Initially evoking the romance of running a stagecoach line, this quickly turns into a superior suspense drama that happens to be set in the Old West, with the outlaws behaving rather like gangsters. Tyrone Power is too mature to play the young stageline trainee who becomes the captive of a hold-up gang while Susan Hayward, as a passenger mistaken for his wife and imprisoned with him, has more to do at the climax. The villains are well characterised, with Hugh Marlowe as their businesslike leader and Jack Elam as a lecherous henchman. Henry Hathaway's direction makes the most of the isolated setting.

At a desolate relay station in the west, a stagecoach attendant and a stranded woman traveller are held captive by a band of escaped convicts.