Clay Hardin, a Deputy U.S. Marshal, is about to turn in his badge and take the job as the territory's Indian commissioner until the notorious Ben Thompson slays the marshal when he tried to make an arrest. Clay turns his back on a white-collar job and his girl to pursue the gang. Picking up a bounty hunter and a beautiful half-breed woman along the way, the little band follows the trail into Apache land where the lawman discovers that the outlaws plan to sell repeating rifles to the Indians.
Acting
Hayden's looming physicality makes him genuinely intimidating.
Cinematography
Selander frames Hayden like a walking monument to violence.
Production
Republic Pictures squeezing maximum atmosphere from minimal budget.
Director
Lesley Selander
Sterling Hayden
Clay Hardin
Yvonne De Carlo
Abby
Zachary Scott
Reb Carlton
Guy Prescott
Ben Thompson
Fiona Hale
Midge
Angela Greene
Aletha
Lane Chandler
Fletcher
Robert J. Wilke
Bentley (as Robert Wilke)
Paul Marion
Delgadito
John Pickard
Perez
Ralph Sanford
Chris
Rory Mallinson
Frank
Ward Wood
Ed
Al Wyatt Sr.
Greybar (as Al Wyatt)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Hayden was blacklisted during this period but kept working in low-budget westerns like this one.
De Carlo's 'half-breed' character typifies 1950s Hollywood's exoticization of mixed-race women as morally ambiguous temptresses.
US
