Frustrated with the lack of opportunities in his hometown, young Jess Harker( Robert Wagner) plans to leave, but sympathetic stagecoach armed guard Race Crim (Dale Robertson) persuades his boss to give Jess the stage driver job. He accepts and gives the kid a chance to drive the stagecoach's main-line carrying $27000 dollars in gold dust and two important passengers. Crim rides as a guard, but when they arrive at a waystation, a gang of outlaws is waiting to ambush the coach. Jess panics and disobeys orders, resulting in the death of both coach passengers and the theft of the gold. Crim's love is among the dead, and he swears vengeance on Slater's gang, heading off after them. Jess is ordered back, but instead joins the posse led by Rory Calhoun's sheriff Tom Davisson, eager to make up for his mistakes. Crim however has turned vigilante, and shows no mercy for Slater's men as a hunts them down, before Tom and Jess apprehend Slater before Crim can hang him. Tom wants justice done, but not the frontier justice that the townsfolk have in mind, and as tensions simmer, friends will clash as doing the right thing becomes the unpopular option.
A fresh-faced Robert Wagner does well as a cocky man who soon goes through trial and tribulations before growing up and becoming someone, and that with the help of Dale Robertson and Rory Calhoun who both went on to have a successful career in westerns. Dale Robertson went on to make Tales of Wells Fargo. This western has plenty of Stagecoach chases, shootouts and they are quite excitingly shot, which gives this decent western a boost. Characterisation is fine, too.
A fresh-faced Robert Wagner does well as a cocky man who soon goes through trial and tribulations before growing up and becoming someone, and that with the help of Dale Robertson and Rory Calhoun who both went on to have a successful career in westerns. Dale Robertson went on to make Tales of Wells Fargo. This western has plenty of Stagecoach chases, shootouts and they are quite excitingly shot, which gives this decent western a boost. Characterisation is fine, too.