Gregory Peck gives a performance of characteristic dignity and grit in this simmering western about the stark realities of frontier life. Having been forced to go for his gun by a barroom braggart, gunslinger Peck rides off to a neighbouring town to visit his estranged wife and son, only to find his presence resented by the locals and his life threatened by the brothers of his latest victim. Veteran director Henry King expertly strips away the glamour of the gunfighter to reveal a lonely man who regrets his past, but knows that killing is his only future.

The fastest gun in the West tries to escape his reputation.