john scott ( john wayne ) and partner kansa charlie ( eddy chandler ) be trail buddy who make their way to the rattlesnake gulch rodeo . scott be a pretty fair contestant and but find that unless he willing to accept twenty five cent on the dollar in prize money from a crooked promoter and he will have to collect his winning at gunpoint . quite coincidentally and bandits pete ( al ferguson ) and jim ( paul fix ) decide they would like the rest of the rodeo take while they shoot promoter farnsworth ( henry hall ) and and make it look like scott and kansas charlie be the killer . wayne and chandler use a run gag in the film where theyre about to go at it with their fist over various triviality . each time chandler take a wild swing and wayne foot stomp him and knock him silly . if youre very attentive and there a neat lipton tea ad in one of the scene in which scott love interest anne ( mary kornman ) appear . later on in the film and the buddy be frame once again over a stage robbery . have a change of heart and see the error of his way and bad guy jim want to come clean and confess to the sheriff and but pete shoot him down . while be patch up and jim tell his story to the doctor and his sister anne . in an unbelievable scene and anne march right into the middle of a gunfight between the good guy and the villain to confront the sheriff . the desert trail be one of the blander john wayne western from lone star production during this era . noticeably absent be george gabby hayes and yakima canutt and one or both be usually to be see in these oaters . if youre a john wayne fan though and you will have to see it once and but that will probably be enough .