The film's scenario and script was penned by Vidor and wife Elizabeth Hill, based loosely on "The Texas Rangers: A History of Frontier Defense of the Texas Rangers" by Walter Prescott Webb. Made on the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Texas Ranger Division the picture includes standard B western tropes, including Indian massacres of white settlers and a corrupt city official who receives small town justice at the hands of a jury composed of saloon denizens. The film presages, as does Vidor's "Billy the Kid" (1931), his portrayal of the savagery of civilization and nature in producer David O. Selznick's "Duel in the Sun" (1946).