La jena del Missouri

By the time Lawrence Tierney appeared in the b-western THE BUSHWHACKERS, his leading man career was finished.. but he's used importantly here, at least in the rudimentary stages: a hired thug appearing before crippled land baron Lon Chaney Jr and the lethal daughter who hired him to kill off random settlers...

Ironically, Chaney and daughter are correct about the squatters being more interested in big money than settling down... while Tierney continues bullying more underdogs, including passive leading man John Ireland, a Civil War veteran who, during a historic prelude, promised to never use a gun again...

The familiar plot-line seems somewhat original, mainly because the venomous Dell's Noreh Taylor, actually held back by her commanding/demanding father... she would have fared much better as the sole heavy, perhaps with hired-gun Lawrence Tierney being smitten with his blonde boss or... some kind of side-plot that would keep him around longer...

Unfortunately, the third-billed DILLINGER icon is anticlimactically killed halfway through, cutting the overall threat in half, leaving sparse closure between Ireland and the only person worthy of a vengeful showdown (left with henchman's henchman Jack Elam)... but at least he has honest newspaperman's idealist daughter Dorothy Malone (who handles a gun well herself) to retire with: He just needed to work a lot harder to rest with those laurels.