Texas rancher Scotty Mason (Preston Foster) goes into the Mexican desert-country in search of a wild horse, and takes his young wife, Margarita (Mary Stuart)and his hired-hand, The Kid (William Bishop,) whose life Scotty had saved a few years earlier.
The Kid falls in love with Magarita before they have crossed the Texas border, and spends more time plotting to get rid of Scotty than he does horse-hunting. Before long the two are engaged in fisticuffs in a mountain pass, but Scotty spots the horse he is hunting (Thunderhoof) and the chase is on. Scotty breaks his leg in the capture and, with a make-shift splint, Scotty, the Kid, Margarita and the horse start the return trek to Texas.
Scotty and the Kid get into another fight, in a blinding sand-storm, and the Kid tosses Scott in a ravine, and tells Margarita that Scotty has deserted them. She joins the Kid and the old-clichéd poisoned-water hole rears it head along the trail. She learns the truth about Scotty from the delirious Kid.
Anything with only three people in the cast and directed by cult-favorite Phil Karlson is sooner or later going to get tagged as a film noir sleeper, whether it was or not.
The Kid falls in love with Magarita before they have crossed the Texas border, and spends more time plotting to get rid of Scotty than he does horse-hunting. Before long the two are engaged in fisticuffs in a mountain pass, but Scotty spots the horse he is hunting (Thunderhoof) and the chase is on. Scotty breaks his leg in the capture and, with a make-shift splint, Scotty, the Kid, Margarita and the horse start the return trek to Texas.
Scotty and the Kid get into another fight, in a blinding sand-storm, and the Kid tosses Scott in a ravine, and tells Margarita that Scotty has deserted them. She joins the Kid and the old-clichéd poisoned-water hole rears it head along the trail. She learns the truth about Scotty from the delirious Kid.
Anything with only three people in the cast and directed by cult-favorite Phil Karlson is sooner or later going to get tagged as a film noir sleeper, whether it was or not.