniel, who he knows is behind the stampede. Big Dan finds a noose hanging inside his house, sets fire to a barn, and writes a threatening note about getting rid of Big Dan as a lawman. Daniel who is hiding in the shadows when the barn burns meets up with Aleta and they embrace for the first time. Aleta tells him that Daniel is becoming like his father.
The townsfolk ask Big Dan to hand in his badge, but he refuses. Daniel confronts his father and they brawl with Daniel coming out on top.
We learn that six months have passed. Daniel flashes forward and enters Big Dan's room where he tells him he is glad that things have changed-that he has given approval for Clay to marry Aleta (a half-breed). Big Dan tells him he lied to get him to come back and draws a gun on Daniel threatening to kill him. Martha comes in and takes away the gun. Daniel, Martha, Clay, and Aleta all leave the room in disgust. Big Dan crawls out of bed to get his gun and staggers out to shoot Daniel. Daniel stands up to him and challenges him to shoot him. Big Dan relents and does not shoot saying that Daniel is too much like him. He dies in Daniel's arms.

The events leading up to the killing of the outlaw Jesse James in 1882.

Bandits track down a man named Joe who has a map to a fortune of stolen money taken in a bank robbery.

Riley Wade hates his gunfighter father, Jacob, for deserting Riley's mother, who then committed suicide. Jacob rides to Red Bluff hoping to reconcile with his son, unaware that King Fisher holds a grudge and intends to shoot down Jacob, first chance.
Riley accompanies his father on the trail, setting their family ranch ablaze first, never letting him out of his sight. Jacob's sight, meantime, is fading; he is slowly going blind, a fact he hides from his son. Riley refuses to forgive his father until old friend Ben Ryerson explains to him that Jacob didn't desert his mother at all.
King comes to town with his men. Riley, aware for the first time of his father's failing vision, acts as his eyes in directing Jacob where to shoot. King's men die and he tries to sneak away, but he and Jacob end up in a showdown anyway and kill one another. Jacob dies in his son's arms.

Twelve-year-old Jeff Blaine lives in the small western town of Plainsville where he is being reared by his aunt, Ruth Sewall, who operates a tinsmith business. Jeff's mother died when he was four months old and his father Nate left shortly thereafter and became an outlaw. One day, Nate returns and tells Ruth that he has recently been involved in a gunfight. Realizing that his days may be numbered, he asks to see his son again. After Jeff rejects Nate as his father, Ruth, who does not welcome Nate's visit, returns the small amount of money he has sent for Jeff's support and asks him to leave the next morning. In town, when Nate meets old friend Marshal Elec Blessingham in the saloon, Elec chooses to ignore the fact that Nate is a wanted outlaw. The next day, unknown to Ruth, Nate ingratiates himself with Jeff by showing him how to shoot his Colt 44. Later, Ruth reluctantly agrees that Nate can stay a few more days. Soon, Jeff is calling Nate "Paw," but runs into trouble at school when another boy, Ben Jorgenson, says that Jeff's father is a murderer. Jeff tells Ben to get his father's gun and meet him later. Instead, Ben brings his father, who beats Jeff, who is wearing Nate's gun. Nate, Elec and Ruth arrive soon after and, after Nate slugs Jorgenson, Ruth blames Nate for involving Jeff with guns and swears she will kill him if he returns again. Later, when Ruth comes to town to obtain some medicine for Jeff, Nate tells her that he is leaving and intends to take Jeff with him. Soon after, two former associates of Nate, Bill Somerson and Ed Wyatt, rob the Plainsville bank and kill the manager. Ruth, the sole witness to the robbery, lies to Elec that Nate was the perpetrator in order to prevent him from taking Jeff. Nate is arrested and when Jeff visits him in jail, Nate, believing now that his son is better off without him, lets Jeff believe that he is guilty. Outwitting a deputy, Nate escapes from jail and rides away. Ten years pass and Jeff is still living with Ruth and is now working as a security agent for the stagecoach line, but is embittered by the town's ostracism of him. Jeff is courting two young women, the prim Amy Wentworth and the more adventurous Lila Costain, who runs a ranch she inherited from her father. When Jeff assists Elec and a posse in foiling a stagecoach robbery, they shoot three of the robbers, including Ed Wyatt. As he dies, Wyatt recognizes Jeff as Nate's son and tells him and Elec that he and Somerson committed the bank robbery, not Nate. After Jeff confronts Ruth, she admits that she lied to prevent Nate from taking him away because she wanted Jeff to grow up to be happy and decent. Jeff then leaves Ruth's house and decides to find Nate. Although Lila tries to dissuade Jeff and asks him to stay with her, he is obsessed with joining his father, who has continued his criminal career, in exacting revenge against the townspeople. Somerson contacts Jeff with a proposal that they and two others set up a payroll robbery based upon Jeff's knowledge of the stage line's operations. Later, Nate visits Ruth and reveals that he never told Jeff that she had lied because he wanted the boy to stay with her. While Nate is at the house, Jeff enters with Lila and Nate informs him that he has heard about the intended robbery and forbids him to participate. In the ensuing fistfight, Jeff beats up Nate and rides off. Nate then begs Elec to help him prevent the robbery. When Nate and Elec thwart the holdup, Somerson and another gunman take Jeff hostage, blaming him for Nate and Elec's intervention, and flee on the stage. Nate rides after them and, as Jeff and Somerson struggle inside the coach for possession of a gun, Nate shoots the outlaw driver. Nate then jumps on board, taking over the reins of the runaway stage, but is attacked by Somerson who has knocked out Jeff. Somerson overpowers Nate and brings the stage to a halt, intending to shoot Elec and the others who are following. Nate prevents Somerson from shooting by hurling a knife into his body, but is in turn mortally wounded by the outlaw. Later, as Nate dies in Ruth's house, Jeff tells him that he intends to change his ways and Ruth agrees to help Jeff once more. Lila then comforts Jeff for the loss of his father.

Heller's (John Larch) gang of outlaws pull a robbery, kill a man and ride toward Mexico, fleeing a posse. To spend the night, they first head for the border town of Quantez, but are shocked to discover that it has become a ghost town, with no one else there.
Gentry (Fred MacMurray), the gang's most experienced man, finds liquor in the saloon, while Teach (John Gavin), a younger gunslinger, becomes interested in Chaney (Dorothy Malone), who is Heller's woman but upset over the murder during the holdup. Gato, who was raised by Apaches, is infuriated by Heller's referring to him as "breed" and making him proceed on foot after a horse collapses from exhaustion.
Gato (Sydney Chaplin) discovers a warning from Apaches to anyone who comes to town. He seeks out Delgadito (Michael Ansara), the tribe's leader, and proposes they kill the whites and divide the loot. Heller, meantime, is trying to get his partners to do the same, kill the others so there's more money to split among who's left. Gentry and Teach both have feelings for Chaney, who wants to leave town as soon as possible.
A wandering minstrel comes to town, calling himself Puritan (James Barton), and while he paints Heller's portrait, he sings a song about John Coventry, a legendary outlaw in these parts. Puritan is suddenly astonished when he spots Gentry and realizes that he is Coventry. The veteran gunman is trying to put his violent life behind him for good.
In a final gunfight, Gato is killed by Delgalito after a betrayal. Heller is killed by Gentry, and with arrows raining down, Gentry sacrifices himself, providing cover while Chaney and Teach make their getaway.

Doug Sadler (Lee Van Cleef), a cattle rustler comes to town. He’s in a secret partnership with saloon owner John Reilly (Tom Brown). They plan to run the stolen cattle into Hell’s Canyon, located on land belonging to Ralph Carpenter (Jim Davis). Carpenter and his wife Teresa (Kathleen Crowley) are separated, so Reilly has sent Native American beauty Irene (Mara Corday) to seduce Carpenter. Then Reilly put a flea in the ear of Steven Hardy (Lewis Martin), the town’s Eastern born city attorney about “immorality”. When Hardy tries to serve a warrant for his arrest, in the resulting confrontation Hardy is killed. Sheriff Brandon (Forrest Tucker), who was in love with. Teresa before her marriage and was friends with Ralph Carpenter, sets out to arrest Carpenter. However, a lynch mob knocks out the sheriff and hangs Carpenter. Brandon arrests the mob and tricks the city council into stopping another mob that demands the release of the arrested men. Meanwhile, Irene returns to the Carpenter house where she is discovered by Reilly and Sadler, who assault her. At the trial the members of the lynch mob are sentenced to three years in jail. Then Mrs. Carpenter arrives with the news that Reilly and Sadler have killed Irene. In a gunfight Sadler and Reilly are killed. Sheriff Brandon is only wounded and reunited with Teresa.

The film begins with the surrender of Capt. Miguel Sebastian (Dobkin) to Capt. McKane (Davis) from the U.S. Army at the end of Mexican-American War. Three years later, McKane was taking lands from their owners by intimidation and treachery.
Words reach Judge Ward Young (Heydt) and his son Marshal Faron Young (Young). After a talk with Pardee (Van Cleef), they investigate with Diego (Colmans), a farmer and an old veteran with Sebastian, and then they investigate with McKane, and learned about a witness in the deal named Johnson (Lauter). Pardee tries to threaten Johnson to keep him from saying anything. Johnson tells Judge Young about the deal and agrees to testify in court.
McKane's men ambush the lawmen and Johnson receives a dangerous wound, but tells them to look for Sebastian, who is still alive. They were overheard by Pardee, who went to interrogate with Diego and kill him.
McKane's men follow Marshal Young and watch him survive an attack from the Comanches. They try to kill him but he manages to shoot them first. He mortally wounds Boyle and takes him to the town priest. Dying Boyle identifies the priest as Miguel Sebastian himself. Pardee arrives in town and inquires about Sebastian from a drunk named Pepe (Diamond). He tries to kill Sebastian but he was gunned down by Young.
Upon this new finding McKane was ordered to be in court. He sends his men to kill Sebastian, but he dodges them through underground passage. McKane plans a cattle stampede through town. In the trial, Sebastian testified that he was forced to give his land to McKane under death threat, and that Johnson refused to sign as a witness because it was extortion and collaboration with the enemy, but he was forced to sign. Sebastian was permitted to leave for Mexico, but Pardee tracks him and pushes him off a cliff and left him for dead. Judge Young ruled that the grant was illegal because McKane bargained with the enemy at war time, and that McKane will be sent to be court-martialed.
The court abrupts by the coming of the stampede, and McKane is caught in the stampede and was killed, along with the sheriff. Father Sebastian agrees to give the his lands to the farmers.

1865: Lawyer Mitch Baker is called into an office of the United States Secret Service to be told that his father was murdered in the border town of Mission, Texas. He was betrayed to Newton by an informer whilst on a mission investigating a group of gunrunners called "Newton's Raiders" supplying the forces of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico with weapons arousing the ire of the United States who wants a Republican Mexico.
Though offered his father's badge and pistol Mitch only wants the pistol that he takes with him on his revenge mission to Mission. Mitch adopts the guise of a gunslinger establishing his credentials by gunning down a few of Newton's men. With sheriffs being murdered soon after taking office the only force for good is Mr Simmons who admits to impersonating a Reverend of the Gospel. Simmons also has a children's shelter of half breed children that neither their Indian or American fathers and mothers want. The oldest is Angelita who aspires to be a dancer in the local saloon.
Angelita is fascinated, then falls in love with Mitch. As no one in town know who Mitch is or why he came the other children imagine him an Archangel, especially as Mitch turns the table on several assassination attempts as he waits for Newton to arrive to exact his revenge. Arriving before Newton is Marshal Evans who knew Mitch's father and tells Mitch his father would be ashamed of what he was doing. He also threatens to imprison Mitch and charge him with murder if he kills one more of Newton's men. Angelita and Simons are glad to know Mitch's mission and urge him to let Marshal Evans arrest Newton, but Newton rides in with a gang of riders.

In 1861 the undermanned garrsion of Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory are attempting to keep the peace with the Sioux Nation led by Chief Red Cloud. The United States Government pays Red Cloud in gold to keep the peace and support his people, but Red Cloud has the idea to steal the gold and use the non payment as an excuse to go to war.
Meanwhile, as the United States face events that lead to the American Civil War, the garrison of the fort is split down the middle in their sympathies, half the men led by Sgt Darrach support the Confederate States of America whilst the other half led by Sgt Serrell support the Federal Union. When the garrison hears about the Battle of Fort Sumter, the Confederate faction not only wants to leave the army, but capture the fort and take the gold shipment due to be paid to Chief Red Cloud to Texas.
One of the Southerners warns Captain Tenslip and Lt Waller on the other Southerner's schemes, but he is murdered for betraying the cause with his screams covered by the men singing Dixie. Tenslip is worried that his commander, Major Bradner is a Virginian and may side with the South. Meanwhile, Red Cloud sees the opportunity to split and wipe out the garrison as well as keeping the gold.

Chief Yellow Wolf and son Little Wolf walk to town (the plight of Yellow Wolf's tribe is so dire they walked to town to save their horses) to meet with army Captain George (Bridges) to seek provisions for the upcoming winter. He wants the Indians relocated off of their own land. He pretends to be interested in Yellow Wolf's offer of living together in peace, then his man Garvin murders him in the street. George protests he had only instructed his man to "rough up" Chief Yellow Wolf.
Marshal Tate (Calhoun) sides with the tribe and also is in love with Yellow Wolf's daughter, Pretty Willow. His attitude disgusts George, who demands the marshal turn in his badge. Tate does so willingly and tells son Billy it is time they move to another town. Amy Porter (Grahame), a widow who runs the boardinghouse and loves Tate, tells him she cannot abide his feelings for an Indian woman instead.
After ignoring Tate's warnings that there will be reprisals, George panics when they attack. At first be pleads with Tate for help in killing Little Wolf, then conspires with lies to turn Little Wolf and the Indian natives against Tate, claiming he has selfish motives. Pretty Willow turns against Tate after being convinced he plans to kill her brother.
Angry with his father and trying to sneak away, the boy Billy is killed. Tate and Little Wolf end up in a knife fight, while Amy, now regretting her prejudice, takes in Pretty Willow at her home. Capt. George believes he has the situation under control, until Tate turns up alive and well and takes matters into his own hands.

A stranger in town, Jeff Donner, intervenes when dancehall girl Susan Crowley is accosted by two men. He then discovers a man's mortally wounded body, listens to his last words, then is arrested for murder by Thorne, the new marshal.
Susan helps him get away and confides to Donner that she is actually a Union Army undercover operative. She says the dead man was to deliver a coded message to her, but was killed while she was being roughed up by the two cowboys. Donner repeats what the man said, which Susan is to pass along to a Cavalry officer. A man named Norman murders the officer and pretends to be him, then takes Susan captive.
Donner, discovering that the man's coded message involves a Confederate plot to rustle cattle and seize advantageous land, confronts Thorne, who's in league with the rebels. He is successful and rescues Susan as well.

Confederate veteran O'Meara (Steiger) refuses to accept defeat following the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox. He renounces his family and the United States, travels west and joins the Native American Sioux tribe, and takes a wife (Sara Montiel).
When the US Army builds a fort on Sioux lands and fighting breaks out between the Army and the Sioux, O'Meara must make a difficult decision.

Captain Buck Devlin (Randolph Scott), and cavalry troopers Sergeant John Maitland (James Garner) and Private Wilbur Clegg (Gordon Jones), recently mustered out of the army, head to Devlin's brother's homestead to settle down. They arrive just in time to drive off an Indian attack, but are too late to save his brother. Faulty ammunition cost him his life. The three men set out for Medicine Bend to find out who sold the ammunition. The community also gives them all their funds to buy badly needed supplies.
On the way however, they are robbed of everything – the money, their horses, even their uniforms. Fortunately, they happen upon a Brethren (in Christ) congregation (who have also been robbed), and are given spare clothing. Devlin decides it would be a good idea to pretend to be Brethren while in town. They quickly connect the robbers, and later the defective ammunition, to Ep Clark (James Craig). Clark controls the mayor and the sheriff, and has his gang waylay pioneers heading west and force other local traders out of business.
Devlin has Maitland and Clegg infiltrate Clark’s shady business by taking jobs at his store. Meanwhile, he goes to work for defiant competing merchant Elam King and his niece Priscilla (Angie Dickinson). After gaining their trust, Devlin learns that King has a secret wagon train of goods, including weapons, coming in from St. Louis. Devlin starts stealing back Clark's ill-gotten gains at night, including his mother's brooch from saloon girl Nell Garrison, Clark's reluctant girlfriend.
Clark, now suspicious of the three strangers in town, tries to lure Devlin into a trap, but barely fails. He does, however, have the sheriff arrest Maitland and Clegg. They are swiftly sentenced to hang, but Nell has taken a great liking to Maitland and persuades Sheriff Massey to do one right thing in his life and free the prisoners; unfortunately, he is shot in the back by one of Clark's men. Nell then gets Brother Abraham, leader of the local Brethren congregation, to help foil the hanging and rescue the two men.
Devlin finally comes for Clark. They brawl (ironic, given the film's title), and Devlin is briefly knocked unconscious; his life is saved when Clark tries to shoot him with bad ammunition. Clark then grabs a scythe, but is fatally impaled when Devlin knocks him down.
Devlin and Maitland prepare to ride into the sunset with Priscilla and Nell respectively. Clegg surprises them by deciding to stay and serve a "hitch" with the Brethren.

Passing a stagecoach way station on his journey into town, Pat Brennan (Randolph Scott) agrees to return with some store bought candy for the friendly station manager's young son. At a ranch where he once worked, Brennan tries to buy a bull, but is talked into riding one. If he wins, he gets the bull. If he loses he has to give up his horse. Brennan loses, and is forced to walk home, carrying his saddle.
He gets a welcome rescue by stagecoach driver Rintoon (Arthur Hunnicutt), hired to transport the newlyweds Willard (John Hubbard) and Doretta Mims (Maureen O'Sullivan). Doretta is a plain woman, but the daughter of the richest man in the state. It tickles Brennan, who tells Rintoon this is the first time he's ever been on a honeymoon.
When they stop at the way station, they are mistaken for the regular stage by three outlaws, Chink (Henry Silva), Billy Jack (Skip Homeier), and their leader, Frank Usher (Richard Boone), who have already killed the station manager and his son. Rintoon goes for a shotgun, only to be killed by Chink.
Terrified of sharing the same fate, Willard suggests to the outlaws that ransoming his wife would be far more profitable than robbing the stage. Frank likes the idea. He makes one mistake, though—he takes a liking to Brennan. He later tells Brennan that, under different circumstances, they might have been friends.
Frank takes the woman and Brennan to a remote hideout while ordering Billy Jack to ride along with Willard and deliver a ransom note to Doretta's father, demanding $50,000. Willard returns, saying his father-in-law has agreed and is rounding up the money. Willard is told he is no longer needed and can leave. A coward, he does not even bother to say goodbye to his new wife, disgusting Frank. Willard then begins to ride off, but is shot down by Chink.
Brennan knows full well that he and Doretta will end up dead like the others once the ransom is paid. He tells the distraught widow to collect herself and be ready to take any opportunity that presents itself. He then takes her in his arms. She hesitates, then kisses him. She confesses she married Willard because she was getting older and did not want to be alone.
Billy Jack and Chink are left behind to guard the hostages while Frank goes off to collect the money. Brennan plants the thought that their ringleader might just ride off with all the money, so Chink leaves the camp to keep an eye on Frank. Brennan suggests to Billy Jack that he take advantage of Mrs. Willard , a lonely woman denied even her wedding night. Billy Jack does indeed try to force himself on Doretta, whereupon Brennan overpowers him and shoots him dead.
Chink hears the shots and turns back. Brennan kills him. Frank then returns with the money. Brennan sneaks up behind him, so Frank surrenders his revolver and the money, gambling that Brennan will not shoot him in the back. He slowly mounts his horse and rides off. However, he turns around and comes back and tries to kill Brennan with a rifle, forcing Brennan to shoot him dead. As Brennan and Doretta walk away, side by side, she reaches for Brennan's arm, as he places his arm around her.

Former Confederate cavalryman Capt. Colt Saunders comes home to Texas from the war. Carpetbaggers have taken control of his town, including a corrupt Yankee tax commissioner named Harrison and his deputy Cable. When he sees a Yankee insult a Southern belle named Lorna Hunter, the gallant Colt comes to her aid. He isn't aware of her past as a St. Louis dance-hall girl (prostitute) or her devious golddigging nature. Colt is knocked cold and Lorna takes him back to his room, where she steals $900 from him. Her former employer, saloon owner Ruby LaSalle, lets her know that Colt is a wealthy rancher, so Lorna hatches a scheme. She returns his missing $900 and impresses him with her "honesty." Colt falls in love and marries her.
His ranch, the Bar S, has fallen on hard times. Loyal grand vaquero Innocencio Ortega, who looked out for the spread with his five sons while Colt was off to war, says that Yankees have been rustling their horses with no intervention by the law. Harrison is using a usurious tax law passed by the provisional government to seize all the large ranches in the district. Colt's black sheep brother, nicknamed Cinch, shows up to claim a share of the ranch. Cinch is not trustworthy, but Colt has felt obligated to him since a childhood accident when he lost an arm. Cinch is allowed to help run the ranch.
Lorna comes to love Colt but one of Harrison's minions, Massey, recognizes her from her days in St. Louis. Harrison and Cable serve Colt a writ for $16,000 in newly assessed taxes. They plot to have Massey insult Lorna so that they can shoot Colt when he goes to defend her. Innocencio and his sons foil the plot but a disillusioned Colt orders Lorna to leave, throwing her gold coins in "payment for services rendered." Cinch grabs the opportunity to make off with a hidden herd of valuable horses Colt needs to pay the taxes, enlisting the embittered Lorna to help him.
Colt tracks them down, sending Lorna back to the Bar S and warning Cinch to never set foot on the ranch again. Innocencio tells him that Lorna is pregnant and Colt offers her the value of his horses if she agrees to stay and give birth, leaving the child with him. Meanwhile, Cinch goes to Harrison proposing to kill Colt for him and grab control of the Bar S as partners. On the sly, Harrison and Cable plot to also murder Cinch, Lorna and everyone else at the ranch who could be a witness.
Colt and Innocencio have a falling out over his treatment of Lorna and the foreman prepares to leave with his sons. Lorna gives Colt the child as agreed but refuses to accept the offered bribe. Cinch returns, planning to provoke Colt into a gunfight. Things don't go according to plan, and when Harrison and his gang arrive, Cinch and Cable shoot each other in the fight that ensues. Harrison and Massey are also killed. Afterwards, Colt has a change of heart and reconciles with Lorna.

Bounty hunter Morgan Hickman (Henry Fonda) arrives in a small town with the body of an outlaw, seeking the bounty. Whilst the general townsfolk openly abhors Hickman, young sheriff Ben Owens (Anthony Perkins) admires the man for taking everything in his stride and knowing how to handle dangerous situations.
Hickman tells Owens that he was once a sheriff himself, but Dr McCord doubts this. Nevertheless, Owens persuades Hickman to teach him the ways of a lawman, forcing Hickman to face his past and his lost virtues.
Hickman lives on the edge of the down with Nona Mayfield, herself an outcast due to her half-caste son, Kip, who is half Indian. Treatment of Indians acts as a sub-plot including scenes such as the gunning down of an Indian by a white man, under the philosophy of nobody cares.
Things come to a head when Dr McCord is returning home during the night having delivered a baby son to a remote homesteader. He is waylaid by Ed McGaffey (Lee Van Cleef) asking him to treat a gun wound on his brother. This he does, but then McGaffey decides to kill him as he knows too much, despite the pleas of his now recovering brother.
Dr. McCord's horse and trap re-enter the town on McCord Day: where the whole town has come out to celebrate the doctor's 75th birthday. To a resounding chorus of "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow" the town realize he is dead. A posse is then assembled to catch McGaffey. However, the posse split from the sheriff because they see him as too soft. Young Kip rides out after the posse and Hickman and the sheriff team up to track him down.
In finding Kip they accidentally stumble upon Gaffney and his brother hiding in a mountain cave. After a gunfight in which the sheriff receives a bullet graze on the forehead they successfully capture the brothers and lock them in the town jail. However the posse are baying for blood and want to lynch the pair. The sheriff stands against the crowd to defend the pair for a legal trial. The ringleader (the man who earlier shot the Indian) has a duel with the sheriff and everything Hickman has taught him pays off, and he kills the ringleader and which point the lynch mob disperses.
Hickman then happily leaves town (with Nona Mayfield).

Jesse (Robert Wagner) and Frank James (Jeffrey Hunter) ride with their gang into Northfield, Minnesota for a raid. While robbing a bank, gun fighting breaks out and two of the gang are killed. The James brothers and another gang member head out of town and hide out while investigators from the Remington Detective Agency search for James to receive a $30,000 reward. While the three are hiding, the film tells the story of how the James brothers came to be criminals in flashback.

After saving a rancher from hanging, cowboy Mike "Utah" Blaine learns that his enemy Rink Witter is now a hired gun working for wealthy Russ Nevers, who is out to own every piece of land in the territory.
Utah teams up with Angie Kinyon, another murdered landowner's daughter, and rancher Mary Blake to maintain lawful ownership of their properties. He has a fistfight with Gus Ortmann, a large and popular fellow in town who misunderstands Utah's purpose. Witter then pulls a gun, but Utah's old pal Rip Coker shoots it from his hand.
Mary's cattle are stampeded and Gus is killed trying to protect her. The townspeople rally to Utah's side so that, when Nevers and Witter confront him, dozens of guns end up aimed at them. Utah ends up with a ranch of his own and with Angie as well.

Eastwood appears as a Southern cowboy Keith Williams who is upset over having to join up with a group of Yankees who have been attacked by the same group of Indians. Most film guides include in their entry for this film a quote attributed to Eastwood, "probably the lousiest Western ever made." This film is also notable for a scene in which Brady beats Eastwood in a fistfight.

Drifter Logan Cates (Rory Calhoun) spies the desert at a watering hole when he sees Apache Indians about to attack three cowboys. He fires a warning shot into the air, allowing the cowboys to flee. Sometime later, Cates encounters a young woman whose parents have been tortured and murdered by Apache Indians.
Sensing the presence of Apaches, Logan brings the girl to a small box canyon that is not only defensible but has a supply of water. He meets up with 19-year-old Lonnie Foreman, who was the only survivor of the group that Cates warned before. The location attracts a variety of people escaping the Apaches including a small band of cavalrymen, Logan's former girlfriend, Jennifer Fair, and her fiancee, Grant Kimbough. On the first night in the canyon, a Pima Indian named Lugo sneaks in looking for water. Though he is wanted for murder by the United States for killing an officer who wanted Lugo's gold, Cates allows him to stay due to his hatred towards the Apache. Lonnie and Junie Hatchett, the girl who Cates rescued earlier, quickly grow attached to one another.
They are besieged by Apache, where Logan the loner gradually discovers that he can not escape the responsibility of leadership of the group through his knowledge of Indian fighting and the local territory as well as his ability to knock sense into their heads when they engage in unhelpful behaviour. The numbers of the cavalrymen slowly dwindle, with initial attacks killing off one soldier as well as the sergeant. One of the cavalrymen, Zimmerman, hatches a plan to escape with Kimbough, though Jennifer doesn't agree with the plan. Zimmerman is killed when he steals Lugo's gold and runs into the desert, where he is quickly shot. Lugo, however, hid his gold supply and Zimmerman only stole rocks.
As their food supplies dwindle, Cates risks his life by invading the Apache camp for food. Shortly thereafter, their water supplies begin to dwindle as well. Cates motions to ration off the water. More Apache attacks cause the deaths of more cavalrymen, until only Webb and Conley are left. A fellow officer's death leaves Webb enraged, and he runs blindly into the Apache nest, where he is wounded and taken. That night, the sound of his tortured cries torments the survivors. Cates leaves and it is implied that he ends the horror by shooting Webb.
As the wind picks up,Cates to put a plan into action: under the cover of a sandstorm, they will fill empty water bottles with black powder and small stones to make grenades and scatter the Apache across the desert. As they prepare to leave, Kimbough disagrees with Cates' plan to leave Lugo with the women, and though he journeys out with the other men, he quickly returns so he can flee. Jennifer realizes Kimbough is nothing but a coward and breaks off their engagement. Kimbough tries to leave but is stopped by Lugo. Kimbough attempts to draw his gun but Lugo shoots him dead.
Elsewhere, Cates, Conley and Lonnie find the Apache horde. Cates and Lonnie light and throw their Grenades successfully, but Conley simply runs into the Apache nest like a suicide bomber. The two return to the Box Canyon, where Jennifer reveals the fate of Kimbough. After the storm passes, Lugo reveals he hid his gold in Cates' saddlebags, and gives a share of his gold to Lonnie so he and Junie can move to California. Lugo, Lonnie and Junie leave, with only Cates and Jennifer remaining. Jennifer leaves, with Cates catching up to her and the two riding off into the distance.

In 1898, two men are released from the Arizona Territorial Prison. One, mining engineer and geologist Peter Van Hoek (Ladd), the "Dutchman," tells the warden he was framed for the robbery of a gold shipment from the Lisbon Mine. The other, John McBain (Borgnine), killed Bascomb, the man who cheated him out of his land.
The two men head separately to the town of Prescott, where neither is welcome. The marshal, whom Van Hoek accuses of framing him, orders him to leave town on the next stagecoach, at sundown the next day. At the hotel, the Dutchman meets guest Ada Winton (Claire Kelly), the lonely mistress of Cyril Lounsberry (Kent Smith).
McBain rescues a Mexican woman, Anita (Katy Jurado), when men accost her on the street. Though Leslie (Adam Williams), the deputy, saves McBain's life in the ensuing fight, he gives McBain the same deadline to leave, even though McBain's folks settled the township. A grateful Anita invites McBain to stay in her place, and the two are attracted to each other.
The Dutchman gets Sample (Robert Emhardt) to introduce him to Lounsberry. Lounsberry had married Bascomb's homely sister for her money. Van Hoek offers to sell him gold ore from an extremely rich deposit that only he knows about. It is worth at least $200,000, but Van Hoek will be satisfied with half that amount in cash. He lies when Lounsberry jokingly asks if it is from his wife's Lisbon Mine. The prospect of being a rich man in his own right and leaving for Europe with Ada makes Lounsberry agree.
Van Hoek recruits a reluctant McBain and demolition expert Vincente (Nehemiah Persoff) for his scheme. They time it so the explosion needed to extract the ore goes off as the same time as the regular blasting. They get the ore out, but when Van Hoek and McBain take it to Lounsberry, he tries to double cross them. Leslie is killed and McBain wounded in the ensuing gunfight. Van Hoek takes McBain to Anita's place and digs out the bullet, then leaves in a wagon with the gold. However, Lounsberry, Sample and their men soon corner him in town during a fiesta. McBain goes to the Dutchman's aid. Then Anita has her many Mexican friends surround and disarm the villains. Van Hoek entrusts McBain and Anita with the gold, telling them he will meet them later in Durango to split it up equally. Then, keeping his word, he leaves on the stagecoach with fellow passenger Ada.


Successful sea captain James McKay (Gregory Peck) travels to the American West to join his fiancée Patricia (Carroll Baker) at the enormous ranch owned by her father, Henry Terrill (Charles Bickford), referred to by all as "The Major." Terrill has been feuding with Rufus Hannassey (Burl Ives), the patriarch of a poorer, less refined ranching clan, over water rights in the arid grazing lands of the high plains.
Patricia's friend, schoolteacher Julie Maragon (Jean Simmons), owns the "Big Muddy", a large ranch itself, with a source of water that is vital to both Hannassey and Terrill in times of drought. Julie allows all to water their cattle and refuses to sell or lease the Big Muddy to either side, so as to keep the fragile peace.
McKay brings a pair of dueling pistols to the Major as a gift. But he repeatedly refuses to be provoked into proving his manhood; he tells the Major that his father died in a meaningless duel. He does nothing when Hannassey's trouble-making son Buck (Chuck Connors) and his shiftless companions harass him. He also declines an invitation by Terrill's foreman, Steve Leech (Charlton Heston), to ride an unbroken horse named "Old Thunder." Consequently, everyone, including Patricia, considers him a coward.
When the Major and his men ride to the Hannassey ranch in retribution for Buck's harassment of a Terrill guest, McKay declines to participate. He confronts Terrill, speculating that Terrill is acting out of his own personal reasons. Terrell's posse doesn't find Buck, and proceed to terrorize the Hannassey family, to include women and children. Terrill's men shoot holes into the family's water tower, forcing the Hannassey family to rush forward to salvage the water and shore up the tower when Terrill's men leave. Buck makes his escape from Terrill's men while others in his posse are punished and beaten senseless. Alone at Terrill's ranch except for ranch hand Ramon (Alfonso Bedoya), McKay then breaks Old Thunder, after being thrown out of the saddle numerous times. He swears Ramon, the only witness, to secrecy.
Terrill hosts a Grand Gala to formally announce Patricia's upcoming wedding. A ruffled and grizzled Hannassey, armed with a shotgun, spoils the festive mood when he confronts Terrill in front of all his guests over how Terrill's men went beyond just seeking retribution against Buck and his men, but also how Terrill mistreated women and children in the Hannassey family. He threatens to start a range war over Terrill's steadfast practice of denying water to Hannassey's cattle.
McKay rides out to the Big Muddy and persuades Julie to sell him the land, promising to continue her policy of unrestricted access to the river. A search party, led by Leech, spends two days looking for McKay, believing he has become lost. McKay explains that he was never in danger, but Leech calls him a liar. Again refusing to be goaded into a fight, McKay sees that both Patricia and her father are disappointed; they agree to reconsider their engagement. Early the next morning, before anybody else is up, McKay seeks out Leech to settle their quarrel. They fight, without witnesses, to an exhausted draw. McKay quietly asks Leech exactly what they proved by fighting. Leech has a new understanding and respect of McKay.
Julie tells her friend Patricia that McKay bought the Big Muddy for her. Patricia is excited because her father will be so pleased with her wedding gift. Once she learns McKay plans to give Hannassey access to his water, however, Patricia leaves, understanding their engagement is over.
Acting on Terrill's orders, Leech and his men chase Hannassey's cattle away from the Big Muddy. Hannassey, in retaliation, kidnaps Julie and uses her as bait to lure Terrill into an ambush in the narrow canyon leading to Hannassey's homestead. Buck tries to force himself on Julie, but his father stops him. Buck, furious, tries to strangle his father, but is overpowered. His father states, "One day I know I'm going to have to kill you."
McKay finds out about Julie and rides to the Hannassey place, where he shows Hannassey the deed to Big Muddy and promises him equal access to the water. Hannassey says he intends to fight Terrill anyway, whereupon McKay tells him that it is plain that this is just a personal vendetta between two old men.
When it becomes obvious that McKay and Julie have feelings for each other, Buck attacks McKay. They fight, but Hannassey steps in when Buck draws his gun on the unarmed McKay and insists on a fair, formal duel. After walking apart ten paces, Buck fires before the signal, grazing McKay's forehead. Hannassey is furious. McKay slowly takes aim, but Buck drops to the ground in terror and crawls behind a wagon wheel. McKay fires into the dirt, ending the duel, and Hannassey spits on Buck in disgust. McKay and Julie are about to leave when Buck grabs a gun, forcing Hannassey to shoot his son dead.
Terrill insists on riding into Blanco Canyon for a final confrontation. Leech and the rest of his men initially refuse to accompany him, but after Terrill rides out alone, Leech joins him, followed by the rest of the outfit. They are quickly pinned down. Hannassey, acknowledgeing the truth of McKay's accusation, orders his men to stop shooting and challenges Terrill to a one-on-one showdown. Terrill promptly agrees. Armed with rifles, the two old men advance and kill one another.
McKay and Julie ride off to start a new life together.

Bess Johnson, newly arrived in a Mormon settlement in Wyoming, is having difficulty getting a shipment of smallpox vaccine delivered. In her way are Little Otter, a chief of the Blackfeet who wishes death to all whites in the territory, and Brill, a gambler who is interested in both Bess and a secret gold mine the Mormons might be hiding.
Dan Kree, a gunfighter, happens by on his way to Oregon and gives aid to Bess, who in turn saves him from a lethal snake bite. The mine turns out to be real, but Little Otter is killed and Dan gets the better of Brill. He leaves, but tells Bess he could be back.


On his way home from Mexico to West Texas, Tom Buchanan (Randolph Scott) rides into the Californian border town of Agry, and into a feud between several members of the Agry family. In helping out a Mexican seeking revenge on one of them, Buchanan finds himself against the whole family.

John Cord (Joel McCrea) a brave cowboy/ex-con hits the dusty trail as the leader of a major cattle drive. He is offered the job by the very townspeople his gang terrorized a few years before. They are also the same people who put him in the slammer, and even though he accepts the task, he secretly plots his revenge. He gets it by proving himself courageous and honest.

An embittered cavalry sergeant must take over his regiment after their commanding officer is killed during an ambush. Vinson is driven by his hatred of Apaches, who were responsible for the death of his wife and children. He and his remaining men, including Travis and McGurney, try to ride 100 miles to the safety of Fort Crane, a fictional analogue of Fort Craig in New Mexico territory. Along the way they attack an Indian band, despite being heavily outnumbered. Vinson's vengeance knows no bounds, until Travis is ultimately forced to take a stand and confront him.

Tod Lohman is on the run from a posse. The ruthless land baron Hunter Boyd has sent men, including sons Otis and Tom, in pursuit of Tod for having killed another son.
Otis Boyd stampedes horses toward Tod, but gunshots drive them in the opposite direction and Otis is trampled instead. Tod then gets the drop on Tom Boyd and insists he did not kill their brother, but before Tod can leave, Tom Boyd shoots his horse.
On foot, Tod collapses near a river bank. He is found by kindly rancher Amos Bradley and daughter Juanita, who provide food and shelter. Juanita takes a liking to Tod, who is searching for his missing father and was brought up with Biblical lessons and principles by his mother.
Tod departs but is soon surrounded by Hunter Boyd and his men. In gratitude for not shooting Tom Boyd when he had the chance, Hunter Boyd permits a horse and a four-hour headstart to Tod, then resumes the chase.
Tod discovers that his father has died. A member of the posse shoots old man Bradley, which proves the last straw for Tod after having tried to turn the other cheek. But during a gun battle in town, Tom Boyd is engulfed by flames after a chandelier's crash. Tod's instincts take over. He saves the life of Tom, whose appreciative father Hunter finally calls off the feud.


Davy Hackett (James Darren) and his hot-tempered, arrogant older brother Ed (Tab Hunter) are about to assist their rancher father Lee (Van Heflin) on a cattle drive to Wyoming. The brothers meet Cecily "Clee" Chouard (Kathryn Grant), a beautiful half-French, half-Sioux woman, and when Ed makes unwanted advances toward her, Davy intervenes.
Clee's brother Paul (Bert Convy) is invited to join the cattle drive. Ed, obsessed with capturing a white mare, resents Paul's interference and pushes him off a cliff to his death. It is witnessed by two Indians, but when the case comes to court, Ed is released because Lee has bribed a man named Sieverts (Ray Teal) to lie that the death was an accident. Lee learns that Davy is in love with Clee and disowns him.
Sieverts is given 10 horses in exchange, but when he selects the white mare, Ed shoots him. Jailed once again, Ed shoots a deputy and escapes. Lee hunts down his own son and kills him, then leads Davy and Clee back to the ranch.

Former Confederate soldier and highwayman-turned-marshal Jake Wade (Robert Taylor) breaks his former partner, Clint Hollister (Richard Widmark), out of jail in the small western town of Morganville. The men have not seen each other for over a year, since the bank robbery and murder that resulted in Jake's arrest. At that time, Clint rescued Jake and the men separated with an agreement to reunite later. Instead, Jake buried the $20,000 from the robbery in the desert and decided to go straight. Believing that he has now repaid Clint by freeing him from jail, Jake refuses to tell Clint where the money is buried and advises him to leave the territory. Disgruntled and disturbed by what he considers Jake's betrayal, Clint vows vengeance. Carefully covering his trail, Jake returns to Cold Stream, where he serves as marshal. That evening, Jake dines at the home of his fiancée Peggy (Patricia Owens), and asks if she would consider relocating after their upcoming marriage. Startled, Peggy asks for an explanation, but when Jake hesitates, then flatly refuses to explain, Peggy angrily sends him home. Returning to his office, Jake is confronted and knocked out by a stranger, Rennie (Henry Silva). Upon reviving, Jake discovers Clint and the rest of his old gang and army comrades, Ortero (Robert Middleton), Wexler (DeForest Kelley), Burke (Eddie Firestone) and newcomer, the hot-headed Rennie. When Jake expresses amazement that Clint was able to track him, Clint reveals that he set loose the horse Jake had brought for him and followed it to Cold Stream. Clint then demands that Jake take him to the buried money and when he refuses, Clint has Burke and Rennie bring in Peggy, whom they have abducted.
Clint then announces that to assure Jake's compliance, Peggy will accompany them to the money. The next morning, on their way into the desert, Clint forces Jake to ride with his hands tied behind him, as Clint did when he was arrested. When the men set up camp that night, Clint tells Peggy about Jake's disloyalty. In a private moment later, Jake apologizes to Peggy for causing the dilemma and warns her that they may have only one opportunity to escape. The next day, after the bound Jake falls off his horse repeatedly, the gang protests and Clint reluctantly agrees to untie Jake's hands. Jake immediately snatches Wexler's pistol and grabbing Peggy, tumbles down a sand dune into a canyon with her. Although the couple take the long way out of the canyon, Clint guesses Jake's plan and recaptures them. That night, Clint goads Jake into telling Peggy about their past. Jake explains that they were part of a Southern guerrilla outfit during the war, conducting looting raids that Clint insisted they continue after the war. Jake admits that during a bank robbery, a teenage boy was caught in the crossfire, prompting him to go straight. Clint scoffs, then demands to know when they will reach the buried money, and Jake promises they will be there the next day. The following afternoon the group meet a cavalry patrol and the commanding officer advises them to turn back because of the danger of Comanche attacks. Using Jake's identity as a marshal, Clint invents a story for them being in the area and the lieutenant reluctantly allows them to proceed. The men are uneasy about riding into Indian territory and when Rennie shoots at coyotes, Wexler is outraged, certain that the shots will surely attract the Comanche. The group then arrives at a ghost town, where Jake reveals he has hidden the money here. Jake spots three Indian scouts, telling Clint of one. After killing the 1st, Jake informs Clint of 2 other scouts. Enraged, Clint declares that he must go after the others in order to stop them from revealing their location, telling Rennie that he can have Peggy if he doesn't return. The remaining gang along with Jake and Peggy take shelter in the deserted saloon, tying Jake to a chair.
While the men take turns keeping guard, Jake pleads with Ortero to save Peggy and return her to Cold Stream. As night falls, several calls are heard outside and Jake tells the men they are surrounded by Indians who will attack soon. When the others dart outside, Ortero tells Jake that he was not responsible for the teenager's death at the bank, but Clint allowed him to believe it in hopes of binding Jake to him. As the Indian calls intensify, Rennie anxiously tells the men they should flee as it is apparent Clint has abandoned them. The men return to the saloon and are bickering about escaping, when Clint abruptly returns. As Burke hysterically announces that they must go, he is killed by an Indian lance. The building is quickly surrounded by Indians and a vicious fight breaks out. Clint runs outside to fight and soon after, Wexler and Rennie are killed by Indian arrows. When an Indian breaks in, Jake distracts him and Peggy kills him with a lance. Peggy then cuts Jake's ropes, and as Clint and Ortero fight off the last of the Indians, they attempt to escape, but are caught by Clint. After Ortero buries the others, Clint asks Jake to take him to the money, and Jake reveals it is in a saddlebag, buried three feet deep in the cemetery. Jake digs up the saddlebag, then surprises Clint by pulling out a pistol from it. Although Clint suspects the gun will not function after spending a year underground, he eventually surrenders his gun as does Ortero. Jake then asks Ortero to take Peggy away and he agrees, they two ride out of town despite her protests. After Ortero and Peggy depart, Jake gives Clint an opportunity to settle the score by tossing his gun several yards away. Frustrated, Clint dashes for the gun, while Jake hides among the dilapidated buildings, forcing Clint to search for him. After a tense game of "cat-and-mouse," Jake and Clint confront each other in the street and Jake kills Clint. Hearing the gunshots, Peggy and Ortero return for Jake.

Drifter William Bonney (Paul Newman), known as "Billy the Kid", befriends a cattle boss named John Tunstall, who is known as "The Englishman". Tunstall is murdered by corrupt rival cattlemen led by the local sheriff in the Lincoln County War. Bonney plans to avenge the crime by hunting down those responsible and killing them in provoked gunfights. His violent actions endanger his surviving friends and the territorial amnesty proclaimed by New Mexico Territory governor Lew Wallace. Billy's former friend, Pat Garrett, becomes a sheriff and sets out to hunt him down.
Billy's worshipful companion, Moultrie, lionizes Billy's actions, fueling a series of dime novels that transform Bonney into a legend. Billy is disgusted with his fictionalization, and he rejects Moultrie. Embittered, Moultrie betrays Bonney to Garrett. In a final showdown, Garrett ambushes and kills the exhausted Bonney, who faces his nemesis unarmed in the hopes of ending his own life.

Link Jones (Gary Cooper) rides into Crosscut, Texas to have a bite to eat, then catch a train to Fort Worth, where he intends to use the savings of his community of Good Hope to hire a schoolteacher.
On the train platform, Sam Beasley (Arthur O'Connell) speaks with Link briefly, rousing the suspicions of the town marshal, Sam being a known con man. When the marshal comments that Link looks familiar, Link gives him a false name.
Aboard the train, Sam impulsively joins Link, learns of his mission in Fort Worth and claims he can be of help. Sam introduces him to the Crosscut saloon singer, Billie Ellis (Julie London), insisting she could make an ideal teacher.
Their conversation is overheard by Alcutt, a shady-looking passenger. When the train stops to pick up wood for additional fuel, male passengers help load the train but Alcutt remains on board, feigning sleep. He signals three other men, Coaley Tobin (Jack Lord), Trout (Royal Dano) and Ponch (Robert J. Wilke), who rob the train.
Link tries to intervene and is knocked unconscious. The train pulls away, with Alcutt riding off with Link's bag containing Good Hope's money. Alcott is wounded as he and the robbers flee.
Link revives to discover that he, Sam and Billie have been left behind, many miles from the nearest town. Link leads them on foot to a ramshackle farm, admitting that he lived there years earlier. While the others wait in the barn, Link enters the run-down house and finds the train robbers hiding inside.
Coaley is suspicious of Link's claim that he simply wants to rest for the night. They are interrupted by aging outlaw Dock Tobin (Lee J. Cobb), who is startled to see Link, his nephew, whom he raised as a killer and thief. Link abandoned him more than a dozen years earlier to go straight. Tobin laments that nothing has been the same since Link's departure and introduces him to the roughnecks he now commands, including Link's own cousin, Coaley.
Disturbed by the revelation of Link's true identity, Coaley demonstrates his toughness by killing Alcutt, who is near death from his wound. Realizing the danger of his situation, Link brings in Sam and Billie from the barn and lies to Tobin, telling him that he intentionally sought out his uncle after being left by the train.
Tobin reveals his long-held ambition to rob the bank in the town of Lassoo and asserts that Link's return to the gang makes that possible. Link agrees to participate in the holdup to protect Billie, after a knife held to his throat while Coaley drunkenly insists that she strip. Tobin waits until she is nearly undressed before he laughingly sends Link and Billie to sleep in the barn, Link lying that she is his woman.
Claude Tobin (John Dehner), another cousin, arrives and is displeased at finding Link there. Tobin rejects the suggestion of Claude and Coaley to kill Link and the others. They depart on the four-day ride to Lassoo.
As revenge for the brutal treatment of Billie at the ranch, Link goads the brutal Coaley into a fistfight and beats him severely, then forcibly strips him of his clothes. Deeply humiliated, Coaley attempts to shoot the unarmed Link, but Sam intercedes and is killed instead. Tobin then shoots Coaley for disobeying him.
Billie laments that she has finally found a man worth loving, but can never have him. Link has a wife and children in Good Hope.
With the town Lassoo in sight, Link volunteers for the holdup job, secretly hoping that in town he can seek help. Tobin insists that he be accompanied by the mute Trout. It turns out that Lassoo is a ghost town, its bank deserted except for a frightened old Mexican woman, whom Trout shoots in a panic. Link proceeds to kill Trout. He then awaits the arrival of Claude and Ponch. In a drawn-out gun battle, Link kills Ponch first, then eventually and with some regret, Claude.
Returning to camp, Link discovers to his horror that Billie has been raped and beaten. He goes in search of Tobin, who is on a cliff nearby. Link calls out to Tobin that he, like Lassoo, is a ghost and finished. He shoots Tobin and reclaims the bag of Good Hope's money.
Riding back to civilization, Billie tells Link she loves him, but is resigned to the fact that she must resume her singing career and proceed alone, knowing that Link intends to return to his home and family.

