"Hurricane" Smith (Francis Ford), head of a steamship company, plots to keep the railroad from entering the city. The map of the proposed route becomes the instrument by which Blake (Frank Baker) and Florence (Florence Gilbert) become targets of Smith's gang. Smith, however, didn't account for Pinto Pete (Ashton Dearholt), he of the spotted hand-- A wanted, whip-wielding rogue who comes to Florence's rescue.
In the western town of Adamstown, things can get pretty rough at times, and at times it seems like everyone is against everyone else: people, animals, old, young, locals, and supposed strangers.
A dark comedy/western about the showdown of two love couples on hangers, on for adultery. Re-examining the Balkan and Hollywood myths and magic, the movie is set in 1897 and situated around gallows in the Wild West.
The Jordans, Phil and Ruth, accompanied by Philip's wife, Polly, and Dr. Winthrop Newbury, a suitor for Ruth's hand, bid old Mrs. Jordan good-bye at the station of Milford Corners, Mass., and depart for the West, to work over some unredeemed desert land, which was left to the Jordans by their dead father. Arriving in the west, they take up their work, but it proves anything but a success. On the brink of the Great Divide lives Stephen Ghent, an untamed and uncouth man of the West, and on account of his manner is respected by the habitués of Miller's saloon and dance hall in the town, which he and two of his acquaintances in the persons of Pedro, a half-breed Mexican, and Dutch, a brutal type of the West, frequent.
David Darby and his younger brother Ross are both members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Ross is accused of murdering Slip Martin, but David doesn't believe his brother committed the murder and, not wanting to see him executed, takes the blame himself.
The rancher Jeff Bransford returns to his ancestral acres and finds them heavily mortgaged and about to be foreclosed and is defended by hired men with guns.
Bart Carson is in love with Lou and even goes to jail to save Walter A. Walker, a man she says is her brother but who is really a husband who has deserted his wife and two children.
John Wesley Pringle, adventurer at large, returns home after making his strike and finds his old girl friend, Stella, engaged to Christopher Foy, who is running for sheriff. Pringle foils an attempt by incumbent sheriff Matt Lisner to kill Foy, but when Foy is accused of a murder, Pringle, in a clever ruse, captures Foy, holds the posse at gunpoint, and then releases him, explaining his motive.
Into the town of Broken Buckle rides a stranger who threatens to open a new gambling establishment to rival the one operated by Denver Red and Headlight Whipple. The latter's sister, Zoe, who disapproves of her brother's saloon and is the local schoolteacher and owner of a notions store, tries to interest The Stranger in reforming the vice-ridden community.
In this western, a sheriff gets tired of upholding the law and retires to a quiet ranch. Unfortunately, he ends up saving his homesteader neighbors from a corrupt Wyoming land grabber.
Bradley and sidekick Sharpe are sent west to investigate the murders of pony express riders who are being killed to prevent the Spanish Land Grant papers going to Washington for registration.
Unaware of the weakness of Bob Graham's character, Bess Dawson decides to marry him instead of the other cowboy who loves her, Cheyenne Harry. Before the wedding, however, some crooks induce Bob to take part in a hold-up. Then when Harry hears that a posse has been dispatched to catch Bob, he rides out to him and helps him escape.
John Ford both directed and wrote the story (based on his published work The Hostage), a typical western romance in which Mix falls for the daughter of an imperiled rancher. This above-average Tom Mix western contains one of the star's more spectacular stunts -- a jump on horseback across the 20-foot Beale's Cut. Truth be told, the star, who frequently did his own stunt work, was forced to use a double this time
After Wes Channing's partner, the feckless Buck Littleton, loses his half-interest in their ranch to gambler Flash Denby, Wes stands up against the sheriff's men when they try to seize the ranch-- land that has a gold mine on it. Denby tries to trick Mary Sims, granddaughter of Wes's neighbor Rufe Sims, into signing over the rights to the land. Denby's machinations are all set in order-- but Wes's right hook may prove to be a hell of a monkey wrench!