As the film begins Joe Devereaux is picked up and told that he is being taken to see the state governor; when he gets there he learns of a deal that has been struck between the governor and his three brothers
he has just finished a three year jail sentence and they want him well away; to this end they give him ten thousand dollars and instructions to be on the night train to Oregon. Instead of accepting the deal he throws the money in the spittoon and rides back to his family's ranch; it has been abandoned for some time but a portrait of his father still hangs over the fireplace. The action then jumps back a few years to when his father Matt Devereaux was still alive and running the ranch. We quickly learn that he is a hard man who pays his sons the same amount that he pays the rest of his hands and thinks nothing of trying to trick Barbara, the governor's daughter, into eating a chilli pepper during dinner. She eats it even after being told what it is and after dinner she and Joe spend some time together and grow close. Shortly afterwards the governor tells Matt that he doesn't want Joe seeing her because he is half Indian; it is clear that this prejudice is the thing that offends Matt the most. Soon afterwards they discover some of their cattle dead; poisoned by the run-off from the nearby copper mine. When they go to visit the manager a confrontation ensues and the mine buildings are destroyed. This is the beginning of the end for Matt; taken to court, he faces losing everything till Joe claims to have drawn first; he is jailed so Matt decides to settle
his other sons won't allow it though. Joe ends up spending three years in jail and his father gradually fades away and dies while his brothers run the ranch the way they want under the leadership of eldest brother Ben. When events catch up with what we saw in the opening scenes Joe says he intends to leave with Barbara; Ben has other ideas though and the two of them must confront each other.
This western was different from most I've seen; usually the cattlemen are fighting each other or trying to run farmers off their land but here a cattleman is in conflict with a mining company and the conflict is resolved on the floor of a courtroom not in the middle of the street with a pair of six-shooters. Spencer Tracy did a fine job as the elderly Matt Devereaux; portraying him as a strong, harsh man who did have a protective side towards his Indian wife and half-Indian youngest son; as his character became broken he remained believable. Robert Wagner did a good job as Joe and Richard Widmark impressed as Ben, the eldest brother who had a long standing, and to a degree justified grievance against his father. Often in films of this era the Native Americans are portrayed as the villains but this film treats them far more sympathetically with one protagonist married to an Indian woman and the other, his son, half Indian; this made a refreshing change. While this isn't this most action packed western I've seen it has enough and the story is good; I'd certainly recommend it to fans of the genre.
This western was different from most I've seen; usually the cattlemen are fighting each other or trying to run farmers off their land but here a cattleman is in conflict with a mining company and the conflict is resolved on the floor of a courtroom not in the middle of the street with a pair of six-shooters. Spencer Tracy did a fine job as the elderly Matt Devereaux; portraying him as a strong, harsh man who did have a protective side towards his Indian wife and half-Indian youngest son; as his character became broken he remained believable. Robert Wagner did a good job as Joe and Richard Widmark impressed as Ben, the eldest brother who had a long standing, and to a degree justified grievance against his father. Often in films of this era the Native Americans are portrayed as the villains but this film treats them far more sympathetically with one protagonist married to an Indian woman and the other, his son, half Indian; this made a refreshing change. While this isn't this most action packed western I've seen it has enough and the story is good; I'd certainly recommend it to fans of the genre.