A former Confederate soldier, John Chandler (Alan Ladd) has come to an Illinois town with his 10-year-old son David (David Ladd) to see Dr. Enos Davis (Cecil Kellaway). The boy was struck mute after witnessing his mother's death in a fire, and hasn't spoken a word since. Dr. Davis recommends an operation by a doctor he knows in Minnesota.
With a flock of sheep blocking their path, John has their expertly trained dog Lance clear the way. The sheep belong to rancher Harry Burleigh (Dean Jagger) and his sons, Jeb (Harry Dean Stanton) and Tom (Tom Pittman), who try to steal the dog. John fights them while a passing stranger, Linnett Moore (Olivia de Havilland), holds the child. Harry knocks out John, pours whiskey on him, then tells the sheriff about being attacked by a drunk.
John must pay $30 or serve 30 days in jail. Linnett intervenes, suggesting to the sheriff, that Chandler can work off the debt on her farm. In exchange she offers to cover the fine, so that he will be released. Chandler disagrees at first, but is won over by her decency. Over the course of time, he discovers that Linnett is being pressured by the overbearing Burleigh to sell her land. It transpires that her land is blocking the easy passage of his sheep to pasture and the railroad. Gradually, John and Linnett grow closer, despite John determined to remain aloof, knowing he and his son will leave soon.
A trip to Minnesota for treatment will be expensive. John won't accept offers for the valuable dog, which the boy loves, but after the boy is taunted and roughed up by local children, John decides to sell Lance after all to finance his son's trip. He asks Linnett to accompany the boy up north while he rebuilds the barn, burned down by the Burleighs' men in an attempt to pressure Linnett to sell.
The operation doesn't work, and David is devastated to return home and find the dog is no longer theirs. John goes to the Burleighs to try to get it back and finds the dog being mistreated by them. Harry gives the dog back, but has his sons prepared to shoot John as a thief. The boy shouts out to save his father's life. In the end, John shoots Harry and his older son, then returns to Linnett with the dog and David, now able to speak.

During his escape, bank robber Joe Maybe (Audie Murphy) sees famous US Marshal Jim Noonan, who is searching for him, stumble and fall off a cliff to his death. He enters a town on the dead man's horse, where he is mistaken for Noonan. Maybe decides to hide behind the badge for a while, but soon raises the suspicions of the local law enforcer, Judge Kyle (Walter Matthau). His real identity is nearly blown when the riverboat brings to town Tessa Milott (Gia Scala), a past acquaintance of Maybe's who calls him by his surname in front of the judge. Thinking quickly, Joe says she called him "Baby," and did this because she is his wife.
She must now pretend she is his wife to avoid further scrutiny from Kyle, but this in turn causes problems with her current boyfriend, bandit leader Sam Teeler (Henry Silva). The "couple" moves into a house and are well respected in town, although their secrecy is nearly compromised by a young orphan boy who expects "the marshal and his wife" to adopt him. Tessa struggles between her loyalty to her real criminal boyfriend and her growing feelings for Maybe, but each man wants to rob the town's bank.

Retired gunslinger and former Confederate soldier Steve Sinclair (Robert Taylor) is living as a rancher in a small western community. He collaborates with the main landowner Dennis Deneen (Donald Crisp), from whom he rents the ranch, to preserve communal stability. His quiet life is disrupted by the appearance of his emotionally unstable younger brother Tony (John Cassavetes) and Tony's beautiful girlfriend Joan (Julie London). An old rival of Steve's, gunman Larry Venables (Charles McGraw), also arrives on the scene looking for Steve. Tony confronts Venables and kills him in a shootout. His success goes to his head and he gets drunk, ignoring Joan.
A new problem arises with the arrival of Clay Ellison (Royal Dano), a farmer who plans to fence off a strip of land currently grazed by cattle. Tony attempts to drive off Ellison, but Steve intervenes. Ellison appeals to Deneen, who agrees to defend Ellison's legal rights to the land. However Tony murders Ellison when he attempts to buy provisions in town. Deneen breaks his ties with the Sinclairs. Steve intends to leave the ranch, but Tony tries to take over. Steve drives him off, but Tony confronts Deneen and attempts to kill him. Both are wounded in the gunfight. Deneen's men recruit Steve to find Tony, who has fled into the hills. When Steve finds him, Tony shoots himself. Steve tells the wounded Deneen, who persuades him to stay on at the ranch with Joan.

Gambler Jason Sweet (Ford) wins a herd of sheep in a poker game and proceeds to take them by train into the middle of cattle country. Before long, the townsfolk take notice (and object), but Sweet is more than up to the challenge.
The first thing he does is pick a fight with the roughest, toughest man around, "Jumbo" McCall (Mickey Shaughnessy), and beat him up. He also reveals himself to be an expert with a gun. Dell Payton (Shirley MacLaine) does not know what to make of him, but is attracted to him, as is he to her. Her fiancé, local cattle baron "Colonel" Steven Bedford (Nielsen), is troubled by this and also because Sweet and he know each other. The newcomer recognizes Bedford as an old acquaintance, Johnny Bledsoe, a card sharp and gunfighter gone respectable.
When Bedford finds himself losing their battle for domination, despite initially having the whole town behind him, he sends for professional gunman Chocktaw Neal (Pernell Roberts). Chocktaw and his two buddies all have grudges against Sweet. Chocktaw tries to goad Sweet into a shootout, but Sweet spots Chocktaw's friends, aiming at him with their rifles. Fortunately, Dell and Milt Masters (Edgar Buchanan) are able to disarm them, and Sweet is quicker to the draw than Chocktaw. The final showdown comes down to Bedford and Sweet. Sweet is faster and smarter, and Bedford ends up dead.
Then, to Dell's utter astonishment, Sweet sells the sheep so he can buy cattle. He explains he only kept them because he refused to be pushed around by anybody. The couple then rides away together.


The wealthy McNeil wants to control Prairie City and the land around it. He tries to burn out small ranchers and then hires gunfighter Johnny Crale to run them off.
Sven Hansen learns from neighbour Jose Mirada that there is oil on his land. Sven stands up to Crale, his only weapon a harpoon from his past as a whaling fisherman, and Crale callously shoots him dead.
The dead man's son, George Hansen, arrives in town and finds out that his father has died, but isn't sure how or why. The sheriff is in McNeil's pocket and unwilling to help. George tries talking to Molly, Crale's wife, but ends up beaten unconscious and dumped on a train leaving town.
Mirada is the next one gunned down by Crale, but his courage impresses the killer, who in a fit of rage shoots McNeil, the man who hired him. George Hansen returns to town for a showdown, eventually supported by the townsfolk, and is wounded before getting the better of Crale with his father's harpoon.

The film tells the story of Emma Breslin (O'Sullivan) and her family, who cross the plains in a covered wagon. They make the fateful decision to pause in a lawless western town where Emma's husband, Jake (Paul Birch), is shot by rustlers Arn (John Beradino) and Jud. But folksy Judge Copeland (Rogers) persuades them to go on. At Break Wagon Hill, their wagon does just that and they decide to homestead on the spot.
The movie follows the trials and joys of Emma and her family, as well as those of their neighbors, the Bascombs (Donahue and Jeanette Nolan). Finally, violence reappears when Arn and Jud show up on their homestead, leading to a showdown with the Breslin Boys (McKuen, Gary Gray and George Winslow).

Milford Farnsworth (Hope) is a bumbling insurance agent who unknowingly sells a life insurance policy to the outlaw Jesse James (Wendell Corey). Farnsworth is sent out West to protect the insurance company's investment by "protecting" James.
James has his own plans to have Farnsworth killed while dressed as the outlaw, so that he and his soon to be "widow" Cora Lee Collins (Rhonda Fleming) can collect on the $100,000 insurance policy. Farnsworth avoids several attempts on his life while he and Collins fall in love with each other.
After the last attempt is made on his life, Farnsworth impersonates the justice of the peace who is supposed to marry James and Collins. When Farnsworth and Collins make a run for it, they end up in a gun battle with the James Gang where several Western heroes make their cameos to surreptitiously help Farnsworth. In the end Farnsworth is victorious, marries Collins, and becomes president of the insurance company.

Blaise Starrett (Robert Ryan) is a ruthless cattleman at odds with homesteaders in a small, bleak western town in Wyoming called Bitters. A feud develops between Starrett and a local farmer Hal Crane. The farmer's wife Helen (Tina Louise) offers to renew a love affair with Starrett if he promises not to kill Hal.
The feud is about to come to a bloody end when Jack Bruhn (Burl Ives), and his band of thugs ride into town. They are on the run from the law after robbing a bank. He is a wounded outlaw, a former cavalry officer but that doesn't stop him and his gang holding the town's civilians hostage. Starrett must now find a way to save his town, and redeem himself in the process. He does so by helping the bad guys escape, or so they think, across the snow-covered mountains.

Now that the Civil War is over, former Confederate officer Ben Lassiter and his 10-year-old daughter ride west to Nevada, where they stop off briefly at a stagecoach rest station. There they encounter sisters Beth and Martha Drury, who greet them in different ways. Beth is cordial to Ben, whereas Martha makes no secret of her dislike for rebel soldiers.
Beth is engaged to an army captain, Poole, and plans to travel to Oregon with her sister, whose husband was a Union officer killed in the war. Indians attack the rest station after Ben and his daughter ride off. When he sees warriors with liquor from the way station, Ben doubles back. He finds the Drury sisters safe, hidden in a cellar, plus an Army payroll that the Indians neglected to take.
Ben escorts the women west and intends to deliver the payroll to Poole, who is fighting off Indian attacks himself. Ben's bravery repeatedly impresses Beth, but with each passing hour Martha becomes more unstable. She panics, flees and the Indians kill her. Ben copes with a pair of Army deserters and a renegade scout named Tago along the way, ultimately leading Beth and his daughter to safety.

Bank robber Jim Larsen (MacMurray) is handcuffed to Deputy Marshal George Allison (Francis De Sales) on his way to begin a 5–to-10-year prison sentence. Without animosity, Larsen says he will use his time in prison to plan more robberies. Larsen feels he was only caught by using a partner; the next time will be singlehanded. Boarding the train, Larsen overpowers the deputy, takes his pistol and handcuffs him to the rear car of the train. Larsen's younger brother Danny (Ron Hayes) comes to free Larsen, who chides Danny that he does not need help from anyone.
Danny has brought Jim a horse and they flee. The deputy produces a hidden derringer from an ankle holster, aiming at them. He mortally wounds Danny, who kills the deputy. The two board another train by hiding in the baggage car. Jim explains his escape plans to Danny en route, but Danny dies. Jim places his brother's corpse in a mail sack, throws it off a bridge passing over a river and vows to be alone in the future.
The train's first stop is the Enterprize Mine where Jim changes into his father's business suit which Danny brought, and Jim reboards the train as a passenger. The only vacant seat is next to Alice (Gina Gillespie) a six-year-old girl who has been visiting her grandfather, an employee at the Enterprise mine. The talkative Alice guesses that as she does not recognise Jim, he must be a visiting mining inspector. Using the name Ray Kincaid, Larsen plays along with her guess and gathers information on the next town, Tangle Blue, Wyoming.
Mark Riley (McCarthy), an earnest but inexperienced sheriff who is young Alice's uncle, and a group of deputies stop the train to search for the deputy's murderer, but they are satisfied with "Ray Kincaid the mining inspector" due to his travelling with Alice. The deputies say that the wanted poster depicting the deputy's murderer with Jim Larsen's face will be arriving on the next day's train and everyone will be checked entering or leaving the town.
Larsen/Kincaid arrives in town, meeting Alice's mother, the widow Ellen Bailey (Green). Uncle Mark is having problems with rich landowner Reed Williams (Alan Baxter) fencing off what he thinks is his land but which the government declares open range.
Larsen/Kincaid uses his remaining money to have a shave then buy a horse and tack, a set of work clothes, and a pistol, belt and ammunition to replace the pistol he threw away during the search on the train. Larsen/Kincaid finds all the roads away from Tangle Blue are guarded by deputies who are preventing anyone leave the town until the wanted posters come in. Returning to town and desperate for cash, he decides to earn some money as being a deputy for Mark.
Larsen/Kincaid attends a dance with Ellen who wants to leave Tangle Blue. He proves his worth by stopping a showdown between Williams' gang and Mark. Escorting her and Alice home, they pass some deputies who have discovered Danny's unidentified body in the sack that the river has brought to town. Though Larsen/Kincaid tries to avoid getting involved with Ellen, they fall in love.
As part of his duties in enforcing the law, Mark cuts down Williams' barbed wire fences, that Williams' gang of toughs re-construct. Sheriff Mark reminds Larsen/Kincaid of Danny, and Mark is being menaced by Williams and his gang who threaten to kill Mark if he cuts down their fence one more time. Returning to town to drink, Williams and his gang menace Larsen/Kincaid who responds by beating up Williams, but Larsen/Kincaid is soon worked over by Williams' gang.
The next day Larsen/Kincaid is the only deputy willing to go with Mark to cut down Williams' fence. Mark cuts down the fence then returns to town to meet the train arriving with the posters depicting the face of the fugitive leaving Larsen/Kincaid to watch the fence. Though having the chance to escape, he notices one of Williams' toughs Purdy (James Coburn) repairing the fence. Larsen re-cuts the barbed wire by shooting the strands with his Winchester rifle that sets the strands to wrap around Purdy. He singlehandedly takes on Williams and his gang.

Two old friends, Matt Morgan (Douglas) and Craig Belden (Quinn), now find themselves on opposite sides of the law. Belden, a rich cattle baron, is the de facto ruler of the town of Gun Hill. Morgan is a U.S. marshal living in another town with his Native American wife (played by Ziva Rodann) and young son, Petey.
Two young drunken cowboys rape and murder Morgan's wife while she is returning with their son from a visit to her father. The boy escapes on one of the killers' horses, bearing a distinctive, fancy saddle.
Morgan sets off to find the killer. His one clue is the saddle, which he recognizes as belonging to Belden. Assuming it was stolen from his old friend, Morgan travels to Gun Hill to pick up the trail, but once there he quickly realizes that Belden's son Rick (Holliman) is the killer.
Belden refuses to turn over his son, forcing Morgan to go against the entire town. He vows to capture Rick and get him on that night's last train from Gun Hill.
Morgan takes Rick prisoner, holding him at the hotel. Belden sends men to rescue his son, but Morgan manages to hold them off. In the meantime, Belden's former lover (Jones) decides to help Morgan. She sneaks a shotgun to his hotel room. The second rapist, Lee, sets fire to the hotel to flush out Morgan.
Morgan presses the shotgun to Rick's chin on the way to the train depot, threatening to pull the trigger if anyone attempts to stop him. Lee tries to kill Morgan but shoots Rick instead. Morgan then kills Lee with the shotgun. As the train prepares to leave, a devastated Belden confronts Morgan in a final showdown and is gunned down.

At the end of the American Civil War, Confederate soldier Tom Dooley (Landon) leads an attack on a stagecoach, unaware that the war was already over. Dooley is declared to be a murderer but he returns to his hometown hoping to marry his fiancée, Laura Foster (Morrow). Trouble soon breaks out and he and Laura are forced to elope, pursued by lawman Charlie Grayson (Hogan) who also has romantic interest in Laura. Tom and Laura get married and attempt to escape to Tennessee, but are soon captured by Grayson. Dooley is locked up in the town jail after a quick trial where he is sentenced to be hanged in the morning, but escapes with the help of one of his confederate army friends "Country Boy". Grayson catches Laura as she tries to reunite with Dooley. Grayson tries to force himself on Laura, but is interrupted by the arrival of Dooley and Country Boy. In the ensuing fight Laura is accidentally stabbed while Dooley and Grayson struggle with a knife, and then Grayson and Country Boy shoot each other. Laura dies in Dooley's arms as the sheriff arrives and recaptures Dooley, who is then led off to his execution.



When infamous hired gunman John Gant (Audie Murphy) arrives in the small town of Lordsburg, Arizona, the locals are terrified by his reputation and surprised by how young he is. Although Sheriff Buck Hastings would like to arrest Gant, he points out to the townsmen that Gant always coerces his rivals to draw their gun first, allowing him to kill them legally in "self-defence." While the men in the town speculate anxiously about Gant's target, Luke Canfield (played by Charles Drake, an off-screen friend and frequent co-star of Murphy), the town blacksmith and doctor, greets Gant and is totally unaware of Gant's reputation as a hired gunman. During his first meeting with Gant at the smithy, Luke demonstrates his perfect aim with a maul.
Luke proudly takes Gant on a tour through town and agrees to join him later for a game of chess. At home, Luke's fiancée, Anne Benson, tends to her father, Judge Benson, who suffers from consumption. Luke's father Asa joins them for dinner, during which Buck arrives to warn Luke to stay away from Gant. Asa cautions Buck not to condemn Gant prematurely, but Buck is reluctant to accept his advice and reveals that he feels he will be powerless against Gant's superior gun skills. Later, mine owners Earl Stricker and Thad Pierce assume that their partner, Ben Chaffee, has hired Gant to kill them in order to take sole ownership of the mine. When they find Gant in the saloon and propose a counter-offer, however, Gant observes that no innocent man would be afraid, and turns them away.
Upon hearing that Stricker and Pierce were seen talking with Gant, Chaffee assumes that they want to kill him. He questions Luke about Gant, and after Luke fails to calm him, the physician walks through town, noting that the townsmen are all hiding behind guns and locked doors. While clerk Lou Fraden and his wife Roseanne discuss their certainty that her ex-husband has sent Gant to kill them, Luke confronts Gant, asking him why he has come. Impressed with Luke's bravery and integrity, Gant explains that he believes that Luke, who saves the lives of men "who deserve to die," is less ethical than he. While they talk, a panicked Pierce shoots himself in his office and dies later that night. After this, Luke accuses Gant of murder. When Buck tries to throw Gant out of town, Gant refuses to leave. When the sheriff pulls a gun on Gant, Gant shoots him in the hand and renders him useless. As to why Gant didn't kill him, the gunman explains it was because no one was paying him.
Later, Judge Benson advocates using vigilante law to throw out Gant, but after Luke protests, suggests sacrificing the one man Gant is after in order to save the rest of the town. Meanwhile, Fraden, emboldened by alcohol, confronts Gant, who calmly encourages him to draw his gun. At Luke's urging, Fraden flees, leaving Luke to demand fruitlessly that Gant leave town. Next, Stricker gathers the townsmen to challenge Gant, and although Luke disapproves, he agrees to lead them, hoping to minimize the possible violence. Gant, angered to see Luke backed by a mob, warns the men that if they shoot him he will still live long enough to kill Luke, Reeger, Asa, Stricker and several other town leaders. The men disband silently. Later, Luke confesses to Judge Benson that he likes Gant, and the judge warns him that Gant's viciousness is a progressive disease that he cannot cure.
In the store the next day, Gant approaches Anne and questions her about her home life, but will not reveal his target. At the same time, the judge speculates to Luke that if the hunted man refused to defend himself, Gant could be legally arrested for murder, but Luke declares that no man could die without fighting. Soon after, Chafee and his men begin a shootout with Stricker which results in the death of many men. Sickened by a situation that he can not deal with, Sheriff Hastings takes off his badge and drops it on the street. Anne, who has grown suspicious about her father the judge, reads a letter locked in his drawer that reveals a past crime. Realizing the likelihood that Gant has been hired to kill her father, she goes to Gant's room with a gun. Gant bluffs her that her gun is unloaded and then easily takes it away from her. Anne declares that the judge will not defend himself, prompting Gant to rip off a piece of the upper part of her dress. There is more than one way to make a man pick up a gun.
Gant goes to the judge's home and tells him that his "friends from back East send their respects". The old man admits his past guilt and tells Gant that he knows enough to send himself, the governor, and several other wealthy and powerful men to prison, but all they have to do is wait and nature will do Gant's job for him. Unfortunately, his old associates are impatient. Of course, the Judge refuses to fight. Gant then shows him the piece of Anne's dress and implies that he has raped her. The old judge is angered enough to grab a rifle and follow Gant outside. The old man has severe coughing and fires a wild shot before collapsing on the porch steps. Luke arrives and sees Gant with his gun drawn and assumes that Gant shot the old man. Luke starts to throw a hammer at him, but Gant shoots him in the right shoulder. As Gant is walking away toward his horse, Luke uses his left arm to throw a hammer. Just as Gant turns around, he is struck in the upper part of his gun arm and breaking it so that Gant can no longer shoot. As Gant laboriously mounts his horse, Asa tells Luke that the old man was not shot. Luke offers to tend to his arm, but Gant replies that "Everything comes to a finish" and rides away.


Bounty hunter Ben Brigade (Randolph Scott) captures wanted outlaw Billy John (James Best), who brags that his brother Frank (Lee Van Cleef) will never allow Brigade to take Billy John to justice in Santa Cruz County, AZ. AIong the way, Brigade comes to the rescue of a woman, Carrie Lane (Karen Steele), whom he and a pair of unwelcome new partners, gunmen Sam Boone (Pernell Roberts) and his friend Whit (James Coburn), take along toward safety. But Brigade knows that the reward on Billy John's head is the real motive behind Sam's and Whit's arrival, and that outlaw leader Frank won't be far behind.

Albert Gallatin "Lat" Evans (Don Murray), an earnest young cowboy determined to better his situation, wins a job with a cattle drive by busting a wild horse. Befriended by cowhand Tom Ping (Stuart Whitman}, Lat fantasizes about owning his own ranch and being rich one day, unlike his father, who died "broke, a failure." When the drive reaches a small Wyoming town, the cowboys congregate at the saloon, where Jehu (Richard Egan), an unscrupulous rancher, proposes racing one of their horses against his swift steed. Lat accepts the challenge, and is in the lead when his opponent throws a blanket at his face, causing Lat to lose his balance and fall from his horse. Marshal Conrad (Albert Dekker), the town's upstanding banker, intervenes, however, and declares Lat the winner.
That night, Tom and Lat celebrate with saloon girls Jen (Jean Willes) and Callie (Lee Remick). With their winnings, they decide to leave the cattle drive and hunt wolves for their hides. After bidding his cowhand friends goodbye, Lat, feeling melancholy, gets drunk and visits Callie. When Lat recalls a traumatic incident from his childhood in which his father beat him for being alone with a girl in the woodshed, Callie feels empathy.
Restless and impatient to become successful, Lat asks Conrad for a loan to buy a ranch. After Conrad turns him down, Callie gives Lat her life savings to buy a piece of land, which he then uses as collateral for a loan from Conrad to purchase a herd of cattle. Lat makes Tom a partner in the venture, and after a hard winter, Lat prospers while the other ranchers falter, since he grew hay in the low lands to feed hay to the cattle in the winter.
As his fortunes improve, Lat begins to shun Callie for Conrad's niece Joyce (Patricia Owens). When Tom tells Lat that he plans to marry Jen, Lat questions his decision and calls Jen a tramp, causing Tom to angrily renounce their partnership.
One night, while Lat is dining at Conrad's, the banker proposes that he enter politics by running for the school board. Meanwhile, Callie, who has baked a cake for Lat, anxiously awaits his arrival, and when Jehu appears instead, she fights off his crude advances. After dinner, Joyce invites Lat to call on her if he is reputable. Lat goes to Callie's house and informs her that there is no place in his life for her. Soon after, Lat and Joyce are married and start a family. Jehu and Callie become lovers.
When Lat decides to run for U.S. Senator, he is visited by Jehu and rancher Frank Chanault (Tom Greenway), who use the promise of their votes to coerce him into joining a group of rancher vigilantes on the trail of some horse thieves. The ranchers corner the thieves at their mountain hideout, and after a gun battle, the two surviving rustlers surrender, and Lat is shocked to discover that Tom is one of them. After Tom confesses, he accuses Lat of worshiping the tin god of money. Jehu sentences Tom to hang, and when Lat protests that he be allowed to stand trial, Jehu knocks him unconscious and then hangs Tom.
Riddled with remorse, Lat returns home and Joyce hands him a distress note from Callie. Although Joyce jealousy forbids Lat to see Callie, Lat contends that he owes her a debt and proceeds to her house. There, Lat learns from her servant Happy (Ken Renard) that Jehu has savagely beaten Callie. Outraged, Lat goes in search of Jehu. After finding Jehu at the saloon, the two begin to fight and their brawl spills onto the street as the townsfolk watch in consternation. Pulling a rifle from a saddle, Jehu aims it at Lat just as a gunshot fired by Callie rings out, killing Jehu. Later, at home, Joyce forgives Lat, and when he informs her that he intends to testify at Callie's trial, she graciously gives her consent.

In 1916, as U.S. soldiers chase after Pancho Villa, Army Major Thomas Thorn (Gary Cooper) is assigned to be a battlefield observer and reward heroism. He has been suggested for this duty by a Colonel Rogers (Robert Keith), who is 63 years old and impatiently yearning to be promoted to general before mandatory retirement a few months hence.
Rogers leads his regiment in an old-fashioned but poorly planned Cavalry charge on Ojos Azules, a villa owned by Adelaide Geary (Rita Hayworth) where Villa's men withdrew after a victory over Mexican government troops, enjoying her hospitality. Thorn, excused from the fighting, observes through his binoculars various acts of heroism by Lt. Fowler (Tab Hunter), Sgt. Chawk (Van Heflin), Cpl. Trubee (Richard Conte) and Pvt. Renziehausen (Dick York) in defeating Villa's men.
Rogers is proud of having personally led the charge, but furious when Thorn won't nominate him for a citation. Thorn insists that leading his regiment in the charge was "in the line of duty" and refuses to consider a citation for the Medal of Honor, awarded for heroism "above and beyond the call of duty." Rogers reminds Thorn that he protected him from an investigation for cowardice, which he did out of respect for Thorn's father, but does not sway Thorn.
Thorn intends to recommend the four soldiers for the Medal of Honor. He is ordered to take along Mrs. Geary, who is charged with "giving aid and comfort to the enemy." A fifth soldier, a private (Michael Callan) also nominated by Thorn for a medal after an earlier battle, rides with them to the expedition's base at the Texas town of Cordura.
This seemingly simple task becomes increasingly complex as the incessant squabbling between Thorn and the men threatens to destroy them all. Eager to learn more about their acts of bravery, Thorn finds the men to be hostile toward him. A series of harrowing incidents make it clear that the apparent heroes were motivated by ambition, terror, or chance while it is the disgraced Thorn who possesses moral courage. The men soon become insubordinate ultimately turning against Thorn, forcing him to fight the soldiers to save his own life.

The film shows a family of French Basque immigrants pioneering into the Wild West while carrying their ancestral vines. Hard drinking trail driver Lon Bennett is hired to lead them and he falls for the spirited Gabrielle Dauphin.
The film is infamous among Basques for its misunderstandings of Basque customs, such as the use of the xistera (a device of the jai alai sport) as a weapon or shouting irrintzi ululations as meaningful communication. Other commentators, though, have noted the well staged action scenes, the absorbing story, and the excellent cinematography. Which is a marvel since 90% of the lead actors scenes were shot in a studio with projected backgrounds.

Shy mountain trapper Yancy (Audie Murphy) travels through Wyoming with his uncle and aunt. After Uncle Lije (George Mitchell) is injured by a bear, Yancy is sent to trade their beaver pelts for money and supplies.
When he arrives at the trading post, he finds it has been burnt down by an Indian who was sold moonshine by a lazy sneak thief, Ben Stocker (Strother Martin). The trading post owner tells Yancy that he will have to ride two more days to the nearest town to trade his furs.
Meanwhile, Stocker tries to trade his oldest daughter Rosalie (Sandra Dee) to Yancy for some furs. Yancy tells him to get out of there or else. The next day, Yancy finds that Rosalie has run away from her father and wants him to take her to town.
When they reach the town and he trades his furs, Yancy gets Rosalie some new clothes so she will be presentable to look for a job. The sheriff, Paul (Gilbert Roland), says he will find Rosalie a job at the dance hall and Yancy believes that this will be alright. He later finds out what goes on at the dance hall and goes to get Rosalie. The sheriff tells him to go and Yancy has to defend himself. Rosalie come out and follows Yancy. The next day as Yancy is loading up to leave for the mountains Rosalie is watching him and crying. Yancy tells her to be glad that she is staying at the general store and will be cared for by Mr. Forbes (Jim Backus) and his wife (Betty Harford). In the end, uncle Lije and Yancy are heading along a trail in the mountains, with Rosalie riding on the back of Yancy’s horse.

Martin Brady, at age 14, flees to Mexico from Texas after he kills the man who murdered his father. Now, fourteen years later, in 1880s Mexico, he is called Martin Bredi. He is a hired gun for a rich Mexican rancher and Chihuahuan warlord, Cipriano Castro. Brady starts to feel like he would like to return to Texas. Castro send him north to Puerto, Texas, to guard a load of silver ore, with the intention of smuggling arms.
When he gets to Texas he breaks his leg and has to stay put in the town while he heals. He is approached by the head of the Texas Rangers division in Puerto about joining after the Captain confirms his identity and lets Brady know that he will not be prosecuted for killing his father's murderer. He also is enamored by the ranger captain's daughter, Louisa Rucker.
After killing a man who injured a friend, he returns to Mexico and is sent on an impossible errand to deliver a load of gunpowder by General Marco Castro, the brother of Cipriano. The wagon blows up before it is delivered. After returning to Chihuahua, Cipriano Castro sends Brady to assassinate a rival Salcido; however, the Castros are suspicious of him and have him followed. During his sojourn in Chihuahua, he meets an acquaintance from Puerto and learns that the man he killed was a criminal with a reward for his death.
Wanted in the United States and now distrusted in Mexico, he makes his way back to Texas and on the way assists a lost column of Buffalo soldiers that is deep into Mexico fighting Apache Indians. Back in Texas, Brady joins the Texas Rangers, as part of a deal for his being a wanted man, and helps them fight the Apaches back in Mexico.
A crucial character to the story is Brady's horse, a black Andalusian stallion named Lágrimas ("tears").

In 1848, after the end of the Mexican–American War and with the advent of California statehood, an American gunslinger named Hatfield Carnes (Dennis Hopper) kills a Mexican man in California. He is arrested for the murder by Jim Ellison (Patrick Wayne), a former United States marine and now sheriff with neither a gun nor a badge. Appointed by prominent local businessman and politico Don Roberto de la Madrid (Roberto de la Madrid), Ellison has designs on de la Madrid's spoiled daughter, Elena (Yvonne Craig). By the book Judge Millard Isham (Dan O'Herlihy) arrives in town with Deputy Marshal Ben Stroud (Cliff Ketchum) to conduct the trial. Wanted tough guy Lee Hearn (Ken Curtis) has problems of his own with the law, but is willing to help Ellison as a deputy. Carnes is then placed on trial in the new Mexican Cession territory with the Hispanic populace waiting to learn if American justice will convict Carnes.

Jefferson Cody (Randolph Scott), whose wife was captured by Comanches, frees another man's wife and is taking her home. Three outlaws, led by the charming but malevolent Ben Lane (Claude Akins), reveal that the woman's husband has offered a $5,000 reward, making the woman, Lordsburg resident Mrs. Lowe (Nancy Gates), suspicious of Cody's motives in coming to her rescue.
Lane is known to Cody, who helped court-martial him from the army for killing "tame" Indians. The Comanche in the area, on the warpath due to recent Comanche scalpings, kill Frank (Skip Homeier), one of Lane's men, and make repeated attempts to kill the rest of the party. Lane attaches himself to Cody, intending to make it look like the Comanches killed Cody and to take the reward for himself.
Although her husband did not try to find her himself, the reward for the return of Mrs. Lowe is "dead or alive," so Lane prefers dead so she won't be able to testify against him. He tries to ambush her and Cody, and when partner Dobie (Richard Rust) refuses to help, Lane shoots him.
In a showdown in the hills, Cody gets the better of Lane. He escorts the woman back home, discovering that her husband is blind. Before he can be paid the $5,000, Cody rides away.
The town of Lordsburg is mentioned some 20 times in the movie, but not visited once.

Young outlaw Billy Wade, determined to reform, is roped into a robbery by rich businessman George Landon, then framed for it. Billy's brother Matt is sprung from prison by Landon on the condition he get Billy to go along with the theft. During a struggle for a gun, Matt is accidentally killed and his teenaged son Ted and others mistakenly believe Billy killed him in cold blood. Billy pretends to help bandit Ike Garvey but ultimately assists in his capture, earning Ted's forgiveness.

Wanted outlaw Tom Sabin rides to the town of Purgatory, ruled by a ruthless man named Hoag, who is deemed safe from being killed by virtue of being handicapped and in a wheelchair.
Tom befriends town deputy Dipper and attracts the interest of Hoag's beautiful daughter Mary, although he isn't sure whether to trust her. Hoag sends for three hired gunman to get Tom out of his town, but Tom gets the better of the first two, shooting both.
The third, Johnny Naco, is offered triple pay by Hoag to get the job done. All in town are shocked when Tom refuses to face Johnny. It turns out they are brothers. Tom took the blame for a crime Johnny committed, so a grateful Johnny doesn't want to kill him.
Johnny does shoot Hoag, who tries to kill Tom himself with a shotgun. But when townspeople ridicule Tom for not facing the outlaw, Johnny calls him out and draws, forcing Tom to shoot him. Tom leaves the sheriff's job to Dipper and rides off, Mary promising to meet him.

Logger Jim Hadley (Alan Ladd) and his lumberjack crew are looking for new forest to cut. They locate a prime prospect outside the town of Deep Wells. The residents of Deep Wells led by Laura Riley (Jeanne Crain) are opposed to the felling of the trees, believing that losing them would cause mudslides during the heavy rains. Conflict between the town's residents and the loggers is inevitable.

In the 1880s, followed by bill collectors, the Healy Dramatic Company arrives in Cheyenne to play at the west’s grandest theater. Continental actress, Angela, and owner-manager, Tom Healy, head a troupe that includes Della as ingenue, her mother, a character actress, Lorna, and a grand old Shakespearean ham, Doc Montague. After a creditor arrives, Angela collects a night’s receipt from a man named Pierce, the theater owner. She risks it all in a poker game with gunslinger Clint Mabry, puts herself up as collateral, and loses.
That night, the drama company left Cheyenne, with Mabry following them on his own horse. After meeting on the road in Indian country, in spite of Angelia's objections, Tom Healy agrees for Mabry to join them. During the halt, everyone would likely be killed by three Indians, but, at the last moment, Mabry guns down two of them and the last one escapes. With no time to spare, the team leaves along with the horses, leaving the cart and other things behind. Soon, the Indians return to attack after receiving news about them from the one that got away. After a long trek, the fleeing theater team finally reach the mountains.
Meanwhile, De Leon of Bonanza, who hired Mabry to kill three persons in Cheyenne for a contract of $5000, refuses to pay the money to him. De Leon hires another three people to kill Mabry before he can return to take care of him. One of them comes through the mountain road in search of Mabry, while the other two wait at another location.
After crossing the mountain peak, the team stops for a rest near a water fountain. Tom, Angela, and Mabry become involved in a quarrel, and Angela confesses that she lost herself to Mabry in a poker game. Consequently, Mabry claims her as his property, which upsets Tom.
When Angela is by the fountain, Mabry approaches her, as does Tom. From a distant spot, one of the gunman, hired by De Leon, shoots Tom, thinking he is Mabry. Mabry catches up with him and learns of the De Leon contract on his life.
Finally, they reach a nearby city where Tom suffers from a high fever due to his wound. Tom decides to break up the drama company and tells Angela to go back to her own place, where, after selling the horses, he will send her share of the money to her.
Mabry asks Angela to help him get the $5000 from De Leon. She collects the money and decides to wait in Bonanza for a suitable time when Mabry can join her. Out of the $5000, Mabry tells her to keep what she lost in the poker game.
However, De Leon instructs his two spies to follow her and get the address where she is staying. As she comes out of De Leon's office, on the opposite side of the road she sees that the theater is for sale. She purchases it with the $5000, and decides to name it after Tom, or “Healy’s Theater”.
After recovering from his wounds, Tom, and the other team members, come to Bonanza. With great surprise, they see the theater. Upon entering, they observe Angela rehearsing. They all share a happy reunion and eventually stage the drama "Mazeppa" to great success.
Mabry arrives to claim his money from Angela and she confesses that she spent it all on the theater. As a result of the success of their production, she eventually returns the original money to Mabry. However, Mabry is eventually noticed by De Leon's henchmen and Tom aids his escape.
Finally, in the empty theater, Tom impatiently waits for Angela, as she is missing along with Mabry. She finally arrives and assures Tom that she settled all monetary differences with Mabry by mortgaging the theater. Surprised, Tom asks her how she could do this when it is in his name. She replies that she signed the contract as Mrs. Thomas Healy. Tom takes her into his arms and they happily depart. 

In 1901, after finding gold in Nome, Alaska, George Pratt (Stewart Granger) sends partner Sam McCord (John Wayne) to Seattle, Washington to bring back his fiancée, Jenny Lamont (Lilyan Chauvin), a French girl whom Sam has never met.
Finding that George's girl has already married another man, Sam brings back prostitute "Angel" (Capucine) as a substitute. There is a misunderstanding: she thinks Sam wants her for himself and becomes enamored with him on the boat trip to Alaska, during which he treats her like a respectable lady.
An angry George rejects the girl outright, though his younger brother Billy (Fabian) is definitely interested. Meanwhile, conman and saloon owner Frankie Cannon (Ernie Kovacs) tries to steal their gold claim.
In time, George takes a liking to Angel and is willing to marry her. But once he realizes that she has fallen for his partner, he does everything in his power to coax Sam into admitting that he, too, is in love.
Meanwhile, the men discovered Cannon's scam after he cons an illiterate drunk named Peter Boggs, so they try to reclaim their right in the court. An all-out brawl in the town's muddy streets brings it all to an end. Angel decides to leave but is convinced to stay once Sam yells out publicly: "Because I love you!"

The film revolves around the court-martial of 1st Sgt. Braxton Rutledge (Strode), a "Buffalo Soldier" of the 9th U.S. Cavalry. His defense is handled by Lt. Tom Cantrell (Hunter), Rutledge's troop officer. The story is told through a series of flashbacks, expanding the testimony of witnesses as they describe the events following the murder of Rutledge's Commanding Officer, Major Dabney, and the rape and murder of Dabney's daughter, for which Rutledge is the accused.
Circumstantial evidence suggests that the first sergeant raped and murdered the girl and then killed his commanding officer. Worse still, Rutledge deserts after the killings. Ultimately, he is tracked down and arrested by Lt. Cantrell. At one point, Rutledge escapes from captivity during an Indian raid, but later, he voluntarily returns to warn his fellow cavalrymen that they are about to face an ambush, thus saving the troop. He is then brought back in to face the charges and the prejudices of an all-white military court.
Eventually he is found not guilty of the rape and murder of the girl when a local white man breaks down under questioning and admits that he raped the girl.

Seven Jones (Murphy), is a young Texas Ranger on his first assignment, assigned to bring in the outlaw Jim Flood (Sullivan) well known for his flashy lifestyle. Despite his inexperience Seven manages to capture the outlaw, but finds his efforts to bring his prisoner to jail complicated by people who for various reasons are out to kill him, and other people who consider Flood to be a hero and want to rescue him.

After her young son is killed in a bank robbery, Kit Tilden (Maureen O'Hara) is determined to bury him beside his father in Siringo, now deserted and located in Apache territory. Yellowleg (Brian Keith), the ex-army sergeant who accidentally killed her son, decides to help take the body across the desert to be buried, whether Kit wants help or not.

In 1880 four escapees from death row, Crip (Vic Morrow), Leo (Lee Van Cleef), Chunk (Henry Wills) and Hash (Charles Horvath) ride into the town of Paradise and enter the Rosebud Saloon. Crip shoots the town marshal Isaac Webb (Ward Ramsey) and takes ten men as hostages, killing some to ensure the four are unmolested. The gang leaves town with $11,200 from the Bank of Paradise and a female hostage Helen Caldwell (Zohra Lampert) who entered the bar because her alcoholic Uncle Billy (Royal Dano) was one of the captives.
Prior to these events, Marshal Webb had sent for a friend and former gunfighter Banner Cole (Audie Murphy) to take his place in leading a posse to rescue Helen and bring the men to justice. Though not a criminal, Cole is a loner that Webb wishes to enter the community through his being deputised. Cole is enraged to discover that the townspeople have put Webb on a table next to the three dead bodies of those murdered by the four. The doctor (Forrest Lewis) said at first they thought Webb was dead himself, then realised he couldn't be moved so left him among the corpses.
Webb's last act is to deputise Cole telling him to do the right thing, not out of hate, but out of liking people as the townsfolk are good people who have had bad things done to them. Cole agrees only out of liking Webb. The laconic Cole makes his original plan for hunting down the four by himself clear by turning down the offer of Webb's handcuffs by saying "I won't be needing any." However, town elder Benson convinces Cole to follow Webb's wishes and organize a posse.
The men of the town gather but enthusiasm wanes when not as many able bodied men as expected volunteer to go up against the killers, some men leaving because the posse doesn't outnumber the killers by ten to one. Cole's frank assessment of the situation scares others off with Cole saying "If they're afraid of words they shouldn't go."
Cole's posse eventually consists of the aged former Army Captain Jeremiah Brown (Robert Keith), who wishes to lead the posse himself in the manner of his long ago Army days, Uncle Billy, Burt Hogan (Frank Overton), who wishes to revenge his brother Burl (Allan Lane) murdered by the four, Jock Wiley (Paul Carr), a young gunhand seeking the experience to establish his reputation as a gunfighter, Seymour Kern (John Saxon), a bank employee who has just arrived on a special assignment from the New York parent and is browbeaten into joining to look after the bank's missing money and avoid taunts of cowardice from the bank manager (Ray Teal), and Johnny Caddo (Rudolph Acosta), an Indian who merely thinks that joining is "the right thing to do."
Cole doesn't want any of the inexperienced and troublesome men to come with him but he has no choice. The posse discover Helen who has been left behind tied up near a rattlesnake that Cole is able to remove from Helen's vicinity. Helen has been raped and is unwilling to return to the town to face the shame of being vilified by the population. Cole orders the willing Uncle Billy to return her by force if necessary.
Captain Brown demonstrates his aged incompetence by disobeying Cole's orders and opening fire and nearly murdering four cowhands who he mistakes for the four killers. Cole has to wound Jeremiah to stop his shooting spree and orders him back to town with the cowhands who have been waylaid by the killers.
Cole's distrust of his own posse begins to subside when he is impressed by the determination of the inexperienced Seymour who has never ridden a horse or used a firearm before and the quiet Johnny Caddo's acceptance of the prejudicial treatment he gets from the posse. The posse tracks the four to a farmhouse and surrounds it until Hogan makes a noise starting a gunfight. Cole kills one of the outlaws. The boasting Wiley is unable to actually kill a man and is killed as he freezes, allowing the remaining three to escape. Hogan begins shooting the corpse of the outlaw that Cole himself killed telling himself and the posse that Hogan himself killed the man who killed his own brother. When the men note that all the witnesses agree that it was actually Hash who had murdered his brother, Hogan refuses to listen and leaves the posse to return to town.
Cole, Caddo, and Seymour continue tracking the party to the desert but realise that the outlaws have doubled back and are intending on returning to shoot up Paradise.

In 1870 1st Lt. Curtis McQuade (Hamilton), a cavalry officer without field experience, arrives from the East at Fort Canby, the remote, understaffed post where he was born as the son of the then-post commander. He attempts to adjust to this new life under the once-disgraced Captain Maddocks (Boone), a wily but embittered veteran of Indian fighting who served under McQuade's father. They immediately clash when Maddocks demonstrates to the cocksure McQuade that the general knowledge of the West he gained as a child at Canby is not enough to permit him to command men in the field.
On the day McQuade reports, Maddocks is burying four troopers from a patrol led by Lt. Porter (Chamberlain), killed in a running fight with a large band of "hostiles" believed to be Comanches. They have also brought back a severely traumatized little girl, the only survivor of the massacre of a family at a distant ranch. The funeral casts gloom on the otherwise festive visit of Tracey Hamilton, also from the East and soon to wed Maddocks' second-in-command, Lt. Tom Gresham (Douglas). McQuade had previously been romantically involved with Tracey and immediately renews their affair. Gresham is assigned to lead another patrol to the suspected location of the hostiles but on the evening of his departure discovers the affair and an ugly scene ensues.
When Maddocks learns the next day that Gresham deviated from his orders, he leads McQuade and the troop in search of him without success. Finally one night they discover the bodies of Gresham and his men when they stop to bivouac. McQuade is shaken that his indiscretion may have caused Gresham to be dispirited and unwary but Maddocks is more pragmatic, disgusted that Gresham allowed himself to be fatally distracted. Prohibited by standing orders from conducting a retaliatory attack, Maddocks divides what is left of his troop, sending McQuade and nine men, including wise and seasoned 1st Sgt. Rodermill (O'Connell), to a nearby mesa as bait to lure the hostile band into attacking first.
The tactic works but McQuade's small group is hard-pressed by their attackers. Maddocks arrives with the main body in time to win the engagement but Rodermill is killed. McQuade discovers that their opponents were not Comanches at all, but Apaches, which Maddocks knew all along, having learned to "out-think them all." Maddocks is satisfied that a change in McQuade's attitude means that he is on the road to becoming a good officer. Upon his return to Canby, McQuade finds Tracey leaving, taking the little girl to her relatives in the East. Maddocks consoles McQuade with the thought that bachelors make the best soldiers because "they have nothing to lose but their loneliness."

In the 1880s, Marshal Guthrie McCabe (James Stewart) is content to be the business and personal partner of attractive saloon owner Belle Aragon (Annelle Hayes), receiving ten percent of the profits. When relatives of Comanche captives demand that Army Major Fraser (John McIntire) free them, he uses a combination of army pressure and high pay to get the reluctant McCabe to take on the job of ransoming any he can find. He assigns Lieutenant Jim Gary (Richard Widmark) to accompany McCabe.
Marty Purcell (Shirley Jones) is haunted by the memory of her abducted younger brother Steve. She keeps a music box that belonged to him. McCabe warns her that Steve will not remember her because he was a young boy when he was taken years ago. McCabe is also promised a large reward by the wealthy stepfather of another boy.
McCabe bargains with Chief Quanah Parker (Henry Brandon) and finds four white captives. Two refuse to go back with him. One is a young woman who is married to a Comanche and has children. The other is an old woman who is believed to be dead and regards herself as being as good as dead. There is also a young man named Running Wolf, who McCabe hopes is the lost son of the wealthy family. The fourth is a Mexican woman, Elena de la Madriaga (Linda Cristal). However, she is the wife of Stone Calf (Woody Strode), a militant rival of Parker. As they leave the camp, Stone Calf tries to take back his woman and is killed by McCabe, much to Quanah Parker's satisfaction.
Running Wolf makes it very clear that he hates white people and the rich man refuses to accept him. However, a woman is convinced that Running Wolf is her lost son and claims him. Later, when she tries to cut his hair, he kills her. The settlers decide to lynch the murderer, despite Lieutenant Gary's attempt to stop them. As they drag him away, Running Wolf knocks over Marty's music box. He hears it play and recognizes the melody. Marty cannot save him and is forced to accept that nothing could have been done to bring back the brother she remembered. She accepts Gary's proposal of marriage.
Meanwhile, Elena finds herself ostracized by white society as a woman who degraded herself by submitting to a savage rather than killing herself. She decides to try her luck in California. Meanwhile, McCabe discovers that Belle took his deputy as a lover in his absence and got him elected to replace McCabe as marshal, causing him to complain, "I didn't get a chance to vote for myself - not even once." However, he has fallen in love with Elena, so he decides to go to California with her.

