The collaboration between star James Stewart and director Anthony Mann resulted in some fine examples of postwar American cinema, including The Glenn Miller Story and Winchester '73. This western is not in the same league, but it's satisfying nonetheless, and beautifully made. Stewart's character is unusual for a movie hero of the period: he's a ruthless, self-absorbed loner, in contrast to the remarkably affable villain, played with relish by John McIntire. The role reversal doesn't quite come off, but Mann's striking images of snowy gold-rush territory and the intense fury of the action sequences more than compensate.

During the Klondike Gold Rush, a misanthropic cattle driver and his talkative elderly partner run afoul of the law in Alaska and are forced to work for a saloon owner to take her supplies into a newly booming but lawless Candian town.