here a U.S. Cavalry wagon train appears to have been burned to ashes at Dutch Creek, Will Lockhart (James Stewart) opts to camp. The remnants are ominous, perhaps a massacre, but whatever took place there happened a few months back. “Reminds me of what I came here to do,” he states to pal Charley O’Leary (Wallace Ford), foreshadowing the destruction to come.

When Will gets into the town of Coronado the next day, pulling up to Waggoman’s Mercantile, it’s revealed that he’s come from Laramie with three supply wagons for the shop. Barbara (Cathy O’Donnell) is the proprietor of the business, but she was hoping that with the Apache activity on the roads, the items would never make it, allowing her to finally give up running the store – a remnant from when her father was still alive. On his way back to Laramie, Will and his men decide to load up on salt from nearby lagoons so that the return trip can be at least moderately profitable, too. But as they shovel salt into the wagons, angsty, hotheaded young Dave Waggoman (Alex Nicol, with a very one-note persona) and his gang of Barb Ranch cattlemen interrupt the work, insisting that the land is theirs and that Lockhart is stealing. As punishment, they set the wagons on fire and shoot Will’s mules – an act so extreme that even when a stranger named Victor Hansbro (Arthur Kennedy) intercedes, Will is determined for retribution. The Waggomans, led by elder Alec (Donald Crisp), now owes the mysterious man from Laramie something – and that stranger has yet to find the culprit responsible for the death of his kid brother, though it’s likely that the Waggoman clan knows something about that as well.

The setup is complicated, what with the love interest (herself piece of a love triangle) being the cousin of Dave, while Vic, Alec’s lead employee, sticks up for the family but remains wary of his own interests in the ranch, which is intended to partly go to him upon Alec’s death (there’s a hint of “King Lear” in this dynamic). The Waggomans own the town, but the patriarch has a modest sense of justice, going so far as to repay the newcomer; yet he’s so blinded by a loyalty to his own kin that his judgment isn’t entirely sound. And then there’s Kate Canaday (Aline MacMahon), a kindly neighbor anxious for the Waggomans to meet resistance and itching for a foreman for her own acres; alongside Charley, a half-Irish half-Apache former tracker who pledges an allegiance to Will based solely on his sense of decency. On top of that is suspicious information broker Chris Boldt (Jack Elam), as well as the sheriff Tom Quigby (James Millican), who claims not to answer to anyone but doesn’t take a liking to Lockhart. There are also false accusations of murder and a rifle-selling scheme working their way through the plot.

Despite all of these complexities and the wealth of supporting characters, the major theme – of revenge – is rather simple. The wrong people have messed with the man from Laramie, and he’s going to get his vengeance. Along the way is exceptional cinematography, not only making the most of New Mexico scenery and settings (it was filmed there, complete with a dedication before the picture starts), but also utilizing plenty of unusual camera angles and partial obstructions from curious props. If nothing else, this is a remarkably good-looking production.

Directed by Anthony Mann (the fifth collaboration with Stewart), based on a Saturday Evening Post Story, this grittier Western may not be the most routinely exciting, but it boasts quite a bit of violence and immoralities, going out of its way to build up a dastardly, conniving, weaselly villain in desperate need of comeuppance. And colluders have their own machinations, struggling to maneuver blame, alleviate guilt, and live up to expectations – either their own or from surrogate father figures. Interestingly, had there not been an overabundance of roles, the film might have moved more swiftly, keeping up the intensity and excitement. Instead, so many characters have to have outcomes (or demises) that attention is often paid to wrapping up loose ends of less important parts, while a certain fairness must be issued by honorable men, pushing away from the standard showdowns of movies about gunfighters. Ultimately, the pacing is too slow for this to be one of Mann’s most prominent Westerns, with a mystery component that isn’t much of a mystery – though a bandaged Lockhart is an intriguing precursor to “Chinatown’s” famously injured protagonist, while the finale is quite satisfying.

– Mike Massie