Tab Hunter is Trace Jordon, a young rancher whose brother is gunned down in the film’s opening scene. Trace tracks the killers to the ranch of cattle baron Joe Sutton (Ray Teal).
But after demanding that Sutton turn over the killers, exchanging shots with the old man and being wounded, it’s Trace who finds himself the hunted. His horse carries him to a spring at an old mine, where a half-breed Mexican girl (Natalie Wood as Maria Christina Colton) comes to his rescue.
But soon enough, the Sutton men show up, led by foreman Ben Hindeman (Claude Akins) and Sutton’s cold-blooded son Jack (Skip Homeier). Maria helps Trace escape again, by slipping jimson weed in coffee she’s serving the Sutton men.
But soon the chase is on again. Trace proves a capable frontiersman, whittling down the pursuing gunmen, at one point by leading them into a Comanche ambush. Once intent on revenge, he now has something else to live for — a possible future with Maria.
Of course, Jack Sutton has something to prove to: that’s he’s man enough to deal with a troublemaker like Trace Jordan.
Review:
A better than average and action-packed Western based on a novel by Louis L’Amour.
Okay, Natalie Wood’s Mexican accent isn’t very convincing. But she’s adorable as the spitfire just waiting for someone to stand up to the Sutton men who were responsible for her father’s death. She was just 18 when this film was released.
The characters in secondary roles turn in strong performances, too, including Skip Homeier as the slimy and self-entitled son of a cattle baron, Claude Akin as the Sutton foreman who prefers restraint, especially when it comes to harassing women to get information, and Edward Franz as the reluctant tracker who helps the Sutton men stay on Trace Jordan’s trail.
As for that action, it includes a couple of brutal fistfights — one between Trace and Mort Bayliss in a barn and another between Trace and Jack Sutton on a cliff overlooking a river.
Wood appeared in just two Westerns, both in 1956. The other was as the Indian captive being sought by John Wayne in the John Ford classic, “The Searchers.”
Directed by:
Stuart Heisler
Cast:
Tab Hunter … Trace Jordon
Natalie Wood … Maria Colton
Skip Homeier … Jack Sutton
Ray Teal … Joe Sutton
Eduard Franz … Jacob Lance
Claude Akins … Ben Hindeman
Tyler MacDuff … Wes Parker
Earl Holliman … Mort Bayliss
Frank Puglia … Tio Perico
Hal Baylor … Braun
Rayford Barnes … Veach
Tony Terry … Vincente Colton
Runtime: 94 min.
Memorable lines:
Trace Jordan: “There was a sheriff.”
Sutton man: “Ain’t none. No need for a sheriff when everybody’s friendly.”
Trace: “Everybody?”
Sutton man: “‘Cept strangers sometimes. If a stranger ain’t friendly, he just ain’t around long.”
Trace: “Who looks after that?”
Sutton man: “Oh, it gets looked after.”
Trace Jordan: “Do you know where I can find this Mr. Sutton?”
Bartender: “My job is makin’ drinks, not maps.”
Trace Jordan: “I never met a girl with such spunk. You got a heap of Yankee in you.”
Maria Colton, laughing: “And a heap of Mexican, too.”
Jack Sutton to Maria: “You make some coffee. And don’t try to run away. Or you’re going to think you’ve been run over by a stampede.”
Jack Sutton, finding Mort’s body: “He can’t tell us anything now.”
Tracker Jacob Lance: “He tell you one thing. Some of you no ride back. You turn young Jordan into curly wolf. He got his back to wall. He fight like wildcat.”
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