The Civil War is over and Medal of Honor winner John Benedict is a Colorado rancher now, with a wife and four children. His pride and joy, son Morgan, is invited to attend West Point, but prefers to help run his father's ranch. One day while John is away, he sees Comanche Indians riding from the ranch. He returns to find his family killed, with Morgan hanged inside a barn. Vowing vengeance, John ignores a posse organized by Sheriff Whitcomb and forms his own band, freeing six men from a prison. If they help him find Tarp, who apparently led the slaughter of his family, John will do everything in his power to secure their pardons. One of the six, Chamaco, bonds with John, feels like a son to him, but is offended by John's reaction to that. He shoots John in the chest. Elizabeth Reilly nurses John back to health, saying the bullet missed his heart by an inch. The six convicts, including Chamaco, continue to follow John in his quest. The trail leads them to a U.S. Army camp, where the six help fend off an Indian attack. By the time John comes face-to-face with Tarp, his thirst for revenge is gone and he rides home.
The film, which got mixed reviews, was a box office bomb. Many critics were turned off by this piece. Judith Crist of New York magazine offered that the film was "another kind of high-class trash... with William Holden as a proud rancher out to get the villains..." Dave Billington of the Montreal Gazette compared the film with other genre films, writing that while the film does not come near to Return of the Seven or The Dirty Dozen "in smoothness and clean direction, it does fill in a hot afternoon with some cool entertainment." He shares that Holden as the owner of a horse ranch is seen as "rather too coy" in the opening few minutes when his character's wife, sons, daughters, and ranch hands are all murdered before he finally loses his temper. Billington writes that of the six killers hired to help Holden seek revenge, "the two best are certainly Ernest Borgnine and Woody Strode"... noting further that this was "probably Borgnine's best performance since Marty". Ernest Borgnine wrote in his autobiography, "This western was an attempt to return audiences to the dark territory of The Wild Bunch with a dash of The Dirty Dozen. We had Bill Holden again, and Daniel Mann—who'd directed Willard—tried real hard, but we didn't make it."
