They called him the Butcher of Shiloh. Personally responsible for the wrongful deaths of 1500 men,Colonel Frank Marston (Robert Preston, Northwest Mounted Police) has been exiled to the farthest reaches of the American frontier. Driven insane by disgrace, Marston plans his return to glory by leading a squad of raw recruits in a suicide raid against the Indian Nation. Although Jed Cooper (Victor Mature, My Darling Clementine) is the only man who can stop him, the savage frontiersman is torn between saving the lives of his friends or letting them ride to their doom. For Jed's in love with the Colonel's wife (Anne Bancroft, 1962 Academy Award winner for Best Actress, The Miracle Worker), and only Marston's death will set her free. watch
Jed Cooper (Clint Eastwood), an ex-lawman turned rancher, is moving a small herd of cattle when a group of nine men on horseback, led by Captain Wilson (Ed Begley Sr.), ride up and accuse him of having stolen the cattle and killed their owner. They refuse to believe his account, stringing him up by the neck and leaving him for dead. Lucky for him, they don't do the job right, and as Cooper dangles there, barely alive, Deputy U.S. Marshal Bliss (Ben Johnson) spots him and cuts him down. After surviving the next few days in Bliss' tumbleweed wagon with the other prisoners, he is cleared of all accusations and released by Judge Fenton (Pat Hingle). Although Cooper witnesses the hanging of the man who really murdered the owner of the cattle and took Cooper's money, he still wants revenge on the nine men who tried to hang him. Fenton insists that he leave the bringing of them to justice to his deputy marshals. Cooper and Fenton, realizing that they need each other, strike an uneasy bargain, watch
