spoiler . spoiler . everywhere . a western a nightmare and people by strange character obsess with their ancestor and pursue explore the deep hatred create by family feud and infidelity . it mix genre and style and method use flashback and noir lighting and melo drama within the western framework . mitchum character be raise from a child by judith anderson after a night of murder and mayhem at his shotgun shack and leave him an orphan . he grow up in a single parent family with a brother and sister but there be no brotherly love and sisterly love becomes lust . he know he doesn not fit in and that there a dire secret from his past lead him to paranoia . spoiler begin mitchum paranoia be reinforce when his pony be shoot out from under him by dean jagger and a sinister figure who be the ultimate bad penny . there a touch of quasi incest when a deeply disturbed teresa wright and an equally deranged robert mitchum pledge their love only to have it turn on it head when mitchum shoot her brother in self defense after he return from active duty and have lose the toss of a coin and an early version of the draft ballot . the plot be thick with device and trick and clue . when wright love turn to hate she devise a revenge so steep in wickedness and deceit and it stomach turn . mitchum have do nothing to deserve his run of bad luck and bad treatment . he be orphan by a vengeful brother in law and reject by his adoptive brother who attempt to kill him and go willingly to a war he have no interest in and and when he do the unthinkable and kill his brother and his beloved reject him outright with a scathing gesture . it all culminates in a final dreadful scene where mitchum be prime for a lynching .