Much admired in the town of Gold Bar, Sheriff Hale rides out alone to find the wanted outlaw Bill Todd, who has just buried his mother. Getting the drop on Todd, Hale recognizes him as the son of the woman who once saved him from dying in the desert. He lets Todd go free, with the threat of killing him if they meet again; but he refuses to explain why he failed to arrest Todd, and the townspeople demand his resignation. Later, when Todd and his gang try to rob the local bank, Hale awakens in his room across the street and begins shooting the men standing guard outside the bank. Once inside he finds Todd and another man trying to break into the vault; in the fight that ensues, Hale shoots one man before Todd dies as well. The townspeople realize Hale is not the coward they thought and return his sheriff’s badge.
This film differs from other Hart westerns in that a potential romantic partner does not transform his “bad man” figure through love. Instead, the story turns on the townspeople’s misrecognition of his character, focuses on the singular conflict between Hale and Todd, and the power of a mother figure. That conflict is complicated in the beginning by a relatively long scene of Todd’s care for his mother and then for her gravesite. Moreover, Hale’s startled recognition of Todd leads to the flashback of his indebtedness to the outlaw’s mother for rescuing him from certain death. In the end, Todd accepts his own debt to Hale and commits suicide. Two other moments stand out: early on, Hart shows off his skill in rolling a cigarette as well as striking a match on his thumbnail; at the end, in medium close-up, he registers anxiety about what the townspeople may do after finding him with the bodies in the bank.

Richard Abel