Audie Murphy finds himself a horse, only to have six guys find him and accuse him of rustling. One of those guys (Dan Duryea) objects to Murphy getting lynched and helps him escape. While traveling together trying to figure out their next moves, they're approached by a woman (Joan O'Brien) who offers them $1,000 each to escort her to another town. So they accept, even though it's through hostile country, but it's very clear she had other motives behind the offer.
The movie spends a fair amount of time with Murphy and Duryea discussing what each of them might do with the money, what they've done for money in the past, what that does. Murphy's pretty much always worked as a cow puncher, and while Duryea's done the same, he's also worked as a killer for hire, a line Murphy refuses to cross. The nice bit is Duryea's not proud of it, he knows it's ugly work, but it was going to be done by someone, and he had to make a living. He's actually happy they're doing a good thing for this money, protecting someone.
He's not entirely a good man. There are certainly times, even before we find out he and O'Brien have some past history, where he makes me nervous with how close he gets to her. But he's not all bad, either. Murphy gets the less-interesting role, since there's never any doubt that he's going to do the right thing. There is the question of what he might decide that is, but it's a matter of whether he'll agree to get O'Brien where she says she wants to go, or take her someplace less perilous.
The romance subplot is kinda half-baked. There because I guess they figured it had to be. Murphy's pretty quick to forgive considering he was going to be a pawn in O'Brien's plan at best, collateral damage at worst.
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