This western opens well enough; we see three men from the waste down as they sneak up on a fourth man, who is chopping wood, and shoot him in the back. The man's brother, Trace Jordon, looks at their tracks and sees from their footprints that one is lame and another wears fancy Mexican spurs, the third left a cigar butt. He follows them into town with the intention of seeing the sheriff; however his office has been destroyed. He soon learns that the men all work for Joe Sutton; the local major landowner who is trying to clear everybody else from the area so he owns the whole valley by the time it comes to register ownership. Trace confronts Sutton and in the ensuing gunfight Sutton is wounded. Trace rides off but is shot in the back. When he wakes up he finds his horse has carried him to the well of a local sheep farm. Here he is helped by Maria-Christina Colton, a woman whose father was murdered by Sutton. When the posse of Sutton's men arrives she claims to have no idea where Trace is. She drugs their coffee then escapes to meet up with Trace. From then on they struggle to keep ahead of the posse so they can get to the nearest army outpost and report the murder of Trace's brother.
There are plenty of clichés in this minor example of the western genre; a brother seeking revenge, a woman who eventually falls for his charms and a gang of vicious thugs who will shoot a man in the back or force themselves on a woman given half a chance; the only ones in the group with any standards were the half-Indian tracker and their leader and the latter was shot in the back by Sutton's son fairly early into the pursuit. The acting was good enough; Natalie Wood was suitably feisty as Maria although I don't think her accent would fool any real Mexicans! Tab Hunter was a decent enough lead but Skip Homeier made more of his role as the unpleasant Jack Sutton. The action was decent and the final fight between Trace and Sutton looked genuinely painful at times; of course being made when it was the shootings look a little unbelievable; I'm sure even a minor wound would leave a bigger blood patch than we saw here! Overall it was a reasonable will that fans of the genre may like, it contains nothing to offend so is suitable for younger viewers who like a bit of action too.
There are plenty of clichés in this minor example of the western genre; a brother seeking revenge, a woman who eventually falls for his charms and a gang of vicious thugs who will shoot a man in the back or force themselves on a woman given half a chance; the only ones in the group with any standards were the half-Indian tracker and their leader and the latter was shot in the back by Sutton's son fairly early into the pursuit. The acting was good enough; Natalie Wood was suitably feisty as Maria although I don't think her accent would fool any real Mexicans! Tab Hunter was a decent enough lead but Skip Homeier made more of his role as the unpleasant Jack Sutton. The action was decent and the final fight between Trace and Sutton looked genuinely painful at times; of course being made when it was the shootings look a little unbelievable; I'm sure even a minor wound would leave a bigger blood patch than we saw here! Overall it was a reasonable will that fans of the genre may like, it contains nothing to offend so is suitable for younger viewers who like a bit of action too.