the fourth of five western anthony mann do with james stewart and this one involve a hard bitten cattleman name jeff webster who take a cattle drive from wyoming to alaska and via seattle . he hook up in seattle with his partner ben tatum ( walter brennan ) and rube morris ( jay c. flippen ) that he have send ahead of time in order to make preparation for the boat trip and north . but first and he have to put up with insubordinate trail hand and cheat riverboat captain and the charm of coy and manipulative ronda castle ( ruth roman ) who believe jeff could be a valuable ally in the future . that why she hide him out on the boat while the captain look for him for the early ( and justifiable ) killing of a trail hand . jeff also have the misfortune of run into sleazy judge gannon ( john mcintire ) who run the town of skagway and alaska . gannon lock jeff up for disrupt his public hanging by run his cattle through town . he fin jeff the ownership of his cattle and jeff just have to eat crow for the time be . in the meantime and jeff agrees to ride point for ronda up to dawson in order to deliver supply . but this be just a ruse so jeff and ben and rube can slip back into skagway and steal his cattle back . of course judge gannon find out about this and be right behind but be delay by jeff with a rifle while ben race the cattle over the canadian border out of gannon reach . after avoid an avalanche and another shootout with some other skagway men and they finally reach dawson where jeff sell his cattle to the high bidder and which just happen to be ronda who then promptly set up a new gambling house in dawson . jeff then take his money and buy himself a claim and start pan for gold . but then judge gannon come up to dawson to get in on the gold action up there and and tell jeff that he be get a little bored with skagway and want to try his luck up in the klondike and himself . that involve bring some hired gunman with him and forcibly steal some of the other miner claim . jeff and ben now feel it time to clear out while the going be good and leave rube to fend for himself a a most ineffective sheriff against gannon and his gang . they look for a back way out only to find themselves ambush by gannon men because ben make the mistake of open his big mouth . ben be kill and jeff be severely wounded but that doesn not save judge gannon from his just due . the end shootout at night on the muddy dawson street pretty much take care of that . first jeff kill two of gannon best gunman ( jack elam and robert wilkie ) . then a ronda come out to warn jeff that gannon be try to slip around behind him and gannon shoot her in the back and she die right there in jeff arm . then jeff kill gannon a he hide under a wooden sidewalk . revenge have speak . this be another rip roar western that right up there with the naked spur and the man from laramie . why the universal dvd use a pan and scan print instead of the widescreen print tcm us and be beyond me . you will wind up miss half the glorious alberta cinematography by william daniel . so if you like well write 50 western and then this one an a list keeper . positive .