In his first starring Western for RKO, young Tim Holt must not only carry on his father's freight business but also hunt down his murderer. A certain Matt Gardner wants to corner the freight business to Pecos and persuades young Zack Sibley's wagon master to switch sides. Zack also earns the enmity of Gardner's son Coe, who takes umbrage to the youngster's flirtation with pretty Helen Lee. It all comes to a head during a food shortage in Pecos, a near-disaster that persuades the wagon master to switch sides once again. When the dust settles, Zack learns that old man Gardner is actually Carl Anderson, the man who murdered his father.
Thanks to the chicanery of his crooked uncle Major Cosgrave, Jet has been cheated out of his father's property and branded a pariah. He spends the rest of the film trying to regain his birthright and clear his name. The two women in Jet's life are Judy Polsen, who chases him for so long that he finally catches her, and Alice Austin, Major Cosgrave's fianee.
Claudette Colbert plays Prudence Webb, who arrives in the wide-open town of Fort Ralston, Texas, to assume control of her late father's newspaper. Her first major print crusade is aimed at gambler Chris Mooney (Barry Sullivan), whom Prudence holds responsible for her dad's suicide. She then takes aim at a couple of crooked cattle barons (Ray Collins and Walter Sande), who'd like nothing better than to put Prudence out of the way for keeps.
Colonel William Cody, alias Buffalo Bill, intends to put an end to the dishonest relations between a gang of white swindlers and the Indian, Yellow Hand. So he goes to the chief of Yellow Hand's tribe, Wise Fox, and tries to convince him to sign a peace treaty with the Federal troops. In order to avoid this, Yellow Hand abducts Wise Fox's daughter, pretending that the soldiers have done it.
Pale Arrow is a white man raised since a boy by the Pawnee Chief. With wagon trains now encroaching on Pawnee land, the Chief sends Pale Arrow to be with the white people. Now known as Paul Fletcher, he takes the job of wagon train scout. The Chief wants peace but when he dies, Crazy Fox takes over and now leads the Pawnees in an attack against that wagon trai
Roy is a Confederate officer stationed in Missouri during the Civil War. He must put an end to outlaw gangs working under the pretense of service to the Confederacy.
Don Juan, the governor of a Mexican province, arrests Manuel, the fiancé of the beautiful heiress, Virginia. When Quintana frees Manuel, Don Juan kidnaps Virginia to force her hand in marriage. The ceremony is interrupted in a violent battle.
In the 1850s, in a logging town on the Mississippi River, a conflict between the people of a mill town and the lumberjacks who work downriver. Romance and deceit are catalyzed by the arrival of the gambling river boat, River Lady, owned by the beautiful Sequin. Bauvais, a representative of the local lumber syndicate and Sequin's business partner, is trying to convince H.L. Morrison, the mill owner, to sell his business.
When John Barrabbee's plane makes an emergency landing, he wanders off and joins Roy's cattle drive. Later he learns he was killed when his plane resumed its flight and crashed. He also learns his daughter is going to sell his ranch and marry a man he dislikes. So he gives Roy a job on the ranch and sends him off to see if he can prevent both of these events while he remains in hiding. Written by Maurice VanAuken Western girl moves east and influenced badly by her snobby fiance. She returns to sell her deceased father's ranch. The father isn't really dead, though; he's hoping that his friend Roy can restore the girl's western values. Songs include "New Moon Over Nevada," "A Cowboy has to Yodel in the Morning," and "The Harum Scarum Baron of the Harmonium." Written by Ed Stephan
Bespectacled pistolero Stan Ross comes to Canyon City and becomes involved with two feuding factions, after a clerk has been killed by the banker Jefferson during a botched holdup, while robbing his own bank.
Mike returns home in order to leave his gunfighting days behind him and settle down on a farm with his old sweetheart but things do not go as planned. Finding Jane murdered, Mike is set upon and left for dead by her 7 killers who also steal his life savings of $10,000; all in $50 dollar bills. They leave only seven dollars and Mike vows to track down every man, paying him back with a solitary dollar and death.
Guy Madison has a high old time as a would be feudal baron in the Wild West. No one is willing to stand up to Madison and his henchmen, no one that is, except mild-mannered inventor Tom Bosley. It seems that Bosley has welded together a robot gunslinger, whom he calls "The Bang Bang Kid". Only trouble is, the "Kid" breaks down at the darnedest times. The film goes off in too many directions, but generally delivers the goods laugh-wise. (Source: SWDB)