Five Bad Men

When cowboy and champion knife thrower Gene Taggart receives a letter requesting his help from Janet Bartlett, the daughter of his former employer Sim Bartlett, he immediately sets off for the Bartlett ranch accompanied by his bumbling sidekicks, Sam and Billy. Upon Gene's arrival at the ranch, a distressed Bartlett tells him that his prize cattle have been stolen and that local homesteaders are being forced off their land in droves by threatening strangers. After one of Bartlett's ranch hands informs Gene that he saw five surly and rugged strangers entering the Crow's Nest Saloon, owned by Mattoon, a former friend of Bartlett's, Gene rides into town to investigate. In the meantime, at the Crow's Nest, which serves as Mattoon's cover, Mattoon confers with the five strangers summoned to replace his original henchmen, who weren't bad enough. After ordering the five bad men to use terror and intimidation to force the local populace off their land, Mattoon reveals his plan to take over the entire valley and use the land for sheep grazing. At that moment, Gene shows up at the saloon and confronts Mattoon, telling him to cease his harassment of the homesteaders; however, Mattoon denies Gene's accusations, and when the two men start to fight, the sheriff arrives and kicks Gene out of the saloon. With Gene temporarily out of the way, Mattoon then summons Bartlett's ranch foreman, Wilsie Andrews, who is secretly in cahoots with Mattoon's gang, and orders him to get rid of Gene at the earliest opportunity. At the ranch the following day, while Sam and Billy clumsily attempt to churn butter and pump water, Janet and Gene playfully race each other on horseback; however their idyllic afternoon is interrupted by the sight of Lige Jenkins and his wife, the Bartletts' neighbors, fleeing in terror from their property. After escorting the couple safely to the Bartlett spread, Gene sets off to apprehend Mattoon's henchmen, and in his absence, the Bartletts' panicked Swedish servant Olga announces that Janet has been kidnapped by the gang. Gene returns to the ranch after fighting two of Mattoon's bad men and throwing them over the edge of a cliff, and when he learns of Janet's abduction, he goes to the rescue with Sam and Billy tagging along on burros. Janet is located on the rocky shelf of a cliff, and Gene single-handedly beats Wilsie and two of Mattoon's other cohorts in a fistfight, after which he ties them up and orders Sam and Billy to take them to the sheriff. Back at the ranch, Bartlett receives a phone call from a neighbor, informing him that thousands of grass-devouring sheep, herded by Mattoon's gang, are stampeding across the grazing lands. When the sheriff refuses to intervene, claiming that the ranchers' property doesn't fall within his jurisdiction, Bartlett decides to take the law into his own hands and encourages the ranchers to do likewise. Cowboys, homesteaders and ranchers gather together all their guns and ammunition and congregate at the Bartlett ranch, after which a protracted and bloody gun battle ensues between the locals and Mattoon's gang. Gene and Janet make it back to the ranch just as the ranchers' supply of ammunition is nearly exhausted, but Gene heads straight into enemy lines, and after fighting the five bad men single-handedly, he forces them to wave a flag signaling their surrender. Gene delivers Mattoon's henchmen to the ranchers and then sets off to apprehend their leader, who is attempting to escape. When Gene catches up with Mattoon, he knocks him off his horse and manages to disarm him during a fistfight. Mattoon is taken into town to be jailed, and a grateful Bartlett asks Gene to replace Wilsie as ranch foreman. Gene gladly accepts, and then sets off for a solitary horseback ride with Janet.