Charlton Heston, always cast in roles where he can lead with his chin, is fuelled by purposeful action, decency and high moral fibre in a western which has all the expected shorthand of the genre. The lightweight plot revolves around the adventures of Heston, as Buffalo Bill Cody, and Forrest Tucker, as Wild Bill Hickok, and the opening of mail routes to California. Made during the final years of the B-western (when they were still being produced in batches), this is a lumpy stew of lean crackerjack action and rather earnest, talky stretches.

Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok join forces to establish a mail route that can get mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, in ten days. Along the way they must battle bad weather, hostile Indians and outlaws intent on robbing the mail and shutting down the entire operation.