Plot

Marshal Jake Wade aids outlaw Clint Hollister escape jail but Clint wants to know where Wade hid an old hold-up loot taken while both men were outlaws in the same gang.

Outlaw Clint Hollister (Richard Widmark) escapes from jail with the help of Marshal Jake Wade (Robert Taylor), because once Clint did the same for him. Jake left Clint just after, but Clint finds him back and forces Jake to lead him to a loot Jake buried one year ago when he quit Clint's gang.—Yepok

Now a respected frontier Marshal, the reformed bank robber, Jake Wade (Robert Taylor), is engaged to a beautiful, nice girl, Peggy (Patricia Owens), eager to live a decent life away from crime. Nevertheless, Jake's criminal past will soon catch up with him in the person of his old companion, Clint Hollister (Richard Widmark), who still has his mind on the high-value $20,000 loot from their last heist. With this in mind and determined to have the treasure for himself, Clint forces Wade to lead a posse of outlaws where the money is buried, strong-arming the Marshal by capturing the innocent Peggy. But to get to the ghost town in the middle of the desert where the booty is, the men will have to ride through the perilous Comanche territory. Is the gold worth their lives?—Nick Riganas

It's the post-Civil War era. Jake Wade (Robert Taylor) has just broken his former partner, outlaw Clint Hollister (Richard Widmark), out of jail, he awaiting a death sentence, Jake's action in repaying a debt as Clint did the same for Jake after their last crime, a bank robbery over a year ago. Jake never wants to see Clint again as, after an incident with that robbery, Jake decided to go straight and is now a US Marshal. However, Clint, who has amassed a new gang, including Ortero (Robert Middleton), one from their old group, is able to track down Jake in order to get what he believes his rightfully his, namely the $20,000 from that bank robbery which Jake mentioned he buried somewhere in order to have it out of his life. In order to ensure Jake does what he says, he and this gang not only tie Jake's hands together so that he cannot escape, but he has kidnapped Jake's fiancée Peggy, who had no idea of Jake's history before they knew each other and who is to accompany the group to the burial site. While what happens is affected by the group dynamic as well as external factors such as who they meet on their trek, what may ultimately play the biggest factor is the strength of character between Jake and Clint, regardless of if that character is good or bad.—Huggo

We meet Jake Wade (Robert Taylor) as he sneaks into a jail and holds up the Marshal to spring Clint Hollister (Richard Widmark) who has been imprisoned for robbery and murder. With his aiding Clint in escaping from prison, Jake has ostensibly paid back an old debt owed the man from the days when the two rode together as outlaws as members of Quantrill's Raiders, shooting their way into towns after the Civil War to rob and loot for their own profit. Jake has since used his abilities to good use becoming a Marshal himself, but satisfying his own personal justice by taking care of this one last thing before he settles down with the nubile young Peggy Carter (Patricia Owens) for domesticity. Clint still holds a grudge for Jake's running out on him with $20,000 from their last bank job, from which Jake carries guilt from believing he had shot and killed a young boy. Clint gathers together a gang and kidnaps Peggy and coerces Jake into taking them to when he has hidden the money and during the trip the group runs into blood-thirsty Comanche Indians. Will any sense of loyalty emerge from Clint before Jake gives up the money, or will the savagery of the untamed Western landscape take its toll?