Tom Early rides into a Wyoming town where he once lived with his wife and son. In the general store, owner Wainscott is annoyed when he believes clerk Jo is flirtatious with Early.
At his old ranch, Early finds his wife's grave and his 17-year-old son, Tom Jr., an immature man embittered by his father's having abandoned him and his mother.
Jo takes a job as housekeeper at Early's ranch. She resists the advances of Tom Jr., whose resentment of his father grows. When they attend church, Wainscott turns the preacher's congregation against them, insinuating Jo is living in sin with Early.
The townspeople need help, though, when gunmen working for the villainous cattleman Grimsell ambush one of their own. A posse, ineptly led by the preacher, is formed and goes after the gunmen. The preacher leads them into an ambush, and half the posse become casualties. By the time Early, who had been doing something else, gets to the ambush site, the preacher is dying and Tom Jr. is wounded in the leg, their horses gone. The preacher sends Early away with his son, knowing he is mortally wounded he takes Tom Jr. home, and he and Jo patch him up. Early then sets out after the gunmen.
Locating a trail in a pass Early knows the cattle drive must take, he uses dynamite to start a rockslide when Grimsell moves the herd down the trail. The cattle stampede to escape the rockslide and some of Grimsell's men are killed by falling rocks and the cattle. Grimsell and one of his men, Gunn, follow Early back to his ranch, getting there first.
Grimsell tries and fails to intimidate Jo and Tom Jr., giving Early time to disarm and thrash Grimsell. In a showdown, he fights with Gunn and beats him. Gunn, lying on the ground, tries to shoot Early in the back but Tom Jr. comes to his rescue, shooting Gunn down. Grimsell rides off, defeated.
Reconciled, Early and Tom Jr. acknowledge their kinship. Jo and Early decide they like each well enough to stay together, raise Tom Jr., improve the ranch, and finish building the church, as Early had promised the dying preacher he would do. They kiss to seal the bargain, their marriage implied.
The film was based on an original story by Cyril Hume according to one account. Another says it was based on the novel Man of the West by Philip Yordan which Ben Maddow says he wrote under Yordan's name. Maddow also claims to have written the script. Yordan said "But if you read the screenplay, you'll see it fits the hero character that I've always written. I've always written the one character. The hero. A man with a cold, hard, bad past—and I never like to go into the past—with his own set of morals and everything else."[2]
It was one of a series of Westerns MGM started making following the success of The Fastest Gun Alive.[3]
Robert Horton was originally announced as star.[4] Then Stewart Granger was assigned to star. The film was made towards the end of Granger's contract with MGM and he felt they assigned him to this low-budget film to punish him for not renewing with the studio.[5]
He appeared opposite Steve Rowland, the son of the director.[6]
Burl Ives was to play the preacher but had to withdraw and was replaced by Chill Wills.[7] However the music recorded by Ives for the film was retained in the finished production.