John W. "Jack" Burns (Kirk Douglas) works as a roaming ranch hand much as the cowboys of the old West did, refusing to join modern society. He rejects much of modern technology, not even carrying any identification such as a driver's license or draft card. He can't provide an address because he just sleeps wherever he finds a place.
As Burns crosses a highway into a town in New Mexico, his horse Whiskey has a difficult time crossing the road, confused and scared by the traffic. They enter town to visit Jerry (Gena Rowlands). She is the wife of an old friend, Paul Bondi (Michael Kane), who has been jailed for giving aid to illegal immigrants. Jack explains his dislike for a society that restricts a man on where he can or can't go, what he can or can't do.
To break Bondi out of jail, Burns decides he himself needs to get arrested. After a violent barroom fight against a one-armed man (Bill Raisch) in which he is forced to use only one arm himself, Burns is arrested. When the police decide to let him go, he deliberately punches a cop to get himself re-arrested. He is now facing a probable sentence of a year in jail, which allows him to see Bondi, with a purpose of helping him escape. The town is a sleepy border town and the cops are mostly bored, occasionally dealing with minor offenses. The Sheriff, Morey Johnson (Walter Matthau), has to compel them to pay attention to their duties at times. During the course of the story, the seemingly unrelated progress of a tractor-trailer truck carrying toilets, driven by Carroll O'Connor, is inter-cut with the principal events.
Joining Bondi in jail, Burns tries to persuade him to escape. He tells Bondi he couldn't spend a year locked up because he'd probably kill someone. Burns defends Bondi from the attention of sadistic Deputy Sheriff Gutierrez (George Kennedy), who picks Burns as his next target. During the night the inmates saw through one of the jail's bars using two hacksaw blades Burns hid in his boot. The deputy summons Burns in the middle of the night and beats him. Upon returning to his cell, Burns tries to persuade Bondi to join him in escaping, but Bondi, nearing the end of his sentence, and having a family and too much at stake to become a fugitive from the law, decides to remain. Burns breaks out by himself and returns to Bondi's house, where he picks up his horse and some food from Bondi's wife. After the jail break, the Sheriff learns that Burns served in the military during the Korean War, including seven months in a disciplinary training center for striking a superior officer. He also received a Purple Heart and a Distinguished Service Cross with oak leaf clusters for his valor during battle.
Burns heads for the mountains on horseback with the goal of crossing the border into Mexico. The police mount an extensive search, with Sheriff Johnson and his Deputy Sheriff Harry (William Schallert) following him in a jeep. A military helicopter is brought in, and when the air crew locates Burns, they relay his location to the sheriff. Whiskey is repeatedly spooked by the helicopter and other modern noises. Burns shoots the tail rotor, damaging it and causing the pilot to lose control and crash land.
Deputy Gutierrez also chases Burns. He sees the horse and is preparing to shoot when Burns sneaks up, knocking him unconscious with the his rifle butt. Burns leads his horse up impossibly difficult, rocky slopes to escape his pursuers, but the lawmen keep on his trail, forcing him to keep moving. Surrounded on three sides, Burns' horse refuses at first to climb a steep slope. They finally surmount the crest of the Sandia Mountains and escape into the east side of the mountains, a broad stand of heavy timber, with the lawmen shooting at him. The Sheriff acknowledges that Burns has evaded their attempts to capture him. Burns is shot through the ankle during his dash to the timber.
Burns appears to have escaped the law and his trackers late at night when he tries to cross Highway 66 in Tijeras Canyon during a heavy rainstorm. His horse is spooked, confused by noise of the traffic and blinded by the lights. The truck driver hauling the load of toilets, his vision obscured by rain, strikes Burns and his horse as they are attempting to cross the road. The sheriff arrives and, asked by the state police if Burns is the man he has been looking for, says he can't identify him, because he's never seen the man he is looking for up close. The sheriff does not request that any effort be made to identify Burns. The viewer is allowed to think that maybe the sheriff actually believes the man to be Burns, but has chosen to not take him into custody. Whiskey, who is seriously wounded, is euthanized. The Sheriff and his deputy Harry head home; Burns is transported from the scene in an ambulance. It is left unclear whether he will survive his injuries. The film closes with a shot of Burns' cowboy hat swamped by rain in the middle of the highway.

In the early years of the twentieth century, an aging ex-lawman, Steve Judd (Joel McCrea), is hired to guard a shipment of gold from a high country mining camp to the town of Hornitos, California. Six miners were recently murdered trying to transport their gold on the one trail leading down from the crest of the Sierra Nevada. In his prime, Judd was a tough and respected lawman, but now his threadbare clothes and spectacles serve as reminders that he is long past his prime. Judd enlists the help of his old friend and partner Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott) to guard the gold shipment. Gil, who makes his living passing himself off as a legendary sharpshooter named The Oregon Kid, enlists the help of his young sidekick, Heck Longtree (Ron Starr).
Judd, Gil, and Heck ride up into the mountains toward the Coarse Gold mining camp. Judd doesn't know that Gil and Heck are planning to steal the gold for themselves—preferably with Judd's help, but without it if necessary. Along the way they stop for the night at the farm of Joshua Knudsen (R. G. Armstrong) and his daughter Elsa (Mariette Hartley). Knudsen is a domineering religious man who warns against those who "traffic in gold" and trades Bible verses with Judd at the dinner table. That night, Elsa and Heck meet in the moonlight, but Knudsen interrupts their conversation. Back at the house, he admonishes and slaps her for her behavior. Unable to tolerate her domineering father any longer, Elsa leaves her home the next morning. She later joins Judd, Gil, and Heck on their ride to Coarse Gold where she intends to marry her fiancé. Along the way she and Heck flirt and he tries to force himself on her but is stopped by Judd.
When they reach the Coarse Gold mining camp, they soon discover that the girl's fiancé, Billy Hammond (James Drury), is a drunken lout who intends to prostitute her to his four thuggish brothers, Elder (John Anderson), Sylvus (L. Q. Jones), Jimmy (John Davis Chandler) and Henry (Warren Oates). Judd and Heck rescue the girl from the marriage, and the next morning, Judd, Gil, Heck and Elsa start back towards town with the gold. Along the way, Judd talks to Gil about right and wrong and how that's "something you just know." After all the lost years working in disreputable places, he tells Gil that he's now grateful to have gained back some of his self-respect and intends on keeping it "with the help of you and that boy back there." When Gil asks if that's all he wants, Judd replies, "All I want is to enter my House justified."
Realizing Judd will never go along with his plan to steal the gold, Gil plans to steal the gold without his help. During the night as Gil and Heck prepare to leave with the gold, Judd confronts them at gunpoint. Angered by his old friend's betrayal, he slaps him and challenges him to a draw, but Gil throws down his guns. Planning to put them on trial when they return to town, Judd is forced to change his plans when the Hammond brothers appear in hot pursuit of the girl. In the ensuing gunfight, two of the brothers, Jimmy and Sylvus, are killed, and Billy, Elder and Henry escape.
During the night, Gil leaves camp and heads back to the site of the gunfight, where he takes a horse and gun from one of the dead brothers . Then he follows Judd, Heck, and Elsa down the only trail. Meanwhile, Heck has shown himself to be trustworthy, and even though he will most likely go to prison, Elsa tells him she'll be there when he gets out. When they reach Elsa's farm, the Hammond brothers are waiting, having already killed her father. A gunfight breaks out and soon both Judd and Heck are wounded. Just then Gil comes riding in to help his old friend, and together the pair insult and challenge the brothers to a face-to-face shootout in the open. When the dust settles, the three brothers are dead, but Judd is mortally wounded. He tells his old friend, "I don't want them to see this. I want to go it alone." When Gil pledges to take care of everything just like he would have, Judd says, "Hell, I know that. I always did. You just forgot it for a while, that's all." Judd casts a look back towards the high country and then dies. The film's final shot is of a mountain in the background.

Ben Lane (Audie Murphy) is breaking a horse in the desert that he believes to be stray. He is caught by some farmers who believe he is a horse thief when he is saved by Frank Jesse (Dan Duryea). Lane and Jesse are hired by Kelly (Joan O'Brien) who pays them to take her to a town to be with her husband. In reality, Kelly is setting up Jesse because he killed her husband in a shootout. A unique part of the film is that Lane takes in a collie dog that goes with him everywhere, including riding the pack horse.


On the Sunset Strip, two unlikely men rendezvous: Samuel Hill, an unkempt desert miner, and Benjamin Jabowski, a John Birch Society dandy from the city. Intent on some sort of mayhem, they enter the Herald Club before the burlesque show starts, and they wire something to the electrical box, set to blow at midnight. They sit at the back of the club to get to know each other. As they drink and glance at the stage, Sam tells of a partner driven mad by visions of naked women in the sagebrush; Ben tells a tale of trying to rid his neighborhood of a pin-up studio. As they get drunker and the clock ticks toward midnight, they pull their chairs closer to the women on stage.

In 1870, a shipment of $100,000 being transported by stagecoach to Galveston, Texas, is the object of a tug-of-war in the desert between Zack Thomas (Frank Sinatra) and Joe Jarrett (Dean Martin), who first must stave off an outlaw band led by Matson (Charles Bronson).
Later, in Galveston, Thomas and Jarrett become rivals in a bid to open a waterfront casino. Each has a new romantic attachment as well, with the beauties Elya (Anita Ekberg) and Maxine (Ursula Andress), respectively. They eventually must join forces to hold off the villainous Matson and a corrupt banker, Burden (Victor Buono), to keep their new gambling boat afloat.

A gang of Colorado bank robbers led by Amos Troop (DeForest Kelley) uses a technique where they break prisoners out of jail, use them to commit crimes, then later kill them to collect the reward. A detective, Gifford (Audie Murphy), goes undercover with the gang to bring them to justice.
Saloon owner Abbie Stevens takes a liking to Gifford while he infiltrates the gang. So does a young outlaw, Kid Carter, who goes to the town's marshal to get help for Gifford, only to discover the marshal's actually the ringleader of the gang. Help arrives in the nick of time, and Gifford guns down Troop and his men.

A U.S. Cavalry patrol including prisoner Wade Cooper (Dale Robertson) is ambushed as they are crossing the territory of Arizona by the Coyotero, a savage Indian tribe of the Apache nation. All are killed except Cooper who is left for dead. He wanders across the wasteland and is found near collapse by Nancy Mailer (Martha Hyer) who brings him to the Trading Post run by her husband, Clint Mailer (Wendell Corey). Mailer recognized Cooper as a hunted man with a price on his head, and refuses to assist in his recovery from wounds until his wife convinces him that he will die unless given medical attention. Mailer who has discovered a rich vein of gold and is resolved to go to any length to protect his find, is now blind with suspicion, both over the gold and jealousy of his wife, with Cooper at the Post.
As the tensions mount amongst the three, a Coyotero raid traps them and takes Mailers son, Tim (Dandy Curran) and holds him as hostage with the understanding that Mailer will deliver hundreds of rifles within seven days to the Indians for their continued warfare against the white man. Clint Mailer leaves to get the rifles and in the interim, Cooper and Nancy Mailer are drawn closer together with the revelation that Tim is not the son of Mailer. Mailer returns without rifles. Cooper then executes a plan involving the stealing of the rifles from the army post, placing them in the gold mine carefully leaving the mine booby trapped. The mine is blown up as the Indians approach it, Tim is rescued, Cooper and Nancy escape and set out to start a new life with Tim.

Logan Keliher, a retired Ranger, meets up with an old friend, Sam Ward, who has turned outlaw and is angry at Keliher for marrying his former wife. Ward and his gang rob a bank and Keliher goes to track him down.

In 1878, Chiefs Little Wolf (Ricardo Montalban) and Dull Knife (Gilbert Roland) led over three hundred starved and weary Cheyenne from their reservation in the Oklahoma territory to their traditional home in Wyoming. The US government sees this as an act of rebellion, and the sympathetic Captain Thomas Archer (Richard Widmark) is forced to lead his troops in an attempt to stop the tribe. As the press misrepresents the natives' motives and goals for their trek as malicious, Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz (Edward G. Robinson) tries to prevent violence from erupting between the army and the natives. Also featured are James Stewart as Wyatt Earp, Dolores del Río as "Spanish Woman" and Carroll Baker as a pacifist Quaker school teacher and Archer's love interest.

Confederate veteran Matt Weaver (George Segal) returns home to New Mexico after the Civil War and discovers his farm was sold by a banker named Brewster (Pat Hingle). His fiancee Ruth (Janice Rule) has married another man in his absence.
Ruth's husband and other Union sympathizers in town resent Weaver's allegiance to the Rebels during the war. His town turns against him, and soon Brewster hires a mulatto gunman named d'Estaing (Yul Brynner) to come to town and provoke Weaver into a fatal fight. However, the gunfighter becomes a malevolent and sinister force and so the town leaders are forced to turn to the Rebel whom they once wanted dead, to save them from the killer they hired.

Three disparate travelers, a disillusioned preacher (William Shatner), an unsuccessful prospector (Howard Da Silva), and a larcenous, cynical con man (Edward G. Robinson), meet at a decrepit railroad station in the 1870s Southwest. The prospector and the preacher were witnesses at the memorable rape and murder trial of the notorious bandit Juan Carrasco (Paul Newman). The bandit duped an aristocratic Southerner, Colonel Wakefield (Laurence Harvey), into believing he knew the location of a lost Aztec treasure. The greedy "gentleman" allowed himself to be tied up while Carasco assaulted his wife Nina (Claire Bloom). These events lead to the stabbing of the husband and Carrasco was tried, convicted, and condemned for the crimes.
Everyone's account on the witness stand differed dramatically. Carrasco claimed that Wakefield was tied up with ropes while Nina was assaulted, after which he killed the colonel in a duel. The newlywed wife contends that she was the one who killed her husband because he accused her of leading on Carrasco and causing the rape. The dead man "testifies" through a third witness, an old Indian shaman (Paul Fix), who said that neither of those accounts was true. He insisted that the colonel used a jeweled dagger to commit suicide after the incident.
It turns out that there was a fourth witness, the prospector, one with a completely new view of what actually took place. But can his version be trusted?

Clint Cooper (Audie Murphy) returns to his home town, which he had left in disgrace, to claim his father's ranch. On the way he runs into his old gang, led by Spangler (Ted de Corsia), who plan on robbing the town. Clint arrives back in town to find most of the men have left on a cattle drive. He tries to warn them of the impending robbery. He agrees to help the sheriff, an old friend of his called Scotty (James Best), defend the town against the gang. Clint also starts up a relationship with his old girlfriend, Helen (Merry Anders).

In his last act before retirement, Horne, a western sheriff, tracks down the Sawyer brothers, who have robbed a bank of $50,000. He kills one and apprehends the other. Ross Sawyer, a wanted outlaw and father of the boys, intends to intercept the stagecoach before Horne can bring his son Reese to justice.
Leah Parker returns to her family, who run the stagecoach depot. The Parkers are in dire need of money and hope Leah can help, although her reputation as a lady is in question. Without her daughter's knowledge, Myra Parker accepts a bribe to help the Sawyers defeat the sheriff.
Also in need of money to help his blind daughter, Sam Swope is deputized by the town and goes after Ross Sawyer, but is shot. Horne shoots it out with Ross and prevails, then turns in his badge and plans to settle down with Leah.


Santee becomes a bounty hunter to earn enough to marry Anna, the woman he loves. But when he returns to their Kansas town, she has married the sheriff instead.
Out of spite, Santee schemes with land baron Kile to ruin the town's reputation so a railroad will be built by Kile's property instead. He arranges for a brothel madam, Sadie, and her employees to come to town. Reverend Tanner and other townspeople are appalled.
When things get out of hand, Tanner even being tarred and feathered, Santee changes sides. He helps clean up the community, then rides away, wishing Anna well.

The notorious bounty hunter Luke Chilson pursues the Mexican fugitive Jose Gomez. He follows him through the desert only to arrive in a Mexican village where Gomez achieves to turn the peasants against his hunter. Unaware of the danger Chilson finds himself trapped.

Catherine Ballou (Jane Fonda), who wants to be a schoolteacher, is returning home by train to Wolf City, Wyoming, to the ranch of her father, Frankie Ballou (John Marley). On the way, she unwittingly helps accused cattle rustler Clay Boone (Michael Callan) elude his captor, Sheriff Maledon (Bruce Cabot), when Boone's Uncle Jed (Dwayne Hickman), a drunkard disguised as a preacher, distracts the lawman.
At the ranch, she learns that the Wolf City Development Corporation is scheming to take the ranch from her father, whose sole defender is his ranch hand, an educated Native American, Jackson Two-Bears (Tom Nardini). Clay and Jed appear and reluctantly offer to help Catherine, and she hires legendary gunfighter Kid Shelleen (Lee Marvin) to help protect her father from gunslinger Tim Strawn (also played by Lee Marvin), the hired killer who is threatening him.
Shelleen arrives, a drunken bum whose pants fall down when he draws his gun, and who is unable to hit a barn when he shoots. Strawn kills Frankie, and when the townspeople refuse to bring Strawn to justice, Catherine becomes a revenge-seeking outlaw known as Cat Ballou. She and her gang rob a train carrying the Wolf City payroll, then take refuge in "Hole-in-the-Wall", where desperados go to hide from the law, but are thrown out when it is learned what they have done, since Hole-in-the-Wall can only continue to exist on the sufferance of Wolf City. Shelleen, inspired by his love for Cat, works himself into shape, dresses up in his finest gunfighting outfit, and goes into town to kill Strawn, casually revealing later that Strawn is his brother. In a humorous scene, Shelleen enters the funeral parlor where Frankie's body is resting, and sings "Happy Birthday" before blowing out the candles.
Cat poses as a prostitute and confronts Sir Harry Percival (Reginald Denny), the head of the Wolf City Development Corporation. A struggle ensues, Sir Harry is killed, and Cat is sentenced to be hanged on the gallows. With Sir Harry dead, there's no hope for Wolf City's future, and the townspeople have no mercy for Cat. As the noose is placed around her neck, Uncle Jed appears, again dressed as a preacher, and cuts the rope just as the trapdoor is opened. Cat falls through and onto a wagon and her gang spirits her away in a daring rescue.

The film begins at Board of Inquiry over the Battle of the Little Big Horn; specifically examining the conduct of Major Marcus Reno. Captain Bill Benton (perhaps inspired by Frederick Benteen) is called to the stand, and rather than merely answer questions from the board states that he will tell his version of the "true story" that the audience sees through flashback.
Benton relates his first arrival in the Wild West where his detachment is escorting the wife of the local Indian Agent Mr. Turner. The Indians attack the party and abduct Mrs Turner away from Benton's command. Benton's Army Scout "Dakota" advises against tracking the Indians until the next day due to their laying false trails that lead into ambushes. Dakota and Benton come across a wounded Indian who Dakota shoots so he will not have to starve on an Indian Reservation.
Received by his commanding officer Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, Benton is gently told his first encounter with the enemy has been disastrous but Custer confirms that he did the right thing by following Dakota's advice not to pursue the hostile party. Custer invites Benton to a dress dance held at the fort that evening and dismisses the distraught Mr. Turner by telling him that he will visit the hostile Indians who abducted his wife in the morning.
Benton's fiancee Caroline Reno is at the fort, but their relationship has grown cold due to Caroline's father Major Reno hating Benton. At the dress ball, where Custer wears a major general's tunic with Colonel's insignia, Major Reno comes in drunk and demands everyone address him as "Major General Reno" due to his former rank in the Confederate States of America's army and salute him. Custer replies with good nature attempting to reconcile the former warriors of the North and South but Reno is in a bad mood. He physically attacks Benton but only hits the floor prompting Benton to inform Caroline that her "family tree has fallen".
The next day Benton join's Custer's patrol who meet Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull to negoitiate Mrs. Turner's release. The Indians propose Custer release all his Indian prisoners in exchange for Mrs Turner. Custer decides on a compromise, he will hang the Indian leaders if Mrs Turner is not released. Mrs Turner is released.
Custer gains Benton's respect by Custer's disgust at the corrupt Indian Agents who he feels have been put in place by a corrupt Federal Administration that Custer and his wife Libby will confront in Washington. Before their departure the captive Indians unsuccessfully attempt to escape and are slaughtered.
In Washington, D.C., Colonel Custer destroys his military career by formally accusing many Federal politicians with corruption including Orvil Grant, the brother of the President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant. When the President refuses to meet with Custer, he begins to realise his military career may have come to a premature end.
Meanwhile, back in the West the Army's commander General Alfred Howe Terry visits the fort and summons Major Reno and Captain Benton to inform them that Custer is going to be court martialed. Major Reno is deflated when the General offers Captain Benton command of the 7th Cavalry and a promotion to Brevet Colonel. Captain Benton refuses and considers resigning his commission out of loyalty to his commander. Major Reno's daughter browbeats her father who says he will not accept command of the Regiment, gives his blessing to Caroline and Benton's marriage and gives up his drinking.
In Washington Senator James G. Blaine visits the humbled Custer and tempts him with an offer to be the party's candidate for President of the United States. The Senator informs Custer this can be accomplished through obtaining a reputation through his military exploits in a war with the Indians. The Senator assigns a newspaper journalist/minder possibly based on Mark Kellogg to Custer who is sent back without court martial to his Regiment.
Benton notices that Custer's empathetic feelings for the Native Americans have vanished and he is pushing his regiment into a war where he can claim glory. Custer motivates his command by personally shooting deserters in the back including his scout Dakota who has turned from Indian baiter to Indian booster. This prompts Benton to strike his commanding officer where he is arrested. He is freed by Indians who know of his attempts to help their people at the aborted escape but when his Indian friends are ambushed by a cavalry patrol Benton attempts to warn Colonel Custer of a mass Indian army made up of a combination of several tribes.

During the American Civil War, Union cavalry officer Major Amos Dundee (Charlton Heston) has been relieved of his command for an unspecified tactical error at the Battle of Gettysburg (it is implied that he showed too much initiative) and sent to head a prisoner-of-war camp in the New Mexico Territory. After a family of ranchers and a relief column of cavalry are massacred by an Apache war chief named Sierra Charriba (Michael Pate), Dundee seizes the opportunity for glory, raising his own private army of Union troops (black and white), Confederate prisoners led by his former friend and rival from their days at West Point, Captain Ben Tyreen (Richard Harris), several Indian scouts, and a gang of civilian mercenaries to illegally pursue Charriba into Mexico. Tyreen bears a grudge against Dundee. Before the war, Dundee cast the deciding vote in Tyreen's court-martial from the U.S. Army for participating in a duel, leading to Tyreen later becoming an officer in the Confederate Army. However, having given his word of honor, the chivalrous Tyreen binds himself and his men to serve loyally, but only until Charriba has been dispatched.
When the diverse factions of Dundee's force are not fighting each other, they engage the Apaches in several bloody battles. Though they rescue several young children captured by the Apaches, the Americans lose most of their supplies in an ambush, forcing them to raid a village garrisoned by French troops supporting Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. However, there is little to loot, and Dundee ends up sharing some of his dwindling food with the starving Mexicans. Beautiful resident Teresa Santiago (Senta Berger), the Austrian widow of a doctor executed for his support of the rebels under Benito Juárez, causes further tensions between Dundee and Tyreen.
Dundee makes it easy for his French prisoners to escape. When they return with reinforcements as he had expected, Dundee surprises them in a night attack and makes off with badly needed supplies. Teresa and Dundee have a brief affair. In an unguarded moment with her, he is attacked by the Apaches, and wounded in the leg, forcing him to seek medical help in French-held Durango. The doctor successfully removes the arrow, but Dundee has to remain there to recuperate. He is tended by a pretty Mexican, whom he eventually takes to bed. When Teresa comes upon them unexpectedly, her relationship with Dundee comes to an abrupt end. Dundee starts drinking heavily as a result. Tyreen has to sneak into town and shame Dundee into resuming his mission.
Charriba proves difficult to pin down, so Dundee pretends to give up and starts back for the United States. The Apaches give chase and end up in a trap. Charriba is finally killed. With their bargain concluded, Dundee and Tyreen prepare to resume their personal battle, but the vengeful French appear, forcing the two men to set aside their differences. With the French having positioned a portion of their force on the American side of the Rio Grande, blocking Dundee's forces from crossing into U.S. territory, the two cavalry forces charge each other at the Rio Grande, with major loss of life on both sides. Tyreen sees a French soldier seize the U.S. regimental colors, and seemingly moved by a patriotism he had thought dead, he takes back the captured American flag, and hands it over to Dundee – only to be hit in the stomach. With his last strength, he rides off to singlehandedly delay a second detachment of French cavalry while the others escape across the Rio Grande, and set out for home, greatly reduced in number.
As Dundee's force heads home, the narration notes that it's now April 16, 1865, and the soldiers are still unaware that the Civil War is over and President Lincoln has been assassinated.

A trio of cowboys, Vern (Cameron Mitchell), Wes (Jack Nicholson) and Otis (Tom Filer), stop to rest for the night at the remote hideout of a gang of outlaws led by Blind Dick (Harry Dean Stanton). In the morning, they find themselves surrounded by a vigilante hanging party and are forced to become fugitives due to a case of mistaken identity.
Otis is killed. So are accomplices of Blind Dick, who is lynched. Vern and Wes take refuge at a farm belonging to Evan (George Mitchell), who lives alone with his wife and daughter, holding them hostage until they can make an escape. After a member of the vigilantes passes by, the two try to take Evan's horses and he opens fire on them, wounding Vern before he is killed himself.
Wes and Vern ride off together on one horse with the posse in pursuit. Eventually Vern can go no farther but holds off the posse until Wes can safely get away.

The four adult sons of Katie Elder – John (John Wayne), who is a famous (or infamous) professional gunman; Tom (Dean Martin), a professional gambler; Bud (Michael Anderson, Jr.), the youngest brother, still in school; and Matt (Earl Holliman), an unsuccessful hardware dealer – reunite in their hometown of Clearwater, Texas (approximately 2 hours east of Dallas, Texas), in 1898 for their mother's funeral, sharing regret that none of them has lived up to her high expectations of them.
The townspeople are unfriendly, to John and Tom in particular. Katie Elder was extremely well liked by everyone in the community, who were all aware of her honesty, her poverty and her undying love for the sons who neglected her. The brothers want to do something for Katie's sake, and their plan is to send youngest son Bud to college, raising money through a sale of another man's herd of horses, even though Bud wants to emulate his eldest brother.
Morgan Hastings (James Gregory), a gunsmith and rising entrepreneur, claims ownership of the Elders' ranch, saying he won it from their father in a game of cards; Bass Elder afterwards was shot in the back, and the killer is still unknown. Hastings hides a hostile attitude towards the brothers and brings in a hired gun, Curley (George Kennedy). Noting Hasting's attitude, the Elders begin to suspect foul play. Hastings claims Bass lost the ranch in a game of Blackjack, so John, in a ruse, states their father wouldn't have been caught dead playing Blackjack.
When Hastings learns about the brothers' investigations, he kills the sheriff (Paul Fix) and frames the Elder brothers for the murder. Then, not content with seeing them go to prison, Hastings arranges an ambush in which Matt is killed and Bud seriously injured. Deputy Ben Latta (Jeremy Slate) discovers the conspiracy, but is shot and killed by Hastings while the surviving Elders escape. Going back to town to get medical help for Bud, John and Tom barricade themselves in the smithy. Tom manages to kidnap Hasting's weak-willed son Dave (Dennis Hopper), although he is seriously injured in the process. Hastings shoots his own boy in an attempt to prevent him from testifying. In the presence of John Elder and the local judge, a wounded Dave manages to relate the tale of his father's crimes before he dies. John takes up arms and kills Hastings by shooting up a cask of gunpowder inside his own gun store.

Pursued by the Dawson gang, Clint McCoy returns to his old hometown for the first time in many years. He left long ago after the infidelity of wife Sara, leaving her and their infant son Tige behind.
Tige is now fully grown. He believes his mother to be dead and hates his father for deserting them. When he comes to town with the Dawson gang, Tige encounters the saloonkeeper, Sara, but doesn't realize that she is his mother.
Calling his own father out for a gunfight, Tige does not get the better of him, but Clint refuses to kill him. Tige then sits back to watch the Dawsons do away with Clint, but when Sara fights by Clint's side, she is mortally wounded. As she is dying, Sara explains who she is and why her father left. Tige then joins his father against the Dawsons.

Cattleman Alvarez Kelly (William Holden) is contracted to deliver a herd to the Union Army in Virginia. As he nears the end of his long cattle drive, Kelly is captured by Confederate raiders led by Colonel Tom Rossiter (Richard Widmark). The Confederacy desperately needs the beef to feed its soldiers besieged in Richmond.
Kelly is "persuaded" to help shanghai and deliver the stolen herd to Richmond. Despite the hatred between the two men, they manage to work together. Kelly first teaches Rossiter's men how to drive cattle. Then, they proceed to capture and drive the herd away, despite the efforts of Union officer Major Albert Stedman (Patrick O'Neal). As revenge, Kelly arranges passage for Rossiter's discontented fiancée, Liz Pickering (Janice Rule), on a blockade runner leaving the besieged city.

Based on the 1963 book by Robert MacLeod, the title character is a beautiful horse (a breed, the Appaloosa) belonging to Matt Fletcher (Marlon Brando), a Mexican-American buffalo hunter who returns home only to have his beloved horse stolen by a powerful bandit, Chuy Medina (John Saxon) with the help of the bandit's girlfriend, Trini (Anjanette Comer) in the border town of Ojo Prieto. Trini was sold to Chuy at the age of 15, but has been brutalized and effectively discarded.
Matt begins to hunt down the bandit to recapture the horse, but finds matters more complicated than expected when he meets the girlfriend of the bandit. Fletcher is subjected to torture and humiliation by Chuy and his minions. A later foray into Medina's camp results in a brutal arm wrestling match in a bar between Fletcher and the bandito. Fletcher loses and is stung on the arm by a scorpion. Again left to die, Fletcher is rescued by Trini, who despises her "lover", Chuy, and prefers Fletcher's company. She gets him assistance from a kindly old peasant, which later costs the old man his life. During the violence-laden climax, Fletcher is forced to choose between Trini and his beloved Appaloosa. Matt, realizing that Trini means more to him than the horse, sends out the Appaloosa to draw Chuy's fire. As the bandit prepares to aim for the horse, sunlight glints on his gun barrel, revealing his position. Matt fires and kills him. Matt and Trini then cross the border with the Appaloosa to start a new life.

The five richest men in the territory gather in Laredo for their annual high-stakes poker game. The high rollers let nothing get in the way of their yearly showdown. When undertaker Tropp (Charles Bickford) calls for them in his horse-drawn hearse, cattleman Henry Drummond (Jason Robards) forces a postponement of his daughter's wedding, while lawyer Otto Habershaw (Kevin McCarthy) abandons his closing arguments in a trial, with his client's life hanging in the balance. They are joined by Wilcox (Robert Middleton) and Buford (John Qualen) in the back room of Sam's saloon, while the curious gather outside for occasional reports.
Settler Meredith (Henry Fonda), his wife Mary (Joanne Woodward), and their young son Jackie (Gerald Michenaud) are passing through, on their way to purchase a farm near San Antonio, when a wheel on their wagon breaks. They wait at Sam's while the local blacksmith repairs it. Meredith, a recovering gambler, learns of the big poker game and begins to feel the excitement once again. During a break, Otto Habershaw catches a glimpse of Mary in her violet dress. Being so enchanted by her, he permits Meredith's request to watch the game only if Mary allows him. The newcomer buys into the game, eventually staking all of the family savings, meant to pay for a home.
The game builds to a climactic hand; the gamblers raise and re-raise until more than $20,000 is in the pot. Meredith, out of cash, is unable to call the latest raise. Under the strain, he collapses. The town physician, Joseph "Doc" Scully (Burgess Meredith), is called to care for the stricken man. Barely conscious, Meredith signals for his wife to play out the hand.
Taking his seat, Mary asks, "How do you play this game?" The other players object loudly to playing with someone who does not know the game, but eventually give in. The situation is explained to her: if she cannot match the last raise (and any others that may follow), she will be out of the hand.
Despite the men's protests, she leaves the room to borrow additional funds. With Jackie and four of the players trailing behind, Mary crosses the street and talks to the owner of the Cattle and Merchants' Bank, C. P. Ballinger (Paul Ford). After she shows him her hand, Ballinger assumes she is playing a practical joke. When he learns otherwise, he loans her $5,500 (at 6% interest) and makes a $5,000 raise for her. The other players, aware of Ballinger's tightfisted, cautious nature, all reluctantly fold. Mary collects her sizable winnings and pays Ballinger back with interest. The game then breaks up, no one ever having seen the winning hand.
The lady's determination earns her the admiration of the men. Even Drummond, the most hard-hearted of the bunch, is so touched that, when he returns home to the waiting wedding ceremony, he talks privately to his weak-willed, prospective son-in-law, gives him some money, and orders him to run away and find himself a better wife than his daughter.
The final scene takes place in the gambling town of Black Creek, where it is revealed that Meredith, Mary, and even their "son" are confidence tricksters and expert card sharps. Together with Ballinger and Scully, they have perpetrated a scam on the five poker players, who had swindled the banker in a real estate deal sixteen years before. "Mary" is actually Ballinger's girlfriend Ruby. She had promised him she would give up gambling after the caper, but it becomes clear that she had no such intent when she sits down to another poker game.

The film centers on Dracula's plot to convert Billy the Kid's fiancee, Betty Bentley, into his vampire wife. Dracula impersonates Bentley's uncle and schemes to make her his vampiric bride.
Fortunately for Betty, a German immigrant couple come to work for her and warn Bentley that her "uncle" is a vampire. While Bentley does not believe them, their concerns confirm Billy's suspicions that something is not quite right with Betty's uncle.
Eventually, the Count kidnaps Betty and takes her to an abandoned silver mine. Billy confronts the Count but soon finds that bullets are no match for a vampire. The Count subdues the notorious outlaw and sets out to transform Betty into his vampire mate. Just then, the town sheriff and a country doctor arrive. The doctor hands Billy a scalpel telling him he must drive it through the vampire's heart. Billy throws his gun at the vampire and knocks him senseless, making him easy pickings for a staking. With the count destroyed, Betty is saved and Billy takes her away, presumably to live happily ever after.

A frontier scout, Jess Remsberg (James Garner), is searching for the murderer of his Comanche wife. All he knows is that it was done by a white man. While crossing the desert he rescues Ellen Grange (Bibi Andersson) from a pursuing band of Apaches, and returns her to her businessman husband, Willard Grange (Dennis Weaver). The couple has lived apart for most of the previous two years, since Ellen Grange was kidnapped by Apaches. She had been rescued, but then voluntarily returned to the Apaches to live with the son of the chief.
Jess learns from his friend, Lt. "Scotty" McAllister (Bill Travers), an experienced army sergeant anxious for a promotion, that the town marshal at Fort Concho has information about Jess's murdered wife.
Jess agrees to act as a scout for an Army cavalry unit of twenty-five inexperienced soldiers taking horses, ammunition and supplies to that fort. Willard and Ellen are joining them, as is horse breaker Toller (Sidney Poitier), a veteran of the 10th Cavalry (the "Buffalo Soldiers"). Taller has been contracted to provide horses to the army and will accompany the party, taming horses on the way.
The townsfolk treated Ellen Grange as an outcast after her first abduction, and are now even worse. Some men try to rape her, but she is rescued by Jess, aided by Toller. The two had previously had a confrontation in a bar, which, with McAllister's intervention, was resolved without ill feeling. On the morning the supply wagon is to set out it is learned she has again returned voluntarily to the Apaches. Her husband does nothing about it, but Jess goes after her. While rescuing her he discovers she has had a child by the now-dead son of the Apache chief, Chata (John Hoyt). Jess rides off with mother and child to catch up with the expedition.
The supply wagons, however, have been ambushed by Chata and his warriors, with serious losses of men, food and water. McAllister is seriously wounded, but is able to function. The men also look to Toller for leadership. Using the infant as a shield (he is Chata’s grandson), Jess and Ellen get through the Apache attackers encircling the besieged cavalry force.
McAllister devises a plan to break out of their position and take refuge in Diablo Canyon, where there is water and better cover. As part of the plan Jess is to speed to Fort Concho for help. That done, he can resume the search for his wife’s killer.
The plan succeeds. The besieged unit is able to break out and hole up in the canyon, and Jess, though his horse dies and he is parched from thirst, is able to kill his pursuers and get to the fort. Reinforcements are immediately sent to the canyon, where the unit is under constant attack and the defenders are being killed one by one. Willard Grange is captured by the Apaches and is tied upside down over an open flame overnight so that his cries of agony will prevent the others from resting.
At the fort Jess learns that the man he has been hunting for is none other than Willard Grange, who had been out for revenge for what had been done to his wife. Jess races to the canyon, arriving with the army reinforcements just in time to save the last few survivors (including Toller and Ellen Grange). Jess searches for Willard and finds him barely alive. Willard begs Jess to take pity on him and put him out of his misery, so Jess gives him his pistol and leaves. Moments later a single shot is heard.
The Apaches are disarmed and rounded up to be returned to the reservation. Chata is allowed a final embrace of his grandson before joining them. Jess, Toller and Ellen stand by the graves of the dead soldiers (including McAllister).

Sometime in the early 1880s, Dr Frankenstein’s evil granddaughter Maria has moved to the American West with her brother Rudolph, in order to use the prairie lightning storms in her experiments on immigrant children snatched from a dying town. Maria is very much in charge, killing the children and replacing their brains with artificial ones, intending to revive them as her slaves. Rudolph however, is reluctant to help his sister, but is too afraid of her to do otherwise. After a number of failures (owing to Rudolph secretly poisoning the victims as soon as his sister revives them), they are finding it increasingly difficult to hide the trail of bodies. Down the road, Mañuel Lopez and his wife Nina decide to leave town with their daughter Juanita because of the frequent disappearances, the latest of which is that of their son.
Two gunslingers come to town, Jesse James, the infamous outlaw, who has actually survived his reported killing on April 3, 1882, and Hank Tracy, a dimwitted brute that Jesse uses as his henchman. Meeting up with Butch Curry, the head of a local gang called The Wild Bunch, they join up with the intention of stealing $100,000 from the next stagecoach. However, a member of the gang, Butch's own brother Lonny, decides to go to the sheriff and let him know about the plot in exchange for becoming his deputy and claiming the reward for James' capture. As the robbery begins, the sheriff and his men shoot the two remaining members of the Wild Bunch and seriously wound Hank.
Jesse and Hank escape and stop at the Lopez's campout to tend to Hank's wound and sleep until the morning. During the middle of the night, Juanita wakes up Jesse and Hank and leads them back to town to the Frankensteins' house to fix up Hank despite her parents forbidding her to back there. Maria agrees to help, and even covers for her guests when the sheriff and Lonny come around looking for them, but her actual plan is to use Hank as another one of her experiments. After a failed attempt to seduce Jesse, Maria sends him to the town pharmacist with a note, then begins operating on Hank, giving him an artificial new brain and bringing him back to life. Rudolph tries to poison Hank, now called Igor, but Maria this time catches him and orders her new monster to strangle her brother.
Jesse gives the pharmacist the note from Maria, which actually reveals his identity, prompting the pharmacist to call the sheriff. The sheriff is out, but deputy Lonny decides to take on Jesse for the reward on his head. Jesse manages to escape, killing Lonny in the process. When he returns to the Frankensteins' house, Igor incapacitates him and ties him up.
Realizing Jesse is in trouble, Juanita sends the sheriff to the house, where he finds Jesse and prepares to take him in. But Maria sends Igor to crush the sheriff. During the scuffle, Juanita frees Jesse and tries to escape. Maria orders Igor to go kill Juanita, but he strangles Maria instead and goes after Jesse. Juanita gets Jesse's gun and kills Igor.
The next morning, as Jesse buries Hank, Juanita pleads with him to stay and live with her, but Jesse, knowing that he's a fugitive, rides off with the sheriff, who wasn't killed by Igor.

A lone horseman, US Marshal Johnny Reno (Andrews), is riding through the American West, observed by two men hidden in behind rocks. Taking him to be a lawman despatched on their trail, they try to kill him. He manages to evade them, creeps up them behind and kills one of them, wounding the other whom he takes prisoner.
The captive (Drake) reveals himself and his dead companion to be the Connors Brothers, on the run from a posse and a Native American war party both of whom are out for their blood. Reno takes the man prisoner and heads for the town of Stone Junction, where the Connors were alleged to have committed the murder of the son of a local Indian chief.
Once they reach Stone Junction, the townsmen thank Reno for bringing in Connors. They insist that the man should be tried and executed for the murder and then handed over to the Indians. The local Sheriff, Hodges (Chaney), a weak and conciliatory man goes along with this. Reno insists that the man is taken to Kansas City for trial, as the murder of an Indian is a federal crime. This displeases the townsmen, who quickly grow hostile to Reno, and urge him to leave town quickly.
The owner of the town's saloon, Nona Williams (Russell), an old flame of his and the reason he had come to Stone Junction in the first place. While paying her a visit at her ranch, he is held by gunmen, hoping to allow their comrades time break into the sheriff's office and lynch Connors. He shoots them and hurries back to the town just in time to prevent the hanging.
Previously the townsmen had shrunk at the idea of killing a US Marshal, as that was likely to bring down a heavy reaction from the government. Now they grow increasingly desperate, as they fear that the Indians will attack the town. They order all woman, children and old men to be evacuated leaving only the young men who pledge to defend the town. Nona Williams refuses to leave, and stays to tend to her saloon.
Reno then discovers that it was in fact the townsmen and not the guileless Connors who had committed the murder. They had done so because the daughter of a prominent local, Jess Yates (Bettger), had fallen in love with the chief’s son. They had killed him to stop a marriage taking place. He released Connors who helps to fight alongside Reno and the Sheriff, who has decided to accept the responsibilities that his badge entails and help uphold the law.
The townsmen surround the sheriff’s office and attack, losing a number of men. The Sheriff is also killed in the fighting, leaving just Connors and Reno against the man armed townsmen who are baying for their blood.
As they are about to be cut down, the Indians arrive with a captive who has revealed under torture what had really happened. The Indians and the townsmen begin to fight. In the resulting shootout they are all killed, save for Reno and Connors. At the end they meet up with the woman and children who are sheltering in a nearby abandoned fort. Reno and Nona Williams depart into the sunset to start a new life together.

In the West of the 1890s, a trio of outlaws, Bill Bowdre (Arthur Kennedy), Jesse Coe (Martin Landau) and Tom Fitch (Karl Malden), robs, tortures and brutally kills the white father and Indian mother of young Max Sand (Steve McQueen). The outlaws have stolen the father's grey horse with a double SS brand. Max sets out to avenge their deaths and uses this clue to trail the men.
During his travels in the desert, Max uncovers an old and rusty gun. When he comes upon Jonas Cord, Sr. (Brian Keith), a traveling gunsmith, he tries to rob him. Cord, recognizing that Max's revolver is not loaded and is useless, convinces Max that his plan has failed. Max tells Cord of his vengeful journey. Cord takes pity on him, takes him in, feeds him and teaches him how to shoot. Max hunts the killers, who have separated. He tracks down Jesse Coe to Abilene, Texas. With the help of dancehall girl Neesa (Janet Margolin), a woman from the same tribe as his mother, he confronts him in a salon. Coe escapes and a knife fight ensues in a nearby corral. Coe is killed but Max is severely wounded. Neesa takes him to her tribe's camp, where she nurses him back to health. They become lovers.
Once he recovers, Max leaves Neesa to continue his pursuit. He reads that Bowdre is in a prison camp in Louisiana for a failed bank robbery. He commits a bank robbery, deliberately gets caught, and is sent to the same prison where Bowdre is serving time. Bowdre does not recognize Max whose plan is to convince Bowdre to join him in an escape attempt and kill him in the swamp. Pilar (Suzanne Pleshette), a local Cajun girl working in the rice fields near the convicts’ camp, gives Max comfort. She knows nothing about Maxs' plan to kill Bowdre but knows her way around the swamp. She finds a boat and joins the escape. The boat capsizes early on and Pilar is bitten by a snake. Max kills Bowdre and Pilar dies of the bite.
Fitch, the last of the murderers, keeps a tobacco pouch with beaded deerskin made from the Indian dress of Max's mother. Still blinded by revenge, Max pursues Fitch and manages to infiltrate Fitch's gang, calling himself "Nevada Smith". Fitch is aware that Max Sand has killed Coe and Bowdre and is out there somewhere, waiting to ambush him. Though he accepts "Nevada" into the gang, Fitch is wary of him. When the gang sets out to commit a robbery, Max is spotted by Cord, who calls him by name. Max ignores him and the gang rides on. Fitch suspects that one of his men is Max. He vows to kill any man who makes a mistake. As the rest of the gang greedily scoops up the money from the robbery, Max observes them from a hill. Fitch realizes that "Smith" is Sand, grabs his share of the loot and flees. Max pursues him and corners Fitch at a creek. The men exchange fire and Fitch surrenders but Max continues to fire non-fatal shots into Fitch. The outlaw begs to be finished off, but Max decides that Fitch is not worth killing and rides away.

With the end of the American Civil War, military industrialists are left with an oversupply of weapons. Some of the more unscrupulous ones view the Indians as possible new customers.
Wild Bill Hickok (Gary Cooper) has just been discharged from the Union Army and is making his way back west. On a paddle steamer, he bumps into his old army scout colleague, Buffalo Bill Cody (James Ellison) and his new bride. Later, Calamity Jane (Jean Arthur) is the driver of their stagecoach to Hays City, Kansas.
John Lattimer (Charles Bickford), an agent for the gun makers, has supplied the Cheyenne Indians with repeating rifles, which enable them to kill half of the troopers at a United States Cavalry outpost. Hickok discovers the rifles and reports it to General George Armstrong Custer (John Miljan). Custer sends out an ammunition train to the fort with Cody as guide. Hickok tries to locate Yellow Hand (Paul Harvey), the Cheyenne chieftain, to find out why the Indians have gone to war.
When Calamity is captured by the Indians, Hickok tries to bargain for her release, but instead gets captured himself. Yellow Hand states that the Indians are fighting because the white man has starting settling land promised to the Indian and is killing off the buffalo. Yellow Hand promises to release his captives if they tell him the location of the ammunition train. After much prodding from Calamity, Hickok professes his love for her just before he is about to be tortured. Calamity then discloses the route of the ammunition train in order to save Hickok from being burned alive. Yellow Hand holds true to his word by releasing his two prisoners.
The Indians ambush the ammunition train. Hickok sends Jane to get reinforcements while he fights alongside the besieged soldiers. After a desperate six-day siege on a river bank, the survivors are saved when Custer arrives with the cavalry.
Back in town, Hickok catches up with Lattimer and tells him to get ready for a gun duel. Instead of going himself, Lattimer sends three cavalry deserters in his place. Hickok kills all three deserters in the gunfight, but this makes him a fugitive from the law. Hickok flees to the Dakota Territory. Calamity leaves for Deadwood separately when the townspeople find out that she was partly responsible for the attack on the ammunition train.
Custer sends Cody after Hickok. After meeting in the woods, the two friends capture an Indian and learn that Custer has been killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and that the Cheyenne are moving to join the Sioux Indians in the Black Hills. They also learn that Lattimer is sending more rifles to the Indians, to be picked up in Deadwood. Instead of arresting his friend, Cody rides off to warn the cavalry, while Hickok goes to Deadwood to deal with Lattimer. Hickok kills Lattimer and detains Lattimer's henchmen for arrest by the cavalry. Hickok is shot in the back by Lattimer's informant Jack McCall (Porter Hall) while he is playing cards with the henchmen. The film ends with a heart-broken Calamity Jane cradling Hickok's body.

