Clark Gable's post WW2 MGM films were a highly variable bunch - the studio never seemed to know how to cast him - but his career received a boost with some actioners he made over at Fox, notably this and Soldier of Fortune.
It helps that he has one of his best female co stars in Jane Russell, a real guy's woman who is totally at home with the King.
Clark and Cameron Mitchell are former Quanrtill's Raiders who've turned to crime after the Civil War; they rob Robert Ryan who then turns around and offers to go into partnership with them on a massive cattle drive - an intriguing beginning to a Western.
The script makes two major mistakes - the cattle drive doesn't actually start until about an hour into the film (the running time is almost two hours) and after setting up Ryan and Mitchell as these intriguing characters they don't really need them - it's especially galling with Ryan, since the conflict is so inherent, but he spends most of the film just kind of hanging around Jane Russell as a false love interest rival. He redeems himself at the end by trying to kill Gable, then saying how much he admires Gable despite having just tried to kill him (very much shades of the Anthony Mann Westerns here), and you go "that's an interesting character and situation - why didn't you use that throughout the film?"
But it's still entertaining - the visuals are strong, with striking images set in the snow in the first act, and spectacular cattle footage; Russell takes a bath and two swims, just to remind everyone why she's really in the film (she also sings a few numbers); several Mexican characters are depicted very sympathetically, a sign of the changing times, though they still simply follow orders from Gable.
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