Two-Gun Lady

Famous trick-shot artist Kate Masters arrives in a small western town with her bibulous manager, Doc McGinnis, to perform at "Big Mike" Dougherty's saloon. Earlier, Mike had received a letter from Kate asking to appear at his establishment, although she normally plays only in major cities. Kate's motives puzzle Mike and he worries that she and Doc may be undercover law officers investigating his past. Meanwhile,stranger Dan Corbin arrives in town. After facing down Gruber, an argumentative gunman who works for Jud Ivers, the town boss and local land baron, Dan is hired by Jud. When Dan goes to the Ivers ranch, he meets Jud's teenage daughter, Jenny, who explains that her father has an injured arm and cannot participate in gunfights, but enjoys instigating them. Jenny's older brother, Ben, returns to Mike's saloon after a successful bank robbery and meets secretly with Bess, Mike's girl friend, a saloon hostess who is two-timing Mike. Ben tells Bess that after he hides out at his father's ranch for a while, then they can leave the area together. During Kate's opening performance, Bess plies Doc with drink in order to find out for Mike the real reason he and Kate have come to the one-horse town. After the show, Doc confesses to Kate that he cannot remember what he told Bess and that he misses his late wife, Liz. Doc and Liz, who ran a traveling medicine show together, reared the orphaned Kate as their daughter and Liz, who was also a trick-shot artist, taught Kate how to perform. The next day, Kate borrows a horse from Mike and goes riding, stopping near the burned ruins of an old ranch once owned by a family called Marshall. Jenny, who is on her way to try to prevent a gunfight that her father has instigated between Dan and Gruber, encounters Kate there. Jenny tells Kate that after her land-grabbing father killed Mr. Marshall, Ben shot Mrs. Marshall and attempted to kill their young daughter, but the girl escaped. Later, Kate encounters Gruber, out of bullets after his gunfight with Dan, attempting to kill him with a knife. After Kate shoots Gruber in the hand, Dan thanks her for her help. When Mike learns that Ben has returned, he warns Kate that Ben can shoot as well as she does. The next evening, Dan, who is romantically interested in Kate, warns her that Jud is in the saloon and riled up about her visit to the Marshall place. After Kate enters the saloon and Jud addresses her as Karen Marshall, she draws a small gun from a fan she is carrying and accuses him of murdering her parents, then tells him she is really hunting for Ben, whom she saw kill her mother. Later, Dan reveals to Kate that he is an undercover lawman also looking for Ben and pleads with her to testify against the Ivers family, persuading her that she is incapable of killing. Meanwhile, Ben, maddened by the bleating of Jenny's pet lamb, kills it, thereby enraging Jenny. Soon after, Bess, finally rejected by Mike because she has guessed Kate's true identity and informed Jud, arrives at the ranch to warn Jud and Ben that Dan is a federal marshal who is coming to arrest them. Bess tries to persuade Ben to leave with her but he has become obsessed with the idea of killing Kate and when they struggle for possession of his gun, Bess is shot. After their attempt to ambush Dan fails, Jud tries to ride off, but Dan chases and catches him. Ben, who has eluded Dan, heads for the saloon where Mike takes a shotgun from behind the bar and tells Ben to leave. Mike then admits that he killed Ben's brother Hank because Hank was involved in the death of his friend Marshall. After Ben shoots Mike in the shoulder, Ben states that he killed Hank. Kate then comes downstairs and faces Ben, who challenges her to draw her gun. As Dan enters with Jud in handcuffs, Kate and Ben draw simultaneously. Ben's shot knocks the gun from Kate's hand, but he is seriously wounded and, from a doorway, Jenny finishes him off with a rifle shot. Later, Kate, Dan and Doc prepare to leave and tell Mike that, after placing Jenny in a boarding school, they will be returning to rebuild the Marshall ranch as a home for Jenny and them.