Joel McCrea plays a very fictional version of western legend Bat Masterson.
McCrea doesn't have enough personality to rate among the front rank of western stars, but he can manage well enough as a sort of "poor man's Randolph Scott"
On the other hand Richard Anderson does a fine job as the ambivalent black shirted rival and seems obviously destined to face off with McCrea in the final showdown of the title.
This one builds a promisingly classical, if unoriginal, structure before surprisingly unravelling in the final act.
After a relative of his provokes McCrea into a fight and is killed in the opening act, Anderson swears vengeance and is later able to kill McCrea's straight arrow brother, shooting him in the back, while the corrupt Sherriff's henchmen get the blame.
He is then able to profess no hard feelings for the previous incident and pose as an ally of McCrea, although we the audience know better.
So it's all set up for some sort of late revelation / double cross / final confrontation.
Instead he suddenly decides to make a move on the beautiful Saloon owner, while McCrea is still in the same building, confessing his previous crime in the process, for no good reason.
And after she screams for help, he is shot in the hallway...
All so that McCrea's best friend can be shot in the arm, in order to force McCrea to commit a crime on his behalf and rescue his mentally handicapped brother from being hung.
Really it's the crooked (by now ex-) Sherriff who should have been used in this way, as it is he who wants to acquire the saloon for his business empire and also because his character seems to have run it's course plot wise.
The second huge error comes after McCrea comes into town to give himself up and justify why he rescued the prisoner.
The crooked ex Sherriff, despite having half a dozen gunmen on the payroll, decides to go against all logic, by facing of against the renowned gunfighter fair and square!
So, with none of his henchmen on the roof or in the alley or poking a rifle barrel out of a second floor window, he inevitably goes down in a rather tame ending
To top it all off the romance isn't handled very convincingly either, and it is never clear why McCrea is attracted to the judgemental preachers-daughter-fiance of his dead brother, when the comely saloon-owner-widow always seems like a better bet.
One of those "how to screw up a western 101" movies that leaves you wondering "what were they thinking?"
By the by, Richard Anderson play a fictionalised version of Dave Rudebaugh, a real life western outlaw who's remarkable career saw him hob knobbing with a host of legendary figures as he criss crossed the wild west Between 1876 and 1886 he befriended Doc Holliday, was chased by Wyatt Earp, was arrested by Bat Masterson, grassed on his fellow gang members and was later recruited by the same to fight in a railroad war, was recruited by Mysterious Dave Mather to join a corrupt political machine in Dodge City dealing in extortion and graft, later joined Billy The Kid's gang and was arrested by Pat Garrett, escaped and joined the Clanton gang in fighting the Earps in Tombstone and was present at the gun battle where Curly Bill Brocius was killed and finally met his end in a gunfight over a card game down in Mexico, after which he was decapitated and his head stuck on a pole If even half of that is true he would make a great subject for a TV series!
By the by, Richard Anderson play a fictionalised version of Dave Rudebaugh, a real life western outlaw who's remarkable career saw him hob knobbing with a host of legendary figures as he criss crossed the wild west Between 1876 and 1886 he befriended Doc Holliday, was chased by Wyatt Earp, was arrested by Bat Masterson, grassed on his fellow gang members and was later recruited by the same to fight in a railroad war, was recruited by Mysterious Dave Mather to join a corrupt political machine in Dodge City dealing in extortion and graft, later joined Billy The Kid's gang and was arrested by Pat Garrett, escaped and joined the Clanton gang in fighting the Earps in Tombstone and was present at the gun battle where Curly Bill Brocius was killed and finally met his end in a gunfight over a card game down in Mexico, after which he was decapitated and his head stuck on a pole If even half of that is true he would make a great subject for a TV series!