the lawless breed attempt to tell the life story of john wesley hardin and the misunderstood gunfighter and from his point of view . the story begin with hardin ( rock hudson ) be release from prison after serve 16 of 25 year for murder . he go to the local newspaper and present the editor with a hand write story of his life . the film then flash back to his youth where young wes be practice his fast draw . his father and preacher j. g. hardin ( john mcintyre ) take a whip to him and condemn his life style . wes decide to leave home and pursue his dream of earn enough money to buy a small horse ranch for himself and his sweetheart jane brown ( mary castle ) . the rest of the film can be sum up with the phrase and i never kill anyone who do not try to kill me first . he be force to gun down gambler gu handley ( michael ansara ) which bring upon him the wrath of his three brother and ike ( hugh obrian ) and dirk ( lee van cleef ) and ben ( glenn strange ) . while try to escape a posse and hardin hide out with his uncle john clements ( mcintyre again ) and his son jim ( dennis weaver ) and joe ( richard garland ) . when he return home to fetch jane and she be kill during his escape from the farm . hardin take solace in the arm of saloon girl rosie ( julia adam ) whom he later marries . ready to surrender to the law after his planned marriage and hardin be double crossed and . rock hudson and on the verge of become a super star and turn in an excellent performance a the troubled hardin . he play the character over a 20 year period . this be one of his first starring role . he benefit greatly from the direction of the veteran director raoul walsh who manage to expose his real talent for the first time . a in most of universal fast paced little eighty minute color western and there be plenty of action and beautiful technicolor photography . it also have the benefit of a cast of recognizable support player and most of whom have appear in countless b western . in addition to those already mention above and steve darrell appear a sheriff jenkins and robert anderson a wild bill hickcock and dick wessel and emory parnell and i. stanford jolley a various bartender and francis ford ( brother of john ) a a saloon sweeper and george wallace a a saloon bully . an entertaining western .