English women Martha Price (Maureen O'Hara) and her daughter Hilary (Juliet Mills) come to the US via boat with Hereford stock pursuing the dream of Martha's husband, who accidentally died on board, to bring Hereford to the West. They're now left with Hilary's bull, a result of years of European breeding, named Vindicator. Vindicator exhibits all the gentility of breeding, including an odd willingness to follow Hilary merely at the whistle of "God Save the Queen".
At auction, he results in a bidding war and is ultimately won by Charles Ellsworth (David Brian), who has come to purchase stock for the wealthy Texas rancher Alexander Bowen (Brian Keith). Sam Burnett (James Stewart), a local wrangler known for being able to take down bulls just by looking at them, is hired to transport the bull to Bowen's ranch. Ellsworth has bought the bull primarily to woo Martha, and when she is confronted by him when trying to claim her payment for the bull she decides to ensure Vindicator's delivery by accompanying him en route.
Martha Price is told by daughter Hilary about a conversation she overheard between Burnett and two men working for competing rancher John Taylor (Alan Caillou). Burnett has made a deal with Taylor to steal the bull. Hilary doesn't yet know that Burnett has made the deal mostly to ensure another wrangler doublecrossed by Taylor would receive some money to take care of himself after an injury. One of Taylor's men, Deke Simons (Jack Elam), gets into a fight with Burnett in the saloon over terms. Price, witnessing the brawl, comes to trust Burnett. Despite Burnett's objections, he accepts responsibility for the Price women through the train ride to the west and the following wagon trail.
One night while Price and Burnett are brewing coffee over the campfire, a shot knocks over the coffee pot. Burnett knows this is a signal from Taylor's men. Just before dawn, Hilary catches Burnett as he is about to hand over the bull. He denies her accusations, waking her mother to prove he was innocent. Once again, Price gives Burnett the benefit of the doubt.
Taylor's men find a fence which has been hacked through to make way for Price's wagon. They conclude that Burnett must have double-crossed them. Simons, determined to catch up with Burnett, shoots a companion and rides on after the wagon.
In a canyon, Burnett runs into Jamie Bowen (Don Galloway), Alexander's son, who has stolen a herd of his father's longhorn cattle and is running away to start his own ranch. Simons catches up and shoots a cowhand, setting off a stampede. Jamie tries to escape but falls in the path of the charging cattle.
Battered and unconscious, Jamie is carried by Burnett back to the wagon. Simons is there holding Price and her daughter hostage. Simons demands the money that Burnett was paid by Taylor for the bull. Simons also demands Price's money, but while distracted, Burnett is able to take his rifle. Simons mounts and gallops away. Burnett follows. As horses collide, Simons falls onto a sharp rock and is killed instantly.
Burnett returns with the money, but Price berates him for his dishonesty and the trouble he has caused. After a few days of travelling with Bowen's son in tow, they reach their destination, his father's ranch.
At the ranch they're introduced to Jamie's father, Bowen, a Scottish soldier turned cattle rancher at a fort also populated by local families of Mexican heritage. While Hilary nurses Jamie back to health, Martha begins teaching the local children in school. Though Bowen and Burnett insist the Price women should leave for the East again before they're snowed in, they refuse until Jamie is well and they've taught the men to properly care for Vindicator.
Bowen continues to insist that Hereford cattle can't make it through the tough conditions on the range and thus make them a bad match. Martha and Hilary insist, and slowly, Burnett is coming over to their side. Martha, upon witnessing the wildness of the longhorn cattle, realizes that until Vindicator proves himself, they'll never have the men on their side. Hilary races back to the fort, and releases Vindicator into the wild.
With Vindicator now in the wild to fend for himself and Jamie on the mend, the Price women announce it is time for them to go, but Jamie insists he's in love with Hilary, who returns the proclamation and Martha, upon seeing them, realizes she needs to stay as well. This suits both Bowen, who's realized he's in love with Martha, and Burnett, who's known he loved Martha since they met.
It is a particularly brutal winter and Burnett insists on finding Vindicator and bringing him back to shelter him all winter. Through repeated outings, he can't find the bull and while he's away, Bowen cleans himself up, begins serving tea and showing Martha his gentlemanly side in an attempt to woo her.
Burnett is reported missing and the men finally find him, almost frozen. Bowen insists that he can have any calves that result from Vindicator, but surely the bull is dead. Burnett refuses to give up hope, even though Hilary and Martha have come to accept this as truth.
When the spring finally breaks, Burnett begins searching for Vindicator again, hoping for calves and begins building a new kind of farm—where the animals are treated better and Herefords can not only subsist but thrive. He finally discovers Vindicator, long dead under a snowdrift. He still insists that calves may be coming.
Martha, out of reluctance for anything else, agrees to marry Bowen, but only after there is no chance of calves from Vindicator. In one of the last scenes, Burnett finally finds a Hereford calf, brings him back to the fort, and proclaims his love for Martha. Bowen steps aside.
At the end, we're shown an entire field of Herefords, with Martha and Burnett musing that they're glad they kept a "few LongHorn, to remember the way it used to be". Hilary and Jamie approach, now married, and Hilary whistles in the hopes that one of the cattle will respond, and claims, "sometimes, I see a glimmer of him in one of them".

Mistaken at first for a deserter, Army captain Tom York rides into the town of Deadwood after the Little Big Horn massacre. He has come to warn the townspeople of a likely Sioux attack.
Somewhere in the area is hidden a pair of Gatling guns, which would be vital to fending off such an assault. The only person who knows the hiding place is Dakota Lil, a saloonkeeper who already has lost her husband and son in battle and wants no more part of it.
Ultimately persuaded by York to reveal where the guns are, they are betrayed by a gambler, Elkins, who intends to sell them to the enemy for a profit. York and others manage to get them back, and once everyone is town is safe, he decides to put down roots there with Dakota Lil.

Fifty gunmen force all of the men in a small Mexican village to ride off with them into the desert. Among the captured farmers is Chico, who years before was one of seven hired gunslingers responsible for ridding the village of a tyrannical bandit, Calvera. Chico's wife, Petra, seeks out the other members of the band of whom only two, Chris and Vin, survive. She begs them to save the village once more. To replace the deceased members of the group, Chris buys the release of Frank (a taciturn gunman) and Luis (a famous bandit), held in the local jail and recruits Colbee, a ladies' man and deadly gunman, and Manuel, a young cockfighter.
The six men discover that the missing villagers are being used as slave labor to rebuild a desert village and church as a memorial to the dead sons of wealthy rancher Lorca. In a surprise attack, the six gunmen force Lorca's men to leave, and prepare for a counterattack with Chico. The cowed farmers offer no assistance, but the seven defenders successfully repulse Lorca's initial attack. Lorca, the rancher, then gathers all of the men on his land to rout the seven men.
The situation seems bleak until Manuel discovers a supply of dynamite which the seven use in a counteroffensive. They are eventually overrun, but Chris emerges victorious from a shootout with Lorca. The rancher's gang flee, leaving Frank, Luis, and Manuel dead in the fighting. Chico plans to resettle the village on Lorca's fertile land, and Colbee remains to help teach the villagers how to defend themselves against future attacks; he also plans to pursue the available women. Chris and Vin once more ride off together.

A census taker (James MacArthur) arrives in the Texas town of Cold Iron, with a population of 789. He goes into the local bar for a cold beer, and tells the bartender the town has an unusual number of citizens named "Jonas" and "Reprisal." He observes a painting above the bar of a violent street fight. He is then told of the events behind the fight involving a buffalo hunter and gunman named Jonas Trapp and the night the local Mexicans still call "The Night of Reprisals".
In flashback, we learn that Jonas Trapp (Connors) is a poor cowboy in love with a wealthy woman named Jessie Larkin (Hays). They intend to marry despite the objections of her aunt (Ruth Warrick). The aunt sees Jonas as a man of no prospects and prefers she marry someone more substantial.
To gain the aunt's permission, Jessie pretends to be pregnant. Jonas marries her, but quickly tires of his dull life in town. He heads for the hills without her to become a buffalo hunter, hoping to amass enough money to give Jessie the life he feels she deserves, without her aunt's involvement.
Jonas is gone for more than 10 years. He amasses a small fortune of his own and a reputation as a dangerous gunman who once fought Clay Allison and walked away. He decides it is finally time to return home. On the trail, Jonas stumbles over the campfire of an obvious rustler and is ambushed by three men: Brooks Durham (Rennie), the local banker; John "Johnsey Boy" Hood (Bill Bixby), a sadistic young hustler with a love only of fine clothes and himself, and Coates (Claude Akins), a notorious drunk. They accuse him of being the rustler and, despite his denials, beat him, take his money, then brand him with a running iron and leave him for dead.
A farmer named Hanley finds Jonas and helps nurse him to health. Trapp, learning that his money has been stolen, is consumed by a desire for revenge and heads back for Cold Iron, where he learns from his father that Jessie's aunt has died and his wife is now engaged to another man - Brooks Durham. When Jessie encounters him on the street, she doesn't recognize him. She thinks he's just another "filthy, smelly animal" and runs away.
In the course of his remaining in town, Jonas continues hunting for the men who branded him. He takes "Johnsey-Boy" Hood on his way back from romancing the lonely wife of a local farmer (Gloria Grahame) in hopes of cheating her out of some money. Under the threat of being "branded and gelded" by Jonas, Hood's sanity cracks. He grabs the hot iron and rams it repeatedly into his stomach as he runs screaming into the woods. He later commits suicide.
Jonas also encounters the saloon bouncer (Buddy Baer), a giant of a man whom Jonas had met the night before. He(the bouncer) doesn't like the town laughing at him for letting Jonas leave the bar with a bottle of liquor that Jonas has promised to pay for later, and now wants the money for the bottle Jonas took the day before. The resulting fight presages the subject of the painting we saw in the framing sequence, and the bouncer is nearly beaten to death. Only the arrival of Jonas' father stops the fight.
Hanley is revealed as one of the rustlers involved with Coates. Coates kills Hanley when the old man denies having Jonas' money. Coates reasons that Durham must have it and tries a little blackmail. Durham threatens to kill Coates, but the alcoholic Coates is beyond reasoning. Jonas runs into Durham on the street, the last man on his list, but both are ambushed by Coates, who is on a drunken rampage. Coates is eventually beaten to a pulp by Jonas, then killed when he tries for his gun. That act of violence apparently takes the thirst for revenge out of Jonas and he leaves his now-empty forty-five behind on the bar.
When Durham finally confesses to the town what he and the other did to Jonas and that he took the money, Jonas can only knock him down in disgust and walk away. He leaves the cash - and his need for revenge - behind.
The flashback ends with Jonas mounted up and on his way out of town. Jessie pleads with Jonas to stay, but he demurs and the scene ends with her standing in the street as she watches him ride off.
The film ends with the bartender showing off the pistol Jonas left behind. He and the census taker wonder if Jessie left with Jonas. The bartender wants to believe she did, but the census taker says she probably didn't, echoing the film's song, says "You can never go home again."

Willet Gashade (Oates), a former bounty hunter, returns to his small mining camp after a lengthy absence and finds his slow-witted friend Coley (Will Hutchins) in a state of fear. Coley explains to Gashade that their partner, Leland Drum (B. J. Merholz), had been shot to death two days before by an unseen assassin. The killing was possibly committed in revenge for the accidental trampling death of "a little person" in town, which may have been caused by Gashade's brother, Coin. Coin had inexplicably rushed away from their camp moments before the shooting death. Gashade and Coley become increasingly paranoid, and Gashade takes his friend's gun away from him.
The following day, a young woman (Perkins) shoots her horse to death immediately outside of the camp. The sound of the gunshot temporarily sends the frightened Coley into hiding. Gashade examines the dead horse and notes that it appeared to be perfectly healthy. The woman offers Gashade a thousand dollars to lead her to a place called Kingsley. Although openly distrustful of her, he grudgingly accepts the offer. Coley, apparently smitten by the woman, accompanies them.
The young woman is rude and insulting to both Gashade and Coley. She refuses to tell them her name. The three stop briefly in Crosstree. Gashade learns that Coin was seen there only a day or two before. As they continue traveling slowly through the hot desert, Gashade observes that they are being followed by a stranger dressed in black, Billy Spear (Nicholson), who continues to keep his distance from them. Gashade sees that the woman appears to be signaling to the man. Coley makes attempts to talk to the woman but she continually taunts and insults him. She also repeatedly refuses to answer any of Gashade's questions regarding the purpose of their journey.
At night, Spear suddenly walks into their camp and joins them. Hired by the woman as a gunslinger for reasons unknown, Spear is suspicious and hostile toward Gashade and contemptuous of Coley. He repeatedly threatens both of their lives. Gashade advises Coley to keep away from Spear.
The woman rides her horse hard. When it dies of exhaustion, Coley gives his horse to the woman and Gashade allows Coley to ride with him. Later, the woman loses the trail and asks Gashade to lead on. Gashade's horse shows signs of fatigue so Gashade tells Coley to join the woman on her horse, but Spear forbids him from doing so. The woman says that the journey would be much easier without Coley. She and Spear demand that he be left behind. Gashade, under threat by Spear, reluctantly agrees and tells Coley he will come back for him soon.
The three see a bearded man (Charles Eastman) sitting in the middle of the desert nursing a broken leg. The man tells the woman that the person she is seeking is only one day's ride away. She leaves him a canteen of water. Meanwhile, the bearded man's lost horse is found by Coley. He mounts the horse, and rides back to the group. He charges Spear. Spear shoots him dead. Gashade buries his friend in the sand.
All of the horses die. The group runs out of water, but they still keep moving. Gashade sees Spear growing weaker and attacks him. After knocking him unconscious, Gashade grabs a large rock and crushes the killer's gun hand. Gashade walks after the woman, who is now closely following a man up the side of a rock formation. The man turns around and Gashade sees that the man is his look-alike brother, Coin. Gashade attempts to tackle the woman as she pulls out a gun and takes aim at Coin, but it is too late: Coin and the woman shoot each other dead. Gashade, lying next to the woman's corpse, whispers, "Coin." Spear stumbles aimlessly under the hot sun.

Phoebe Ann Naylor (Rosemary Forsyth) is about to be wed to Don Andrea Baldazar, El Duce de la Casala (Alain Delon) in Louisiana in 1845. The festivities are broken up with the arrival of Yancey Cottle (Stuart Anderson) and his relatives, who form a U.S. Dragoons troop under the command of Cottle's cousin, Captain Rodney Stimpson (Peter Graves).
When Cottle, who wished to wed Phoebe Ann himself is accidentally killed, Don Andrea is charged with murder. He flees, promising to meet up with Phoebe Ann across the river in Texas, not yet a U.S. state.
In the wake of the failed wedding, Phoebe Ann is sent to Texas to lie low until the scandal blows over. Her wagon train is helped by Sam Hollis (Dean Martin) and his Indian sidekick, Kronk (Joey Bishop).
Along the way, Hollis gets separated from the wagon train and meets up with Don Andrea, whom he calls Baldy. The two form an antagonistic relationship, as well as a love-triangle with Phoebe Ann, made more complex by the Indian maiden Loneta (Tina Aumont), and the men's attempts to keep a Comanche raiding party at bay.

In the Arizona Territory 1868,the Apaches, led by Cochise (Michael Keep), are on the warpath. Army Captain Bruce Coburn (Audie Murphy) is tasked with escorting homesteaders to Apache Wells where they can concentrate their defense against the Apache. But there is dissension in the ranks as some of the men under Coburn’s command feel they are being driven too hard. Coburn has to discipline corporal Bodine (Kenneth Tobey) for stealing rationed water. In an attack at Apache Wells, one of the homesteaders, Harry Malone (Kenneth MacDonald), is killed. His two sons, Mike (Michael Blodgett) and Doug (Michael Burns), then join the Army.
In order to defend themselves at Apache Wells, they need guns. Coburn is sent to bring in a consignment of repeating rifles that is on its way, or least prevent them getting into the hands of the Apache. En route, Coburn and his men are attacked. The inexperienced Malone brothers are left to guard the horses, but Mike disobeys orders and goes off to fight the Indians. He is last seen alive screaming for his brother's help, but Doug is a coward who lets his brother die.
The survivors of the patrol manage to rendezvous with the consignment of guns. On the way back to Apache Wells, Bodine and four other soldiers decide to take the guns and desert to Mexico, leaving Coburn and the wounded First Sergeant Walker (Robert Brubaker) tied up. In a moment of indecision, Doug throws his lot in with Bodine.
Coburn and Walker manage to make it back to Apache Wells. He wants to go back and retrieve the rifles, but the commander says he cannot spare any men and orders Coburn to stay. He disobeys and sets off after Bodine. Meanwhile, Bodine has decided to try to sell the rifles to Cochise. Under a flag of truce, Bodine meets Cochise and takes him to where the rifles were hidden. But Coburn, with the help of Doug, has killed the other deserters. Coburn welcomes Doug back, and the two of them take the rifles.
Cochise and Bodine pursue and catch up with Coburn. In a delaying tactic, Coburn distributes five repeating rifles in positions where he can fight off a number of Apache while he orders Doug to get the rifles back to Apache Wells. At Apache Wells, the soldiers are issued with the rifles, and Doug leads them to rescue Coburn, arriving just as he runs out of ammunition. The Apache are chased off and Bodine flees. In a final shootout, Coburn kills Bodine. Doug arrives on the scene and escorts Coburn to Apache Wells, where he is welcomed by the commander and Doug by his family.

A young woman living in (fictional) Arapahoe County, Wyoming accidentally kills her very abusive husband. She is put on trial but acquitted. She then incurs the annoyance of her male neighbors by farming sheep instead of cattle and setting up a women's suffrage movement.

In a small western town in Arizona called Jaspen, a boy is born on Christmas Day. Joseph "Joe" Novak is born in a makeshift shelter, but his mother, Marika Novak (Alejandra Rojo) dies during childbirth. Because of the day he was born, the boy will be nicknamed Christmas Joe. Joe's father (Jack Taylor) will never forgive him for the death of his wife, which will lead Joe toward a rebellious attitude. He will become a troubled teenager, and will end up learning how to shoot. Joe will also reject his father's pacific attitude.
At first, Joe works for Mike Culligan (Louis Hayward), the richest man in town. Culligan has always used the sheriff to deal with the dirty side of his business. Sheriff Anderson (Carl Rapp)'s connection to Culligan is too obvious for everybody. However, the rest of the townspeople is completely fed-up with the situation. A meeting is organized and Joe is selected as the new sheriff, although he doesn't want the job. He is selected anyway. The judged of the town, judge George Perkins (Luis Prendes), is the one who convinces everybody.
Joe tells his girlfriend, saloon girl Marie Lefleur (Perla Cristal). Joe open his heart to her. Back home, where he still lives with his father, John. Joe's promotion is not well received. The local priest appears to tell Joe that he was not brought up to kill people, but Joe is pround of his new job and of the things he has recently done. Joe's work begins immediately: there is a brawl at the local saloon. He discourages the gunmen who are on the way of causing a shooting and tells them to leave the town. While they are already leaving, Joe tells them never to come back again, as they are a bunch of drunkyars. That insult is the last straw, and the cowboys turn back to face Joe. In the ensuing shooting, Joe kills them but his father gets shot: he will be sorry about it forever.
Marie wants to leave the saloon, but Mulligan, the owner, won't give her the money he owes her. After his father's burial, Joe takes the money from Mulligan and gives it to Marie. Joe even buys the ticket for the next trip to Saint Louis. She decides to leave the town for good and try to be an honest woman in that city, but says to Joe that she'll be always waiting for him. Joe sees her goodbye, but she is shot, as ordered by Mulligan.
Mulligan has other plans: he convinces Jud Walters (Fernando Hillbeck), a small town entrepreneur and close friend of Joe to prepare something against Joe, in exchange of having his debts erased and an extra 10,000. Jud tells Joe that somebody is opening up the safebox of the bank. Joe goes there, but nothing has happened, and there is only a drunk man who is not doing anything wrong apart from making a show of himself. When Joe offers him a hand, the drunkyard is shot, and Joe is accused of killing him carelessly.
The judge sentences two gunmen to death, but refuses to judge his friend Joe Novak, and leaves his place for another one. All the witnesses, even Jud, lie, and he is sentenced to be hanged. Culligan and Anderson are really happy. In the last second, Jud confesses everything. Culligan kills Jud and somebody kills Culligan. Jud is released but the other two gunmen are hanged.
The film ends with Joe coming back to his town followed by a group of townspeople who support him.

With no better offers to be had, famous American Civil War upstart officer George Armstrong Custer takes over the Western Cavalry maintaining the peace in the Dakotas. He soon learns that the U.S. treaties are a sham, that Indian lands are being stolen and every excuse for driving them off their hunting grounds is being encouraged. With his wife Elizabeth (Mary Ure) Custer goes in and out of favor in Washington, while failing to keep wildcatting miners like his own deserting Sergeant Mulligan (Robert Ryan) from running off to prospect for gold in Indian country. After trying to humble the prideful Indian warrior Dull Knife (Kieron Moore), Custer leads the 7th Cavalry into defeat.

Cal Wayne accidentally kills a fellow Confederate soldier during the Civil War. He returns to his hometown of Abilene, Kansas after the war and ends up replacing the corrupt Joe Slade as the town's sheriff.
A feud is ongoing between local cattlemen and farmers. Cattle baron Grant Evers takes it upon himself to exact harsh justice against rustlers, with or without proof. A grudge exists Evers and the new sheriff because Cal's fiancee, Amy Martin, believing he was dead, is now engaged to marry Evers.
Evers learns that it was his own brother who was shot by Cal during the war. But he is killed by Slade in a quarrel, whereupon Slade is shot dead by Cal.

Outnumbered but determined, Wyatt Earp (James Garner), his brothers Virgil (Frank Converse) and Morgan (Sam Melville) and ally Doc Holliday (Jason Robards) confront and clearly get the best of the Ike Clanton gang in a violent shootout at the O.K. Corral in the Arizona town of Tombstone.
Ike (Robert Ryan), a rustler, conspires to have the Earps charged with murder and tried in a court of law. When they are cleared, Virgil runs for Tombstone City Sheriff, but is ambushed and maimed by some of Clanton's hired guns. Morgan elects to take the job in his brother's place, but, unlike his brother, he is killed.
Doc Holliday, a gambler who has been on the wrong side of the law himself more than once, is terminally ill with tuberculosis and is admitted into a Colorado sanitarium. Earp intends to clear out of Tombstone with what's left of his family and move to California, but changes his mind upon being appointed a federal marshal for the territory.
Guns blazing, Earp and his posse ruthlessly hunt and kill various members of Clanton's gang. He rides to Mexico for a final showdown with Ike, shooting him dead. He makes one last trip to Holliday's death bed to say goodbye to his unlikely friend, then hangs up his badge and guns for good.

Willet Gashade (Oates), a former bounty hunter, returns to his small mining camp after a lengthy absence and finds his slow-witted friend Coley (Will Hutchins) in a state of fear. Coley explains to Gashade that their partner, Leland Drum (B. J. Merholz), had been shot to death two days before by an unseen assassin. The killing was possibly committed in revenge for the accidental trampling death of "a little person" in town, which may have been caused by Gashade's brother, Coin. Coin had inexplicably rushed away from their camp moments before the shooting death. Gashade and Coley become increasingly paranoid, and Gashade takes his friend's gun away from him.
The following day, a young woman (Perkins) shoots her horse to death immediately outside of the camp. The sound of the gunshot temporarily sends the frightened Coley into hiding. Gashade examines the dead horse and notes that it appeared to be perfectly healthy. The woman offers Gashade a thousand dollars to lead her to a place called Kingsley. Although openly distrustful of her, he grudgingly accepts the offer. Coley, apparently smitten by the woman, accompanies them.
The young woman is rude and insulting to both Gashade and Coley. She refuses to tell them her name. The three stop briefly in Crosstree. Gashade learns that Coin was seen there only a day or two before. As they continue traveling slowly through the hot desert, Gashade observes that they are being followed by a stranger dressed in black, Billy Spear (Nicholson), who continues to keep his distance from them. Gashade sees that the woman appears to be signaling to the man. Coley makes attempts to talk to the woman but she continually taunts and insults him. She also repeatedly refuses to answer any of Gashade's questions regarding the purpose of their journey.
At night, Spear suddenly walks into their camp and joins them. Hired by the woman as a gunslinger for reasons unknown, Spear is suspicious and hostile toward Gashade and contemptuous of Coley. He repeatedly threatens both of their lives. Gashade advises Coley to keep away from Spear.
The woman rides her horse hard. When it dies of exhaustion, Coley gives his horse to the woman and Gashade allows Coley to ride with him. Later, the woman loses the trail and asks Gashade to lead on. Gashade's horse shows signs of fatigue so Gashade tells Coley to join the woman on her horse, but Spear forbids him from doing so. The woman says that the journey would be much easier without Coley. She and Spear demand that he be left behind. Gashade, under threat by Spear, reluctantly agrees and tells Coley he will come back for him soon.
The three see a bearded man (Charles Eastman) sitting in the middle of the desert nursing a broken leg. The man tells the woman that the person she is seeking is only one day's ride away. She leaves him a canteen of water. Meanwhile, the bearded man's lost horse is found by Coley. He mounts the horse, and rides back to the group. He charges Spear. Spear shoots him dead. Gashade buries his friend in the sand.
All of the horses die. The group runs out of water, but they still keep moving. Gashade sees Spear growing weaker and attacks him. After knocking him unconscious, Gashade grabs a large rock and crushes the killer's gun hand. Gashade walks after the woman, who is now closely following a man up the side of a rock formation. The man turns around and Gashade sees that the man is his look-alike brother, Coin. Gashade attempts to tackle the woman as she pulls out a gun and takes aim at Coin, but it is too late: Coin and the woman shoot each other dead. Gashade, lying next to the woman's corpse, whispers, "Coin." Spear stumbles aimlessly under the hot sun.

During the Civil War, Confederate soldiers escape from a Union prison and head for the Mexican border. Along the way, they kill a Union courier bearing the news that the war is over. Keeping the message a secret, the captain has his men go on and they soon find themselves in a battle with the Union search party who also is unaware of the war's end.

Rancher Taw Jackson (John Wayne) returns to his hometown to settle a score ; he was released early for good behavior. Three years earlier, he was framed by corrupt businessman Frank Pierce (Bruce Cabot) and wrongfully imprisoned; Pierce then appropriated Jackson's land, where he discovered gold.
Jackson has returned to steal a shipment of gold from Pierce. He hires Lomax (Kirk Douglas) to assist him, even though Lomax had worked as a hired gun for Pierce and was instrumental in sending Jackson to prison. Jackson needs Lomax not only because of his marksmanship, but also because he is a safe-cracker. The gold shipment is being transported in a "war wagon," a heavily armored stagecoach armed with a deadly Gatling gun in a top-mounted steerable turret. Jackson and Lomax assemble a gang and plan to rob the war wagon at the weakest point in the route it travels.
Things do not quite work out as planned. Pierce dies in a shootout with one of his own men trying to escape from the war wagon. The wagon crashes into a ravine, Lomax opens the safe, and the men move the gold into a separate wagon. Before they can haul it away, however, a group of Kiowas try to take it from them. During the ensuing gunfight, the horses are spooked and run away with the wagon, and most of the gold is lost as a result. Nevertheless, Taw manages to recover a portion of it, and they agree to meet in six months to divide it, since "it wouldn't be very smart to flash gold around after a robbery".

In Arizona, a shipment of gold bullion is stolen in an inside job by a group of men consisting of U.S. Army Sgt. Henry Foggers, assigned to guard the gold, Doc Quinlen, the mastermind of the caper, and Hilb, a billy-goat-bearded ruffian. They take shoemaker Ben Akajanian hostage and dig a tunnel from his parlor to the Army deposit next door. The gold is then buried by Quinlen in the desert, near Waterhole No. 3. Some time later, he is then killed by Lewton Cole, a professional gambler, after an altercation in which Cole discovers a map to the buried treasure scrawled on a $20 bill.
Foggers and Hilb, along with Ben (who they have taken along to make it look as if he was the thief), set out to find Cole and the gold. At the same time, U.S. Cavalry captain named Shipley is also looking for the stolen gold along with his detachment. Cole, meanwhile, stops at the town of Integrity and gets a headstart on the local law enforcement after the killing by locking up Sheriff John Copperud and his deputy in their own jail, then forcing them to disrobe and hand over their clothes.
Cole rides to the sheriff's ranch, steals his horse and rapes Billee, the sheriff's daughter. Copperud returns to the ranch and infuriates Billee by being more upset over losing his horse than about Cole's treatment of her. After Copperud leaves the ranch chasing for Cole, Billee also heads into the desert.
Copperud catches up with Cole just as the latter finds the gold. Cole is put under arrest, but befriends the sheriff and manages to convince him to take the gold for themselves. However, as they march back to town, they are ambushed by Foggers and his companions, who take the gold along with their horses and leave them tied in the middle of the desert. Nonetheless, Billee arrives at the scene after a while and freeds them both. Knowing that Foggers intends to cross the border to Mexico, the three return to Integrity, full aware that the bandits should have to spend the night there.
Foggers tells Hilb to stay guard on the local hotel while he and the shoemaker head for the brothel. As Cole and company approach the place, they are spotted by Hilb, who barricades inside his room. Instead of trying to storm in, Cole and Copperud decide to keep an eye from the room across the hallway and wait until Foggers returns. Next morning, in spite of their plans, Hilb manages to escape the hotel, leading to a gunfight that results in the thief dropping his half of the gold and running away from town. Foggers then enters the fray, and in the confusion, Ben manages to flee with the loot. Cole, Copperud and Foggers set out in pursuit, only to enter head on in Shipley's campfire; Ben is already there.
When questioned, Foggers states that he has been in pursuit of the thieves, while Cole declares that Quinlen's death was an act of self-defense. Copperud corroborates both tales, thus leaving Ben as the culprit. However, in Ben's saddlebag there is nothing but rocks, so it is assumed that he must have dropped the gold in the trail between Integrity and the camp. Billee gets to the place just as everyone leaves to find where Ben has stashed the gold, leaving only Billee and Ben in the Army camp. Cole backtracks in time to see Billee gallop off, leaving Ben alone. Cole follows Billee to some rocks where Ben has hid the gold, and has sex with her. Still, Cole departs with the gold and the sheriff's horse a few moments later, and Billee is both angry and distraught as he, once more, has left her behind.
All the others arrive to the place where Billee is, sitting in a rock watching the horizon. When asked about the gold, she points in Cole's direction, who can be seen riding on the rim of a distant ridge, and everybody departs in hot pursuit.


Angie Warfield and her two children are kidnapped by Apaches. Lorne Warfield (Glenn Ford), who had been away a long time, sets out to rescue his family, with the unwanted help of his neighbor Owen Forbes (Arthur Kennedy). Warfield is a former gunman trying to forget his violent past. Forbes, a decent, humane rancher, is also in love with Warfield's wife and feels guilty that he did not try to prevent the kidnapping.
An Indian trader (Dean Jagger), who feigns insanity (as the Indians will not kill a crazy person), reluctantly provides Warfield with some information. Next, Warfield and Forbes are captured by the Apaches and staked out on the ground to die. However, Mexican bandit DeLeon (who has dealings with the Indians) believes Warfield's story that he hid his money before he was caught and cuts him loose. Warfield manages to kill him and frees Forbes. They detour to a town where a doctor is being overwhelmed caring for the victims of cholera. They buy supplies, and Forbes learns the location of the Apache camp. On the way, they enter a deserted Mormon settlement, where they encounter a detachment of Union soldiers led by "Captain" Jefferson Addis. However, all is not what it seems. It turns out that Corporal Addis and the rest killed the real captain so that they could trade two wagons full of weapons and ammunition to the Apaches in return for an army payroll the latter recently captured. The Apaches, however, have other ideas; they attack. During the battle, Warfield arranges it for them to steal a wagon. That leaves deep tracks it is easy for him to follow to the Indian camp. Warfield and Forbes rescue the captives.
Safely back home, Forbes challenges Warfield (who is now unarmed, having traded his gun to a storekeeper for clothing for his family) to a duel for the woman, but Warfield just turns and walks away. Forbes throws him a pistol, but Warfield refuses to pick it up. Forbes then shoots Warfield in the leg. Before Forbes can finish him off, he is shot and killed by the storekeeper using Warfield's gun.

After years of backing away from criminals and gunfights, one resident of the small western town of Firecreek decides to fight back. Part-time sheriff Johnny Cobb (James Stewart) decides to avenge the death of a young man against gunmen led by Bob Larkin (Henry Fonda).
Cobb has a lot on his mind, particularly with his wife Henrietta (Jacqueline Scott) about to give birth. He is a peace-loving farmer whose childishly made sheriff's badge is practically an honorary one.
Larkin's men ride into town and disrupt the peace. Earl (Gary Lockwood), Norman (Jack Elam), and Drew (James Best) run roughshod over the local citizens and Larkin has no inclination to stop it, despite Cobb's requests. Larkin is more interested in getting to know an attractive widow named Evelyn (Inger Stevens).
The only person in town willing to help Cobb is a slow-witted stable boy named Arthur (J. Robert Porter). When the boy is murdered by Larkin's men, a terrified and outgunned Cobb decides to stand up to them alone.

The story is set in Oklahoma Territory in 1889. It opens with Jed Cooper (Eastwood) driving a small herd of cattle across a stream. When the men in a posse composed of Capt. Wilson (Begley), Reno (Joseph Sirola), Miller (Bruce Dern), Jenkins (Bob Steele), Matt Stone (Alan Hale, Jr.), Charlie Blackfoot (Ned Romero), Maddow (Russell Thorson), Tommy (Jonathan Lippe), and Loomis (L. Q. Jones) surround him and accuse him of rustling the herd, he shows them a receipt for the cattle, but the man he bought them from was a rustler who killed the herd's owners. Cooper explains that he knew nothing about the murder, but only Jenkins expresses doubts about his guilt. After Reno takes Cooper's saddle and Miller takes his wallet, the men hang him from a tree and ride away, leaving him for dead.
Federal Marshal Dave Bliss (Ben Johnson) sees Cooper and cuts him down while he is still alive. Bliss puts him in irons and takes him to Fort Grant, where the territorial judge, Adam Fenton (Hingle), determines that Cooper is innocent, sets him free, and warns him not to become a vigilante. He then shows Cooper the man who is responsible for the crimes he was accused of committing by the posse. The man, McCloud, is hanged for murder and rustling as Judge Fenton and Cooper watch. As an alternative to vigilantism, Fenton offers Cooper, a former lawman, the badge of a Deputy U.S. Marshal. Cooper accepts the post, and Fenton warns him not to kill the men who lynched him.
During his first assignment as a marshal, Cooper sees his saddle on a horse in front of a small-town saloon. He finds Reno inside and tries to arrest him, but Reno goes for his gun, forcing Cooper to shoot him dead. When word of this becomes public, Jenkins turns himself in and provides the names of the rest of the hanging posse. Cooper finds Stone, the blacksmith in the town of Red Creek, arrests him, and has Sheriff Ray Calhoun (Charles McGraw) put him in jail. Most of the men Cooper seeks are respected members of the community, but Calhoun honors Cooper's warrants for their arrest.
On their way to Wilson's ranch to make the arrests, Cooper and Calhoun encounter an impromptu posse pursuing the perpetrators of another rustling and murder. Cooper and this posse catch the rustlers, who turn out to be Miller and two teenaged brothers, Ben (Richard Gates) and Billy Joe (Bruce Scott). Cooper takes them to Fort Grant single-handedly after refusing to let the posse lynch them. On the way, Ben and Billy Joe insist that Miller was the murderer. Miller catches Cooper off guard and attacks him, but Cooper overpowers and subdues him while the brothers watch.
Judge Fenton sentences all three rustlers to be hanged, despite Cooper's defense of the teenagers. Fenton insists that the public will resort to lynching if they see rustlers going unpunished, threatening Oklahoma's bid for statehood. Some time later, Sheriff Calhoun arrives at Fort Grant and pays Cooper for his cattle. He is trying to bribe Cooper into ignoring the rest of the men who lynched him. Cooper accepts the money but makes it clear that while "we are even, money-wise", he will bring the attempted murderers to justice. Wilson realizes, "All right, now that makes three mistakes we've made. The money; we hung an innocent man; and we didn't finish the job. We can't undo the first two ... but we can still finish the job." Blackfoot and Maddow flee, but Loomis and Tommy remain loyal to Wilson, who has decided to kill Cooper.
At Fort Grant, Wilson, Loomis, and Tommy bushwhack Cooper while most of the town has gathered to watch the hanging of Miller, Ben, Billy Joe, and three other men. Cooper survives the shooting and is slowly nursed back to health by Rachel Warren (Inger Stevens), a shopkeeper with whom he starts a relationship. On a picnic together, Cooper and Rachel unexpectedly become lovers. When Marshal Cooper is healthy enough to return to duty, he learns Captain Wilson, Loomis, and Tommy are holed up at Wilson's ranch, and goes after them.
Sneaking up on the ranch house, Cooper is attacked by a German Shepherd guard dog that is accidentally killed by Tommy. He kills Loomis, who had come out after him with a knife, and then Tommy. Captain Wilson attempts to shoot Cooper as he crosses open ground to the house, but on hearing Cooper break in, Wilson hangs himself.
On his return to Fort Grant, Cooper threatens to quit unless Fenton releases Jenkins, who is both contrite and seriously ill. Fenton insists that justice must be served, but agrees to pardon Jenkins. After listening to a memorable outburst from the judge in which Fenton curses the fact that he and his marshals are the only source of judgment and justice in the territory, Cooper agrees to continue as a marshal. Judge Fenton then hands him fresh warrants for Blackfoot and Maddow, telling him, "The law still wants them."

A murderer named Cain (Clint Walker) is released from prison after 18 years and wants to settle down as a rancher without ever having to touch a gun again. But no one will give him a job and people are after him for his earlier crimes. He finally takes an offer from a showman named Ruffalo (Vincent Price) to perform as "Killer Cain" in his traveling shooting show. However, after 18 years without practice, Cain is not as good as he once was with a gun. Cain tries to find redemption and peace when he falls in love with Monica Alton (Anne Francis), an artist from the east who came out west to paint. Yet Cain's reputation continues to dog him as past enemies (Mike Henry) try to settle old scores and a young gunslinger (Paul Hampton) looking to make his reputation by killing Cain.

Joe Bass (Burt Lancaster), an American fur trapper, is making his way back home with a full cargo of hides when he encounters a group of Kiowa Indians led by Two Crows (Armando Silvestre), who insist on taking his furs. As "payment" they offer him a slave, Joseph Lee (Ossie Davis), whom they had previously taken from a group of Comanches. Reluctantly, realising he cannot fight them, Bass agrees to the trade.
Bass is slightly bemused by his new companion, who is a well-educated and refined house slave, unused to the ways of the West. Bass orders him to help him recover the furs from the Kiowa. Lee only agrees to help if Bass agrees to take him to Mexico where slavery is outlawed. Bass doesn't agree to that, but the two strike up a friendly relationship, with Bass teaching Lee how to catch food in the West.
As Lee and Bass come upon the Kiowa, they watch them being ambushed by a group of scalphunters, white Americans and Mexicans who were offered a bounty by the government for each Native scalp they brought in. These scalphunters, led by Jim Howie (Telly Savalas), kill the Kiowa and also steal the furs which Bass had hoped to recover. Bass and Lee are forced to track the party, hoping to take back the furs.
Unfortunately, while spying on them, Lee tips over a cliff and is captured by the scalphunters, who decide they can sell him for $1500 in Galveston, Texas. As they travel southwards, Jim Howie's girlfriend, Kate (Shelley Winters), reveals to Lee that they are heading for Mexico. He begins to win her favor, by doing her hair and telling her fortune, hoping she will persuade Howie to take him with them across the border, rather than sell him.
Bass meanwhile has been following closely on their trail, and at one point he pins them down with sniper fire, forcing them to let loose the packhorse carrying the furs. He is ambushed, however, and the scalphunters recover the furs and proceed on their way. Approaching their camp at night, Bass tries to persuade Lee to help him, but the slave is now set on going to Mexico and refuses him assistance.
Bass kills several of the scalphunters, by intentionally starting a rock slide in the mountains near where they are situated. After again failing to secure the furs, Bass contaminates the water of a nearby creek with locoweed, a toxic plant that causes the scalphunters' horses to run and buck wildly as they drink the water. Now thoroughly fed up, and wanting to make it to Mexico in safety, they send Lee as a courier to Bass telling him he can keep the furs. A wary Bass comes down to collect the lone packhorse, and is ambushed by Howie who had always intended to break the deal. In an ensuing struggle Howie is shot dead by Lee.
The bickering Bass and Lee then break into a long fight, in which neither can defeat the other. Meanwhile, a group of Kiowa attack and overrun the scalphunters. Two Crows, who had survived an earlier massacre, has fetched reinforcements. He takes back the furs, per their earlier deal. The story ends with Bass and Lee, now friends, preparing to follow the Kiowa to take back the furs.

U.S. Army soldiers round up a group of Indians, mostly women and children. Surprisingly, they find among them a white woman and her half-Indian son.
Sam Varner (Gregory Peck) is a scout retiring from the Army to his ranch in New Mexico. He agrees to escort Sarah Carver (Eva Marie Saint) and her son after she begs him. She wants to leave immediately rather than wait five days for a military escort.
Sam takes them to a stage coach stop called Hennessy. The boy runs away during the night. Varner and Sarah go looking for him as a dust storm begins. They find the boy and then hole up (literally) to wait out the storm.
When they return to the station, everyone there is dead, killed by the boy's Indian warrior father, Salvaje (played by Nathaniel Narcisco). Salvaje is greatly feared even among his own people - and with good reason: he is known to be a silent and ruthless killer. Salvaje means "Ghost" in Apache, or in their own tongue: "He Who Is Not Here", meaning a dead man.
Sam is upset that Sarah's impatience to leave has cost the people at the station their lives. When the stagecoach does arrive, Sam puts Sarah and her son on it and follows them to a rail station called Silverton. He trades government letters of transport for train tickets to Topeka, Kansas.
After some careful consideration, Sam decides to invite Sarah and her son to accompany him to his ranch where she can cook for him and an old man, Ned (played by Russell Thorson), who takes care of the ranch. Sam sells his horse and they take the train to New Mexico.
They uneasily try to coexist. Sarah and her son are not talkative despite Sam's best efforts. His friend Nick, a half-breed scout he has been friends with for ten years, shows up. Nick tells him that Salvaje killed everyone at Silverton and even killed Sam's old horse. It's apparent that Salvaje is coming to the ranch to retake his son.
Ned goes outside to feed his dog and finds it killed with an arrow. In a blind rage, he runs into the trees after Salvaje. Sam tries to bring him back, but can't find him. Shortly after, he hears Ned's death scream. Sam decides to go after Salvaje and create an opportunity for Nick to get a clear shot. But, when Sam is being tracked, Nick jumps up to warn him and Salvaje kills him. Nick dies in Sam's arms.
Salvaje enters the ranch house through a window. Sam blows out the kerosene lamp in order to hide in a dark corner. Sam shoots at him with a rifle and Salvaje flees, but he leaves a trail of blood.
Sam trails him and steps into a booby-trap that Salvaje has rigged with a knife. Sam is stabbed in the left thigh and bleeds profusely enough that he has to apply a tourniquet. The two men fight and eventually Sam shoots Salvaje three times as the warrior falls atop him, dying.
Sam manages to walk, stumble, and crawl back to the house, where Sarah rushes out to help him.

Elvis Presley stars as Native American rodeo rider Joe Lightcloud, a Navajo whose family still lives on the reservation. He returns to the reservation in a white Cadillac convertible with which he proceeds to drive cattle.
Joe persuades his Congressman (Douglas Henderson) to give him 20 heifers and a prize bull so he and his father (Burgess Meredith) can prove that the Navajos can successfully raise cattle on the reservation. If their experiment is successful, then the government will help all the Navajo people. But Joe's friend, Bronc Hoverty (L.Q. Jones) accidentally barbecues the prize bull, while Joe sells the heifers to buy plumbing and other home improvements for his stepmother, Annie Lightcloud (Katy Jurado).
Joe is able to borrow a bull, Dominick, but the bull is lackadaisical and shows no interest in the heifers. Mamie Callahan (Quentin Dean), the daughter of shot gun-toting tavern owner Glenda Callahan (Joan Blondell) can't seem to stay away from the girl-chasing Joe. Joe also trades in his horse at a used car dealership for a red convertible automobile from which he sells the parts off to obtain cash from a salvage yard. After almost all of the usable car parts are sold, he rides around in a beat-up motorcycle.
In order to raise money, Joe organizes a contest in which riders have to stay on Dominick, the unresponsive bull he procured from his friend as a replacement. In addition, Joe himself has to ride Dominick and stay on in order to win the prize money. Joe wins the contest and receives the prize money. In a fight at his father's house, Joe and his friends are involved in a large fight that destroys the house they have been building.

Drifter Johnny Moon (William Shatner) is frequently attacked as he is mistaken for his twin brother Notah who leads Comanche war parties in attacks on the white population whilst he is having visions on peyote. Johnny travels to a Comanche encampment where he challenges his brother to a fight to the death in the town of Rio Honcho.
When Johnny rides into Rio Honcho he finds the town is at boiling point between two warring factions with only Sheriff Lomax (Joseph Cotten) keeping the peace. One of the factions discovers Johnny’s prowess with his six gun and tries to hire him. Johnny says he will give his answer in four days, after the climax with his brother.

Will Penny (Charlton Heston) is an aging cowhand who at the end of a long trail hires on to ride the boundary of a ranch over the winter. He immediately comes across a woman, Catherine Allen (Joan Hackett), and her son Horace (Jon Gries) using one of the remote cabins to over-winter, having been deserted by the guide that her husband paid in advance to lead her and her son over the mountains. Despite his boss' instructions Penny lets them stay in the cabin and gives them a week to move out.
Later, Penny runs afoul of a sadistic family called the Quints, led by Preacher Quint (Donald Pleasence) who is after him for killing one of the Quint sons some time before, defending his comrades. While out checking the territory, Penny is ambushed and savagely beaten up by the Quints, who leave him for dead. Penny manages to drag himself back to the cabin, where he is slowly nursed back to health by Catherine, with whom he has little choice but to stay afterward.
As Christmas and winter pass, the lonely Penny and sexually repressed Catherine fall in love, and Penny begins to develop fatherly feelings towards the young boy Horace. The three have lived together as a family unit, during which Penny has caught poignant glimpses of everything that has been missing from his own nomadic, rootless life. For a while it seems there is a possibility that he can settle down with the woman and child and continue this happy arrangement. Around this time the Quint family bursts into the cabin, forces Penny into hard labor and coerces Catherine into marrying one of the ruthless Quint sons. When two of his fellow ranchers appear just in time to aid his escape from the Quints, they return to the cabin to free Catherine and Horace from their tormentors. At last it seems a happy ending may arrive at the appropriate moment. For part of Penny desperately wants to put down roots and end his lonely existence as an itinerant cow hand. Ultimately, however, Penny realizes that he is simply too old to keep on living like he used to (he is around 50) and too set in his ways to ever settle down in a domestic setting. Deeply regretful about what he is leaving behind, he rides away from the woman and child, never to return.

