"Love and Life Were Cheap...When QUANTRELL'S RAIDERS Blazed a Trail of Terror Across the West!"
Towards the end of the American Civil War, a rebel captain flees to Colorado to join a band of Southern mercenaries. He drags an innocent gold prospecting couple into trouble when the husband is accused of a murder he committed.
Alan Ladd
Capt. Brett Sherwood
Lizabeth Scott
Chris
Arthur Kennedy
Lane Waldron
John Ireland
Gen. William Quantrill
Jeff Corey
Sgt. Skee
James Bell
Dr. Terry
Bert Freed
Sgt. Randall
Walter Sande
Benjie
Neville Brand
Lt. Dixon
Towards the end of the American Civil War, a rebel captain flees to Colorado to join a band of Southern mercenaries. He drags an innocent gold prospecting couple into trouble when the husband is accused of a murder he committed.
Quantrell and his raiders provided loads of stories for civil war themed westerns, and this time he has been promoted to general and provides the inspiration for disaffected "Capt. Sherwood" (Alan Ladd) who is determined to continue the war in the only place where it was still possible for the Confederacy to win. The west. The general - called "Quantrill" here (John Ireland) is working with the local Indians to build on their own resentment of the settling pioneers in the hope that they will help him to defeat the bluecoats. Meantime, "Sherwood" is no saint, and as he heads to his new command we realise that he had killed a dodgy assay official - which we see, obscurely, at the start - then has to rescue the wrongly blamed "Waldron" (Arthur Kennedy) from the ensuing lynch mob. With him and his wife "Chris" (Lizabeth Scott) now in tow they meet up with his hero - only to find that, well the man, the myth and the legend are not quite what he was expecting. Indeed, before long all three realise that the general is little better than a thug in an uniform, and a reckless one at that. Moreover, it turns out that there is more to the initial act of violence than met the eye and a perilous siege scenario ensues against what appear to be overwhelming odds. Ireland might just edge the acting plaudits here - at least he has something to get his teeth into, but neither Ladd nor Scott really set the film alight and as we head into the closing stages it all gets a little predictably repetitive. There's also a great deal of chatter and by the end I just wasn't convinced by bad lad Ladd at all. It's watchable enough, but nothing much to write home about.
A Union Cavalry outfit is sent behind confederate lines in strength to destroy a rail supply center. Along with them is sent a doctor who causes instant antipathy between him and the commander. The secret plan for the mission is overheard by a southern belle who must be taken along to assure her silence.
After the American Civil War, mercenaries travel to Mexico to fight in their revolution for money. The former soldier and gentleman Benjamin Trane meets the gunman and killer Joe Erin and his men, and together they are hired by the Emperor Maximillian and the Marquis Henri de Labordere to escort the Countess Marie Duvarre to the harbor of Vera Cruz.
Friends Jake and Jack Bull join up with Civil War guerrilla fighters, yet after the realities of war set in, they must decide what honor truly means.
In New Mexico, a Confederate veteran returns home to find his fiancée married to a Union soldier, his Yankee neighbors rallied against him and his property sold by the local banker who then hires a gunman to kill him.
Two black bounty hunters ride into a small town out West in pursuit of an outlaw. They discover that the town has no sheriff, and soon take over that position, much against the will of the mostly white townsfolk.
Detective Matthias Breecher, hired to track down the worst of the Confederate war criminals, roams the Old West seeking justice. His resolve is tested when he meets a determined pioneer woman who is far more than she seems.
Searching for a doctor who can help him get his son to speak again--the boy hadn't uttered a word since he saw his mother die in the fire that burned down the family home--a Confederate veteran finds himself facing a 30-day jail sentence when he's unfairly accused of starting a brawl in a small town. A local woman pays his fine, providing that he works it off on her ranch. He soon finds himself involved in the woman's struggle to keep her ranch from a local landowner who wants it--and whose sons were responsible for the man being framed for the fight.
A cattle-vs.-sheepman feud loses Connie Dickason her fiance, but gains her his ranch, which she determines to run alone in opposition to Frank Ivey, "boss" of the valley, whom her father Ben wanted her to marry. She hires recovering alcoholic Dave Nash as foreman and a crew of Ivey's enemies. Ivey fights back with violence and destruction, but Dave is determined to counter him legally... a feeling not shared by his associates. Connie's boast that, as a woman, she doesn't need guns proves justified, but plenty of gunplay results.
After the Civil War, ex-Union Colonel John Henry Thomas and ex-Confederate Colonel James Langdon are leading two disparate groups of people through strife-torn Mexico. John Henry and company are bringing horses to the unpopular Mexican government for $35 a head while Langdon is leading a contingent of displaced southerners, who are looking for a new life in Mexico after losing their property to carpetbaggers. The two men are eventually forced to mend their differences in order to fight off both bandits and revolutionaries, as they try to lead their friends and kin to safety.
In the 1860s, fiercely independent French-Canadian Vivienne Le Coudy embarks on a journey with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen, attempting to forge a life together in the dusty town of Elk Flats, Nevada. When Holger decides to go fight for the Union in the burgeoning Civil War, Vivienne must fend for herself, which isn't easy in a town controlled by a corrupt mayor.