One of the better oaters that Republic put out that at least tries to rise above the usual B western fare. We even get to listen to Vaughn Monroe sing us a couple of songs, if you can stand it.
Marshal Matt Landry (Vaughn Monroe) is after an outlaw named Frank Girard (Victor Jory) for selling guns and whiskey to the Apaches. He meets up with him and after a struggle, brings him back to town. Along the way he picks up the survivors of an Indian massacre, Mary Kimber (Joan Leslie) and a couple of kids. During the Indian raid, Mary's cowardly husband Verne (Harry Morgan) slips away and ambles into the nearest settlement leaving Mary and the two kids to fend for themselves.
After Landry reaches town, he locks Girard up for transport the next day for trial in Prescott, AZ. In the meantime a woman named Della gets word to Frank's two brothers (Ian MacDonald & Lee MacGregor) and they spring Frank on the trail as he's riding in the back of a hearse with Marshal Landry. They also have the help of the cowardly Verne to intercept the telegraph messages as to when they'll exactly be leaving.
Landry's left severely wounded during Frank's escape and makes it back to town. Meanwhile, Verne gets greedy and agrees to intercept more telegraph messages for when the next Wells Fargo shipment is supposed to be sent out. He wants a cut of the loot. It's also an excellent way Frank and his gang can intercept and rob the shipments ahead of time. And all throughout this adventure, Mary Kimber still believes her husband is dead.
When Marshal Landry gets well enough, he interrogates Della because he believes she knows something about the robberies and where Frank's located. She breaks down and tells him and Landry and a posse head out in the middle of a rainstorm. When they reach Frank's hiding place, there's an excellent shootout in the barn and Frank and his brothers are killed while greedy Verne shoots Landry's Deputy (Edgar Buchanan) in the back. Landry slugs Verne and takes him back to town for trial for murder. And that's pretty much where the story ends.
This oater would be even better if so much of it wasn't filmed on Republic's sound stages interspersed with some on-location filming. It makes the whole thing look awkward and docks it down a point for me.
Still, it has a better than average plot which give it a better than average rating on the imdb scale, imo.
6 out of 10