In 1912 Sonora, Mexico, African American Lyedecker travels to a remote village. As temporary policeman from Phoenix, Arizona he chases Yaqui Joe, a half-Yaqui Indian, half-white-american bank robber who has stolen $6,000. When Mexican General Verdugo catches the fugitive, Lyedecker learns that Yaqui Joe spent his loot in buying 100 rifles for his Yaqui people who are being repressed by the government.
Lyedecker is not concerned with Joe's cause of helping his tribe. All he cares about is getting the robbed money returned to a Phoenix bank within his jurisdiction so he will earn a $200 bounty and permanent employment as regular policeman. The two men escape to the hills where they are joined by Sarita, a beautiful Indian revolutionary. They eventually become allies and fight for the Indians.
Taking over the leadership of the Yaquis, Lyedecker ambushes Verdugo's train while Sarita distracts the attention of the soldiers on board by taking a public shower. The train is later derailed in a town and the culmination had a fierce gun battle, which Joe and his people finally win.

In late 1890s Wyoming, Butch Cassidy is the affable, clever, talkative leader of the outlaw Hole in the Wall Gang. His closest companion is the laconic dead-shot "Sundance Kid". The two return to their hideout at Hole-in-the-Wall (Wyoming) to discover that the rest of the gang, irked at Butch's long absences, have selected Harvey Logan as their new leader.
Harvey challenges Butch to a knife fight over the gang's leadership. Butch defeats him using trickery, but embraces Harvey's idea to rob the Union Pacific Overland Flyer train on both its eastward and westward runs, agreeing that the second robbery would be unexpected and likely reap even more money than the first.
The first robbery goes well. To celebrate, Butch and Sundance visit a favorite brothel in a nearby town and watch, amused, as the town sheriff unsuccessfully attempts to organize a posse to track down the gang. They then visit Sundance's lover, schoolteacher Etta Place.
On the second train robbery, Butch uses too much dynamite to blow open the safe, blowing up the baggage car. As the gang scrambles to gather up the money, a second train arrives carrying a six-man team of lawmen pursuing Butch and Sundance, who unsuccessfully try to hide out in the brothel and to seek amnesty from the friendly Sheriff Bledsoe by enlisting in the army.
As the posse remains in pursuit, despite all attempts to elude them, Butch and Sundance determine that the group includes renowned Indian tracker "Lord Baltimore" and relentless lawman Joe Lefors, recognizable by his white skimmer. Butch and Sundance finally elude their pursuers by jumping from a cliff into a river far below. They learn from Etta that the posse has been paid by Union Pacific head E. H. Harriman to remain on their trail until Butch and Sundance are both killed.
Butch convinces Sundance and Etta that the three should escape to Bolivia, which Butch envisions as a robber's paradise. On their arrival there, Sundance is dismayed by the living conditions and regards the country with contempt, but Butch remains optimistic. They discover that they know too little Spanish to pull off a bank robbery, so Etta attempts to teach them the language. With her as an accomplice, they become successful bank robbers known as Los Bandidos Yanquis. However, their confidence drops when they see a man wearing a white hat (the signature of determined lawman Lefors) and fear that Harriman's posse is still after them.
Butch suggests "going straight", and he and Sundance land their first honest job as payroll guards for a mining company. However, they are ambushed by local bandits on their first run and their boss, Percy Garris, is killed. Butch and Sundance ambush and kill the bandits, the first time Butch has ever shot someone. Etta recommends farming or ranching as other lines of work, but they conclude the straight life isn't for them. Sensing they will be killed if they return to robbery, Etta decides to go back to the United States.
Butch and Sundance steal a payroll and the mules carrying it, and arrive in a small town. A boy recognizes the mules' brand and alerts the local police, leading to a gunfight with the outlaws. They take cover in a building but are both seriously wounded, after Butch makes a futile attempt to run to the mules in order to bring more ammunition, while Sundance provides cover fire. As dozens of Bolivian soldiers surround the area, Butch suggests the duo's next destination should be Australia. The film ends with a freeze frame shot on the pair charging out of the building, guns blazing, before the Bolivian forces open fire.

In the town of Cottonwood Springs, Texas at the turn of the century, Marshal Frank Patch is an Old West style lawman in a community determined to be modern. When Patch kills drunken Luke Mills in self-defense, the town decides it is time for the marshal to resign. But Patch refuses, reminding the citizens that when he took he job, the agreement was he could have it as long as he wanted. Afraid of Patch because of his knowledge of their misdeeds in the town's wilder days, the city fathers then decide the only way to remove Patch from office is by violence.
Patch humiliates one of town's councilmen, a cowardly shopkeeper, by slapping him. The man plans to kill Patch, but when Patch faces him down, he turns the gun on himself. The man's son swears revenge, supported by local leaders. They plot to ambush Patch. Aware that he will probably be killed, Patch marries his long-time girlfriend, the local brothel madame. The marriage is on the same day as the shopkeeper's funeral, after which Patch's death is planned. The dead man's son attempts to kill Patch on his own, but is shot by Patch. Patch explains to the dying youth that his father had murdered a man many years ago. Patch covered it up because he had agreed to raise the dead man's child. Patch pursues one of the instigators of the plot to kill him. He wounds and captures him, but then insists on going back out, knowing he will be gunned down. He is shot by hidden gunmen on the rooftops.

In late 19th-century Mexico, Federales capture Quintero (Fernando Rey), a revolutionary who attempts to rally those opposing the dictatorship of President Díaz. Before going to prison, Quintero gives his lieutenant, Maximiliano O'Leary (Reni Santoni), $600 with which to continue the cause. Bandit chief Carlos Lobero (Frank Silvera) demands that the money be used for guns and ammunition, but Max instead crosses the border in search of Chris Adams (George Kennedy): a legendary, American gunman whom his cousin had told him about. Max finally finds the laconic Chris, witnessing him free a man from a rigged trial, first by using his wits, then with the famed hair-trigger skill as a gunfighter.
Chris agrees to mount a rescue of Quintero and uses $500 of Max's money to recruit five highly trained combatants: Keno (Monte Markham), a horse thief and hand-to-hand combat expert (whom Chris saved from hanging); Cassie (Bernie Casey), a brawny but intelligent former slave, who can handle dynamite; Slater (Joe Don Baker), a one-armed, sideshow sharp-shootist; a tubercular wrangler called "P.J." (Scott Thomas), and Levi Morgan (James Whitmore), an aging family man who is doubtful of his worth, despite his incredible knife-throwing skills.
En route to Mexico, the motley band of Americans becomes less mercenary when observing the brutal treatment of the peasants. Their journey is marked by encounters with a political prisoner's little boy, Emiliano Zapata (Tony Davis) and a pretty peasant girl, Tina (Wende Wagner), who falls in love with P.J. When Lobero learns that Max did not buy guns with the $600, he refuses to allow his men to take part in Quintero's rescue. Realizing that he needs support, Chris frees a prison gang that includes Zapata's father, then trains them in military tactics.
Despite their superior fighting skills and strategy, Chris' men are outnumbered and their valiant effort to free Quintero appears doomed. At the last moment, 50 of Lobero's bandits, having slain their leader for his lack of patriotism, thunder onto the prison grounds and turn the tide of battle. Of the original seven, only Chris, Max and Levi survive. Before riding home, Chris and Levi leave behind the $600 the peasants had collected.

Vince Carden's hatred for Indians has caused an estrangement from his brother Paul and disappointment from wife Martha. A wagon train joined by Paul is attacked by braves in retaliation for a raid by Vince, and the only survivor besides Paul is a woman, Kate Mayfield, returning home from her education back East.
Vince organizes one more attack, pitting him against not only the Indians but his own brother.

An old legend tells of a fortune in gold hidden in the "Cañon del Oro", later called "The Lost Adams", guarded by the Apache spirits. A man named Adams is said to have found it when he was a young man, only to have the Indians capture and blind him after killing his companions. Years later, Marshal MacKenna (Gregory Peck), a one-time gold prospector himself, wounds an old Indian shaman named Prairie Dog (Eduardo Ciannelli) who tried to ambush him. Prairie Dog subsequently dies despite MacKenna's attending to him. MacKenna thereby comes into possession of a map that supposedly shows the way to the treasure. Though skeptical, he memorizes the directions before burning the map.
Mexican outlaw John Colorado (Omar Sharif) and his gang have been tracking Prairie Dog to get the map, all the while being chased by the U.S. Cavalry. They take shelter in the house of the old judge of the town of Hadleyburg, kill the judge and kidnap his daughter, Inga Bergmann (Camilla Sparv), to use as a hostage in case the cavalry catches up with them.
Colorado finds MacKenna digging a grave for Prairie Dog, and when he sees MacKenna has burned the map takes him captive, intending to force him to lead them to the gold. They return for the night to Colorado's secret hideout to be safe from both the cavalry and marauding Apaches, who are also seeking the gold. The gang is made up of outlaws, including Colorado's right-hand man, Sanchez (Keenan Wynn), and several Indians, among them a hulking Apache warrior named Hachita (Ted Cassidy) and a fiery Apache woman, Hesh-ke (Julie Newmar). Colorado and his companions feel vengeful towards MacKenna: he had previously run them out of the territory; and Hesh-ke and MacKenna were once lovers.
The next morning, Ben Baker (Eli Wallach), a gambler from the town of Hadleyburg, arrives with assorted townsmen who have caught "gold fever." They have learned about Colorado's plans, including of his hideout, when one of Colorado's men got drunk in town and said too much. Colorado is forced to allow them to join his party. The townsmen include two wandering Englishmen (Anthony Quayle and J. Robert Porter) who overheard Baker's conversation with the others; a newspaper editor, (Lee J. Cobb); a storekeeper, (Burgess Meredith); a preacher (Raymond Massey) who has convinced himself that God wants him to get a share of the gold and do great religious deeds with it; and blind Adams (Edward G. Robinson) of the legend himself. Colorado persuades old Adams to relate the story of how he discovered the canyon. The tale further raises the hopes of the gold-seekers, but later when MacKenna sneaks off and warns a few of them to return home, that they will just get themselves killed searching for gold that does not exist (he says the tale Adams told is just a story he tells to get free drinks), they hesitate. However when Colorado steps in and reveals that MacKenna shot Prairie Dog, the townsmen, who never liked MacKenna, are convinced to continue the quest.
The cavalry, led by the cunning Sergeant Tibbs (Telly Savalas), has been following Colorado's party closely, and has without knowing it camped just outside his hideout. The party bypasses the cavalry by an ingenious diversion, during which MacKenna tries unsuccessfully to escape with Inga. But shortly thereafter the cavalry ambushes the party at a water hole, and most of the non-core members of the gang are killed. The remaining gold hungers continue on their way, and as they near the canyon, MacKenna and Inga begin to fall in love. A jealous Hesh-Ke, who now wants MacKenna back, twice tries to kill Inga but both times he stops her.
The cavalry is continuing its pursuit, and Sergeant Tibbs periodically sends messengers back to his base to keep it informed of his whereabouts. Eventually, the patrol is whittled down to just Tibbs and two others. Tibbs kills them and persuades Colorado he should be allowed to join the gang. After another shoot-out with the Apaches and crossing dangerous river rapids, they reach "Shaking Rock", the location where, according to the map, the gold is. MacKenna tells Colorado they will see the canyon the next morning.
That night the two of them talk in almost a friendly way about what Colorado plans to do with his share of the gold. Later Tibbs tries to enlist MacKenna in a conspiracy against Colorado, but MacKenna wants no part of it. MacKenna tells Inga to be alert for any opportunity to escape. When she protests that she too wants some gold he tells her emphatically there is no gold, that he has just been bluffing. MacKenna and Inga embrace, with Hesh-ke looking on enviously. Hachita spends the night looking at the moon.
The next morning everyone is up and mounted before sunrise. When the first beam of sunlight shines down, it sets off an optical reaction that startles the horses. Then the shadow of the pinnacle of "Shaking Rock" starts to move. Watching this, MacKenna for the first time believes in the legend. The shadow eventually ends at a hidden passageway cutting into a mountainside. They ride through it and emerge on the other side.
They see below them a large vein of pure gold. As all race to the canyon floor, Hesh-ke tries to kill Inga, but Inga fights back and Hesh-ke falls to her death. Once on the floor, while Colorado and Tibbs celebrate their great fortune, MacKenna, realizing that Colorado does not intend to leave any of the party alive, tries to escape with Inga up the canyon wall. Tibbs is killed by Hachita and Colorado while stuffing his saddle bags with gold nuggets. Colorado then shoots at Hachita, but his gun is unloaded. Hachita tells him that during the night he took the bullets out of Colorado’s gun, as the spirits had told him to do, and that Colorado also has to be killed because he is not Apache. However Hachita turns his back on Colorado, who kills him with a knife he had earlier taken from Hesh-ke.
Colorado pursues MacKenna and Inga, catching up to them at an ancient Indian dwelling high up the cliff. They fight. Colorado has Hachita's tomahawk so is the early aggressor, and would kill MacKenna but for Inga's desperate intervention. MacKenna gains the advantage over Colorado with some punishing blows, rendering him helpless. At that moment the marauding Apaches, presumably having followed the party's tracks into the mountain, enter the canyon and shoot up at the three. The Apaches thunder down to the canyon floor, shouting excitedly. However, the noise and the pounding of the horses causes a rockfall which in turn causes the valley floor to buckle and quake. The Apaches flee, and the three survivors descend the cliff and scramble for horses, barely escaping the collapse of the canyon walls, which buries the gold beyond reach. This is followed by the crash of "Shaking Rock".
Stunned and exhausted, Colorado and MacKenna face each other. Colorado tells MacKenna to stay away from him. MacKenna tells Colorado to go far away and hide, that he will be coming after him. MacKenna and Inga ride off together. The camera tilts down to the left side of McKenna’s mount, which happens to be Sgt. Tibbs’ horse, its saddle bags stuffed with gold nuggets.

A murderer named Cain (Clint Walker) is released from prison after 18 years and wants to settle down as a rancher without ever having to touch a gun again. But no one will give him a job and people are after him for his earlier crimes. He finally takes an offer from a showman named Ruffalo (Vincent Price) to perform as "Killer Cain" in his traveling shooting show. However, after 18 years without practice, Cain is not as good as he once was with a gun. Cain tries to find redemption and peace when he falls in love with Monica Alton (Anne Francis), an artist from the east who came out west to paint. Yet Cain's reputation continues to dog him as past enemies (Mike Henry) try to settle old scores and a young gunslinger (Paul Hampton) looking to make his reputation by killing Cain.

Sam Whiskey (Burt Reynolds), an adventurer and rogue in the Old West, is seduced by widow Laura Breckenridge (Angie Dickinson) into promising to retrieve $250,000 in gold bars from a riverboat that sank in Colorado's Platte River. The gold had been stolen by Laura's late husband from the Denver Mint and replaced by lead plated fakes. She offers Sam $20,000 to recover and return it before the theft is discovered and her family name is ruined. Sam enlists the help of Jedidiah Hooker (Ossie Davis), a local blacksmith, and O. W. Bandy (Clint Walker), an Army friend turned inventor, offering them shares of the reward.
They locate the sunken riverboat, unaware that they are being watched by Fat Henry Hobson (Rick Davis) and his gang. The gold is fifteen feet below the river's surface, so Bandy fashions a diving helmet for Sam out of a bucket and bellows, but Fat Henry and his gang capture Jed and Bandy. Thinking they have drowned Sam, hiding in the riverboat's smoke stack, they recover the gold and prepare to kill their captives. With the help of one of Bandy's homemade machine guns, Sam frees his partners and they start for Denver with the gold. Just as they are tempted at a crossroads to head for Mexico with their haul, Laura shows up to greet them.
Assuming the identity of a government inspector, Sam enters the mint and deliberately damages a gold-plated bronze bust of George Washington displayed in the lobby. He then insists on having it repaired and takes it to a blacksmith's shop, where Jed makes a mold of the bust and recasts the recovered gold. Fat Henry later breaks into the shop and steals the bronze original, thinking that it was made by Sam and his men to disguise the pilfered bars. Sam returns the new bust to the mint, and his men, posing as plumbers, conceal themselves until nightfall, when they melt down the bust and recast it into gold bars. On a train leaving Denver the next morning, Sam splits the $20,000 with Jed and Bandy but keeps Laura for himself.

In the 16th century an Aztec priest has cut off his own hand and used the bloody stump to lay a curse upon a blasphemous Spanish conquistador and all his direct descendants. The curse: that once any of the descendants, whether male or female, have tasted physical love, even in the form of a single kiss, they will spend the rest of their lives as being nearly sexually insatiable. Three centuries later the beautiful young virginal daughter of a fabulously wealthy Texas rancher and gambler is latest the victim of the curse; an elaborate set of contests and races is arranged to choose which of two cowboys will win her hand in marriage.

The film's story revolves around the Paiute Indian outlaw Willie Boy (Robert Blake), who escapes with his lover, Lola (Katharine Ross), after killing her father in self defense. According to tribal custom Willie can then claim Lola as his wife. According to the law, Deputy Sheriff Cooper (Robert Redford) is required to charge him with murder.
Willie Boy and Lola are hunted for several days by a posse led by Cooper. Willie manages to repel the posse’s advance when he ambushes them from the top of Ruby Mountain. He only tries to shoot their horses, but ends up accidentally killing a bounty hunter, resulting in another murder charge.
Days later, as the posse closes in, Lola dies by a gunshot wound to the chest. It is left deliberately ambiguous whether Lola shot herself in order to slow down the posse's advance or whether Willie killed her to keep her out of the posse's hands. Cooper is inclined to believe the latter and then goes off ahead of the posse to bring in Willie dead or alive. As soon as Cooper catches up, he comes under fire from Willie, who is positioned at the top of Ruby Mountain. Cooper narrowly avoids being shot on several occasions.
In the film's climax, Cooper maneuvers behind Willie, who has donned a ghost shirt, and tells him he can turn around if he wants to, which he does. The two pause before Willie raises his rifle at Cooper, who beats him to the draw and shoots him. Fatally struck in the chest, Willie tumbles down the hillside. Cooper picks up Willie’s gun and finds that it wasn't even loaded, making it apparent that Willie deliberately chose death over capture. Abashed, Cooper carries the slain outlaw the rest of the way down Ruby Mountain and delivers him to other Paiutes, who carry the corpse away and burn the remains.
When confronted by the county sheriff, Cooper is told that the burning of Willie's body will ruin the people's chance to see Willie in the (now-dead) flesh, denying them the ability "to see something". Cooper retorts: "Tell them we're all out of souvenirs".

Cass Bunning (Richard Lapp), a farm boy with a talent for shooting, meets up with Nellie (Anne Randall), a naive woman from the East, who has been lured West by the promise of a waitressing job which turns out to be in a brothel. Cass helps Nellie escape and two are forced into marriage with each other by Judge Roy Bean (Victor Jory). Cass decides to become a bounty hunter. He crosses with Jesse James (Audie Murphy) who, impressed by Cass' shooting, suggests he join his gang, but Cass wants to stay at his new job. Cass is killed in a shoot out with the outlaw Billy Pimple (Bob Random), and Neillie is forced into prostitution.

In Texas in 1913, Pike Bishop, the leader of a gang of aging outlaws, is seeking retirement with one final score: the robbery of a railroad office containing a cache of silver. They are ambushed by Pike's former partner, Deke Thornton, who is leading a posse of bounty hunters hired and deputized by the railroad. A bloody shootout kills several of the gang. Pike uses a serendipitous temperance union parade to shield their getaway, and many citizens are killed in the crossfire.
Pike rides off with Dutch Engstrom, brothers Lyle and Tector Gorch, and Angel, the only survivors. They are dismayed when the loot from the robbery turns out to be a decoy: steel washers instead of silver coin. The men reunite with old-timer Freddie Sykes and head for Mexico.
Pike's men cross the Rio Grande and take refuge that night in the village where Angel was born. The townsfolk are ruled by General Mapache, a corrupt, brutal officer in the Mexican Federal Army, who has been ravaging the area's villages to feed his troops, who have been losing to the forces of revolutionary Pancho Villa. Pike's gang makes contact with the general. A jealous Angel spots Teresa, his former lover, in Mapache's arms and shoots her dead, angering Mapache. Pike defuses the situation and offers to work for Mapache. Their task is to steal a weapons shipment from a U.S. Army train so that Mapache can resupply his troops and appease Commander Mohr, his German military adviser, who wishes to obtain samples of America's armaments. The reward will be a cache of gold coins.
Angel gives up his share of the gold to Pike in return for sending one crate of rifles and ammunition to a band of rebels opposed to Mapache. The holdup goes largely as planned until Deke's posse turns up on the train the gang has robbed. The posse chases them to the Mexican border, only to be foiled again as the robbers blow up a trestle spanning the Rio Grande, dumping the entire posse into the river. The pursuers temporarily regroup at a riverside camp and then quickly take off again after the Bunch.

On the trail, Ben Kane, a former Dodge City lawman, comes across Billy Young, who has no horse and was abandoned by partner Jesse Boone soon after the killing of a Mexican general.
Kane lets young Billy accompany him to a town in New Mexico where he has a job waiting for him as deputy sheriff. Kane's real aim is to find the man who murdered his son.
In town, Kane learns from dance-hall girl Lily Beloit that two men who run the town, John Behan and Frank Boone, secretly intend to gun down Kane first chance they get. Frank Boone may be the one Kane is looking for, but Jesse, who is Frank's son, lands in jail first, accused of shooting Doc Cushman.
Kane and Lily become lovers. Billy, meanwhile, springs Jesse from jail, but feels guilty once Lily reveals to him what happened to Kane's son. After he deals with Behan and the older Boone, the deputy turns in his badge, but recommends Billy for the job.

Cable Hogue (Jason Robards) is isolated in the desert, awaiting his partners, Taggart (L. Q. Jones) and Bowen (Strother Martin), who are scouting for water. The two plot to seize what little water remains to save themselves. Hogue, who hesitates to defend himself, is disarmed and abandoned to almost certain death.
Confronted with sandstorms and other desert elements, Hogue bargains with God. Four days later, about to perish, he stumbles upon a muddy pit. He digs and discovers an abundant supply of water.
After discovering that his well is the only source of water between two towns on a stagecoach route, he decides to live there and build a business. Hogue's first paying customer is the Rev. Joshua Duncan Sloane (David Warner), a wandering minister of a church of his own revelation. Joshua doubts the legitimacy of Hogue's claim to the spring, prompting Hogue to race into town to file at the land office.
Hogue faces the mockery of everyone he tells about his discovery. That does not deter him from buying 2 acres (0.8 ha) surrounding his spring. He immediately goes to the stage office to drum up business but is thrown out by the skeptical owner. He pitches his business plan to a bank president, who is dubious about the claim. Hogue impresses the banker with his attitude and he is staked to $100.
Hogue, who hasn’t bathed since his desert wanderings, decides to treat himself to a night with Hildy (Stella Stevens), a prostitute in the town saloon. They quickly develop a jovial understanding but before they can consummate the transaction, Hogue remembers that he has still not set up his boundary markers and rushes out, much to Hildy's chagrin. She chases him out of the saloon in a sequence that wreaks havoc on the town.
Back at the spring, Hogue and Joshua get to work, dubbing the claim Cable Springs. The two decide to go into town and are drunk by the time they arrive. Hogue makes up with Hildy and spends the night with her, leaving Joshua to pursue his passion: the seduction of emotionally vulnerable women.
Hogue and Joshua continue to run the robust business, delighting in shocking the often genteel travelers with the realities of frontier life. In moments of solitude, Hogue and Joshua philosophize on the nature of love and the passing of their era. Joshua decides that he must return to town. Hildy arrives at Cable Springs having been "asked" to leave by the modernizing townfolk, who can no longer abide open prostitution in their midst. She tells Hogue that she will leave for San Francisco in the morning but winds up staying with him for three weeks. This time elapses during a tender, romantic montage.
Then one day, Taggart and Bowen arrive on the stagecoach. Hogue lets them believe that he bears them no ill will. Hogue alludes to a huge stash of cash that he has hoarded, knowing that the two men will return to steal it. When they do, Hogue outwits them, by throwing rattlesnakes into the pit they have dug. When they surrender, he orders them to strip to their underwear to venture into the desert, just as he had been forced to do. Taggart, believing Hogue will once again hesitate to defend himself, reaches for his gun but Hogue shoots him dead.
A motor car appears, driving right past Cable Springs with no need or interest in stopping for water. The drivers laugh at the archaic scene of western violence as they race past. "Drove right by," says Hogue in amazement. "Well, that's gonna be the next fella's worry."
Hogue takes mercy on the grovelling Bowen. He even gives him Cable Springs, having decided to go to San Francisco to find Hildy. The stagecoach arrives and Hogue gets ready to pack up when suddenly another motorcar  appears. This one does stop and Hildy emerges, opulently dressed. She has become prosperous and, now on her way to New Orleans, has come to see if Hogue is ready to join her. He agrees but while he loads the motorcar he accidentally trips its brake. The car runs over Hogue as he pushes Bowen out of the way.
Joshua, who arrives by a black motorcycle with a sidecar, gives a eulogy for Hogue as he dies. This segues into a funeral with the cast standing mournfully over Hogue's grave. They are grieving not only the death of the man but the era he represents. The stagecoach and motorcar drive off in opposite directions. A coyote wanders into the abandoned Cable Springs. But the coyote has a collar - possibly symbolising the taming of the wilderness.

It is 1912 and groups of Mexican revolutionaries have been attacking towns on both sides of the Mexican–American border. The most powerful of these groups is led by a former Mexican army general, Héctor Cordoba. When a surprise attack results in six cannons falling into the hands of Cordoba and his men, the United States government puts General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing (John Russell) in charge of seeing that the cannons will never be used against the American people. Pershing turns to Captain Rod Douglas (George Peppard), instructing him to gather a group of men to take part in the dangerous mission into the heart of the Cordoba's territory.
The first man to sign up for the job is Jackson Harkness (Don Gordon), a soldier who has worked with Douglas before. At the beginning of the film, Harkness has to stand by and watch as his brother is tortured and killed by Cordoba. Douglas ordered him not to step in because they were undercover as sympathizers in the enemy camp and could not afford to make their true intentions known. As a result, Harkness vows vengeance on the captain and will not leave his side until the opportunity presents itself.
The next two men that Douglas chooses for the operation are Andy Rice (Pete Duel) and Peter (Nico Minardos), who have just broken out of the army jail when Douglas arrives with the orders for their release. The captain now has all of the men that he feels are necessary for getting the job done. However, a Mexican lieutenant, Antonio Gutierrez(Gabriele Tinti), who holds a personal grudge against Cordoba, approaches him and demands to be part of the operation. He tells Douglas that he knows a woman, Leonora Cristobal(Giovanna Ralli) who, for her own reasons, wishes to see Cordoba dead. If the captain includes him in the mission, she will help them by working her way into Cordoba’s confidence and getting him alone so that he will be vulnerable when they make their move.
Antonio and Leonora arrive at Cordoba’s camp first. Leonora, who learns that the Mexican government wants to capture Cordoba alive, betrays Antonio and informs the bandit leader of his intentions, hoping that he will reward her for what she has done by allowing her to get closer to him, giving her the opportunity to kill him herself.
When Douglas, Andy, Peter, and Harkness arrive at the camp, posing as sympathizers, they hear of what Leonora has done and decide that they have to act quickly. Douglas starts a fight with one of the Mexican men, so as to be put in jail, where he can help Antonio to escape. That night, Andy, disguised as a Mexican guards, breaks both of the men out of jail so that the operation can proceed. Douglas goes to Cordoba’s room, where he finds him alone with Leonora. She betrayed Antonio but she still did the job she was supposed to do. Meanwhile, Jackson and Peter have turned the cannons on the camp and begin to fire, while Andy and Antonio shoot flares into the buildings. Chaos ensues and the group of men, along with Leonora and their prisoner, Cordoba, attempt to ride out of the camp. Peter, Antonio, and Andy are killed in the process, and Cordoba is wounded.
The next morning, miles away from the camp, the diminished group stops to rest. When Douglas goes off by himself, Harkness sees his opportunity to avenge his brother. He follows the captain, demands that he turn around, and draws his gun. As Douglas walks unflinchingly toward him, however, he is unable to shoot and, instead, punches him. All now forgiven, the two men walk back to where Leonora waits. Cordoba has died from the wound he received the previous night. They are not able to bring him back alive, as the government had wanted, but the cannons were destroyed and their mission is complete.

In 1867, John O'Hanlan (Stewart) and Harley Sullivan (Fonda) are aging cowboys working on open cattle ranges in Texas. O'Hanlan gets a letter from an attorney in Cheyenne, Wyoming, that his disreputable and now deceased brother, DJ, left him something called The Cheyenne Social Club in his will.
After they make the 1,000 mile (1,600 km) trek to Cheyenne, O'Hanlan and Sullivan learn that The Cheyenne Social Club is a high-class brothel next to the railroad. O'Hanlan's new-found status as a man of property makes him the most popular man in town, until he decides to turn the Club into a respectable boarding house.
The ladies of the Club show no sign of leaving. John gets into a bar-room brawl with several men who are equally angry at the prospect of the Club closing. John then learns from DJ's lawyer that DJ had made a deal with the railroad: if the ladies leave the Club, the land the Club is on will revert to the railroad.
John returns to the Club to discover that Jenny, the head girl (Jones), has been assaulted by a man named Corey Bannister. John, with Harley following along, arms himself and goes to the bar where Bannister is. John kills Bannister when Bannister mistakes Harley's cracking pecans for a second gun. "Just like DJ would have done" the barkeeper intones of John's heroics.
The Sheriff advises John and Harley that Bannister's relatives are sure to head for Cheyenne once they learn of Bannister's death. He says he would like to stay and help John and Harley face down the Bannisters, but has to leave town on business.
Harley heeds the Sheriff's warning and leaves for Texas in spite of John's pleads to stay. En route, Harley meets several men at a campfire. While engaging in conversation with the men, Harley discovers they are the Bannisters. He gets on his horse and rides on.
The Bannisters show up at the Club and a gunfight ensues. John, with help from Jenny, kills two Bannisters from the window. A third Bannister enters the house through a back door and is killed by Jenny. Harley, who has returned, kills the fourth Bannister after climbing the railroad water tower. John yells, "Is that you Harley?" The head Bannister hears this and remembers Harley as the man who approached them at the campfire. He shoots at Harley, but is gunned down by John. The sixth Bannister runs away.
John and Harley are feted at the bar which had formerly shunned them. The Sheriff congratulates them and then tells them 20 to 30 of the Bannisters cousins, the Markstones, are heading to Cheyenne. He says he would like to stay and help John and Harley face the Markstones, but has to leave town again on business.
This time, John decides to leave and he has DJ's lawyer transfer ownership of the Club to Jenny. Months later, while working cattle on the range in Texas, John receives a letter from Jenny. He is touched by it, but tosses it into the fire before him. Harley is upset John has destroyed the letter because he wanted to read it. They then ride off together, arguing.

Hoke Birdsill rides into Yerkey's Hole demanding the law take action because Dingus Magee has robbed him. There is no law, so the mayor, Belle, who also runs the town's bordello, sees to it that Hoke becomes the new sheriff.
Dingus keeps getting away with his crimes, helped by Anna Hot Water, his young Indian companion. But when he tries to steal from Belle, he finds Hoke has beaten him to it. Hoke enjoys being on the other side of the law, so Dingus turns the tables, becoming sheriff to go after him.
After being rivals for so long, Dingus and Hoke eventually team up, burning Belle's brothel to the ground.

Placed behind bars during the war, Diego Callahan (David Janssen), also known as "Macho," travels to Texas looking for the man responsible for his imprisonment.
He quarrels with a one-armed Confederate Army colonel named Mountford (David Carradine) over a bottle of champagne and kills him in front of Alexandra (Jean Seberg), the officer's wife. Vowing vengeance, she immediately puts a $1,000 bounty on Callahan's head. She entices Duffy (Lee J. Cobb) to help her seek out Callahan, who wears the yellow boots that Callahan remembers him by.
Traveling with Alexandra through Confederate Texas, Duffy locates Callahan and challenges him to a game of horseshoes for money, but when Alexandra seeks Duffy, she finds that Callahan has hanged him.
Alexandra goes to work at a casino run by Harry Wheeler (James Booth), writing letters for illiterate cowboys. Wheeler agrees to hire a team of bounty hunters and give chase. Alexandra spots Callahan at the casino, and befriends a young cowboy (Bo Hopkins). She convinces him that her honor has been insulted. The cowboy goes over to where Callahan is playing poker and a melee breaks out. He escapes in the confusion but she pursues Callahan on her own and meets up with him, and the two travel with Callahan's partner.
Later, in Callahan's cabin, Alexandra tries to kill him, but Callahan overpowers her and savagely beats her before raping her. Despite the savage beating leaving scars on her face, Alexandra decides to stay at the cabin, likely suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. After nearly being killed by a mother bear protecting her cub, she is saved by Callahan, who shoots the adult bear. He saves the cub because it won't survive on its own. She falls in love with Callahan.
Now in love with the man who has killed her husband, she travels with Callahan and his partner, but Wheeler's posse is in pursuit. Wheeler's men are determined to collect that reward, and Callahan finds that he can't kill them all.

During the American Civil War, Col. Cord McNally (John Wayne) has instructions telegraphed to his close friend, Lt. Ned Forsythe (Peter Jason), in charge of the Union troops on a Union army payroll train. However, Confederates led by Capt. Pierre Cordona (Jorge Rivero) and Sgt. Tuscarora Phillips (Christopher Mitchum) hijack the train. Their plan is to listen in on the telegraph wires, grease the tracks to stop the train, disconnect the payroll wagon from the engine so it rolls back down the hill, using a hornet's nest to force the Union guards to jump off the train, then catch the train with many ropes tied to trees. In the process, Lt. Forsythe is fatally injured.
In the subsequent fighting, they trick McNally and capture him but McNally leads them into a Union camp, pushes a branch forward, and lets it swing back to knock Tuscarora off his horse, then yells out to the camp. As the Confederates flee, McNally jumps Cordona. McNally realizes that a traitor must be selling information to the Confederate States of America, in order for the hijackings to be successful. McNally questions the pair, but they give him no information and are imprisoned.
When the War ends, McNally visits them as they are being released, and asks them to tell him from whom they got their information. When Tuscarora points out that they were the ones who had killed McNally's friends yet McNally has nothing against them, McNally replies that the killing was an act of war, while the one who sold them the information was a traitor. Unfortunately they don't know the traitors' identities, having only seen them from a distance. One was a big, dark-haired, mustachioed man, and the other was very white-haired and pale. McNally then tells Cordona and Tuscarora that if they should ever come across these men again, to contact him through a friend of his, Pat Cronin (Bill Williams), who is the sheriff of Blackthorne in Texas. Tuscarora is on his way to Rio Lobo, Texas where he grew up.
Later McNally is contacted by Cronin on instructions from Cordona. When he arrives in Blackthorne, however, Cordona is sleeping in a hotel room with a woman. Shasta Delaney (Jennifer O'Neill), arrives in the hotel, wishing to report a murder that took place in Rio Lobo. Cronin explains that he cannot intervene because Rio Lobo is outside his jurisdiction. Later a posse from Rio Lobo arrives and wants to take Delaney away. She claims, however, that the leader, "Whitey" (Robert Donner), is the murderer about whom she has been talking.
When one of the posse aims a gun at Cronin, Shasta shoots Whitey under the table, and Cronin and McNally finish off the posse. As the last one is about to shoot McNally, Cordona appears at the top of the stairs and shoots the gunman. Shasta faints from the shock of killing someone. Cordona tells McNally that Whitey was one of the two men for whom McNally was looking. He goes on to tell McNally that Tuscarora had contacted him and had told him that he saw one of the men, for whom McNally is looking in Rio Lobo. He also reports that there is trouble in Rio Lobo and that Tuscarora needs help. His father and other ranchers are being bullied by a man named Ketcham, who installed his sheriff, "Blue Tom" Hendricks (Mike Henry), after Hendricks killed the previous incumbent.
McNally, Cordona, and Shasta go to Rio Lobo, where they discover graft and corruption. Hendricks arrests Tuscarora on trumped up charges. For further help, they go to Tuscarora's father, Old Man Philips (Jack Elam). When the three sneak into Ketcham's ranch, McNally learns that Ketcham is really Sergeant Major Ike Gorman (Victor French), the traitor. McNally punches him around and forces him to sign the title deeds of the ranches back to their rightful owners. Philips then wires the triggers back, forming a dead-man's trap, on his double barreled shotgun so they can order Hendricks and his men out of the jail . They take over the town jail for cover, freeing Tuscarora, while Cordona goes for the Cavalry. Meanwhile, Tuscarora's girlfriend Maria Carmen (Susana Dosamantes) and her friend Amelita (Sherry Lansing) lend assistance. For that, Hendricks slashes Amelita's face, and Amelita swears to McNally that she will kill Hendricks.
However, Ketcham's men capture Cordona. Ketcham's gang offers to trade Cardona for Ketcham. In the meantime, word spread of the trade and roughly 20 ranchers turn up to help, knowing that, if McNally fails, the town will have gained nothing from the returned deeds. During the prisoner exchange, Cordona dives from the bridge into the river where Tuscarora was hiding. McNally yells out that Ketcham is now bankrupt, having signed the deeds back, so the furious sheriff guns Ketcham down, and in turn, McNally shoots the sheriff in the leg. McNally then gets shot in his leg by one of the deputies, and is dragged back into the cantina by Philips.
After a failed attempt to blow up the cantina McNally's force was in, the remaining bandits are outflanked and outgunned by the other ranchers who have come to help. Hendricks's men realize this and they flee. Hendricks shoots at them, but he had been using his rifle as a walking cane and it had become clogged with mud, and it explodes in his face. As he stumbles to his horse, Amelita guns him down, thus keeping her word. McNally tells the ranchers that they have their town back.

A young woman, Cresta Lee (Bergen), and young U.S. private Honus Gant (Strauss) are joined together by fate when they are the only two survivors after their group is massacred by the Cheyenne. Gant is devoted to his country and duty; Lee, who has lived with the Cheyenne for two years, is scornful of Gant (she refers to him as "Soldier Blue" derisively) and declares that in this conflict she sympathizes with them. The two must now try to make it to Fort Reunion, the army base camp, where Cresta's fiance, an army officer, waits for her. As they travel through the desert with very low supplies, hiding from the Indians, they are spotted by a group of Kiowa horsemen. Under pressure from Cresta, Honus fights and seriously wounds the group's chief. Honus finds himself unable to kill the chief, and the chief's own men stab him for his defeat and leave Honus and Cresta alone.
Eventually, after being pursued by a white trader (played by Donald Pleasence) who sells guns to the Cheyenne, but whose latest shipment of weapons Honus has destroyed, Honus finds himself in a cave where Cresta has left him to get help. She arrives at Fort Reunion, only to discover that her fiance's cavalry plans to attack the peaceful Indian village of the Cheyenne the following day. She runs away on a horse and reaches the village in time to warn Spotted Wolf, the Cheyenne chief. The chief does not recognize the danger and, using the U.S. flag, rides out to extend a hand of friendship to the American soldiers. The soldiers, however, obey the orders of their commanding officer to open fire at the village. After a cavalry charge decimates the Indian men, the soldiers enter the village and begin to rape and kill the female survivors. Honus protests and attempts to disrupt the massacre, to no avail. Cresta attempts to lead the remaining women and children to safety, but her group is discovered and massacred, though Cresta herself is spared. After the battle, Honus is led away in shackles and Cresta departs with the remaining few survivors.

Paris Pitman, Jr. has pulled off a $500,000 robbery and is the only one who knows where the money is hidden. He is seen in a bordello and is captured, tried, convicted and sentenced to an Arizona penitentiary.
A corrupt warden, LeGoff, is willing to cut the prisoner a deal. He will let Pitman break out of jail for an even split of the half-million dollars. Pitman agrees, but the plan goes awry when LeGoff is murdered by a Chinese convict, Ah-Ping, during an inmate uprising.
Former sheriff Woodward Lopeman becomes the new warden. Although they are enemies, he and Pitman work together to improve conditions at the prison. On a day the lieutenant governor visits, Pitman makes his move. He sparks a riot and manages to escape, but not before three inmates are killed, whereupon Pitman himself does away with two more, Ah-Ping being one of them. The other is Floyd Moon whom he shoots just as it appears the two have gained their freedom.
The money has been buried near a nest of rattlesnakes. Pitman heads for it, with Lopeman in hot pursuit. The money is his again when Pitman is suddenly bitten by a rattlesnake. By the time Lopeman comes across him, Pitman is already dead. Lopeman collects the money, as well as Pitman's body, and rides back to the prison. However, upon his arrival, he abruptly decides to leave the body and gallop off, absconding to Mexico with the money.

Jonas Candide, a former carnival showman, travels around the South in 1918 with his own portable electric chair, going from prison to prison with his young assistant, Jimmy, charging one hundred dollars per execution. Two of Jonas' potential victims are siblings Willy and Gundred Herzallerliebst. While Jonas successfully executes Willy, he falls for Gundred, hoping to fake her execution.
The musical The Fields of Ambrosia is based on the film.

A gunslinger named Hogan spots and saves a naked woman from being gang-raped by several bandits whom he shoots and kills. He later learns that the woman, Sara, is a nun working with a group of Mexican revolutionaries who are fighting the French. When Sara requests that Hogan takes her to a Mexican camp, he agrees because he had previously arranged to help the Mexican revolutionaries attack the French garrison in exchange for a portion of the garrison's strongbox, if they are successful.
As the duo heads towards the camp, Hogan is surprised that the nun smokes his cigars and drinks his whiskey. Before he attempts to detonate a charge to destroy a French ammunition train, he is shot with an arrow in the shoulder. Sara is able to bandage him, but he is still unable to shoot the charge to disable the train himself. Sara assists him in aiming his rifle, and the two succeed in destroying the train together. Eventually the two reach Juarista commander Col. Beltran's camp and Sara reveals the layout of the French garrison. She then reveals to Hogan that she is not a nun but a prostitute posing as a nun. Although Hogan is shocked the two team up, infiltrate the fortress and open the gates for the Mexican revolutionary forces to swarm through.
A battle ensues. Hogan singlehandedly guns down several French soldiers. The French retreat and the Mexicans capture the fort. As promised, Hogan receives a large portion of the riches. Now wealthy and his job completed, Hogan sets off with Sara, whom he has fallen in love with, for further adventures.

Roy King's gang robs a bank and flees to Mexico on a train. Roy meets a beautiful woman, Alicia, and marries her, only to have her run off with all of the money.
An offer comes his way to rob the arsenal of a Mexican army. A daring plan gets the job done, only to have Roy double-crossed once more, unable to get his money.

In 1909, there is a raid on the McCandles family ranch by a gang of ruthless outlaws led by John Fain. They massacre the ranch hands and kidnap Little Jake, the grandson, leaving a ransom note and heading back for Mexico, where they have been hiding out. Martha, the head of the family, is offered the help of both the army and the Texas Rangers in hunting the gang. She replies that this will be "a harsh and unpleasant kind of business and will require an extremely harsh and unpleasant kind of person to see it through." In consequence, she sends for her estranged husband, the aging Jacob "Big Jake" McCandles, a near-legendary gunfighter who wanders the west with his Rough Collie, simply named Dog.
When Jake arrives by train, he and Martha discuss a plan to take the ransom to the kidnappers, a million dollars in a big red strongbox, although Jake warns that, "Pay or not, we run the risk of never seeing the boy again". Then his son Michael rides up on a motorcycle, bringing word that he has seen the kidnappers in the Chilicothe Canyon. The Texas Ranger captain is present and offers the services of his men, equipped with three REO touring cars. They, however, are ambushed and their cars put out of action. Jake, preferring the old ways, has followed on horseback, accompanied by an old Apache associate, Sam Sharpnose. He is now joined by his sons, Michael and James, with whom his relations are tense because of his desertion of the family ten years before.
That night, Fain rides into their camp to make arrangements for the handover, telling Jake that they will “send the boy's body back in a basket" if anything should go wrong. Both men deny any personal stake in the business, each claiming to be "just a messenger boy". The family party crosses into Mexico the next day and checks into a hotel. Knowing that they have been followed by another gang intent on stealing the strongbox, Jake sets a trap for them and they are all killed. During the attack, the chest is blasted open, revealing clipped bundles of newspaper instead of money. Michael and James become suspicious of Jake and the three slug it out, but Jake assures them that it was both his and Martha's idea. James fears for Little Jake's life, but Jake tells them they'll have to go in anyway.
A thunderstorm breaks and Pop Dawson, one of the outlaws, arrives to give them the details of the exchange. He warns them that a sniper will have a gun trained on the boy in case of a double-cross. Jake arranges for Michael to follow after them to take care of the sharp shooter and convinces Dawson that he had been killed in the fight. At the hideout, Jake is led in alone to where Fain and four other gang members are waiting, one of them holding a shotgun on the boy. Jake tosses the key of the chest to Fain, who opens it up to discover that he has been tricked.
Fain orders his brother Will to kill the boy but he is shot by Jake. Dog is wounded by the sniper and Jake is wounded in the leg before Michael kills him. Jake tells the boy to escape but Little Jake is hunted by the machete wielding John Goodfellow, who has already hacked Sam to death. Dog comes to the rescue and is himself killed before Big Jake arrives and impales Goodfellow on a pitchfork. Fain rides up and is preparing to finish off the two of them when Michael arrives from where he had been waiting in ambush and blasts him off his horse. Before he dies, Fain asks, "Who are you?" When Jake answers, "Jacob McCandles," Fain says, "I thought you was dead," as have other characters during the course of the film. “Not hardly," Jake replies.
With Little Jake rescued, and the broken family bonded, they prepare to head home.

After the end of the Civil War, Confederate army captain Justice Cain (Scott Brady) retires from the military. He becomes a farmer and lives a peaceful life with his son, Jody (by his deceased first wife) and his new wife, Angie (Tereza Thaw), the biracial ex-slave of Cain's former father-in-law.
Unbeknownst to Cain, a group of six soldiers previously under Cain's command (and known as "Cain's Cutthroats"), Ameson (Robert Dix), Billy-Joe (Darwin Joston), Tucker (Bruce Kimbale), Farrette (Don Epperson), Mason, and Crawford, has recently been released from a Union prison. The former Confederate soldiers have become a roving band of homicidal highway robbers, and their ultimate goal is to re-form a squadron led by Cain and renew attacks upon Union targets.
The men find Cain and tell him of their plans, but when Cain refuses to join them, tells them that the "Old South" is dead, and derides their unrealistic plan to attack the north, they become enraged, attack him, and tie him up. Ameson, the leader of the group, rapes Angie while Cain watches helplessly. Billy-Joe, the most deranged and volatile of the men, attempts to rape her afterwards, but she fights him off. Fuming about what he perceives as Angie's sexual "rejection" of him, Billy-Joe kills her. Cain then screams insults at Billy-Joe, who shoots both Cain and Jody, killing the little boy instantly.
Realizing that Billy-Joe's uncontrollable rage has set them on the path of no return, the men attempt to cover their tracks by burning down Cain's farm, but they leave unaware that Cain is still alive.
With the help of Preacher Simms (John Carradine), a bible-quoting bounty hunter, and Rita (Adair Jameson), a former prostitute (and Tucker's ex-girlfriend), Cain systematically tracks down and kills the men. However, Cain becomes increasingly sadistic with each killing, and Simms begins to question whether Cain is more interested in achieving justice or indulging his own bloodlust. After killing most of the men, Cain finds Billy-Joe and shoots him in the crotch several times, so that he dies a slow, excruciatingly painful death. This disgusts Simms and Rita, and they abandon Cain.
Cain then sets out alone to kill Ameson, the last surviving member of the gang. However, Ameson is captured by Union soldiers and executed by firing squad before Cain can reach him. Cain, now alone in the world and robbed of the satisfaction of killing the man who raped his wife, sinks to the ground and weeps in despair.

