When "John" (John Wayne) returns home for the funeral of his mother and to reunite with his three brothers, he sets the cat amongst the pigeons. It turns out that their ranch now belongs to gunsmith "Hastings" (James Gregory) and with their father having been shot in the back, they start to investigate. Now "John" is a notable man with a gun, so tensions heighten when "Curley" (George Kennedy) arrives in town as a bit of muscle for the ambitious "Hastings". It's all a little predictable this but it builds to quite an explosive denouement and there's an enjoyable degree of chemistry between Wayne and kid brothers "Tom" (Dean Martin) and the baby of the pack "Bud" (Michael Anderson Jr) who has a notion to put a marble angel on top of his mother's grave - that or an horse. What ensues delivers quite an entertaining western with plenty of shoot 'em ups, quite a menacing baddie and a pretty wimpish Dennis Hopper in there too. It's a solidly written and paced action adventure that showcases some of the less laudable elements of the pioneering spirit - with plenty of splinters.
