Wild Bill Elliott was nearing the end of his prolific career (over 250 films in 32 years) when he shot this tale of prairie vengeance. From 1938, when Columbia cast him in the title role in the serial The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, he was typed as a Western hero. This film was made after his days as a leading sagebrush star at that studio and Republic Pictures and would be his next-to-last Western. This time out, he's investigating his brother's murder. The likeliest suspect is rival rancher Carleton Young, who has an eye on the dead man's spread. Nor does it help that Elliott has an eye on Young's fiancée, played by B-movie queen Beverly Garland. Although made for a fraction of the cost of Elliott's Columbia and Republic films, this Allied Artists release moves quickly and has a surprisingly strong cast. Garland and Claude Akins, at the start of their careers, are real stand-outs, as is veteran character actress Veda Ann Borg as the saloon owner with a yen for Young. As in his earlier vehicles, Elliott proclaims his dedication to peace and the law just before blowing away the villains.

By Frank Miller