
The inhabitants of a small western community turn on Jim Guthrie (Dana Andrews) when he becomes the prime suspect for a murder he didn't commit. Before getting a chance to prove his innocence, Jim is driven from his home and into the wilderness, where he is left for dead. Despite the danger, he comes back years later, discovering that he's still a wanted man. But a kindhearted local named Chris (Dianne Foster) believes his story, and together they begin a desperate search for the true culprit.
The inhabitants of a small western community turn on Jim Guthrie (Dana Andrews) when he becomes the prime suspect for a murder he didn't commit. Before getting a chance to prove his innocence, Jim is driven from his home and into the wilderness, where he is left for dead. Despite the danger, he comes back years later, discovering that he's still a wanted man. But a kindhearted local named Chris (Dianne Foster) believes his story, and together they begin a desperate search for the true culprit.
Sheriff Chadbourne (Samuel Herrick) transports convict Ben Trask (Lloyd Bridges) to El Paso in a covered wagon. The wagon also carries sea captain Theodore Bess (Lee J. Cobb) and married couple Laura (Marie Windsor) and Jerry Niblett (Dean Train). The group comes upon a wounded Native American, banished by his tribe, who offers to lead them to gold. But then the tribe attacks the wagon, killing Jerry and wounding Chadbourne. Ben is freed to help, but the group's troubles have only begun.
A new lawman (Bill Elliott) punches out cattle rustlers who like to shoot sheriffs.
When a member of the villainous Mahoney family is slain while escaping the jail cell he'd been put in by Steve Armitage (Charles Starrett), aka the Durango Kid, the dead man's relatives vow to take down the Kid by any means necessary. Chick Mahoney (Don Harvey) poses as the Kid and tries to ruin the cowboy's reputation by stealing from nearby ranchers, but with the help of sidekick Smiley Burnette (Smiley Burnette), the Kid sets out to retrieve the stolen goods and repair his good name.
In the lawless West, a notorious brotherhood of killers and thieves called The Cowboys reigns over the land with brutal fists and fast guns. Fate finally catches up with them.
Private detective James Barlow (Randolph Scott) is sent to Indiana to infiltrate the ranks of the four Reno Brothers (Denver Pyle, Forrest Tucker, J. Carrol Naish, Myron Healy), a gang running roughshod over luckless locals. After attracting the Renos' attention with a staged train robbery, Barlow gets in deeper when he strikes up a romance with their sister, Laura (Mala Powers). Gradually, Barlow devises a strategy to set the brothers up for ambush in another train robbery.
During the 1840s, six settlers and their guide are caught in a dangerous situation: They are lost, food and water are running out, and the surrounding desert threatens to claim them all. Meanwhile, their guide, Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood), refuses to acknowledge that they may be several weeks off-course. When a Native American (Rod Rondeaux) is captured, Emily Tetherow (Michelle Williams), one of the settlers, shields him from Meek's wrath, and he offers to lead the group to water in return.
Phoebe Titus (Jean Arthur) is a tough-as-nails pioneer with dreams of starting a freight service in Tucson, Ariz. Peter Muncie (William Holden), a vagabond passing through Arizona en route to California, takes a romantic interest in Phoebe and coaxes out her softer side. Just as their romance begins to blossom, Peter packs up and moves on. Though charming southerner Jefferson Carteret (Warren William) steps in to lend a hand, he may be plotting in secret to sabotage Phoebe's nascent business.
Lieutenant Colonel Kirby Yorke (John Wayne) heads a cavalry post on the Texas side of the Rio Grande, defending settlers against Apaches launching raids from the Mexican side of the river. When Yorke's 16-year-old son, Jeff (Claude Jarman Jr.) -- who he has not seen since he was a baby -- shows up at the post as one of the new recruits, he treats him more harshly than the others. Things are further complicated when Yorke's estranged wife, Kathleen (Maureen O'Hara), returns to take her son home.