A very ordinary Universal western using up stock sets and contract artists with little real distinction. There are colourful support turns from two newcomers who would soon flourish in TV's golden age of westerns, Hugh O'Brian and Jack Kelly, but the leads - sheriff Stephen McNally and fiancée Julia (later Julie) Adams - just go through the motions, unhelped by Lee Sholem's pedestrian direction. For lovers of 1950s Technicolor westerns only.

Sheriff Lane Dakota captures robbery-murder suspect Greiner just as the latter is wounded in an Apache ambush. At remote outpost Apache River, Lane and his prisoner spend the night with other travelers, including 2 women with a surprising number of fancy dresses. In the morning, who should appear but a band of ostensibly peaceful Apaches strayed from the reservation. And bigoted Colonel Morsby is strongly inclined to shoot first and ask questions afterward...