Jed Catlow and Ben Cowan served together in the Civil War and became friends, but now Catlow is a thief and Cowan a marshal tracking him down.
Catlow is accused of rustling the wealthy rancher Parkman's cattle. Parkman has hired a vicious gunfighter, Orville Miller, to kill Catlow.
Offering to turn himself in, Catlow joins Cowan on a stagecoach to Fort Smith, but his men stage an ambush. Catlow heads for Hermosillo, Mexico, where a woman named Rosita is in love with him and a $2 million shipment of gold is arriving soon by mule train.
Cowan goes after him. He is bushwhacked by Miller, who tosses the bound marshal across a horse with a badge pinned on his backside and turns him loose. Cowan barely avoids a plunge to his death off a cliff.
Allowed to recover at General Calderon's grand hacienda, Ben becomes attracted to Christina, the general's daughter.
Catlow gets the drop on Miller during a bath and hits him with a jug that shatters, cutting Miller's vocal cords.
After stealing the army's gold, Catlow flees toward the scorching desert and into dangerous Apache territory. He rejects Rosita, who angrily recruits men to go with her after Catlow and kill him. Cowan follows, as usual, but Miller shows up and shoots Cowan, wounding him. Catlow picks up Cowan's gun and shoots Miller.
Christina will take care of Cowan. Meantime, a smiling Catlow puts on his friend's badge and gives an indication that he will turn to the right side of the law.

In this western, a Mexican desperado tries to flee his partner, a determined girlfriend, and a US Marshal.

Will Tenneray and Abe Cross are two aging, famous gunfighters, both in need of money. Cross rides into town, having failed as a gold prospector. His reputation is such that everyone expects him to shoot it out with Tenneray, who capitalizes on his legend by working at the saloon to "sucker fools into buying drinks." To the town's surprise, Tenneray and Cross take a liking to one another. There is no hostility between them whatsoever.
Tenneray is desperate for money, however. He comes up with the idea to stage a duel to the death in a bullfight arena, with the ticket proceeds going to the winner. Unfortunately, by killing Cross, he reasons to Nora, his wife, "I could lose my best friend." The actual gunfight is shot in a low-key and unromanticised fashion, and is over in a couple of seconds, Cross killing Tenneray with the first bullet. (This defies conventions with the "man in black" winning.)
There is an extended fantasy sequence near the end, where we see what might have happened if Tenneray had won, which may have confused some viewers. It may be open to interpretation if this is Cross's fantasy or Tenneray's widow's fantasy.

Hannie Caulder (Raquel Welch) is a frontier wife, living with her husband at a horse station between towns in the American West. After a disastrous bank raid, the inept Clemens brothers gang arrive at the station. They murder Caulder's husband, gang-rape her, burn down her house and leave her for dead. The brothers go on a crime spree, while Caulder recruits bounty hunter Thomas Price (Robert Culp) to help her get revenge by training her to be a gunfighter. The pair travel to Mexico to have gunsmith Bailey (Christopher Lee) build her a specialized revolver, to be a fast draw specialist. When bandidos surround the house, a gun battle erupts but Hannie is unable to kill a man face to face. Price recommends she give up her quest for revenge but she refuses, telling him to get out and that she was only using him and doesn't need him any more. He leaves, telling her she's a bad liar.
As he goes, Price sees the Clemens brothers arrive in town. His attempt to take down Frank goes awry, because Emmet throws a knife into Price's belly, mortally wounding him. Hannie goes after them, killing Frank (Jack Elam) in a whorehouse. The two brothers swear revenge on her but she gets Rufus (Strother Martin) in a store when he tries to kill her. Hannie lures Emmett (Ernest Borgnine) to an old prison for a showdown and almost meets the same fate as Price but Emmett's attempt to throw a knife into her back is thwarted by the Preacher, who shoots it from his hand. Hannie kills Emmett face to face but realizes that Price was right: taking revenge will change her forever.

Harry Collings (Fonda) and Arch Harris (Oates) are two saddle tramps who have grown weary after seven years of wandering through the American Southwest. Along with a younger companion, Dan Griffen (Robert Pratt), they stop off in Del Norte, a ramshackle town in the middle of nowhere, which is run by the corrupt McVey (Severn Darden). Harris and Griffen discuss traveling to California to look for work when Collings abruptly informs them he has decided to return to the wife he left years before. Griffen temporarily leaves the two in a bar and goes to buy supplies. Some town thugs shoot him to death out of pure meanness. Collings and Harris escape, but they return that night. Collings shoots McVey in the feet, crippling him.
After riding hundreds of miles back to his old house, Collings finds a cold welcome from his wife Hannah (Bloom). In order to be allowed to stay, he offers his services simply as a “hired hand”. Hannah agrees and quickly puts him to work. Gradually, the distrust and unease caused by years of estrangement slip away, and the two begin to become close again. For the first time, Collings feels willing to settle down, but Harris leaves, wanting 'to see the ocean'.
McVey and his troupe of hooligans interrupt his life. Learning that they have kidnapped Harris, Collings leaves Hannah again, this time to save his friend. In a subsequent brutal shootout with McVey's gang, all of the villains are killed and Collings is fatally wounded. Harris rides alone to Hannah's house.

A classic survival story, told partly through flashbacks to Zachary Bass's past. After being left for dead by his fellow trappers, he undergoes a series of trials and adventures as he slowly heals and equips himself while he tracks the expedition, apparently intent on retribution for his abandonment, while earning the respect of the Indians he encounters. However, when he finally confronts his fellow trappers and Captain Henry, he chooses not to seek revenge, but instead to focus on returning to his infant son.

Set in the Old West, the story is about train-robber Harker Fleet (Peppard), who is sent to prison for assaulting a sheriff and his deputy while trying to escape a forced marriage, set up by his former partner, Timothy Xavier Nolan (John Vernon). Fleet serves his time, but gets out of prison early, for good behavior. Once he is released from prison, he travels to the town of Calador, intending to settle the score with Nolan for railroading him and stealing his woman, Katy (Diana Muldaur) .

Clay Lomax is released from prison after serving nearly eight years. He goes looking for Sam Foley, a bank robber who shot Lomax in the back and left him to be arrested. Learning of his release, Foley hires a trio of young thugs—Pepe, Skeeter, and Bobby Jay Jones—to track Lomax's movements. Lomax locates an old friend, Trooper, and offers him money for the name of the town where Foley is staying. The thugs catch up to Lomax and force Alma, a prostitute working for Trooper, to spend the night with them.
While on board a train to retrieve the money he promised, Lomax is told of a young girl named Decky and that she is to accompany him, with her previous guardian dead. Lomax acquiesces and takes charge of Decky, receiving the money in exchange. He takes it to Trooper and then tries to find someone who would take care of Decky, but is unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the thugs fatally wound Trooper and rob the saloon, taking Lomax's money and Alma, before continuing to follow Lomax. Lomax learns of Trooper's death and that he mentioned the location Gun Hill with his dying breath.
During the journey, Lomax and Decky bond. One night, the thugs attempt to attack Lomax, but he disarms them, and tells them to run back to Foley and tell them that he is coming for him. Later, a rainstorm forces Lomax and Decky to take shelter at the house of a woman named Juliana, who becomes infatuated with Lomax and offers to watch over Decky. The thugs then return and take them prisoner. Bobby Jay gets drunk and eventually kills Alma in his inebriation. Lomax escapes, with Bobby Jay accidentally killing Skeeter in the process.
Bobby Jay grabs Decky and flees the house to find Pepe. When Pepe insults him, Bobby Jay kills him, and Decky takes advantage of his distraction to escape. He then goes to Foley for his money, but kills him when Foley tries to reach for a gun. Bobby Jay is then ambushed by Lomax, who psychologically tortures him while demanding Decky's location. When he confesses that he has no idea where she is, Lomax places a cartridge on top of Bobby Jay's head, and tells him that either the cartridge will explode and kill him, or Bobby Jay will be fast enough to kill Lomax. Bobby Jay tries to outdraw Lomax but cannot and is shot dead. Lomax leaves the money, tells the maid to call law enforcement, and finds Decky at Juliana's house.

Quincy Drew (Garner) and Jason O'Rourke (Gossett) travel from town to town in the south of the United States during the slavery era. Both men first meet when O'Rourke sells Drew a horse- a stolen horse belonging to the local Sheriff. They meet again by chance in jail after pulling various con jobs. (In comic relief they both pull out an Ace of Spades as they play cards.) They develop a con together in which Drew claims to be a down-on-his-luck slave owner who is selling O'Rourke as a slave. Drew gets the bidding rolling, sells O'Rourke, and the two later meet up to split the profit. O'Rourke was born a free man in New Jersey and is very well educated. The twist comes when O'Rourke is sold to a slave trader who is very savvy and intent on taking him down south to make a profit.

Aging town constable Bob Valdez (Burt Lancaster) is tricked into killing an innocent man by powerful rancher Frank Tanner (Jon Cypher), whose hired gun R.L. Davis (Richard Jordan) shot up the hovel where the wrongly accused man and his Indian wife were trapped. Valdez believes it would be a fair gesture to raise $200 for the widow, $100 from Tanner and the rest from others in town.
Tanner is livid at the old man's suggestion. He orders ranch hand El Segundo (Barton Heyman) and his men to tie Valdez to a heavy wooden cross and drive him into the desert. The central pole is so long that Valdez must walk bent over. He finds an oasis blocked by two trees that he repeatedly tries to ram with the ends of the cross. When it finally breaks, the jagged ends are driven into Valdez's back.
Davis finds him and cuts the ropes, freeing the unconscious man. The badly injured Valdez is able to crawl to the ranch of his friend Diego (Frank Silvera), where he is nursed back to health. Unfortunately for Tanner, he has picked on the wrong man: Valdez is a wily, experienced Indian fighter and a marksman with a rifle. He dons his old cavalry uniform and sends Tanner a message via one of the rancher's wounded men (Hector Elizondo): "Valdez is coming."
Valdez sneaks into the compound and, during the ensuing gun battle and his escape, kidnaps Tanner's woman, Gay Erin (Susan Clark), for whose favors it is rumored that Tanner had her husband killed. With her in restraints, Valdez proceeds to systematically do away with the men Tanner sends after him with his long-range Sharps rifle. The only one he shows mercy to is Davis, after the gunman screams, "I cut you loose! I cut you loose!" and reveals that the cut on the left wrist of Valdez concealed under his glove came when his knife slipped as he cut the ropes off.
Now he has two hostages. While hiding from Tanner's posse, Valdez realizes that Gay Erin knows who killed her husband. Valdez confronts her and she admits that it was she who killed her own husband in order to be with Tanner, not the other way around. He sets her free, but by now Tanner's woman is sympathetic to his cause, feeling guilty because she was the cause of all the deaths so far.
Despite Gay Erin's help, Valdez is finally surrounded and captured. Tanner and his men ride up. The men are ordered to shoot, but R.L. Davis backs off, showing he has no gun, and El Segundo calls his men aside, refusing to obey orders. That leaves Tanner to do his own dirty work—if he can.
Tanner turns out to be a coward one-on-one. Valdez tells him he should have paid the $100.

An aging cowboy, Ross Bodine, and a younger one, Frank Post, work on cattleman Walt Buckman's ranch in Montana. A neighboring sheepman, Hansen, is in a long-running feud with Buckman.
Ross has a dream of riding off to Mexico to retire from the hard work of the range, but he doesn't have much money saved up. Frank suggests they rob a bank and head for Mexico together.
While Ross thinks this over, he and Frank brawl with Hansen's men at a saloon. Buckman intends to withhold their pay to make restitution for the saloon's damages.
Desperate for money now, Ross agrees to the holdup. He takes banker Billings to town at gunpoint while Frank holds the banker's wife, Sada, hostage at home. Ross rides back with $36,000. Before making a getaway, he gives Billings $3,000 so that Buckman's other cowboys won't lose any pay they have coming.
Sada tells her husband to keep the money and not inform the sheriff. A posse is formed that includes Buckman's two sons, hot-tempered John and easy-going Paul, told by their father that no cowhand of his is going to get away with breaking the law.
Ross and Frank get as far as Arizona and go into town for supplies. Ross hires a prostitute while Frank plays poker. A card player dislikes Frank's winning of a huge pot and shoots him in the leg. Ross comes to his partner's aid and a shootout commences, leaving several people dead.
Back home, Buckman and Hansen have a run-in that results in both their deaths. John and Paul hear about their father's fate from a Tucson sheriff. Paul wants to turn back but John becomes obsessed with fulfilling the old man's last request, catching the bank robbers.
Frank refuses to see a doctor, and his leg injury grows much worse. Ross has to pull him behind a horse on a stretcher. Frank dies from the wound just before John and Paul turn up on the trail, where Ross is gunned down. Disgusted with the entire affair and sorry he had to shoot Ross, Paul rides off, leaving John alone struggling to return Ross' dead body to the scene of his crime.
The movie ends with a flashback of Ross riding a bucking bronc while Frank cheers him on.

Buck and the Preacher opens with a deep rhythm and blues soundtrack reminiscent of a John Wayne Western that was given deep soul and harmony from the 1970s. The camera switches scenes to a camp of African-Americans who have been just freed from slavery and are heading West for a better life. A band of men on horseback terrorize the camp by burning wagons and tents and killing men, women and children. The leader of these white bandits, DeShay (Cameron Mitchell), is wearing an old cavalry jacket hinting at his military past.
Buck (Sidney Poitier) enters the scene and dismounts his horse to walk up to his home. DeShay makes Buck's wife, Ruth (Ruby Dee), wave to him as if everything is all right. Buck begins to approach the house and is then caught in a firefight between DeShay's outlaws. Buck remounts his horse and flees after being chased by the bandits. He then stops at an apparently empty campsite with a burning campfire, food and a horse. A naked man, the Preacher (Harry Belafonte), is bathing at a nearby stream and approaches the campsite to dress, but Buck steals the Preacher's horse and his breakfast at gunpoint.
The Preacher dresses and takes Buck's horse to the nearest town where he grabs a drink and finds out the location of the nearby camp from an African-American boy working at the general store. The Preacher is approached by DeShay and told that any information helping him to find Buck or bringing Buck in dead or alive will be worth a five hundred dollar reward. The Preacher is excited about this because he has a good feeling Buck is at an African-American wagon camp of which the little boy spoke.
Buck returns to the camp and is told by the men that an elderly Indian wise man thinks they should continue West and not turn back. The elder is shown throwing animal teeth on a towel, which the audience assumes to be a prediction of the future. Buck agrees to further help the group as the Preacher appears and punches Buck in the face. Buck then agrees to feeding the Preacher and giving him his horse back - after which the Preacher must depart and leave their camp. Buck does this because he fears the Preacher's motives for wanting to stay after he is caught looking at the women folk and wondering aloud where the money was kept.
The Preacher leaves the group and stalks Buck when he leaves to make a deal with the Native Americans. The Native Americans pursue the Preacher and Buck bargains with them for protection of the wagon group. The Native Americans are portrayed as shrewd bargainers who constantly haggle for a better deal with Buck. After reaching an agreement, the Preacher has a new-found respect for Buck because of his hard work effort and desire to help the traveling freed slaves.
While the two protagonists are negotiating, DeShay and his men raid the camp again and do more damage. The Preacher turns cheek at this point in the film and stops attempting to corner and kill Buck for the reward because of Buck's compassion towards the wagon camp. The Preacher then tells Buck where DeShay and his men are camped and suggests an ambush.
Buck agrees to the Preacher's plan, and together they ambush DeShay's campsite - killing him and most of his men. The sheriff from a nearby town pursues the pair, but they escape on horseback. The two men - along with Buck's wife - then decide to rob the bank at the town where they murdered DeShay's men in hopes of gaining more money for the African-Americans in the camp so they have a better chance of surviving the winter. The three unsuccessfully rob the mail office first and then cross the street to rob the bank. The sheriff returns to town during the robbery and chases the three robbers - along with their bags of loot - out of town.
Buck, the Preacher and Ruth ride hard for the Indian Territory and reach it just in time. A Native American war party is defending the boundaries of their territory and does not permit the sheriff and his posse to cross into their lands. The sheriff continues the search and finds the wagon camp but decides not to attack it. One of the men in the posse suggests they attack the camp to bring out Buck, but the sheriff disagrees arguing that the African Americans did no harm.
In anger, the man kills the sheriff and orders the posse to attack. Buck approaches the wagon camp and lures the posse into the mountains. A gunfight ensues, and the Preacher is wounded but the posse is defeated. The Native Americans who said they would not fight Buck's battle send several warriors to help and end up being the force that turns the tide of the shootout in Buck's favor.
The movie ends with Buck, the Preacher and his wife riding happily into the prairie.

The film opens as the half-Apache Chato orders a drink at a bar. The bartender ignores him and serves the local sheriff who has arrived after Chato. The sheriff calls Chato a "redskin" and tells him the bar is for whites only. He moves behind Chato while hurling a stream of abuse at him. The sheriff's taunts escalate, and he draws his gun while saying that he is going to kill Chato. Chato whirls around and shoots the sheriff in the gut, killing him. He rides out of town on his Appaloosa.
Former Confederate officer, Capt. Quincey Whitmore, gathers a posse to hunt down Chato. As Whitmore rides across the country, the posse grows in number at each stop. It includes local ranchers and townspeople, along with a Mexican who is used as a scout and tracker.
Chato calmly watches the posse's progress, staying one step ahead of them. From a hilltop, he fires on them, drawing them into an ill-advised ascent. As the posse struggles to climb the hill, Chato descends the other side and scatters their horses. He seems generally nonplussed by their presence. At one point, he kills a rattlesnake, chops off its rattle, and wraps the rattle in the snake's skin. He puts the bundle in his coat pocket without explanation.
The posse's motivations are diverse. Some are motivated by a basic sense of justice, while a disturbing contingent seems to merely want to kill someone. As they continue to be outwitted by Chato, their divisions become more pronounced. When they come across a set of empty wickiups, the overtly racist members of the posse gleefully burn them.
In a valley, Chato spies a woman filling a water jug. As they smile at each other, it becomes clear that she is his wife. He greets his son and gives him the rattlesnake toy from his pocket. They enter Chato's hogan, happy to be reunited. Chato resumes his normal life, busying himself with breaking horses during the day.
The posse eventually discovers his home and brutally gang rape Chato's wife. They hogtie her naked outside the hogan. Chato's friend creates a diversion which allows Chato to rescue his wife. During the confusion, Chato's friend is shot and wounded. The sadistic members of the posse hang him upside down and set him on fire while he is still alive. Disgusted by such barbarity, Whitmore shoots the burning man through the head, putting him out of his misery.
As he prepares to avenge his dead friend and his violated wife, Chato abandons his European dress and dons his native moccasins and loin cloth. He lures the posse members into individual traps, killing them one at a time. The posse grows more fractious until the more sadistic members murder Whitmore and the peaceful holdouts. Chato picks off the rest, right down to the last remaining man.


In the mid-1870s, outlaws Jesse James, Cole Younger and their brothers are granted amnesty by the Missouri legislature, sympathetic to the troubles created for all citizens by the American Civil War. The bankers victimized by the James and Younger gangs are vehemently opposed to this action and hire a Pinkerton agent to follow the outlaws' every move.
Younger has put aside plans to rob a bank in Northfield, Minnesota, said to be the largest west of the Mississippi River. The job appeals, however, to Jesse and Frank James, who have no intention of changing the way they make a living.
Cole is ambushed by the Pinkerton's agent men, who use a prostitute as bait. And when the bankers succeed in overturning the amnesty by bribing the politicians, Cole travels by train to Minnesota to check out the bank.
Once there, Cole discovers that townspeople are unwilling to risk placing their money in the bank due to concerns over its safety from thieves. Jesse, Frank, and their men arrive on horseback and, together with Cole, persuade the locals that a gold shipment is on its way, being delivered to the bank because it is supposed to be the safest possible place for it.
Once the citizens begin banking their money, the robbery commences. Many things go wrong though, including one outlaw being locked inside a vault. Younger and his men flee to a nearby farm, but a posse tracks and apprehends them. The James brothers get away. But, when Jesse mentions to Frank his intention to permit Bob Ford to join the gang back in Missouri, his fate is sealed.

Robertson's title character is a professional cowboy who wants to work the rodeo circuit and is given the chance by a rodeo impresario: this stroke of luck after he is released from jail for the passing of bad checks. He then hits the road with a few friends and a girl who likes Coop. Upon breaking into the circuit, Coop must prove he is good, but doing so is not easy.

Set in the early 1900s, Clint Eastwood stars as Joe Kidd, a former bounty hunter who is in jail for hunting on Indian land and disturbing the peace in the New Mexican town of Sinola. Mexican bandito/revolutionary Luis Chama (John Saxon) has organized a peasant revolt against the local landowners, who are throwing the poor off land that rightfully belongs to them.
When a posse — financed by wealthy landowner Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall) — is formed to capture Chama, Kidd is invited to join, but prefers to remain neutral. Harlan persists and Kidd finally relents when he learns that Chama's band has raided his own ranch and attacked one of the workers.
The posse rides into a village and forces the villagers into the church at gunpoint. They threaten to kill five Mexican hostages unless Chama surrenders. Harlan throws Kidd into the church to prevent him from helping Helen, a female captive who is also Chama's lady love (unbeknownst to Harlan), and the other Mexican hostages.
Kidd manages a daring escape and saves the hostages, determined to find Chama on his own and see that justice is done, but when he does capture Chama and delivers him to Sheriff Mitchell (Gregory Walcott) Harlan is already waiting for them in town.
To get to the jailhouse, Kidd drives a steam engine through the town saloon. A gunfight then ensues between Kidd and Harlan's men. Kidd manages to kill Harlan in the courthouse by hiding in the judge's chair. Chama then surrenders to Mitchell, but not before Kidd punches the sheriff because the sheriff had punched him during the poaching arrest. Kidd then collects his things and leaves town with Helen.

Junior "JR" Bonner is a rodeo rider who is slightly "over the hill". Junior is first seen taping up his injuries after an unsuccessful ride on an ornery bull named Sunshine.
He returns home to Prescott, Arizona, for the Independence Day parade and rodeo. When he arrives, the Bonner family home is being bulldozed by his younger brother Curly, an entrepreneur and real-estate developer, in order to build a trailer park. Junior's womanizing, good-for-nothing father, Ace, and down-to-earth, long-suffering mother, Elvira, are estranged. (Note: both Preston and Lupino were born in 1918, making them just twelve years older than McQueen.) Ace dreams of emigrating to Australia to rear sheep and mine gold, but he fails to obtain financing from Junior, who is broke, and refuses to ask Curly for it.
After flooring his arrogant brother with a punch, Junior bribes rodeo owner Buck Roan to let him ride Sunshine again, promising him half the prize money. Buck thinks he must be crazy but Junior actually manages to pull it off this time, going the full eight seconds on the bull.
Junior walks into a travel agent's office and buys his father a one-way, first-class ticket to Australia. The film's final shot shows JR leaving his hometown, his successful ride on Sunshine continuing to put off the inevitable end of his career.

An outlaw, Roy Bean, rides into a West Texas border town called Vinegaroon by himself. The customers in the saloon beat him, rob him, toss a noose around him and let Bean's horse drag him off.
A young woman named Maria Elena finds and helps him. Bean promptly returns to town and shoots all those who did him wrong. With no law and order, he appoints himself judge and "the law west of the Pecos" and becomes the townspeople's "patrone." A traveling preacher, LaSalle, buries the dead.
Bean renames the saloon The Jersey Lilly and hangs a portrait of a woman he worships but has never met, Lillie Langtry, a noted actress and singer of the 1890s. When a band of thieves comes to town (Big Bart Jackson and gang members Nick the Grub, Fermel Parlee, Tector Crites and Whorehouse Lucky Jim), rather than oppose them, Bean swears them in as lawmen. The new marshals round up other outlaws, then claim their goods after Bean sentences them to hang.
Dispensing his own kind of frontier justice, Bean lets the marshals hang a murderer named Sam Dodd and share his money. When a drunk shoots up a saloon, Bean doesn't mind, but when Lillie's portrait is struck by a bullet, the fellow is shot dead on the spot. A madman, Bad Bob, comes to town for a showdown, but Bean shoots him in the back. Prostitutes are sentenced to remain in town and keep the marshals company.
Maria Elena is given a place to live and fine clothes ordered from a Sears Roebuck catalog. A mountain man called Grizzly Adams gives her and Bean a bear, named "Zachary Taylor" after the 12th President of the United States, but later renamed the "Watch Bear," as a pet. When a lawyer named Frank Gass shows up claiming the saloon is rightfully his, Bean puts him in a cage with the bear.
Bean goes off to San Antonio, leaving a pregnant Maria Elena behind and promising her a music box that plays "The Yellow Rose of Texas." In his absence, Gass and the prostitutes conspire to seize control of the town from the judge's hard rule. A dapper Bean tries to see Lillie Langtry's show, but it is sold out. He is deceived by men who knock him cold and steal his money.
Upon his return, Bean finds that Maria Elena is dying following a difficult childbirth. He names the baby Rose after the music box's song. He also plans to hang the doctor, but Gass, who has been elected mayor, overrules him. Bean is sorrowful about losing Maria Elena and rides away. Gass brings in hired guns to get rid of Bean's marshals.
Years go by. Oil rigs have been built around the prospering town. A grown-up Rose is surprised one day to look up and find Bean has returned. A shootout follows, Gass is killed and a fire engulfs the saloon, where the burning roof collapses on Bean.
Some time later, a train pauses by the town. Out steps Lillie Langtry. She is told the story of Judge Roy Bean and his feelings toward her. She concludes that he must have been quite a character.

In southern Arizona Territory, former hired gun-turned-marshal Chris Adams rescues his old friend, former bounty hunter Jim Mackay from an ambush. After recovering from his long ride across the desert, Jim asks Chris to help him defend the small Mexican border town of Magdalena, which has come under constant attack by bandit De Toro and his men. Having recently married and assumed his job as marshal, however, Chris is reluctant to assist Jim, despite their long friendship.
Later, Chris refuses the request of his wife Arrila to release jailed teenager Shelly Donavan, who is charged with robbery, insisting that Donavan needs to be responsible for his actions. Chris then meets with newspaper writer Noah Forbes who wants to write the story of Chris's eventful and brutal career.
The next morning, while loading bitter prisoners Pepe Carral, Walt Drummond and Donavan onto the Tucson prison wagon transport, Chris abruptly decides to let Donavan go free. While Chris meets Noah to discuss his exploits, Donavan joins his friends, brothers Hank and Bob Allen to celebrate his release. Goaded into action by the Allens' observation that their drab lives as farmers remain unchanged, Donavan leads the pair in a bank robbery just as Arrila meets Chris and Noah in the street outside the bank. Wounding Chris, Donavan abducts Arrila and rides away with the Allens. Reviving two days later, Chris immediately goes in search of Arrila, despite his injury, and agrees to let Noah accompany him.
In the desert, Noah and Chris find Arrila's dead body, which galvanizes Chris to find Donavan and exact revenge. That night, Chris tracks down the Allens and demands to know Donavan's whereabouts. Confident that Chris, as marshal, must take them back to town for a trial unharmed, Hank reveals that Donavan has fled to Mexico and admits that Arrila was raped and tortured before her murder. Chris shoots Hank, and Bob, pleading for his life, insists that he did not join in the assault. Accusing him of allowing Arrila's attack, Chris then shoots Bob as Noah looks on in shock.
Continuing his search for Donavan, Chris rides on toward the Mexican border and finds Jim with a group of armed farmers from Magdalena hiding on a ridge, hoping to ambush De Toro. After Jim reveals that Donavan rode by the previous day, he again asks Chris to support him, but Chris refuses and tells his friend he is badly outnumbered and will be slaughtered. Chris and Noah depart, tracking Donavan through the desert, only to find themselves circling back toward Jim's location. Hearing distant gunfire, the men hurry to the ridge, but find the farmers dead, although Jim is not among them. Chris reflects that the men of Magdalena have likely left their wives unprotected and, assuming Jim will have returned there, rides into Mexico with the uncertain Noah.
Arriving in Magdalena, Chris spots three bandits around the mission and after shooting them, enters the church to find the handful of townswomen who have been raped and beaten. Laurie Gunn explains that the seventeen women were defenseless against De Toro and his more than forty men who arrived the previous day declaring the women's husbands had been massacred. Although Laurie and the women plead with Chris to take them away from Magdalena before De Toro's return, he points out there are no horses and a desert trek would kill them. Realizing that the American Cavalry will not cross the border, Chris wonders how to defend the women. Promising to return to help the frantic women, Chris and Noah ride away toward Tucson. Not far from Magdalena, the pair come upon the bodies of Jim, Donavan and the remaining farmers.
At Tucson, Chris meets with the governor then travels to the prison where he presents the skeptical warden with a request to pardon the last five prisoners he arrested, all of whom are tough, violent men: Pepe Carrall, Walt Drummond, Scott Elliott, Mark Skinner and former Confederate captain Andy Hayes. Meeting the men, Chris explains he will sign their pardons only if they agree to join his posse. Although suspicious and hostile, the men grudgingly agree. Loaded with supplies from the prison, the group departs for De Toro's hacienda, which Jim had described earlier. Arriving just outside the hacienda and confirming that only a few men are posted as guards, Chris tells the men to raid the house and take anything they desire. Although doubtful, the men agree and quickly overcome the guards and loot the home. Finding De Toro's woman there, Chris orders her taken captive and as the men ride off to Magdalena, Chris tells the men that if they try to escape before he signs the pardons, they will be hunted in America and De Toro will hound them through Mexico for destroying his home. Realizing they have no alternative, the men give up their ideas of breaking away in Mexico and continue to Magdalena where Laurie and the grateful women wait.
Suspecting they may have only a day to prepare before De Toro tracks them, Chris designs an elaborate plan of attack using the supplies of long-range rifles, dynamite, barbed wire and repeating rifles. The next day with the women's assistance and under former construction worker Elliott's guidance, the group digs several ditches, building several post and barbed wire fences at specific points leading back into the town. Elliott also constructs hidden barriers across mountain trails into the town. The following day, with the women trained in reloading the weapons, the group awaits De Toro's arrival. When the bandits attack, the initial assault with the long-range guns, sends the outlaws into disarray. Chris and the others retreat as planned to the second line of defense, which, protected by Elliott's clever rigged barbed fence, cuts off another large segment of the bandits who are then dynamited. Walt, Hayes and Elliott are killed and Noah wounded as the group retreats into the town behind another rigged barricade.
During a brief lull, Chris goes into the mission where De Toro's woman and the town children are being kept, and tells Laurie that as a last resort they will lure the bandits inside and blow up the church. When De Toro's renewed assault comes, Pepe is killed. Hearing the bandits approaching the mission, Laurie prepares to detonate the dynamite, but first sets De Toro's woman free. The woman rushes outside into the gunfight and is accidentally shot down by De Toro himself. Momentarily stunned, De Toro pauses, and Chris kills him. Dismayed by the death of their leader, the remaining bandits ride away.
Relieved to have survived, Chris, Noah and Skinner agree to stay in Magdalena and start new lives.

Link Stuart (Bronson) is a ruthless outlaw, and co-leader along with Gauche (Delon) of a gang of bandits. Link and Gauche lead their gang on a successful train robbery, and discover that one of its cars carries a Japanese ambassador, who is bringing a ceremonial katana (sword) as a gift for President Ulysses S. Grant. Gauche takes the sword, and kills one of the two samurai guards, while members of his gang attempt to murder Link by throwing dynamite into the train car he occupies, then leaving him for dead.
The surviving Japanese delegation rescues Link, and the ambassador instructs him to assist the surviving samurai guard, Kuroda (Mifune), in tracking down Gauche so that he may kill him and recover the sword and his honor. Kuroda is given one week to fulfill this task, or commit seppuku. Link reluctantly agrees, but he realizes that Kuroda will kill Gauche immediately, before he is able to extract the location of the stolen loot. Link repeatedly attempts to elude Kuroda, only to be thwarted by the irrepressible samurai.
While tracking Gauche's gang, Kuroda eventually reveals that his samurai values are disappearing as his countrymen no longer value the customs of old. Link gains a measure of respect for the strict bushido code Kuroda follows, and eventually comes to an agreement with the samurai that Gauche will not be killed before he reveals the location of the stolen money first. The duo eventually abduct Gauche's woman, Cristina (Andress), who leads the men to Gauche and his gang.
On the way to Gauche, however, the three run afoul of a group of Comanches, and Cristina is forced to kill one of them in self-defense, compelling the band's enraged chief into chasing after them. When Link and Kuroda finally find Gauche, the Indians attack, forcing the two unlikely friends to join forces with the bandits against their common enemy. In the ensuing fight, the Comanches are repelled, but Kuroda is mortally wounded by Gauche as he tries to fulfill his revenge. Disarmed by Link, Gauche tries appealing to Link's greed, but Link decides that the dying samurai's honor is more important to him than learning the location of the stolen money, so he kills Gauche. Just before Kuroda expires, Link promises him that he will return the katana to the Japanese ambassador. He does so, thus preserving Kuroda's honor.

Following mistreatment by agency authorities, Ulzana breaks out of the San Carlos Indian Reservation with a small war party. Soon news reaches the local military commander, who sends riders to alert local homesteads. Both troopers are separately ambushed; one is dragged away while the other shoots the settler woman he is escorting and then himself. The warriors play catch with his heart. The woman's husband, who stayed behind to protect his farm, is captured and tortured to death. Army scout MacIntosh (Lancaster) is given the job of finding Ulzana (Martinez) with a few dozen soldiers led by an inexperienced lieutenant, Garnett DeBuin (Davison). The small cavalry column includes a veteran sergeant (Jaeckel) and Apache scout Ke-Ni-Tay (Luke). Ke-Ni-Tay knows Ulzana, as their wives are sisters.
The cavalry troop leaves Fort Lowell and soon finds evidence of the activities of the Apache war party. The film then depicts the soldiers' reality, facing a merciless enemy with far better local skills. The young officer, shocked and then hardened by the cruelty and harshness around him, struggles with his Christian conscience and view of humanity. MacIntosh and Ke-Ni-Tay attempt to outthink and outfight their enemies, while advising the lieutenant. DeBuin cautiously accepts their guidance though remaining mistrustful of the Apache scout. Ulzana and most of his men abandon their horses to be led circuitously by two other warriors in an attempt to tire the pursuers' heavily loaded mounts. Ke-Ni-Tay notices that the trail is now of unladen horses, and Macintosh works out a plan that leads to the loss of the horses and the death of their two Apache escorts, who include Ulzana's son. The lieutenant prevents his men from mutilating the dead boy.
The raiders attack a nearby farm, burning the homesteader to death and seizing two horses. McIntosh realizes that the remaining Apaches physically and psychologically need horses and will try to obtain them by raiding the troop. The woman of the burned-out farm, instead of being murdered following her rape, has been left alive but injured so that the cavalry will be forced to send her to the fort with an escort. By splitting the troop, Ulzana hopes to successfully attack the escort and seize its horses. McIntosh suggests a decoy plan to make Ulzana falsely believe that his tactics are successful.
Ulzana's warriors ambush the small escort detachment, obtaining all of its horses and killing the sergeant and his soldiers before DeBuin can arrive with the rest of his force. McIntosh is fatally wounded. Only the woman survives unharmed though now apparently crazed by her experiences. Ke-Ni-Tay scatters the captured horses as bugle calls from the cavalry ineptly alert the Apaches to DeBuin's approach. Ulzana flees on foot as the remnants of his band are killed. Ke-Ni-Tay confronts him and shows him the Army bugle taken from the body of his son. Ulzana puts down his weapons and sings his death song before the Apache scout kills him. A corporal suggests that Ulzana, or at least his head, should be taken back to the fort. The lieutenant however orders him to be buried, a task that Ke-Ni-Tay insists on carrying out himself. MacIntosh knows that he will not survive the journey back to the fort, and chooses to stay behind to die alone.

Van Horne (played by Mitchum), a bank robber dressed like a Roman Catholic priest, is spared from a firing squad in 1922 in an unnamed Central America nation and sent to kill a local desperado.

While J.D. Cahill (John Wayne), a widower and U.S. Marshal, is away from home, his two sons Danny (Gary Grimes) and Billy (Clay O'Brien) aid Abe Fraser (George Kennedy) and his gang to escape from jail and to rob a bank. The town's sheriff is shot and killed during the robbery. Billy hides the stolen money while his brother and the rest of the gang return to locked jail cells as an alibi. When Cahill returns, he and Danny look for the perpetrators with the help of half-Comanche tracker Lightfoot (Neville Brand). Cahill arrests four suspects and although they are innocent, they are found guilty and scheduled to be hanged. While on the tracks of the kids, Cahill and Lightfoot are ambushed by Brownie (Dan Vadis). Lightfoot hurts him but is eventually killed. Cahill's sons try to return the gang's share of the money to Fraser, resulting in a showdown between Cahill and his boys on one side and Fraser's gang on the other.

A mysterious stranger with no name (Eastwood) rides out of the desert, into the isolated mining town of Lago, on the shore of a small lake in an unnamed western territory. Three men follow him into the saloon, taunting him, then follow him to the barbershop. When they challenge him, he kills all three with little effort. Attractive townswoman Callie Travers (Mariana Hill) deliberately bumps into him in the street, knocks his cigar from his mouth, and loudly insults him. He drags her into the livery stable and rapes her.
That night, in his hotel room, the Stranger dreams of a man being brutally whipped. Then, in a flashback, Jim Duncan (Buddy Van Horn), a federal marshal bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Stranger, is whipped to death in front of the hotel by outlaws Stacey Bridges (Geoffrey Lewis) and brothers Dan and Cole Carlin (Dan Vadis and Anthony James) as the people of Lago look on.
Sheriff Sam Shaw (Walter Barnes) approaches the Stranger and offers him the job previously held by the men he killed—defending the town from Bridges and the Carlins, who are about to be released from jail. He declines. Shaw, in desperation, offers him anything he wants in return. Eventually, the Stranger learns why they are so desperate: Not only did the townspeople do nothing to prevent Duncan's murder, but some were complicit in it; they hired the outlaws to kill him after he discovered that the town's only source of income, the mine, was on government land, and therefore illegal. They then double-crossed the murderers and turned them in.
Upon learning this, the Stranger accepts the job, and takes full advantage of the deal. He appoints diminutive barbershop employee Mordecai (Billy Curtis) sheriff and mayor, and after the shopkeeper (Richard Bull) insults a Native American and his children and tries to eject them from his store, he provides them with a large cache of supplies at the shopkeeper's expense. He orders the hotel owner, Lewis Belding (Ted Hartley), to vacate the premises along with all the other guests, leaving him its sole occupant. He then orders Belding's barn dismantled, and the lumber used to build picnic tables. When Belding’s wife Sarah (Verna Bloom) objects, he drags her, kicking and screaming, into her bedroom. The next morning, a post-coital Sarah tells the Stranger that Duncan cannot rest in peace, because he is buried in an unmarked grave outside of town.
The Stranger instructs the townspeople in defensive tactics, but they clearly lack the skills or courage for the job. He also orders that every building in town be painted blood red. “Surely you don’t mean the church too!” exclaims the preacher (Robert Donner). “I mean especially the church,” he replies. Then, without explanation, he mounts his horse and rides out of town, pausing to replace “Lago” on the town sign with “Hell”.
Meanwhile, Bridges and his gang have been wreaking havoc on their way to Lago. The Stranger harasses them with dynamite and long-range rifle fire, leaving them to ponder the identity of their mysterious attacker. Returning to Lago, the Stranger inspects the preparations—town painted red, townsmen with rifles stationed on rooftops, picnic tables laden with food and drink, and a big "WELCOME" banner overhead—then, to everyone’s consternation, he remounts and departs again.
The Bridges gang arrives and easily overcomes the inept resistance of the townspeople. Bridges shoots several of the corrupt civic leaders who double-crossed them. By nightfall the town is in flames, and the terrified townspeople are huddled in the saloon. A mysterious sound is heard in the street; when Cole Carlin walks outside to investigate, the criminals and townspeople listen in horror as he is whipped to death. Dan Carlin is found dead too, hanging from another whip. At last the Stranger reveals himself, beats Bridges to the draw, and kills him. Belding sneaks behind the Stranger, intending to shoot him in the back, but Mordecai shoots him dead.
On his way out of town the following morning, the Stranger pauses at the cemetery as Mordecai is finishing a new grave marker. “I never did know your name,” Mordecai says. "Yes, you do," the Stranger replies. As he rides past a bewildered Mordecai into the desert whence he came, the writing on the new headstone is revealed: Marshal Jim Duncan — Rest in Peace.

Bickford Waner (Hopper) who has failed as a train robber, decides to go straight and get an honest job. He arrives in Dime Box, Texas to find work. He's befriended by Reese Ford (Oates) and his wife Molly (Lee Purcell). Molly seduces Bickford getting herself pregnant and making her husband miserable, feeling betrayed by his best friend. Mean John, (Ben Johnson) the sheriff is right on top of the whole plot, recognizing Kid Blue for what he really is, in spite of his trying to change his character. Another friend that Kid Blue has is the town's preacher Bob, (Peter Boyle) who does an excellent acting job.
Bickford's former girlfriend Janet Conforto (Janice Rule) tracks him down and reveals that Bickford is actually a train robber known as Kid Blue. Bickford returns to his old ways and plots a crime. At the end, Preacher Bob helps the kid escape Mean John in a surprising manner.

In 1881 in Old Fort Sumner, New Mexico, William H. Bonney, known as Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson), is passing the time with friends shooting chickens for fun. An old friend of Billy's, Pat Garrett (James Coburn), rides into town with Deputy Sheriff J. W. Bell (Matt Clark) and joins the diversion. Later, over drinks, Garrett informs Billy that the electorate want him out of the country, and that in five days, when he becomes Sheriff of Lincoln County, he will make Billy leave.
Six days later, Garrett and his deputies surround the small farmhouse where Billy and his gang are holed up. In the ensuing gun battle, Charlie Bowdre (Charles Martin Smith) and several other men on both sides are killed, and Billy is taken prisoner. As Billy awaits his execution in the Lincoln County Jail for the killing of Buckshot Roberts, he is taunted and beaten by self-righteous Deputy Sheriff Bob Ollinger (R. G. Armstrong) while the hangman's gallows are being built nearby. Garrett warns Ollinger not to taunt Billy again or he will be fired and sent back to Texas then Garrett leaves town to collect taxes leaving his two deputies to guard Billy. Ollinger again argues with Billy but after J. W. Bell intervenes, Ollinger leaves to get a drink. Billy finds a gun hidden for him in the outhouse and gets the drop on Bell, shooting him in the back. He quickly retrieves Ollinger's shotgun loaded with "sixteen thin dimes" and shoots Ollinger dead in the street, saying, "Keep the change, Bob." Billy leaves town.
After Garrett returns to Lincoln and recruits a new deputy sheriff named Alamosa Bill Kermit (Jack Elam), he rides to Santa Fe to meet with Governor Lew Wallace (Jason Robards) who introduces him to a pair of powerful men from the Santa Fe Ring. They offer a thousand dollars for the capture of Billy the Kid with five hundred dollars upfront. Garrett rejects the money saying they can pay him in full when Billy is brought in and warns them that he will be successful as long as another cattle war is not started.
Billy returns to his gang at Old Fort Sumner, where he decides to lie back for a few days. He is confronted by three strangers looking to kill him; all three are killed in the subsequent shootout, helped by another stranger called Alias (Bob Dylan), who kills one of the men with a knife through the neck. Alias had witnessed Billy's escape from the Lincoln County Jail.
Garrett meets up with Sheriff Colin Baker (Slim Pickens), hoping he can provide information on Billy's whereabouts. Baker and his wife (Katy Jurado) go with Garrett to arrest some of Billy's old gang. In a gunfight, the gang members including Black Harris (L. Q. Jones) are killed and Baker is mortally wounded. Baker's wife comforts the dying lawman as he waits to die by a river. Later that evening, Garrett watches a barge floating down a river with a man shooting bottles in the water. Garrett and the two face off briefly from a distance before lowering their rifles.
Garrett is joined by a glory-seeking John W. Poe (John Beck), who works for the Santa Fe Ring. The two ride southwest to meet John Chisum (Barry Sullivan), a powerful cattle baron, who informs them that Billy has been rustling his cattle again and killed some of his men. Billy once worked for him and claims Chisum owes him back salary.
Anticipating Garrett's arrival in Old Fort Sumner, Billy's friend Paco (Emilio Fernández) and his family leave for Mexico, soon followed by Billy. Along the way, Billy stops at the Horrell Trading Post, which is owned by an old friend. By chance, Horrell (Gene Evans) is hosting Garrett's new deputy, Alamosa Bill. After they finish eating, Billy and Alamosa step outside for a duel at ten paces, with Billy shooting Alamosa dead. Meanwhile Garrett and Poe arrive at a saloon. Garrett tells Poe to ride on without him and that Garrett will pick him up in Roswell in five or six days. Three members of Billy's gang come into the saloon. After taunting Holly (Richard Bright) and getting him drunk, Garrett shoots him dead after he pulls a knife. He tells Alias to give Billy a message that they had "a little drink together".
Garrett rides to Roswell ahead of Poe to gather more clues on Billy's whereabouts. Garrett beats up a prostitute named Ruthie Lee (Rutanya Alda) and learns from her that Billy is in Fort Sumner. Poe arrives in Roswell to find Garrett naked and in bed with several prostitutes, and confirms that Billy is in Fort Sumner. Garrett recruits an old friend he helped become a sheriff and along with Poe rides to Fort Sumner to find Billy.
Billy and his girlfriend, the daughter of Pete Maxwell, have sex as Garrett and his two deputies arrive. Billy goes to get some meat and seeing Garrett's deputies, backs into a bedroom where Garrett shoots him. Garrett angrily hits Poe for attempting to cut off Billy's trigger finger. He stays on the porch until morning, when the townspeople of Fort Sumner, having heard the news of his death, gather to see Billy's lifeless body. Garrett mounts his horse and rides out of town, with a small boy throwing stones at him.
Twenty-eight years later in 1909, near Las Cruces, New Mexico, Garrett is riding with some associates when he is ambushed and killed by men working for the Santa Fe Ring.

Following a bank robbery in the American west, the partner of Scottish outlaw Arch Deans is killed and his young Indian half breed friend Billy Two Hats is captured.
While Billy is being transported, Deans gets the drop on Sheriff Henry Gifford at a remote trading post, enabling Billy to escape. As they flee, the sheriff's friend, the trading post owner, named Copeland, takes down his old long-range buffalo rifle and fires a shot that kills Deans' horse, breaking his leg. Billy builds a travois on which Deans can ride, dragged behind Billy's horse.
Billy and Deans encounter Spencer and his wife, Esther, at their remote homestead. Deans persuades Spencer to take him in his wagon to get horses on the condition that Billy stay with Esther to protect her and the homestead from marauding Indians. Billy is also to keep a look out for the pursuing Gifford.
Billy and Esther spend their time together talking and develop romantic feelings for each other. Esther, a young mail-order bride from the East, is unhappy with her older abusive husband. She falls in love with the young good looking Billy. Gifford finds the two in bed together, assumes Billy raped the woman, becomes enraged, and beats him. Esther attempts to explain but can't because she stutters uncontrollably when distressed.
Deans and Spencer encounter trouble on the trail, four drunken Indians demand whiskey from them, ambush their wagon in a canyon, killing the horse and besiege them. Spencer is killed.
Gifford, Esther and Billy then set out after Deans. They find Deans near death. With Esther's help Billy kills Gifford. Deans dies of his wounds.

