This western is notable only for a performance of immense dignity from the great Burt Lancaster as a Mexican-American lawman bent on justice. An unlikely debut for Broadway theatre director Edwin Sherin, who fails to get the most out of the material and quite clearly has no cinema technique. Additionally, the film is crucially under-cast, with a far stronger screen presence than Jon Cypher required as Lancaster's adversary. Only Richard Jordan manages to register among the supports. Shot in Spain, this is a film from a period in Lancaster's career when he simply seemed glad to be working.

Old Mexican-American sheriff Bob Valdez has always been a haven of sanity in a land of madmen when it came to defending law and order. But the weapon smuggler Frank Tanner is greedy and impulsive. When Tanner provokes a shooting that causes the death of an innocent man and Valdez asks him to financially compensate the widow, Tanner refuses to do so and severely humiliates Valdez, who will do justice and avenge his honor, no matter what it takes.