This was a marvellous swan song for Casablanca director Michael Curtiz, who died the following year. Indeed, much of this handsome western was actually directed by star John Wayne, in tandem with second unit director Cliff Lyons. The scale is substantial, and Curtiz fills the wide CinemaScope vistas with rip-roaring action. The Duke dominates the movie, but there's also lively support from Stuart Whitman as gambler Paul Regret, who's a pivotal character for the whole affair. The score is one of Elmer Bernstein's best and most elegiac, and there's a terrific star-building performance from Lee Marvin. A big hit in its day, this is the sort of sprawling western that died, alas, with its star.

Texas Ranger Jake Cutter arrests gambler Paul Regret, but soon finds himself teamed with his prisoner in an undercover effort to defeat a band of renegade arms merchants and thieves known as Comancheros.