El Paso
Clay Fletcher (John Payne) is leaving South Carolina and heading west. A rebel officer during the Civil War and also a lawyer, he wants to ease back into law practice with something not too difficult, so he travels to El Paso, Texas with estate documents to get the signature of an attorney there, Henry Jeffers (Henry Hull).
Stagecoach Nellie (Mary Beth Hughes) steals his wallet along the way. Then, in a saloon, Clay sees a man convicted of murder by a drunken judge in a trial held in a saloon. The judge is Jeffers, and when Clay speaks up on the defendant's behalf, he is charged with contempt of court. Unable to pay the fine, his fancy clothing is auctioned off.
Clay is rescued by rancher Nacho Vazquez (Eduardo Noriega), who offers him a place to stay. He also meets the judge's daughter, Susan Jeffers (Gail Russell), who owns a hat shop. Clay learns the man found guilty of murder was framed by rich land owner Bert Donner (Sterling Hayden) and his stooge, Sheriff La Farge (Dick Foran).
La Farge brutally beats and jails a man named John Elkins (Arthur Space) who had once been a friend to Clay, who volunteers to represent him. He needs the judge to be sober, so old-timer Pesky (George 'Gabby' Hayes) offers to take Jeffers out of town and away from the saloon for a while. La Farge is furious and tries to have Clay killed.
The judge is respectable again by the trial date and clears Elkins of any wrongdoing. La Farge responds by having Jeffers dragged by horses and killed. He also arranges the murders of Elkins and his wife (Catherine Craig).
Vowing revenge, Clay forms an outfit of vigilantes to set things right. But in so doing, he is warned by Susan that he is becoming as ruthless as the men he's after. Donner ends up dead and La Farge is set to be lynched when Clay comes to his senses and asks that El Paso's next judge be the one to hand out justice.
murder