In the American Old West of 1874, construction on a new railroad will soon be going through Rock Ridge, a frontier town inhabited exclusively by white people with the surname Johnson. The conniving State Attorney General Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) wants to force Rock Ridge's residents to abandon their town, thereby lowering land prices. After he sends a gang of thugs, led by his flunky assistant Taggart (Slim Pickens), to shoot the sheriff and trash the town, the townspeople demand that Governor William J. Le Petomane (Mel Brooks) appoint a new sheriff to protect them. Lamarr persuades the dim-witted Le Petomane to appoint Bart (Cleavon Little), a black railroad worker who was about to be hanged. A black sheriff, he reasons, will offend the townspeople, create chaos, and leave the town at his mercy.
With his quick wits and the assistance of recovering alcoholic gunslinger Jim, the Waco Kid (Gene Wilder), Bart works to overcome the townspeople's hostile reception. He subdues Mongo (Alex Karras), an immensely strong, dim-witted, but philosophical henchman sent to kill him, and then beats German seductress-for-hire Lili von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn) at her own game. Lamarr, furious that his schemes have backfired, hatches a larger plan involving a recruited army of thugs, including common criminals, Ku Klux Klansmen, Nazi soldiers, and Methodists.
Three miles east of Rock Ridge, Bart introduces the white townspeople to the black and Chinese railroad workers—who have agreed to help in exchange for acceptance by the community—and explains his plan to defeat Lamarr's army. They labor all night to build a perfect replica of their town, as a diversion; but with no people in it, Bart realizes it won't fool the villains. While the townspeople construct replicas of themselves, Bart, Jim, and Mongo buy time by constructing the "William J. Le Pétomane Memorial Thruway," forcing the raiding party to turn back for "a shitload of dimes" to pay the toll. Once through the tollbooth, the raiders attack the fake town populated with dummies, which are boobytrapped with dynamite bombs. After Jim detonates the bombs with his sharpshooting, launching bad guys and horses skyward, the Rock Ridgers storm the villains.
The resulting brawl between townsfolk, railroad workers, and Lamarr's thugs breaks the fourth wall—literally—spilling onto a neighboring set where director Buddy Bizarre (Dom DeLuise) is directing a Busby Berkeley-style top-hat-and-tails musical number; then into the studio commissary for a food fight; and then out of the Warner Bros. film lot into the streets of Burbank. Lamarr, realizing he has been beaten again, hails a taxi and orders the driver to "get me out of this picture." He ducks into Grauman's Chinese Theatre, which is playing the premiere of Blazing Saddles. As he settles into his seat, he sees Bart arriving on horseback outside the theatre. Bart blocks Lamarr's escape, and then, in a spoof of a classic cinematic gunfight, shoots him in the groin. Bart and Jim then go into Grauman's to watch the end of the film, in which Bart announces to the townspeople that he is moving on, for his work there is done (and he is bored). Riding out of town, he finds Jim (finishing his popcorn), and invites him along to "nowhere special." The two friends ride off into the sunset—in a chauffeured stretch limousine.

Zandy Allan is a hard-working cattle rancher in a remote part of the American West who needs a hired hand more than he needs a wife. He sends away for a mail-order bride, a Swedish woman who lives near Minneapolis. Expecting a woman in her 20s, Zandy is disappointed when Hannah Lund turns out to be 32. He is not interested in love, only in work, although this does not keep him from misbehaving around a local woman named Maria. Hannah is here, in his mind, strictly to help Zandy run his ranch and provide future sons. However, the more time he spends with Hannah, the less he comes to treat her as a possession that he has bought, in no small part because of her insistence that she be treated with respect.

Upon finding a wagon under attack by bandits, two black bounty hunters, Boss and Amos (Fred Williamson and D'Urville Martin, respectively) intervene and save Clara Mae, a black woman (Carmen Hayworth). Upon inspecting the bodies, the bounty hunters find several have rewards to their name and one holds a letter from the mayor of the nearby town San Miguel inviting him to become sheriff on the recommendation of fugitive Jed Clayton (William Smith). The pair take Clara Mae to safety in San Miguel and meet Mayor Griffin (R. G. Armstrong). Knowing that there is no sheriff and holding proof that the mayor intended to give it to a gang member, Boss is able to outsmart the mayor and intimidate other members of the town council into giving him the position. As sheriff, Boss and Amos keep the peace and enforce several "Black Laws" such as issuing fines or periods in jail for calling either of them a "nigger" in public. In his duties Boss meets Miss Pruit (Barbara Leigh), a white schoolteacher, who initially offends Boss by talking of the fond memories she has of her family's black slaves, but earns his forgiveness and develops a romantic interest in him. When a gang of Jed Clayton's men meet the mayor in the town saloon to extort supplies from the town (an arrangement that the mayor allows on the understanding that the gang will do no harm to the town or its citizens), Boss and Amos kill one gang member and arrest two more - with one prisoner being killed as he attempts to escape town assisted by the mayor.
Jed and his outlaws then attempt to help the imprisoned outlaw escape by blowing a hole in the prison wall using dynamite. During the resulting raid on the town Clara Mae is kidnapped and taken away by Jed's men, while a Mexican child named Poncho (whom Boss had befriended) is killed. Boss attempts to meet Jed and his gang at their hideout but is himself kidnapped, tied to a pole, and tortured. When Jed leaves at night to meet with the mayor, Amos is able to rescue an injured Boss with the help of Clara Mae, taking him to Miss Pruit's house to recover. Knowing that Jed and his men will be riding through town the next day on their supply run, the bounty hunters plan an ambush.
With the assistance of other residents such as the doctor and blacksmith of the town, Boss and Amos prepare by planting explosives around the town and take up firing positions out of sight. As the gang rides into town, they enter the cantina where Clara Mae is living. When she refuses Jed's advances, he murders her. They then move on to the town itself, while Boss and Amos launch their surprise attack. Boss follows Jed into the Saloon where they fight, and Boss finally kills Jed. As Boss steps outside, he is shot twice by Mayor Griffin, but manages to kill his attacker by throwing a knife at his chest. Now seriously wounded, Boss pleads with Amos to not let him "die in a white folks' town". Miss Pruit urges Boss to take her with him, though he declines. The movie concludes as Amos rides out of town with Boss towed on a wagon, his fate left ambiguous.

In 1836 in southern California near Santa Barbara shortly after California became part of the United States, American settlers and the U.S. government discriminated against the Mexican landowners and frequently took their land by force or legal skullduggery. Wealthy Latino ranchers whose land and wealth are at risk decide to misdirect a U.S. government ship carrying gold so that it will be wrecked and plundered. To prevent themselves from being caught, they plan to massacre the local Chumash Indians. The hero is the now-estranged adoptive son Finley (Tom Laughlin), a master swordsman and gunfighter, who tries to prevent this while still saving his family.

Pike (Jim Brown), the right-hand man of cattle rancher Bob Morgan (Dana Andrews), is entrusted with a mission to deliver $86,000 across the border to the Morgan Ranch in Sonora, Mexico after his boss dies. Pike teams up with dishonest gambler Tyree (Fred Williamson) and they are forced to trust each other while being pursued by various outlaws and gunmen trying to possess the money, including the ruthless bounty hunter Kiefer (Lee Van Cleef) and corrupt sheriff Kane (Barry Sullivan).
Along the way, the duo comes across a prostitute (Catherine Spaak) in need of rescuing and Kashtok (Jim Kelly), a mute Indian scout skilled in martial arts, as well as Chico, an orphan Mexican boy. After numerous gun battles and chases, Pike and Tyree reach the end of the line at an abandoned mine, where they duke it out over the money, yet finally settle and work together after getting word of the approaching gunmen.
They give the money to the boy, then tell Kashtok to give safe passage to Chico and get the money safely to the ranch. Pike and Tyree devise a plan to escape by using explosives to blow up the mine shaft behind them, killing all their pursuers except for Kiefer, who decides to forgo his bounty and let the men continue their quest to reach the ranch.

The story begins in 1885 with the arrival of an important new guest star in Buffalo Bill Cody's grand illusion, Chief Sitting Bull of Little Big Horn fame. Much to Cody's annoyance, Sitting Bull proves not to be a murdering savage but a genuine embodiment of what the whites believe about their own history out west. He is quietly heroic and morally pure.
Sitting Bull also refuses to portray Custer's Last Stand as a cowardly sneak attack. Instead, he asks Cody to act out the massacre of a peaceful Sioux village by marauding bluecoats. An enraged Cody fires him but is forced to relent when star attraction Annie Oakley takes Sitting Bull's side.

 The setting is the American West, late 19th century. A gang of bank robbers, including Graham Dorsey (Charles Bronson), is off to rob a small-town bank, but Graham is having second thoughts: he's had a nightmare in which the gang was wiped out during the robbery attempt. Worse, Graham's horse broke down and the gang members have to get another. They try at the ranch of the widow Amanda Starbuck (Jill Ireland). Amanda, suspicious of the men, denies having a horse. Graham checks out the barn and finds a horse, but still afraid of disaster, he lies to his men and agrees to wait three hours at the ranch for their return (the "from noon till three" of the title). It turns out he has another reason for wanting to stay behind though: he wants to force himself on Mrs. Starbuck. Amanda resists rather inventively; simply lies still, fully clothed. This frustrates Graham, who decides on a ruse. He pretends he is impotent, hoping to play on Amanda's sympathy. The deception works, and they make love three times.
As time passes, Graham and Amanda have a long, thoughtful discussion talking of their past lives, as well as their hopes and ambitions (Graham wants to go straight and work in a bank!). They even dance to Amanda's music box ("Hello and Goodbye"), with Graham wearing Mr. Starbuck's old tuxedo. A neighbor boy stops by to tell Amanda about an attempted bank robbery. The bank robbers from Graham's gang were caught and were going to be hanged in town that afternoon. She thinks Graham should ride out and help them. Graham thinks this is a way for him to be able to stay with her and get away from the gang. After much coercing he decides to play along and rides out, intending only to have a long nap. But this is shattered when the posse rides into sight, spotting Graham and giving chase. Graham eludes them when he comes upon a traveling dentist, exchanges clothes with him at gunpoint, and steals his horse and wagon. The unfortunate Dr. Finger is taken for Graham and shot dead. The posse, recognizing Mr. Starbuck's horse and tux, bring the body back to the Starbuck ranch. Amanda, seeing what she thinks is Graham's body (she cannot see the face) faints. But Graham does not get away clean: it turns out Dr. Finger was a quack, and the first person Graham encounters after his escape was one of Dr. Finger's dissatisfied customers. He is put into prison on a year-long sentence for Dr. Finger's crimes.
At first Amanda is ostracized by the townspeople. But an impassioned speech proclaiming her true love for him does a remarkable trick: the townspeople not only forgive her, they see a remarkable story in that of Graham and Amanda. This story forms the basis of a legend, one that spawns a popular book (From Noon Till Three), dime novels, a stage play, and even a popular song. The legend of Graham and Amanda becomes bigger than the reality of the two, and with her book a worldwide best seller it makes Amanda a wealthy woman. Graham, who reads the book while in prison, is amused by the distortions. Graham is described as being 6'3" (1.90 m), Southern, and very handsome; he is, in fact, none of these. After serving his time he is eager to renew his relationship with Amanda.
A disguised Graham takes one of Amanda's guided tours of her ranch, and stays behind, intending to reveal himself. When he does so, Amanda does not recognize him and becomes frightened. It is only when Graham shows her "something that's not in the book" that Amanda believes him. (Graham's exposing himself is cut from the TV version, causing brief audience confusion as to why Amanda finally "recognizes" him.) But instead of joy, Amanda is confused and worried. If word got out that Graham was alive, the legend of Graham and Amanda would be done for. Even Graham's suggestion that he live with her incognito is no good; after all, if Amanda were to live with another man, the legend would still be destroyed. The encounter ends up with Amanda pointing a gun at Graham... but at the last second she decides to shoot herself.
Graham is heartbroken. Not only has he lost Amanda, the secret of his real identity is lost for good. He tries to forget what has happened, but there are reminders everywhere. He hears "their song" at a local saloon, and walks in on a stage production of From Noon Till Three. Worse, people he knew slightly laugh when he says he is Graham, since he looks nothing like his description in the book. At the end he is arrested and put in an insane asylum, where he meets the only people who believe him: his fellow inmates. He seems relieved.

Tom Logan is a rustler experiencing hard times. He and his gang are particularly upset by the hanging of a friend by Braxton, a land baron who takes the law into his own hands.
Logan's men pull off a daring train robbery, only to lose much of the money. They decide to seek vengeance against Braxton by killing his foreman Pete Marker and by buying a small property close to Braxton's ranch, then rustling his stock. First the gang, without Logan, rides off across the Missouri River and north of the border to steal horses belonging to the North West Mounted Police. In their absence, Logan plants crops and enters into a relationship with Braxton's virginal daughter, Jane.
Braxton is obsessed with both his rustling problem and his daughter. He sends for Robert E. Lee Clayton, a notorious "regulator" who, for a price, will take care of rustlers personally. Clayton arrives with a fancy wardrobe, a perfumed scent, an Irish brogue and a Creedmoor rifle (a Model 1859 Sharps rifle) with which he is deadly accurate from a very long distance.
Quickly suspicious of Logan, who doesn't strike him as a farmer, Clayton dons a variety of disguises and begins to pick off Logan's gang, one by one. Identifying himself as "Jim Ferguson," he kills Logan's young friend Little Tod by dragging him with a rope through the raging Missouri.
Clayton spies on Logan with binoculars and taunts Braxton about his daughter's affair with a horse thief. Braxton attempts to discharge him but Clayton is determined to finish what he starts. He amuses himself by shooting two more of Logan's partners, Cary and Cy, from a distance and then by wearing a "granny" dress while brutally killing Logan's closest friend, Cal, with a handmade weapon.
Logan knows it's kill or be killed. He also wants vengeance against Braxton for having hired the regulator in the first place, despite his feelings for Jane. One night after a campfire goes dark with Clayton serenading his horse, Logan slits his throat. He then comes after Braxton, who has lost his mind — perhaps having suffered a stroke — as well as losing his daughter. Braxton pulls a weapon on Logan, but is himself shot in the chest.
Logan abandons his farm and packs up to leave. He acknowledges to Jane the possibility that they can renew their relationship another time, another place.

Josey Wales, a Missouri farmer, is driven to revenge by the murder of his wife and young son by a band of pro-Union Jayhawker militants. The murderers were from Senator James H. Lane's Kansas Brigade, which included Captain Terrill.
After grieving and burying his wife and son, Wales joins a group of pro-Confederate Missouri Bushwhackers led by William T. Anderson and fights in the Civil War. At the conclusion of the war, Captain Fletcher persuades the guerrillas to surrender, saying they have been granted amnesty. Wales refuses to surrender. As a result, he and one young man are the only survivors when Captain Terrill's Redlegs massacre the surrendering men. Wales intervenes and guns down several Redlegs with a Gatling gun.
Senator Lane forces Fletcher to work with Terrill in tracking down Wales and puts a $5,000 bounty on Wales, who is now on the run from Union militia and bounty hunters. Along the way, despite wishing to be left alone, he accumulates a diverse group of companions. They include an old Cherokee named Lone Watie, a young Navajo woman, and an elderly woman from Kansas and her granddaughter Laura Lee, whom Wales rescues from Comancheros. At Santo Rio, two men, Travis and Chato, join their group.
Wales and his companions find the abandoned ranch owned by Laura's father and inhabit it after Wales parleys and makes peace with the neighboring Comanche tribe leader, Ten Bears. Meanwhile, a bounty hunter who identified Wales at Santo Rio, guides Captain Terrill and his men to the town. The following morning, the ranch is attacked by the Redlegs. Wales' companions take shelter in the fortified ranch house and open fire, gunning down all of Terrill's men. A wounded Wales, despite being out of ammunition, pursues the fleeing Terrill. When he corners him, Wales dry fires his four pistols through all the empty chambers while reliving the events surrounding his family's death, and remembering Terrill's involvement, before stabbing and killing Terrill with his own cavalry sword.
At the bar in Santa Rio, Wales finds Fletcher with two Texas Rangers. The locals at the bar, who refer to Wales as "Mr. Wilson," tell the Rangers that Wales was killed in a shoot-out in Monterrey, Mexico. The Rangers accept this story and move on. Fletcher refuses to believe the story, but pretends to not recognize Wales and says that he will go to Mexico to look for Wales himself, and try to convince him that the war is over, because he owes him that. Wales says that they all died a little in the war, before riding off.

Trappers with government support force the Yellow Hands Sioux off their sacred land. The Indians retreat, but await supernatural punishment to descend on their usurpers. Harris reprises his role as John Morgan, 8th Earl of Kildare, who had lived with the tribe for years and is known as Horse, leaves his English fiancée and estate and returns to America, where he discovers the Yellow Hand people have been largely massacred or put into slavery by the unscrupulous white traders and their Indian cohorts. The few survivors, including wise old Running Bull and stubborn old Elk Woman (Gale Sondergaard) have gone into the Badlands and been forced to eat their dogs. "Why did you return?" asks Elk Woman. "I had to come back," says Morgan. "I had to prove something to myself... there was an empty place in my soul. I could not forget." He finds the tribe dispirited, because of the actions of the trappers, and he begins to devise a strategy to overpower the trappers' stronghold, convincing the Indians to take direct action. Soon even the Indian women and boys are assigned tasks to aid the assault to regain their ancestral land.

After a prologue—a clip montage of scenes from Wayne's earlier Western films—summarizing the career of J.B. Books, "the most celebrated shootist extant", an aging and obviously pain-ridden Books arrives in Carson City, Nevada, on January 22, 1901. He laments that the Old West is dying—as is he. A trusted friend, "Doc" Hostetler (Stewart), confirms a Colorado doctor's prognosis of an imminent and painful death from cancer.
Books rents a room at a boarding house owned by the widow Bond Rogers (Bacall) and her teenage son Gillom (Howard). Marshal Thibido (Morgan), alarmed at the presence of a notorious gunfighter in his town, asks him to leave. Books explains that he is dying, and intends to die in Carson City. Thibido relents, but gloats, "Just don't take too long to die!"
Word spreads that Books is in town; profiteers, young guns, and old friends and enemies are drawn to him. A newspaperman named Dobkins (Rick Lenz) proposes a spectacular series of articles, exaggerating and glorifying Books' tumultuous career. Books kicks him out, only to be visited by an old flame, Serepta (North), who proposes marriage. He is touched, until he learns that she wants to co-write, with Dobkins, a widow's sensational "memoir". "Woman," says Books, "I still have some pride."
Hostetler prescribes laudanum to ease Books' worsening pain, and reluctantly answers his questions about what will come next: The pain will continue to build, eventually becoming unbearable. Hostetler remarks that if he had Books' courage, the death he has just described is not the one he would choose. The undertaker, Hezekiah Beckum (Carradine) pitches a grand funeral, which Books rejects as another profiteering scheme; but he does order a headstone. Two strangers seeking notoriety try to ambush him as he sleeps, but Books kills them. Gillom is impressed; his mother, who is losing boarders, is angry.
During a buggy ride, Books tells Bond he has never killed a man who didn't deserve it; Bond says a higher power will decide that. She worries that Gillom, lacking a father's guidance, is acquiring a taste for violence and drink. Books negotiates the sale of his horse to the blacksmith, Moses (Crothers), who remarks that Gillom already tried to sell it to him, to compensate for their lost boarders. Books confronts Gillom; after they resolve their differences, Gillom asks for a shooting lesson. To Gillom's surprise, he is nearly as accurate as Books, and wonders aloud how Books won all those gunfights. Books points out that the trees don't shoot back. "It isn't always being fast or even accurate that counts," he adds. "It's being willing."
Books asks Gillom to deliver a message to three men: Mike Sweeney (Boone), who has vowed to avenge his brother, killed long ago by Books; Jack Pulford (O'Brian), a professional gambler and pistol marksman; and Jay Cobb (Bill McKinney), Gillom's ill-mannered employer. Gillom informs each of them, separately, that Books will be at the Metropole Saloon on January 29, his 58th birthday. Books insists that Gillom accept his horse, which he has bought back from Moses, as a gift.
On January 29, the headstone arrives, bearing Books' name, birth date, and "Died 1901", with the day left blank. After bidding farewell to Bond, who has grown to like him, he boards a trolley for the Metropole Saloon. The room is deserted except for the four men and the bartender (Charles G. Martin). Books orders a drink and raises a toast to his birthday and his three "guests".
Cobb is the first to draw his gun, but Books easily dispatches him. He then shoots Sweeney through a table he is hiding behind, but is wounded in the process. Pulford now fires, hitting Books again as he takes cover behind the bar. Pulford works his way closer, but Books sees his reflection in a glass and when he peers over the bar, shoots him dead.
Gillom enters and sees the bartender sneaking up behind Books with a shotgun. He shouts a warning, but the bartender blasts Books in the back with both barrels. As he reloads, Gillom picks up Books' gun and shoots the bartender, then drops the gun in disgust. Books smiles, nods approvingly, and dies. After covering Books reverently with his jacket, Gillom walks home with his mother.

Set in 1848, in the Montana Territory, Ben Johnson plays John Coulter who lives on the plains with his daughter Beth and his friend Standing Bear. The story is told mainly from a Native American point of view.
Beth is kidnapped by Greyeagle of the Cheyenne nation, who was tasked by the nation's chief to bring Beth to him. Coulter and Standing Bear go through various adventures to find Beth, to bring her back safely home.

Wild Bill Hickok is haunted by his dreams of a giant white buffalo. So much that he travels the West to find the beast. Along the way, Hickok meets Crazy Horse, who is also searching the plains for the giant white buffalo, who has killed Crazy Horse's daughter. Hickok and Crazy Horse team up to kill the elusive buffalo.

Henry Lloyd Moon (Nicholson) is a third-rate outlaw in the late 1860s; a convicted bank robber, horse thief and cattle thief. He is sentenced to be hanged in Longhorn, Texas, to the glee of the locals who gather to watch his execution. A local ordinance dictates that a man condemned of any crime other than murder may be freed, if a lady will marry him and take responsibility for his good behavior. Well aware of the ordinance, many of the townswomen scrutinize Moon as he mounts the gallows.
An elderly woman offers to marry him, but dies on the spot immediately. As Moon is dragged back to the gallows, Julia Tate (Steenburgen)—a headstrong, genteel Southern virgin—agrees to marry and take charge of him. She weds Moon, intending only to use him as labor in a secret gold mine under her property. This evolves into a shaky partnership as he gains her trust, then develops into much more.
The local sheriff's deputy (Lloyd) repeatedly accuses Moon of stealing "his" girl, although there is no evidence that Julia ever had any interest in the deputy, and it was she who offered marriage to Moon. Moon's old gang complicates matters when they arrive at Julia's home and introduce the teetotalling Julia to intoxicating beverages. They discover that Julia and Moon are successfully mining gold. Moon schemes to betray Julia and steal the gold, but a cave-in at the mine changes the nature of their relationship.

Jasper Bloodshy (Dale) runs the rough-and-tumble town of Bloodshy—named after him because he founded it—which lives in fear of Jasper's gunslinging son Wild Billy (also played by Dale). Jasper has just found out he has another son named Eli (again, played by Dale), who lives in Philadelphia.
It turns out that years ago, Jasper's crazy ways were too much for his bride from England, so she left—leaving behind one twin—and returned to England. With the help of his English butler Mansfield, he writes a new will that mentions Eli, then fakes his death by pretending to fall off a cliff in front of Bloodshy's corrupt mayor Ragsdale (McGavin) and sheriff Denver Kid (Knotts), both of whom he has just told about his second son.
We next meet Eli, who turns out to be the opposite of Wild Billy. Eli has been trained to live for the Lord. He works as a Salvation Army missionary in Philadelphia with orphans named Roxanne (Debbie Lytton) and Marcus (Michael Sharrett).
One day, during a fight in which people are throwing vegetables at him and the children, Eli receives a telegram informing him about his father's death, a father he didn't know existed. He decides to accept the invitation to come to Bloodshy for his inheritance and take Marcus and Roxanne.
Their stagecoach is held up by the Snead brothers, a group of outlaws that Ragsdale has sent to run off Eli. Unfortunately, nobody was told that Jasper's other son was a twin, so they mistake Eli for Wild Billy (the first of many to mistake the two).
The Sneads return to Bloodshy, but did cause the stagecoach to run off, leaving Eli, Marcus, and Roxanne stranded. On their way to Bloodshy (by foot), they meet a woman named Jenny (Valentine) who is also headed for Bloodshy to start a school. They head for the town together.
Mansfield brings the will to Sheriff Denver to deliver to Ragsdale. From there, it's learned that a contest is involved in the inheritance. Ragsdale sends Denver to find Billy and tell him that the fortune is his.
The contest is a miles-long obstacle course known as the Bloody Bloodshy Trail that involves operating train engines, crossing a gorge using a rope, climbing a mountain, and driving a wagon.
During the contest both Eli and Billy realize that Ragsdale has set them up to kill each other so that he would collect the entire fortune. Both brothers make up and expose Ragsdale for what he really is. Soon after Ragsdale is imprisoned. Denver Kid becomes the new mayor and makes his sheriff Rattlesnake, who throughout the film was trying to get his job as sheriff.

A young Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid are wannabe outlaws who find that breaking the law is not as easy as it seems.

Rabbi Avram Belinski (Wilder), newly graduated at the bottom of his class from the yeshiva, arrives in Philadelphia from Poland en route to San Francisco where he will be a congregation's new rabbi. He has with him a Torah scroll for the San Francisco synagogue. Belinski, an innocent, trusting, and inexperienced traveler, falls in with three con men, the brothers Matt and Darryl Diggs and their partner Mr. Jones, who trick him into helping pay for a wagon and supplies to go west, then brutally rob him and leave him and most of his belongings scattered along a deserted road in Pennsylvania.
Still determined to make it to San Francisco, Belinski spends time with some Pennsylvania Dutch (whom at first he takes for Jews). Because he was injured when he was dumped out of the speeding wagon, the Amish nurse Belinski back to health and give him money for the train west to the end of the line. When he reaches the end of the line in Ohio, the rabbi manages to find work on the railroad. On his way west again after saving up enough money to buy a horse and some supplies, he is befriended and looked after by a stranger named Tommy Lillard (Ford), a bank robber with a soft heart who is moved by Belinski's helplessness and frank personality, despite the trouble it occasionally gives him.
For instance, when Lillard robs a bank on a Thursday, he finds that Belinski (an Orthodox Jew) will not ride on the Shabbat — even with a hanging posse on his tail. However, they still manage to get away, mainly because with the horses rested from having been walked for a full day, they are fresh and able to ride all night, outdistancing their pursuers.
On another occasion, due to Belinski's insistence on riding into foul weather, he and Lillard have to use an old Indian trick and snuggle up next to their horses, which they have gotten to lie on the ground, to wait out a snowstorm. While traveling together, the two also experience American Indian customs and hospitality, disrupt a Trappist monastery's vow of silence with an innocent gesture of gratitude, and learn a little about each other's culture.
While stopping in a small town not too far from San Francisco, Belinski encounters the Diggs brothers and Jones again. He gets into a fight with the three of them and, after taking a beating, is rescued by Lillard, who takes back what they had stolen from Belinski and more besides.
Seeking revenge, the three bandits follow the pair and ambush them on a California beach where they have stopped to bathe and a firefight ensues. Tommy shoots Jones dead and creases Matt Diggs, who flees the scene. Belinski experiences a crisis of faith when he is forced to kill Darryl Diggs in self-defense after Darryl wounded Tommy. Lillard restores his faith by an eloquent argument with simple language, reminding him that he still is what he is inside, despite what he had to do on the beach.
When Matt Diggs, sole survivor of the ambushing trio, prepares to avenge his brother by killing Belinski and Lillard springs to his friend's defense, Belinski, regaining his composure, shows his wisdom and courage in front of the entire community by disarming and exiling Diggs from San Francisco. The film ends with Belinski marrying Rosalie Bender, younger daughter of the head of San Francisco's Jewish community, with Lillard attending the ceremony as his best man.

Set in 1950s Arizona, the story follows a drifter and gambler named Beaudray Demerille (Fonda). In a card game he wins the movie's title character Wanda Nevada (Shields), a 13-year-old orphan with dreams of singing at the Grand Ole Opry. Despite his best efforts, Wanda sticks to Demerille, accompanying him to a pool hall. Texas Curly (Fix), an aging prospector, enters and tells the bar patrons about his gold mine in the Grand Canyon. They laugh him off as a drunk. As Curly leaves the bar, he drops a pouch. Wanda picks it up and follows Curly, then sees Strap Pangburn (Markland) and Ruby Muldoon (Askew), two cons from the bar, harassing the man about the location of the mine. Wanda runs when Strap and Ruby kill Curly, alerting them to her presence. She hides in Demerille's car and tells him about Curly's death. Strap and Ruby see Wanda in the car but get lost in the chase. Stopped for the night, Demerille and Wanda open Curly's pouch and find a map. They head to the Grand Canyon and trade the car for pack mules and mining supplies. Strap and Ruby follow behind by half a day.
While traveling in the canyon Demerille and Wanda meet Dorothy Deerfield (Lewis), a Life magazine photographer. Dorothy and Demerille try to get better acquainted after dinner in her tent, but jealous Wanda intrudes. They discuss their pasts, with Dorothy's husband and Wanda's father both killed during military service. Demerille tries to be nice but comes off as insensitive, and he and Wanda leave camp in the morning. They find a rope ladder over the canyon's side to a small cave. Before going down, Wanda confesses to Demerille that she loves him. He holds the rope as she rappels down the rock wall. An owl flies out at her and Wanda falls, but Demerille pulls her back up only to find that she is unconscious. He sits cradling Wanda and says he loves her, too. Demerille then explores the cave himself and finds gold. He returns to find Wanda awake and shows her a large gold piece. While mining the next day, Strap and Ruby finally catch up to them. Wanda and Demerille return to camp with four bags of gold only to find their mules gone. They throw the bags into the canyon in case someone is watching, then start walking. Strap and Ruby hold them at gunpoint and demand the gold, but Wanda insists there was none. A shootout leaves everyone unharmed. Strap and Ruby run off, and Demerille and Wanda seek shelter for the night. The following morning they find Strap and Ruby crucified in the desert. Wanda finds the mined gold scattered nearby. They pack it up and head down to the shore, where a boat is buried in the sand. After docking downstream, Demerille counts the gold as Wanda sleeps. The owl from the cave appears and an arrow is shot from the distance into Demerille's chest. Demerille, seemingly mortally wounded, pushes the boat into the river and passes out. Wanda wakes up the next morning as the boat is afloat in the river and finds Demerille near the edge of death, he professes his love for Wanda and passes out.
Sometime later, Wanda is in a hotel and is about to be returned to the orphanage by looming nuns. Reporters swarm the hotel lobby, all trying to get an exclusive story. Wanda flees the nuns as Demerille, now recovered and rich from selling the gold, pulls up outside the hotel in a new convertible. Wanda jumps in the convertible, and both laugh as Demerille tells the reporters there never was any gold in the Grand Canyon and Demerille and Wanda drive off into the sunset, while the song Morning Sun by Carole King adds to the atmospheric finale.

McMurphy comes to Denver, Colorado to see Polly Pry about the Packer case. As Pry leaves for her scheduled meeting with McMurphy, she is stalked and shot at by a gunman. The bullets hit her skirts and lessen the blows inflicted on her publishers behind her. McMurphy and Pry meet in a tavern to discuss the Packer story over whiskey. She begins with the five prospectors who will become victims meeting up for the first time at a boardinghouse, where the landlady tells them that Alfred Packer is the best guide in the area.
The men find Packer in a small prison, and pay his bail so that he can be their guide. They join together with the larger group, but are soon split up, and they get suckered into the hospitality of a trapper and his sidekick, Weasel, who intend to rape George Noon. Packer and the men escape, but get hopelessly lost in Ute territory. When Packer is scouting ahead, he returns to find that Shannon Wilson Bell, a Mormon missionary, has killed and begun to eat the other prospectors. Packer and Bell fight; Bell falls, landing on a knife, and is killed.
After several months, Packer comes out of the mountains into the nearest town and makes his report to General Adams. Later, while at Dolan's Bar, his story having been investigated, he is captured and brought to trial. The remainder of the film depicts his trial. Judge Gerry reads his sentence as per the court records, though omitting the two consecutive repeats of "dead." As Packer walks through the courthouse door, a blue glow emanates from behind it, the image freezes, and, in voiceover and overlain title cards, Pry briefly summarizes what happened to Packer after the trial.

During the years following the Civil War, banks and trains become the targets of the James-Younger gang, outlaws who terrorize the Midwestern United States. The band of robbers is led by Jesse James and Cole Younger, along with several of their brothers.
A detective, Mr. Rixley from the Pinkerton's agency, is assigned to capture the outlaws. Leading his own large team of men, Rixley doggedly remains on their trail, killing several innocent relatives of the gang in the process. By the time, at Clell Miller's suggestion, the James-Younger Gang rides far north in September 1876 to rob a bank belonging to "squareheads" in Northfield, Minnesota, word is out about them and the town has been warned by the Pinkertons.
The holdup goes wrong in every way. The bank's vault has been set on a timer and cannot be opened. A cashier and another citizen are shot and killed. While trying to escape, the gang is fired upon by the townspeople, who, setting a trap, have barricaded both ends of the main street. Two outlaws, both recently recruited by Jesse, are killed, Clell is fatally gutshot, Frank is hit in the arm, and all of the Youngers are badly wounded.
Finally escaping Northfield, the surviving gang members temporarily make camp in some woods. Clell Miller is dying. Jim Younger, sporting more than several wounds, cannot speak due to a bullet piercing his cheek. Bob Younger, flat on his back, moans pitifully, shot multiple times. Cole Younger, seeming the most mobile of his siblings, has (as later reported by a physician) been hit by no less than eleven bullets. Frank James has only one minor injury. Jesse James appears to have escaped unscathed.
Hard decisions have to be made. A posse will be soon coming for the outlaws. Miller is on his last breaths. The three Younger brothers are so injured that they are unable to continue. Only Jesse and Frank James are in any condition to ride further. Even though it is his gang, and they follow his commands, Jesse elects to leave all the badly wounded behind. Frank reluctantly agrees. Cole objects, implying that it is disloyal to abandon them, but Jesse ignores him, while Frank declares that he has to abide by his brother's decision.
The James brothers return home to Missouri. An attempt is made by Pinkerton Rixley to make the Youngers, now in a prison hospital, reveal where the Jameses can be found. Rixley states that the Youngers will face life in prison (the state of Minnesota does not have the death penalty), but he offers them a more lenient sentence if they betray the James brothers. The Youngers, despite their abandonment, refuse to inform on the Jameses.
Jesse, not terribly affected by the disastrous Northfield raid, chooses to recruit a new gang. Bob and Charlie Ford, previously spurned in their efforts to join Jesse's outfit, are now invited to Jesse's home for dinner. The expectation is that Jesse will ask the two brothers to join him in further robberies. However, having made a prior deal with Rixley for a lucrative reward, Bob and Charlie shoot an unsuspecting Jesse James in the back while he straightens a picture frame.
Upon learning of his brother's assassination, Frank James surrenders his gun and turns himself in to Pinkerton Rixley, but only on the condition that he can first attend his brother's funeral. Rixley suggests that he might not agree to such terms, whereupon Frank declares that he will kill him if he refuses.
A train transports a wooden coffin bearing the body of Jesse James. Frank James, handcuffed to Rixley, stands at the railcar door, looking out, noting the people beside the tracks, paying their final respects to his brother, as the train passes by.

The outlaw Butch Cavendish (Christopher Lloyd) ambushes a party of Texas Rangers, killing all except John Reid (Klinton Spilsbury) who is rescued by his old childhood Comanche friend, Tonto (Michael Horse). When he recovers from his wounds, he dedicates his life to fighting the crime that Cavendish represents. To this end, John becomes the great masked western hero, The Lone Ranger. With the help of Tonto, the pair go to rescue President Grant (Jason Robards) when Cavendish takes him hostage.

Young Karl Westover (Gary Busey), a pre-Civil War Texas farm boy, accidentally kills his brother-in-law and must flee to Mexico. Early into his flight he is met by the outlaw Barbarosa (Willie Nelson) who, seconds later, kills a man who was following him. It is apparent that Barbarosa knows him, but doesn't say. Despite his disgust that Karl has nothing worth robbing, is loath to leave the poor rube to die in the desert. Barbarosa shows Karl how to find water, make a fire, and catch an armadillo for his supper before leaving him with the advice to go home to Texas.
Karl makes his way to a small pueblo and finds a grubby cantina. He is enjoying his first good meal in a long time and receiving the attentions of his first working girl ever when Barbarosa bursts in and robs everyone at gunpoint. Filling his sombrero with loot, Barbarosa instructs Karl to gather the rest, and steals away while everyone is bemused by Karl's amateurish performance. Nevertheless, Karl escapes, and he and Barbarosa ride together for the winter while Karl learns the life of an outlaw adventurer.
Karl is being pursued by Floyd and Otto Pahmeyer, the brothers of the man he killed, sent by their vengeful father. They are naive farm boys as Karl once was, and Karl and Barbarosa easily get the drop on them. Again to Barbarosa's disgust, Karl leaves them alive and tells them to go home. They say they can't, being more afraid of their father than the banditos. "You know how Papa gets", they tell Karl, and hike off to replace their guns and resume the chase.
The banditos encounter a poor old couple with a burro, and (yet again to Barbarosa's disgust) Karl refuses to rob them. Barbarosa and Karl are then captured by the outlaw Angel Morales and his gang, and as Angel is debating what to do with them the old couple, Angel's parents, arrive in camp and reveal great gobs of loot hidden in their burro's pack; Barbarosa tells Karl, "Well, I hope you're satisfied!" When the old couple tell their story, the enraged Angel shoots Barbarosa in the belly. He spares Karl's life for restraining Barbarosa from robbing his parents, but sets him to digging Barbarosa's grave. When Karl dumps Barbarosa's body in the shallow grave and starts throwing dirt in his face, he sneezes and whispers fiercely, "Stop that!"; it seems that the bullet was deflected by Barbarosa's big silver belt buckle, and he has been playing dead. Barbarosa scuttles off into the brush when no one is looking, and Karl quickly fills in the empty grave.
Angel's gang capture the hapless Floyd and Otto, and Angel shoots them on a whim, again setting Karl to dig the graves. But in the morning, a stuporous Angel struggles awake to find himself buried to the neck in the desert sand, with the dead heads of Floyd and Otto surrounding him. Terrified, he screams fruitlessly for help and for the author of his demise, "Barbaroooooosaaaaaaa!"
Even outlaws must have someplace to call home, it seems. Barbarosa has an ongoing love-hate relationship with the Zavala family. He brings his accumulated loot every few months when he visits his loyal wife, Josefina de Zavala (Isela Vega), who lives at the hacienda of her father, Don Braulio Zavala (Gilbert Roland, in his final film). Intensely bitter, Don Braulio hates Barbarosa for crippling him and killing his son in a drunken fracas, and every few years he sends another young Zavala son, nephew, or cousin to kill Barbarosa; none has yet succeeded, and most have been themselves killed in the attempt. Don Braulio's tales, stylized and heavy with symbolism, spur the young Zavalas to their best efforts to be worthy of such an adversary, and the Zavalas have become rich and powerful thereby. The songs recounting Barbarosa's exploits become longer and more celebratory each year, and recent verses also recount the adventures of Barbarosa's new sidekick, the "Gringo Child." Yet the chorus between every verse exhorts "all you men of courage to grease up your guns and knives . . . this is the part where they kill Barbarosa."
Barbarosa and Josefina have a nubile daughter, Juanita (Alma Martinez), who decides she likes the Gringo Child and hides Karl from searchers in her bed. Interrupted by her parents, Karl is kicked into the plaza by the enraged Barbarosa; the ruckus raises Don Braulio and the household, who rush to the plaza, guns blazing. Barbarosa twirls his Appaloosa horse in the gate, whooping, displaying his horsemanship and courage, and the banditos escape at the gallop amid a hail of bloodless gunplay. And when Karl too shows some backbone, telling Barbarosa that he liked Juanita and intends to visit her again, Barbarosa smiles and says that's fine with him.
In the spring, Barbarosa and Karl decide to return to Texas. Climbing out of the Rio Grande canyon, Karl attempts to lend Barbarosa a hand up the final ledge. Karl is hampered by the saddlebags he is holding so Barbarosa says "Get rid of that!" To which Karl flings the saddlebags (containing the loot) back over the cliff. Terminally disgusted, Barbarosa yells at him, "I didn't say throw the MONEY down THERE! I've BEEN down THERE!!!". Karl makes the aruous climb back down the cliff. He disturbs a rattlesnake and falls into the river. When Karl struggles back to the canyon rim that evening he finds Barbarosa waiting beside a campfire. He dumps the saddlebags of money at Barbarosa's feet, but Barbarosa is still peeved: "Bet you didn't bring an armadillo for my supper!" But Karl reveals his other hand from behind his back, tossing a dead armadillo into Barbarosa's lap. Both look at each other and laugh; Karl is learning, and starting to give as good as he gets.
Barbarosa and Karl come to the Texas Hill Country and the German immigrant colony where Karl grew up, and ride into a stockmen's rendezvous. While enjoying eating barbecue and watching horse races, Karl mentions that horses are something he knows about and considers buying some broncos to take home to his father's farm. Suddenly a shot rings out—it is old Mr. Pahmeyer (George Voskovec), still seeking to kill Karl for the death of his sons. In his rage, he misses. Karl covers him with his revolver and makes him stop trying to reload. "Go home, Mr. Pahmeyer, just go home!" he orders, and Mr. Pahmeyer has no choice but to obey.
Karl buys his horses, but Barbarosa declines to accompany him back to lawful living. "To tell the truth, I'm worn out keeping you amused," he grumbles. The two part ways as friends.
Karl drives his herd to the farm, finding it very run down, his mother died, himself given up for dead, and his father Emile (Howland Chamberlain) and sister Hilda (Sharon Compton) despondent. He cheers them up, telling them that he "had a little luck down in Mexico -- me and another fellow." Next morning Emile steps outside to inspect "our horses." "OUR horses?" jokes Karl. "You'd best break a few before it's 'OUR horses'!", and Hilda laughs with them. But their laughter turns to screams as Mr. Pahmeyer takes another potshot from the woods, again missing Karl but killing his father.
Karl goes alone to the Pahmeyer farmhouse, calling Mr. Pahmeyer to come out and end the feud. Mr. Pahmeyer calls back that he is sorry about killing Emile, that he never intended to do that. Karl calls back that he knows that, and again offers to end the feud. But despite the cries of his wife, Mr. Pahmeyer calls, "I don't think I can do it!" and charges out the door with his gun. Howling, "NOOOOO!", Karl is forced to kill him.
Karl and Barbarosa reunite after some time (Karl's beard and hair have grown out). During a brief split, Karl aids Barbarosa in evading Eduardo Zavala (Danny de la Paz), the most recent young would-be killer sent out by Don Braulio. Without Barbarosa's knowledge, he disarms Eduardo and strips him of his guns, his horse, and his boots. "WALK home! Git!" he orders Eduardo.
But Eduardo is made of sterner stuff than his predecessors. He hones his silver crucifix down to a dagger point, wraps his feet in rawhide thongs, and stalks Barbarosa on foot. He leaps upon Barbarosa from ambush and stabs him in the belly, then flees to the south.
As Karl sits with his dying friend, they discuss Barbarosa's life and death. "A man couldn't ask for better than what I had with the Zavalas," Barbarosa says. And then, "The little bastard's going back to tell everyone Barbarosa's dead. Barbarosa can't die!" Karl realizes, "He's afoot!" and may be caught before he gets back to the Zavala hacienda.
Karl cremates Barbarosa's body, and pursues Eduardo at the gallop. But Eduardo has learned, and knocks Karl out by hitting him with a branch. Taking Karl's horse, Eduardo makes it back to the hacienda and is greeted as a hero. A fiesta is planned in his honor.
Karl sits beside a campfire, defeated, nursing his headache. There is a rustle in the brush, and out comes Barbarosa's Appaloosa, with Barbarosa's saddle and enormous sombrero. Karl perks up.
The fiesta at the Zavala hacienda is the most funereal party imaginable. Don Braulio Josephina and Jaunita look lost and bereft, the rest of the clan dance while contemplating directionless life without a Barbarosa to fight. Out of the night gallops a red-bearded man in an enormous sombrero on an Appaloosa, whooping and twirling and shooting up the sky. As Eduardo is about to be presented a black wreath of honor, Karl aims and shoots the wreath just before it is placed on his head. The Zavalas shout, "Barbarosa! Barbarosa! Barbarosaaaa!" and scramble for their guns and knives.
(In the unedited original, Eduardo's announcement of Barbarosa's death to Don Braulio is followed by an angry exchange between the two men. The exchange reveals that Don Braulio has been using Barbarosa as a family demon to strengthen the family. Don Braulio is angry that Barbarosa is dead. Eduardo is angry that he, and all men sent out before him, were used by Don Braulio. They agree to continue the facade and plans for a festival are made. Without this normally edited scene the acceptance of Barbarosa's reappearance by Don Braulio and Eduardo makes no sense.)

Outside the snowy mountain town of Lahood, California, thugs working for big-time miner Coy LaHood ride in and destroy the camp of a group of prospectors and their families who have settled to pan for gold in nearby Carbon Canyon. While leaving, they shoot a dog belonging to fourteen-year-old Megan Wheeler. As Megan buries her dog in the woods and prays for a miracle, thunder rolls and a stranger rides down the slopes.
Megan's mother, Sarah, is being courted by Hull Barret. When Hull heads to town to pick up supplies, four of the thugs begin to beat him with axe staves but he is rescued by the stranger. Hull invites him to dinner and while the stranger is washing, Hull notices what look like six bullet wounds in his back. Shortly after, he appears wearing a clerical collar and is thereafter called "Preacher".
Coy LaHood's son Josh attempts to scare the Preacher off with a show of strength from his giant work-hand, Club, who breaks a large rock in half with a single hammer blow. When Club attempts to attack the Preacher, he hits Club in the face with his hammer and delivers a blow to Club's groin, then gently helps him onto his horse. The miners now team together to smash the rest of the boulder.
Meanwhile, Coy LaHood returns from Sacramento and is furious to learn about the Preacher’s arrival, saying that his presence would strengthen the resolve of the tin-panners. Failing to bribe the Preacher into settling in the town instead, LaHood is persuaded to offer the miners $1000 per claim provided they evacuate within 24 hours. LaHood threatens to hire a corrupt Marshal named Stockburn to clear them out if they refuse.
The miners initially consider accepting the offer but when Hull reminds them of their purpose and sacrifices, they decide to stay and fight. The next morning, however, the Preacher leaves without notice and retrieves his revolver from a bank box. Meanwhile the miners find that LaHood's men have blown up the creek running through their camp, causing it to dam up. They have a brief discussion but agree to stay and continue mining the now drying creek bed. Megan, who has grown fond of the Preacher, goes looking for him and rides into the Lahood strip mining camp, where Josh attempts to rape her, while his cohorts look on and encourage him. At that moment, the Preacher arrives on horseback and rescues Megan, shooting Josh in the hand in the process.
Stockburn and his six deputies arrive at the town and LaHood describes the Preacher to Stockburn, who appears startled and says that he sounds like someone that he once knew, but it couldn't be, since that man was dead. Spider Conway, a miner at the camp, recovers a large gold nugget and rides into town, where he yells drunken abuse at LaHood from the street. After gunning him down, Stockburn tells Spider's sons to tell the Preacher to meet him in town the next morning.
The following morning, the Preacher and Hull blow up LaHood's site with dynamite. To stop Hull from following him, the Preacher then scares off Hull's horse and rides into town alone. In the gun fight that follows he kills all but two of LaHood's men and then, one by one, all six of Stockburn’s deputies as they spread through the town searching for him. When he goes face-to-face with Stockburn, the latter recognizes him in disbelief and goes for his gun. The Preacher draws first and shoots him, sending six bullets out through his back, before shooting him in the head. LaHood, watching from his office, aims a rifle at the Preacher, only to be shot and killed by Hull, who enters through a back door.
The Preacher nods at Hull and remarks, "Long walk," before galloping toward the snow-capped mountains. Megan now drives into town and shouts her love and thanks after the Preacher. Her words echo through the canyon as he rides off.

