Randolph Scott plays Larry Delong, a stagecoach guard, and his is hunting for the Maraday gang, who killed members of his family. Larry said : I didn't want to capture Maraday. He is the only man I have ever known that I wanted to kill." The gang tricks him Larry and then captures him. They want to get rid of him because he has been following them for so long. They leave him leave him tied up in the desert to die, but he escapes back to town and tries to warn the townspeople.
The gang robs a stage to draw the men out of town. Then they plan to go back in to town and rob it. When Larry gets back to town, most of the men had ridden out to the stagecoach. The people there blame him for not being on the stage where he belonged. The townspeople thought he was part of the gang. Larry was seen talking to the man who tricked him and rode off with him. The townspeople knew he was part of the gang. Even the deputy who has been left behind believes he is guilty.
The whole town has turned on him, and now the gang is going to ride in to town. The movie takes on a High Noon kind of plot (it also has elements from The Gunfighter). A woman whose husband was killed on the stagecoach tried to stab him. A young boy slings a rock at him. An older man takes a shot at him. The townspeople won't let him leave so he is stuck in town.
Deputy Tub Murphy returns to town and confronts his former friend. Larry shoots another deputy who draws on him in the hand and won't let himself be arrested.
Larry holds up in an empty cantina but the townspeople plot to get him out. Larry tells a girl who visits him that he has been chasing Maraday for three years. Maraday and his gang killed his sister and her boy during a stage hold-up.
Maraday and his men then ride in to town. The deputy and the townspeople then begin shooting in to the cantina to draw Larry out. Larry won't shoot back.
Maraday, Pinto (Charles Bronson) and the gang then rides in to town. Pinto joins in with the townspeople to try to get Larry out of the cantina. Larry sneaks out of the saloon to go after Maraday who is robbing the saloon and bank.
Larry loosened all their saddle so the robbers fell off and were captured by the townspeople, but Maraday and Pinto are still loose. Maraday and Larry have a shootout in the saloon and Larry guns with down.Larry then guns down Pinto outside.
All of a sudden everyone is Larry's friend again.
The movie has some noir elements. It has Delong using voice over narration to explain why he is doing things. It doesn't work here, and intrudes on the movie. But Delong was a victim of circumstances so De Toth must have thought the voice over would make it more interesting. The Ranown series also has noir elements but they are handled better.
Overall, a quirky little movie, that was pretty good.
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