Some years after his dangerous ride down the steep mountain to capture the Brumby herd and regain the colt, Jim Craig, now with a large herd of mountain-bred horses of his own, returns to take up with his girl, Jessica Harrison. She is still smitten with him, but opposition from her father remains as resolute as ever. Further, she also has a rich would-be suitor, Alistair Patton (son of the banker from whom Harrison is seeking a large loan), endeavouring to court her. Before he returns from Harrison's property to his home, Jim meets an army officer seeking quality horses for the remount service on a regular basis.
As he realizes Jessica's affections remain for Jim, and that she doesn't "give a damn" about him, Patton jealously and maliciously recruits a gang to steal Jim's horses. Jim gives chase and in so doing again rides his horse down the steep mountainside. Patton shoots at him; the horse is killed and Jim is injured but manages to recover and resume the pursuit. Jim had earlier let the wild stallion which led the Brumbies loose into the wild again; in a twist of fate, the stallion shows itself from the wild at this crucial moment, and Jim finally trains the horse that has been the enigma of the entire district for decades. As Jim breaks him in and learns to ride him, they become friends, and together they catch up to Patton and his gang.
Jessica's father has also relented during this time, and he eventually joins with Jim and his friends to hunt down Patton and his gang. Jim Craig gets and wins his man-on-man duel with Patton, and Harrison gives his final approval for Jessica and Jim to marry.

It is the late 1870s. Captain Augustus "Gus" McCrae and Captain Woodrow F. Call, two famous ex–Texas Rangers, run a livery called the Hat Creek Cattle Company and Livery Emporium in the small dusty Texas border town of Lonesome Dove.
Working with them are Joshua Deets, who is an excellent tracker and scout from their Ranger days, Pea Eye Parker, another former Ranger who works hard but isn't all too bright, and Bolivar, a retired Mexican bandit who is their cook. Also living with them is the boy Newt Dobbs, a seventeen-year-old whose mother was a prostitute named Maggie and whose father may be Call. Jake Spoon, a former comrade of Call's and McCrae's, shows up after an absence of more than ten years. He is a man on the run, having accidentally shot the dentist of Fort Smith in Arkansas. The dentist's brother happens to be the sheriff, July Johnson. Reunited with Gus and Call, Jake's breath-taking description of Montana inspires Call to gather a herd of cattle and drive them there to begin the first cattle ranch in the frontier territory. Call is attracted to the romantic notion of settling pristine country. Gus is less enthusiastic, pointing out that they are getting old and that they are Rangers and traders, not cowboys. But he changes his mind when Jake reminds him that the love of Gus' life, Clara, lives on the Platte, 20 miles from Ogallala, Nebraska, which is on their route to Montana. Although he had proposed many times, she had rejected him every time because, in her words, Gus is "a rambler." Clara dislikes Call because she feels jealous of the years Gus spent with him instead of her. Captain Call prevails. They make preparations for their adventure north, including stealing horses in Mexico and recruiting almost all the male citizens of Lonesome Dove.
Ironically, Jake Spoon decides not to go at all. Instead, he promises the town's only prostitute, Lorena Wood, known as Lorie, he'll take her to San Francisco. Jake and Lorena ride along with the cattle drive to begin their journey, however.
Ogallala also happens to be the destination of Elmira, the wife of Sheriff Johnson, as she runs away to meet up with her true love, Dee Boot. So the three groups head north. They encounter horse thieves, murderers, hostile Indians, inclement weather, and a few inner demons.

In 1863, First Lieutenant John J. Dunbar is wounded in battle at St. David's Field in Tennessee. Choosing death in battle over amputation of his leg, he takes a horse and rides up to and along the Confederate lines. Despite numerous pot shots, the Confederates fail to hit him, and while they are distracted, the Union Army successfully attacks the line. Dunbar survives, receives a citation for bravery, and proper medical care. He recovers fully and is awarded Cisco, the horse who carried him, and his choice of posting. Dunbar requests a transfer to the western frontier so he can see it before it disappears.
Dunbar is transferred to Fort Hays, a large fort presided over by an unhinged major who despises Dunbar's enthusiasm, but agrees to post him to the furthest outpost they have, Fort Sedgewick, and kills himself shortly afterwards. Dunbar travels with Timmons, a mule wagon provisioner; they arrive to find the fort deserted and in poor condition. Despite the threat of nearby Indian tribes, Dunbar elects to stay and man the post himself. He begins rebuilding and restocking the fort and prefers the solitude, recording many of his observations in his diary. Timmons is killed by Pawnee Indians on the journey back to Ft. Hays; his death, together with that of the major who had sent them there, prevents other soldiers from knowing of Dunbar's assignment, and no other soldiers arrive to reinforce the post.
Dunbar initially encounters his Sioux neighbors when attempts are made to steal his horse and intimidate him. Deciding that being a target is a poor prospect, he decides to seek out the Sioux camp and attempt dialogue, rather than wait. On his way he comes across Stands With A Fist, the white adopted daughter of the tribe's medicine man Kicking Bird, who is ritually mutilating herself while mourning for her husband. Dunbar brings her back to the Sioux to recover, and some of the tribe begin to respect him. Eventually, Dunbar establishes a rapport with Kicking Bird, the warrior Wind In His Hair and the youth Smiles A Lot, initially visiting each other's camps. The language barrier frustrates them, and Stands With A Fist acts as interpreter, although with difficulty; she only remembers English from her early childhood before the rest of her family was killed during a Pawnee raid.
Dunbar finds that the stories he had heard about the tribe were untrue, and he develops a growing respect and appreciation for their lifestyle and culture. Learning their language, he is accepted as an honored guest by the Sioux after he tells them of a migrating herd of buffalo and participates in the hunt. When at Fort Sedgewick, Dunbar also befriends a wolf he dubs "Two Socks" for its white forepaws. Observing Dunbar and Two Socks chasing each other, the Sioux give him the name "Dances With Wolves." During this time, Dunbar also forges a romantic relationship with Stands With A Fist and helps defend the village from an attack by the rival Pawnee tribe. Dunbar eventually wins Kicking Bird's approval to marry Stands With A Fist, and abandons Fort Sedgewick.
Because of the growing Pawnee and white threat, Chief Ten Bears decides to move the tribe to its winter camp. Dunbar decides to accompany them but must first retrieve his diary from Fort Sedgewick as he realizes that it would provide the army with the means to find the tribe. However, when he arrives he finds the fort reoccupied by the U.S. Army. Because of his Sioux clothing, the soldiers open fire, killing Cisco and capturing Dunbar, arresting him as a traitor. Senior officers interrogate him, but Dunbar cannot prove his story, as a corporal has found his diary and kept it for himself. Having refused to serve as an interpreter to the tribes, Dunbar is charged with desertion and transported back east as a prisoner. Soldiers of the escort shoot Two Socks when the wolf attempts to follow Dunbar, despite Dunbar's attempts to intervene.
Eventually, the Sioux track the convoy, killing the soldiers and freeing Dunbar. They assert that they do not see him as a white man, but as a Sioux warrior called Dances With Wolves. But, at the winter camp, Dunbar decides to leave with Stands With A Fist because his continuing presence would endanger the tribe. As they leave, Smiles A Lot returns the diary, which he recovered during Dunbar's liberation, and Wind In His Hair shouts to Dunbar, reminding him that he is Dunbar's friend, a contrast to their original meeting where he shouted at Dunbar in hostility. U.S. troops are seen searching the mountains but are unable to locate them, while a lone wolf howls in the distance. An epilogue states that thirteen years later the last remnants of the free Sioux were subjugated to the American government, ending the conquest of the Western frontier states and the livelihoods of the tribes on the Great Plains.

Matthew Quigley (Tom Selleck) is an American cowboy and sharpshooter with a specially modified rifle with which he can shoot accurately at extraordinary distances. He answers a newspaper advertisement that asks for a man with a special talent in long-distance shooting, using just four words, "M. Quigley 900 yards," written on a copy of the advertisement that is punctured by several closely spaced bullet holes.
When he arrives in Australia, he gets into a fight with employees of the man who hired him, who are trying to force "Crazy Cora" (Laura San Giacomo) onto their wagon. After he identifies himself, he is taken to the station of Elliot Marston (Alan Rickman), who informs Quigley his sharpshooting skills will be used to eradicate the increasingly elusive Aborigines.Quigley turns down the offer and throws Marston out of his house.
The aborigine manservant knocks Quigley over the head and Marston's men beat him and Cora unconscious and dump them in the outback with no water and little chance of survival. However, they are rescued by Aborigines. Cora now reveals that she comes from Texas. When her home was attacked by Comanches, she hid in the cellar and accidentally suffocated her child while trying to prevent him from crying. Her husband had then put her alone on a ship to Australia. Now Cora consistently calls Quigley by her husband’s name (Roy), much to his annoyance.
When Marston's men attack the Aborigines who helped them, Quigley kills three. Escaping on a single horse, they encounter more of the men driving Aborigines over a cliff. Quigley drives them off with his deadly shooting and Cora rescues an orphaned baby she finds among the dead Aborigines. Leaving Cora and the infant in the desert with food and water, Quigley rides alone to a nearby town. There he obtains new ammunition from a local German gunsmith, who hates Marston for his murdering ways. Quigley also learns that he has become a legendary hero among the Aborigines.
Marston's men are also in town and recognize Quigley's horse. When they attack, cornering him in a burning building, he escapes through a skylight and kills all but one of them. The injured survivor is sent back to say he will be following. First Quigley returns to Cora and the baby, which she has just saved from an attack by dingoes. At first she had tried to stop it crying, but then told it to make as much noise as it liked as she gunned the animals down. Back in town, she gives the baby to Aborigines living there after Quigley tells her that the child has 'a right to happiness'.
The next morning, Quigley rides away to confront Marston at his station. At first he shoots the defenders from his location in the hills but is eventually shot in the leg and captured by Marston's last two men. Marston, who has noticed that Quigley only ever carries a rifle, decides to give him a lesson in the "quick-draw" style of gunfighting. As the two face off, Marston makes the first move, but is beaten to the draw by Quigley, who shoots the two remaining men as well. As Marston lies dying, Quigley refers to an earlier conversation, telling him, "I said I never had much use for a revolver; I never said I didn't know how to use it."
Marston's servant comes out of the house and gives Quigley his rifle back, then walks away from the ranch, stripping off his western-style clothing as he goes. An army troop now arrives to arrest Quigley for murder until they notice the surrounding hills are lined with Aborigines and decide to withdraw. Later he and Cora book a passage back to America in the name of Roy Cobb, Cora’s husband, since Quigley is still wanted. On the wharf she reminds him that he once told her that she had to say two words before he would make love to her. Smiling broadly, she calls him "Matthew Quigley" and the two embrace for the first time.

In 1950, attorney Charles Phalen is contacted by an elderly man named "Brushy Bill" Roberts. Brushy Bill tells Phalen that he is dying and wants to receive a pardon that he was promised 70 years before by the Governor of New Mexico, claiming that he is really William H. Bonney aka "Billy The Kid", whom "everyone" knows to have been shot and killed by Pat Garrett in 1881. Phalen then asks if Bill has any proof that he is the famous outlaw.
Brushy Bill's story begins with the remaining Regulators having gone their separate ways. Billy has become part of a new gang with "Arkansas" Dave Rudabaugh (Slater) and Pat Garrett (Petersen). The New Mexico governor has issued warrants for the arrests of those involved in the Lincoln County Wars, including Billy, Doc Scurlock (Sutherland), and Jose Chavez y Chavez (Phillips), who are dragged into town and imprisoned to await hanging.
Meanwhile, Billy meets with the new governor Lew Wallace who agrees to pardon Billy if he testifies against the Dolan-Murphy faction. Billy soon finds out that he was tricked into being arrested with no chance of testifying against his old enemies. After escaping, Billy along with the help of Rudabaugh and Garrett, pose as a lynch mob to spring Doc and Chavez from jail. When the gang successfully escape Lincoln, Billy mentions the Mexican Blackbird (a broken trail only he and few others know that leads down to Mexico). Garrett decides not to go with the gang and, instead, open a boarding house. As they make a run for the border along with farmer Henry William French (Alan Ruck) and 14-year-old Tom O'Folliard (Balthazar Getty), cattle baron John Simpson Chisum (James Coburn) and Governor Wallace approach Garrett to offer him the job as Lincoln County Sheriff and $1000 to use whatever resources he needs to hunt Bonney down and kill him. Garrett agrees and, forming a posse, begins his pursuit of the gang.
Billy and the gang soon come to the town of White Oaks where they meet up with former companion, Jane Greathouse (Jenny Wright) who runs a local bordello. Later that night, the town lynch mob comes for the gang and are intent on a hanging. Deputy Carlisle tries to negotiate a deal, "the Indian" (Chavez) for a safe rideout. Billy refuses the offer and pushes the Deputy out the door, who is then accidentally killed by the lynch mob. Garrett soon tracks Billy to the bordello, but is too late. Billy and his gang are continuously tracked by the posse, narrowly evading capture, but Tom (being mistaken for Billy) is soon shot dead by Garrett. As they hideout, Billy admits that the Mexican Blackbird doesn't exist; it was just a pawn to get the gang back together and to keep riding. Doc is angered and tries to leave for home, but he is shot by one of Garrett's men and sacrifices himself to enable his friends to escape.
Billy the Kid is soon brought back into Lincoln by Garrett and is sentenced to death by hanging. He is visited by Jane Greathouse, who arranges to leave a pistol in an outhouse. Billy uses the pistol to kill two guards and escapes to Old Fort Sumner. By the time he arrives, Dave has abandoned the group to make his way to Mexico, and Chavez is dying from a bullet wound. During the night Garrett finds Billy unarmed. Billy asks Garrett to let him run to Mexico and tell the authorities that he killed him. Garrett declines because he believes Billy would not be able to resist coming back to the United States (which would lead to Garrett's death for lying). Billy turns around, forcing Garrett to have to shoot him in the back, which he does not. In the morning, a fake burial is staged for Billy and Garrett's horse is seen being taken by an unknown figure (implied to be Billy). Brushy Bill admits he never stole a horse from someone he didn't like, and further admits he didn't like Garrett; he loved him. Phalen, convinced that Brushy Bill is Billy the Kid, agrees to help him.
The epilogue reveals that Arkansas Dave was beheaded once he reached Mexico to discourage more outlaws from crossing the border; Garrett's book detailing his pursuit of Billy was a dismal failure and he is eventually shot and killed in 1908; Brushy Bill met with the Governor of New Mexico but despite corroboration from several surviving friends of The Kid, he was discredited and died less than a month later; whether or not Brushy Bill was Billy the Kid remains a mystery. The final shot shows Billy pointing his gun at an off screen target, saying to the target "I'll make you famous".

The film is set in 1880 and 1881 in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, where Little Bill Daggett, the local sheriff and former gunfighter, does not allow guns or criminals in his town. Two cowboys, Quick Mike and "Davey-Boy" Bunting, disfigure prostitute Delilah Fitzgerald after she laughs at the small size of Quick Mike's penis. As punishment for the cowboys, Little Bill allows them to pay compensation to the brothel owner, Skinny Dubois. The rest of the prostitutes, led by Strawberry Alice, are infuriated by this leniency and offer a $1,000 reward to whoever can kill the cowboys.
Miles away in Kansas, the Schofield Kid, a boastful young man, visits the pig farm of William Munny, seeking to recruit him to help kill the cowboys. In his youth, Munny was a bandit, notorious for being a cold-blooded murderer. Now a repentant widower raising two children, he has sworn off alcohol and killing. Though Munny initially refuses to help, his farm is failing, putting his children's future in jeopardy. Munny reconsiders a few days later and sets off to catch up with the Kid. On his way, Munny recruits his friend Ned Logan, another retired gunfighter.
Back in Wyoming, British-born gunfighter English Bob, an old acquaintance and rival of Little Bill, is also seeking the reward and arrives in Big Whiskey with a biographer, W. W. Beauchamp. Little Bill and his deputies disarm Bob, and Bill beats him savagely, hoping to discourage other would-be assassins. The next morning he ejects Bob from town, but Beauchamp decides to stay and write about Bill, who has impressed him with his tales of old gunfights and seeming knowledge of the gunfighter's psyche.
Munny, Logan and the Kid arrive later during a rain storm and head into the saloon/whorehouse to discover the cowboys' location. With a bad fever after riding in the rain, Munny is sitting alone in the saloon when Little Bill and his deputies arrive to confront him. With no idea of Munny's past, Little Bill beats him and kicks him out of the saloon after finding that he is carrying a pistol. Logan and the Kid, upstairs getting advances in kind on their payment from the prostitutes, escape out a back window. The three regroup at a barn outside town, where they nurse Munny back to health.
Three days later, they ambush a group of cowboys and kill Bunting, though Logan and Munny show that they no longer have much stomach for murder. Logan decides to return home while Munny feels they must finish the job. Munny and the Kid head to the cowboys' ranch, where the Kid ambushes Quick Mike in an outhouse and kills him. After they escape, a distraught Kid confesses he had never killed anyone before and renounces life as a gunfighter. When Little Sue meets the two men to give them the reward, they learn that Logan was captured by Little Bill's men and tortured to death — but not before revealing Munny's identity. The Kid heads back to Kansas to deliver the reward money to Munny's children and Logan's wife, while an embittered Munny — finishing Ned's bottle of whiskey — returns to town to take revenge on Little Bill.
That night, Munny arrives and sees Logan's corpse displayed in a coffin outside the saloon with a sign reading "THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO ASSASSINS AROUND HERE". Inside, Little Bill has assembled a posse to pursue Munny and the Kid. Munny walks in alone and kills Dubois. After some tense dialogue, a gunfight ensues, leaving Bill wounded and several of his deputies dead. Bill promises to "see [Munny] in hell" before Munny executes him. Munny then threatens the townsfolk before finally leaving Big Whiskey, warning that he will return for more vengeance if Logan is not buried properly or if any of the prostitutes are harmed.
A title card epilogue says that Munny moved to San Francisco with his children where he prospered in dry goods.

Josephine Monaghan (Amis) is a young society woman who is seduced by her family's portrait photographer, and as a result, bears an illegitimate child. She is expelled from her family and home in disgrace, and with no other resources, she leaves her newborn son under the care of her sister and heads West.
On the road, Josephine discovers that her options are very limited. As a single woman traveling alone, she is viewed with suspicion, or as sexual prey for any man. She assists a traveling salesman (René Auberjonois) who subsequently tries to sell her services as a whore to passing strangers. Seeing it as her only protection, Josephine scars her face, and begins to dress as a man – thus becoming "Jo."
At a mining camp in Ruby City, she meets Percy (McKellen) who takes her under his wing. Percy recommends Jo for a job at the stable, and teaches her about how to survive in the frontier. But Percy nurses a deep suspicion of women, viewing them to be "more trouble than they are worth." He later demonstrates his misogyny by slashing the face of a prostitute who refuses to give him oral sex.
Jo no longer feels safe with Percy or her secret, so she accepts a job herding sheep, and heads for the mountains. After returning in the spring, Percy gives Jo a letter for her that he had received months earlier. The letter is from Jo's sister, and Percy having opened it, now knows he is a she. He is furious at being made a fool of by a woman and "a whore at that," referring to the mention of her son in the letter. He attacks and tries to rape Jo, but she draws her gun and subdues him. Largely ostracized by the town's people since the incident with the prostitute, Percy promises Jo he will not share her secret if she finances his journey out of the territory. She agrees, though swears to him she will find him and kill him if he breaks his silence.
For five years she works as a shepherd, braving the deadly winters alone to the worry of her employer, Frank Badger (Hopkins), who has taken a liking to the "young man" he nicknames "Little Jo." When Jo has enough money saved, she quits Badger, and buys her own homestead.
While frequently viewed as "peculiar", Jo is clearly educated, and earns the respect of the people in Ruby City and the surrounding territory. A local girl, Mary, (Graham) has her eye on Jo. Blind to the truth, most hope the two will court. However, Mary ends up wedding her cousin, Lucas Brown, soon after Jo returns from her first winter as a sheep herder.
One day in town, Jo comes across a mob about to lynch a Chinese laborer for trying to "take our jobs." Jo intervenes, and Badger insists the "chinaman", Tinman Wong (David Chung), go to live with Jo to help with the homestead.
Tinman accompanies Jo to the homestead, and takes on the duties of cook and housekeeper. Though he seems slow-witted, Jo is not happy at having company forced upon her, and is afraid he will discover she is not a man. She keeps as much distance as possible. But Tinman easily discovers the truth about Jo, and in doing so, reveals he is far more intelligent than he has pretended to be—he, too, has been masquerading for his own safety. Jo drops her guard and the two begin a love affair.
A feud begins to brew between the sheep herders and cattlemen who are moving into the territory. The Western Cattle Company wants to buy up all the land in the area, and they kill anyone who does not comply. One by one, the sheep herders give in, or are murdered by masked gunmen. Jo has witnessed the brutal murders of too many of her friends, and the violence that will be necessary to win this kind of fight goes against her gentle nature. This is a masculine quality that goes beyond her ability to "pass," so Jo dons a dress once again in a feeble effort to step back into a more traditionally feminine role. Tinman argues that it will be impossible for her to go back being the society woman, urging her to keep the homestead, and stand against the cattlemen in the upcoming election. Jo will not be swayed, and meets with the representative from the cattle company, Henry Grey (Anthony Heald) to tell him she will sell.
Tinman falls ill, and Jo summons Badger's wife (Snodgrass), who practices folk medicine, to tend him. Badger comes along, and is furious when Grey arrives with his wife so that Jo can sign the final papers for the sale of the homestead. Feeling betrayed by Jo for helping the cattle company to "squeeze me," Badger hits Jo, proclaiming, "By God, boy! I thought you'd amount to something."
As Grey prepares the papers inside, Jo watches his wife who, through the warped glass, is visually reminiscent of Jo when she was a woman of society. In an instant, Jo changes her mind and refuses to sell to Grey, who leaves in disgust issuing less than veiled threats.
Tinman recovers, and on election day, Badger and Jo ride to Ruby City but are met by several of Grey's masked gunmen. Badger shoots one of the gunmen, but is wounded, so it is up to Jo to finish the fight. She kills the two remaining men, but the pain of the act of killing is clearly indicated on her face.
The plot jumps to many years later, after Tinman Wong has died. Jo collapses while fetching water, and Badger finds her in bed, near death. He takes her in his wagon to the Ruby City doctor, but she is dead before they arrive. As Badger buys rounds of drinks at the saloon in memory of Little Jo, the undertaker rushes in with his shocking discovery—Little Jo was a woman. The town elders rush back to the undertaker's to inspect. All stand around the preparation table in shock, all except Mrs. Addie (Cathy Haase), the saloon owner, who laughs and laughs.
Badger is furious at the betrayal by his friend, and because Jo "made a fool out of me." He goes back to her homestead, and as he tears the place apart in anger, comes across the letter from her sister, and a picture of her as she lived as a woman. In town, the people tie Jo's dead body to her horse for a photograph.
The final shot is of the newspaper story with the before-and-after photographs, and the headline, "Rancher Jo Was a Woman."

The events depicted in Riders of the Purple Sage occur in mid-spring and late summer 1871. Early in Riders of the Purple Sage, Jane Withersteen's main conflict is her right to befriend a Gentile. (The word Gentile means "non-Mormon" and is used a lot in the book). Jane Withersteen’s father wished Jane to marry Elder Tull, but Jane refused saying she did not love him, causing controversy and leading to persecution by the local Mormons.
Jane’s friend, (cowboy) Bern Venters is "arrested" by Tull and his men, but is not clear under what authority. Jane defends Venters, declaring him her best rider. Her churchmen refuse to value the opinion of a woman:
"Tull lifted a shaking finger toward her. 'That'll do from you. Understand, you'll not be allowed to hold this boy [Venters] to a friendship that's offensive to your bishop. Jane Withersteen, your father left you wealth and power. It has turned your head. You haven't yet come to see the place of Mormon women ...'"
It is here we first hear of Lassiter. Ironically, at the moment when Venters mentions Lassiter’s name, the actual Lassiter is seen approaching in the distance by Tull’s men.
Upon his arrival, Lassiter expresses his trust in the word of women, at which Tull rebukes him, telling him not to meddle in Mormon affairs. Tull’s men begin to take Venters away, and Venters realizes who he is and screams "Lassiter!" Tull understands that this is the infamous Lassiter and flees.
Lassiter inquires as to the location of Millie Erne's grave, to which a transfixed Jane agrees to take him. Venters later tells Jane he must leave her. When she protests, Venters delivers this statement: " ... Tull is implacable. You ought to see from his intention today that ... but you can't see. Your blindness ... your damned religion! Jane, forgive me ... I'm sore within and something rankles. Well, I fear that invisible hand [of Mormon power in the region] will turn its hidden work to your ruin.", showing that Venters could see far into the future, and although Jane rebukes his statement, he is indeed correct.
Jane’s red herd is rustled shortly afterward and Venters tracks it and returns it to Jane. Bern finds the herd, but, in his travels, wages a gun battle with two of Oldring’s rustlers, killing one and managing to wound Oldring’s notorious Masked Rider. Upon further examination, he removes the mask and shirt of the wounded rider and learns that the Masked Rider is a young woman named Bess whom he believes had been abused by Oldring. Venters experiences a large amount of guilt about shooting a girl and decides that it is his duty to save her.
Venters discovers Surprise Valley and Balancing Rock, where he takes Bess, the girl he has found. Bess gradually gains health and begins to fall in love with Venters who begins to fall in love with Bess. Each explain their individual stories ambiguously, but through Venters' dedicated care for Bess, the pair forms a mutual love that leads to their resolve to marry. Bess also discovered the truth concerning Oldring’s rustlers, who rustled cattle only to disguise their true lifestyle of surviving off gold in the streams and business deals with the Mormons.
Venters then determines that there is a need for supplies warranting a trip back to Cottonwoods. On his way, Venters sees Jane Withersteen’s prize horses being stolen. He kills the thieves and retrieves the horses for Jane, but unfortunately loses his horse, Wrangle.
Jane’s horses are returned to her, and are locked in the entry hall to Withersteen's house. Venters officially breaks his friendship with Jane at this time. He goes into the village and proclaimed that he was breaking his friendship and leaving. After he leaves, Jane’s other herd gets stolen.
Jane at first pretends to love Lassiter — knowing he came to Utah to avenge his sister Milly Erne — to prevent him from murdering Mormon elders she knew were guilty. The two characters grow to love each other. Then Jane's adopted daughter Fay is kidnapped and Lassiter kills Bishop Dyer while risking his own life.
The four main characters — Venters, Bess, Lassiter, and Jane — realize that they can no longer safely stay in Utah. Lassiter convinces Jane to prepare to leave with him, Lassiter determines the name of a Mormon who contributed to the ruin of Milly and Jane implicates her father in the proselytizing of Milly. In a state of shock, Jane packs.
Meanwhile, in Surprise Valley, Venters and Bess are preparing to leave as Jane and Lassiter departing, except on burros. Lassiter sets fire to Withersteen House and flees on horseback with Jane. They encounter Venters and Bess in travel. Before they part, Lassiter explains that Bess is not really Bess Oldring, but actually Elizabeth Erne, the lost daughter of Milly Erne.
Jane gives Venters her horses, Venters and Bess gallop for Venters' Illinois home, and Lassiter and Jane find refuge in Venters' valley paradise. On the way, Lassiter rescues Fay, but they are pursued to Surprise Valley. As Tull and his men begin to climb up the cliffside, Jane shouts to Lassiter to "roll the stone," which he does. The ensuing avalanche closes the outlet to Deception Pass "forever." (This is, of course, not true, as Jane, Lassiter, and Fay return in Grey's sequel, The Rainbow Trail/The Desert Crucible.)

As America recovers from the Civil War, Paul Cable (Tom Selleck) returns home to Texas after being away from his family for years while fighting for the Confederacy. His wife, Martha (Suzy Amis), is a pretty but strong-willed frontier woman, whose independence makes her a force in and of herself. She had been told that he was killed in action. Upon her husband's unexpected return, she once again devotes herself to being his wife, but resents him for having left her and their children behind to fight a war she didn't care to understand.
Despite having loved each other since childhood and being married, Paul and Martha are now like strangers to each other, and the tension between them is evident. During his absence, their youngest daughter died from a fever, and Martha, having borne that without him, has developed a hatred for her husband. Her father, James Sanford (Harry Carey Jr.), scolds her for her attitude toward Cable, but she stands her ground, never backing down from her stance on the subject. Her father knows her well, and subsequently leaves the subject alone.
Cable decides he will return to Arizona and reclaim the ranch he owns there. The family members, consisting of Paul, Martha, and their daughter and son, load up their belongings, bid farewell to Martha's father, and make their way to Arizona. While en route, they come into contact with Lorraine Kidston (Tracey Needham), the beautiful ramrod cowgirl daughter of rancher Duane Kidston (David Carradine). During the night, horses headed by her men accidentally stampede through the Cables' camp, leading Paul and Martha to scold the men. Lorraine agrees that her men were foolish to run the horses at night, and scolds them. Through this interaction, the cowhands and Lorraine learn that the man in front of them is, in fact, Paul Cable. They had been told that he was dead, and since then, her father has assumed control of Cable's ranch.
Lorraine's father, Duane Kidston, is a former Union Army soldier, as is his brother Vern (Keith Carradine). They have little use for former Confederates, and feel that Cable's ranch now belongs to them. Upon reaching the ranch, Cable confronts the Kidston men staying in his house. However, when one man attempts to draw on Cable, he is shot and killed by Martha Cable, who is in the dark shadows.
The shooting leads to an ongoing feud between Paul Cable and the Kidston men, during which several of Kidston's hired guns are killed by Cable. Vern and Lorraine Kidston, however, begin to sympathize with the Cables, feeling it is better to simply return the ranch to them and let things be. Duane disagrees, but relents to his daughter and brother's wishes. In the end, the real threat to the Cables' new life in Arizona does not come from the Kidstons, but from a one-armed Confederate sympathizer and former soldier, Edward Janroe (David Dukes), who kills Duane, an event for which Cable is blamed.
Despite everything pointing to Cable as Duane's killer, not even Duane's brother Vern believes it. Janroe kidnaps Cable's daughter as security during an illegal gun transaction with Mexican bandits. Cable and Vern team up and chase down Janroe, killing him, then get involved in a shootout with the bandits. Cable eventually asks Vern to take his daughter out of harm's way, which Vern does. Cable then takes on the remaining bandits alone, with them eventually just deciding to take the guns from Janroe's wrecked wagon and leave.
Cable returns home wounded, where he is nursed by Martha, who has finally learned to accept him as he is. She decides to forgive him, forget all the animosity between them, and love her husband again.

Jane and her husband Bill "Ham" Hammond live in an isolated house with their five-year-old daughter Katie. One day Ham returns home with several serious bullet wounds. As Jane is attending to his injuries, Ham tells her that "the Bishop Boys are coming". This is a gang of vicious criminals, led by John Bishop, that Ham himself used to ride with.
Realizing that she is going to need help in order to defend her home and family from the Bishops, as Ham's injuries have rendered him helpless, Jane takes her daughter to a place of safety, with a woman friend whom she trusts. She then rides to the home of a neighbor, Dan Frost, and asks him if he will help her to protect her property from the Bishop Boys. Dan, a somewhat surly man who lives in a squalid, dirty house, refuses to help. It is obvious from their brief conversation that there is some past history – and bitterness - between Dan and Jane.
Jane rides into town to buy guns and ammunition and hopefully find someone who will help her family. As she is leaving the gun shop, she is waylaid and dragged into an alley by one of the Bishop gang. He threatens her at gunpoint and – despite Jane protesting that she "hasn't seen Hammond in years" – he demands that she take him back to her house, as he is convinced that Ham is there, having recognized the gun Jane is carrying as one belonging to Hammond. However, at this point Dan Frost suddenly appears and tells the thug to leave Jane alone. While the two men are distracted, Jane draws her gun and kills the outlaw.
Leaving the body in the alley, Jane and Dan ride back to her house. Ham is still alive, but very weak. Dan has changed his mind about helping Jane, so they start preparing for the expected attack from the Bishop gang.
Meanwhile, Bishop has already set out with his gang to find Ham. His men spread out over the area to extend their search, and one of them chances upon Jane's house. He recognizes Jane, but Dan kills him before he can raise the alarm.
Dan digs a shallow trench in Jane's front yard, and they fill this with jars containing kerosene, nails and pieces of glass. As they work, we see flashbacks of their previous lives. Jane and Dan were once engaged, but he enlisted in the army to fight in the American Civil War. Captured by the enemy, he was held for years in a prison camp, and when he finally returned home, Jane had left. He travelled from state to state trying to find her, showing her photograph in every town. Eventually, he heard that she had moved west on a wagon train led by John Bishop. Dan talked to Bishop, who told him that during the journey Ham and Jane ran off together. He said he would gladly help Dan to track them down, as he had his own scores to settle with Ham, but Dan refused, saying that he preferred to ride alone.
Dan eventually found Jane, but by then she was married to Ham, and they had had a child. Dan realized that he had lost her forever and was left broken-hearted by the discovery.
Later, Jane tells Dan her side of the story. After Dan left to enlist, she discovered she was pregnant. When Dan did not return, or write, she assumed he was dead. By the time their child, a little girl called Mary, was two or three years old, life in Jane's war-torn town had become so wretched that she decided to take Mary and move West on the Bishop wagon train. Too late, she and the other women on the wagon train realized that Bishop's intention was to start a brothel in another town, and he intended to force the helpless women into prostitution.
A further flashback shows that Ham, having taken a fancy to Jane during the wagon train journey, tells Bishop that he would like to marry her. But Bishop tells Ham that Jane is his "property". Later, Ham finds that Jane and her daughter have gone missing; searching for Mary, he sees a child's boot in the river, and thinks the child has drowned. He goes to the brothel where Jane has been forced to work, and rescues her. Jane is distraught when Ham tells her that Mary is dead.
Back in the present time, the Bishop gang finally arrive at Jane's house, under cover of darkness. Dan and Jane fire into the booby-trapped ditch, igniting the kerosene "bombs". Most of the gang are killed, but some – including Bishop himself – escape. Jane and Dan manage to move the dying Ham into a shallow storage space beneath the floor, to protect him from the gunfire, but the strain is too much for him and he dies. Dan and Jane continue to fight it out with the remaining gang members, although both are wounded. Finally, Bishop (the only gang member left alive) manages to corner Dan and is about to kill him, when Jane sneaks up behind Bishop and draws her gun on him. Trying to persuade her not to kill him, Bishop tells Jane that Mary is not dead, as she had thought. Jane shoots him several times, wounding him badly, until in his agony he reveals that Mary lives at the brothel. Jane then kills Bishop.
Jane and Dan go to the brothel and find their daughter, Mary, who is working as a servant. Jane takes the body of John Bishop to the sheriff and collects a huge reward. Then she, Dan, Mary and Katie ride off together to start a new life as a family.

Yorkshire pub owner Bill Ramsbottom (Arthur Askey) is finding the introduction of the "telly" has ruined his business at the "Bull & Cow". When he receives a cable from Canada, and learns that his grandfather "Wild Bill" Ramsbottom has left his estate to him, he confers with his family before deciding to set off for the frontier town of Lonesome in Canada to claim his inheritance.
When all the family fortune is gathered together, there is not enough money to pay for tickets on a steamship for everyone. Ramsbottom and his mate, Charlie Watson (Glen Melvyn), stow away in big steamer trunks but are discovered by the crew. Made to work their passage, Charlie and Ramsbottom end up as culinary servers on the voyage. When the captain realizes that "Wild Bill" Ramsbottom's grandson is aboard, he allows him to travel as a passenger.
Arriving at Lonesome, Ramsbottom learns that part of his bequeathment, is that he is the new proprietor of the saloon, which also comes with the job of deputy sheriff in the lawless town. The feared outlaw Black Jake (Sid James) also claims he owns the saloon, but more importantly, wants to locate a hidden map that points the way to a uranium mine on Indian territory.
Ramsbottom and Black Jake have a confrontation at the saloon where the outlaw is arrested, but is later set free. When the map turns up, Charlie and Ramsbottom head off into Indian lands to locate the uranium mine. They run into Indian chief Blue Eagle (Jerry Desmonde), and the local tribe.
When Black Jake rounds up his gang, a shootout takes place at the saloon. With the help of townspeople and the RCMP, Ramsbotttom is successful in defeating the outlaws and establishing peace in the town.

Recently diagnosed with a terminal disease, Bruce Campbell (Dirk Bogarde) unexpectedly finds himself the owner of a small valley in the Canadian Rocky Mountains as the result of a bequest from his grandfather. After travelling from England, Bruce arrives at "Campbell's Kingdom" (as the locals disparagingly call it) to find its existence under threat from the construction of a new hydroelectricity dam. Convinced that his grandfather was right and that the Kingdom may be prospective for oil, the race is on to prove that there is oil under Campbell's Kingdom before the mining company building the dam can flood the valley. Standing in his way is corrupt construction contractor Owen Morgan (Stanley Baker), who resorts to dirty tricks in order to prevent Campbell from succeeding in his quest. However, Bruce is ably and enthusiastically assisted by love interest Jean Lucas (Barbara Murray), geologist Boy Bladen (Michael Craig) and drilling contractor James MacDonald (James Robertson Justice). Unfortunately for Campbell the residents of the nearby town of Come Lucky invested heavily in his grandfather's schemes, only to feel cheated when his projects came to nothing. Gradually Bruce manages to turn them around by exposing the fraud and lies of Morgan and the mining company.

A priest, Father Michael Keogh (John Mills), is sent by Rome to Quantana, a remote Mexican town which is under the control of a ruthless bandit, Anacleto Komachi (Dirk Bogarde). Anacleto is educated and intelligent, and is "down" on the Church, but he finds in Keogh a man he strangely admires and with whom he can have intelligent conversation. However, he does not allow this to distract him from his goal: to expunge the priest from his fiefdom at any cost.

In the 16th century an Aztec priest has cut off his own hand and used the bloody stump to lay a curse upon a blasphemous Spanish conquistador and all his direct descendants. The curse: that once any of the descendants, whether male or female, have tasted physical love, even in the form of a single kiss, they will spend the rest of their lives as being nearly sexually insatiable. Three centuries later the beautiful young virginal daughter of a fabulously wealthy Texas rancher and gambler is latest the victim of the curse; an elaborate set of contests and races is arranged to choose which of two cowboys will win her hand in marriage.

Hannie Caulder (Raquel Welch) is a frontier wife, living with her husband at a horse station between towns in the American West. After a disastrous bank raid, the inept Clemens brothers gang arrive at the station. They murder Caulder's husband, gang-rape her, burn down her house and leave her for dead. The brothers go on a crime spree, while Caulder recruits bounty hunter Thomas Price (Robert Culp) to help her get revenge by training her to be a gunfighter. The pair travel to Mexico to have gunsmith Bailey (Christopher Lee) build her a specialized revolver, to be a fast draw specialist. When bandidos surround the house, a gun battle erupts but Hannie is unable to kill a man face to face. Price recommends she give up her quest for revenge but she refuses, telling him to get out and that she was only using him and doesn't need him any more. He leaves, telling her she's a bad liar.
As he goes, Price sees the Clemens brothers arrive in town. His attempt to take down Frank goes awry, because Emmet throws a knife into Price's belly, mortally wounding him. Hannie goes after them, killing Frank (Jack Elam) in a whorehouse. The two brothers swear revenge on her but she gets Rufus (Strother Martin) in a store when he tries to kill her. Hannie lures Emmett (Ernest Borgnine) to an old prison for a showdown and almost meets the same fate as Price but Emmett's attempt to throw a knife into her back is thwarted by the Preacher, who shoots it from his hand. Hannie kills Emmett face to face but realizes that Price was right: taking revenge will change her forever.

A black, Union Army deserter and his crippled American Indian hostage form a strained partnership in the interests of surviving the advancing threats of a racist bounty hunter and neighboring bandits.

The story has three plot strands that run concurrently through the film: a stagecoach carrying a rich widow home to her family's hacienda, a war party of Indians returning to their village, and two fur traders waiting to meet a different group of Indians with whom they trade. The war party attacks the other Indians and kills their leader, who owns a magnificent white stallion. White Bull (Waterston) attempts to capture the horse, but it is too quick and makes off carrying the dead chief. Pike (Sheen) and Henry (Keitel) wait in vain for the traders and are then attacked themselves by the war party. Henry is killed, the Indians take the trader's horses, and Pike is left alone with only a mule.
Travelling alone, he comes across the funeral of the dead chief. He saves the white stallion from ritual slaughter, abandons his mule, and continues his travels. The Medicine Man conducting the ritual is accidentally killed while Pike is taking the horse. The war party finds the stage coach, attacks it, kills the driver, guard, and one of the passengers, and then leaves White Bull to ransack the coach and passengers of all valuables. White Bull gathers a hoard of jewels and other valuable items, takes a white girl for himself, and leaves the other survivors standing in the desert. One of the survivors, a priest, takes a coach horse and rides off to alert the hacienda.
The story then becomes a four-way chase. After gaining the white stallion from Pike, White Bull, the girl, the treasure and the stallion continue towards the native's village; Pike goes after the stallion; a posse from the hacienda sets out to recover the coach passengers and the girl, and members of the Medicine Man's tribe seek to avenge his death. After a series of to-and-fro adventures, the film ends as White Bull rides off alone with the stallion while Pike, utterly defeated, stands and watches him go; the girl is still behind Pike, waiting to be rescued.

The outlaw Butch Cavendish (Christopher Lloyd) ambushes a party of Texas Rangers, killing all except John Reid (Klinton Spilsbury) who is rescued by his old childhood Comanche friend, Tonto (Michael Horse). When he recovers from his wounds, he dedicates his life to fighting the crime that Cavendish represents. To this end, John becomes the great masked western hero, The Lone Ranger. With the help of Tonto, the pair go to rescue President Grant (Jason Robards) when Cavendish takes him hostage.

After a group of outlaws kill his lover, Aman (Wesley Snipes) goes after them and kills them. When he is killed himself, his mother, a nun, breaks her covenant with God to save his life, which in turn curses him for life. His curse brings his victims back to life, and as undead, they pursue him endlessly for revenge. Forever suffering this curse and still seeking revenge, before Aman enlists Fabulos (Riley Smith), a young gunman, to fight by his side against his undead victims.

Jay Cavendish, a young Scottish man, travels to the American West to search for his love, Rose Ross. He encounters a group of men chasing a Native American; an Irish bounty hunter, Silas Selleck, arrives and kills the leader. Jay employs the bounty hunter for protection.
At a trading post, unbeknownst to Jay, Silas sees a wanted poster offering a $2,000 bounty for Rose and her father. He plans to use Jay to get to the bounty. Another bounty hunter, Victor the Hawk, also takes notice of the poster. In the trading post, a Swedish couple attempt a robbery which results in the death of the owner and the man. Jay intervenes and shoots the woman. Silas and Jay gather provisions and leave, abandoning the couple's children outside.
In the past, in Scotland, Rose is aware of Jay's affection, but only cares for him as a "little brother". Jay's uncle Lord Cavendish is accidentally killed by John Ross, Rose's father, in an argument; Rose and her father leave for America with the bounty on their heads.
In the present, Jay abandons Silas and proceeds alone, thinking him a "brute". He meets a travelling writer, Werner, who offers to accompany Jay. When Jay wakes the next morning, Werner has left, stealing his horse and equipment. Silas tracks down Jay with his stolen belongings, saying he ran into Werner while looking for Jay.
The pair meet Payne, the leader of Silas's old gang, which has taken in the Swedish children. Payne gives them absinthe in a failed attempt to gather information about Rose and her father's whereabouts. While they are asleep, Silas and Jay share a dream of Silas and Rose living together with a child. They awaken to find that Payne has stolen their weapons. Silas discloses the bounty to Jay. They lose Payne's gang in a forest, where Jay is injured by Native Americans.
Rose and her father live in a nearby prairie, protected by a Native American called Kotori. Victor, disguised as a priest, tracks them down and kills Rose's father. After reaching the prairie, Silas ties Jay to a tree to keep him from harm's way. Silas rushes to the house to warn Rose of Payne's gang but is wounded by Victor. Payne and his men kill Victor and assault the house.
Jay frees himself and runs to the house. After Kotori and most of Payne's gang are killed, Rose realizes she has shot Jay in the confusion. While she comforts him, Payne enters the house and Jay shoots him as he dies. Silas tells Rose that Jay loved her "with all his heart". Silas stays with Rose and the Swedish children.

In Bougival Junction, Texas in 1888 the Francophone town is led by Marie Sarrazin. A new family arrives, calling themselves the Millers, but in fact they are the daughters of the hanged outlaw Frenchie King and his eldest daughter Louise seeks to keep her father's name alive by donning men's clothing and continuing his criminal ways. Louise and Maria fight but when they are both jailed they team up to take revenge on the town's men.

Link Stuart (Bronson) is a ruthless outlaw, and co-leader along with Gauche (Delon) of a gang of bandits. Link and Gauche lead their gang on a successful train robbery, and discover that one of its cars carries a Japanese ambassador, who is bringing a ceremonial katana (sword) as a gift for President Ulysses S. Grant. Gauche takes the sword, and kills one of the two samurai guards, while members of his gang attempt to murder Link by throwing dynamite into the train car he occupies, then leaving him for dead.
The surviving Japanese delegation rescues Link, and the ambassador instructs him to assist the surviving samurai guard, Kuroda (Mifune), in tracking down Gauche so that he may kill him and recover the sword and his honor. Kuroda is given one week to fulfill this task, or commit seppuku. Link reluctantly agrees, but he realizes that Kuroda will kill Gauche immediately, before he is able to extract the location of the stolen loot. Link repeatedly attempts to elude Kuroda, only to be thwarted by the irrepressible samurai.
While tracking Gauche's gang, Kuroda eventually reveals that his samurai values are disappearing as his countrymen no longer value the customs of old. Link gains a measure of respect for the strict bushido code Kuroda follows, and eventually comes to an agreement with the samurai that Gauche will not be killed before he reveals the location of the stolen money first. The duo eventually abduct Gauche's woman, Cristina (Andress), who leads the men to Gauche and his gang.
On the way to Gauche, however, the three run afoul of a group of Comanches, and Cristina is forced to kill one of them in self-defense, compelling the band's enraged chief into chasing after them. When Link and Kuroda finally find Gauche, the Indians attack, forcing the two unlikely friends to join forces with the bandits against their common enemy. In the ensuing fight, the Comanches are repelled, but Kuroda is mortally wounded by Gauche as he tries to fulfill his revenge. Disarmed by Link, Gauche tries appealing to Link's greed, but Link decides that the dying samurai's honor is more important to him than learning the location of the stolen money, so he kills Gauche. Just before Kuroda expires, Link promises him that he will return the katana to the Japanese ambassador. He does so, thus preserving Kuroda's honor.
