Cast: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Andy Devine, John Carradine, Thomas Mitchell, Louise Platt, George Bancroft, Donald Meek, Tom Tyler, Berton Churchill, Tim Holt, Yakima Canutt, William Hopper
Buck (Devine) drives a stagecoach with six passengers out of the town of Tonto, Arizona. Marshall Curly Wilcox (Bancroft) rides shotgun. Along the way they are stopped by a man on foot, carrying a rifle and the saddle of his dead horse. Marshall Wilcox recognizes the young man as the Ringo Kid (Wayne), a fugitive from justice. Wilcox takes away Ringo’s rifle and places him under arrest. But Ringo warns that he saw a ranch house burning the night before, and Wilcox may soon need him and his Winchester. Squeezing into the passenger compartment, Ringo (a nickname, his given name is Henry) gradually makes the acquaintance of his fellow travelers. Lucy Mallory (Platt) is a young woman on her way to her husband, an Army officer. Samuel Peacock (Meek) is a liquor salesman. Keeping close to him and his alcohol samples is Doctor Josiah Boone (Mitchell), a physician and a drunkard. Hatfield (Carradine) poses as a gambler and conceals his past as a renegade Confederate officer. Dallas (Trevor) is a young woman run out of town by Tonto’s guardians of morality. Henry Gatewood (Churchill) keeps to himself. Unknown to the others he is a banker running away with his bank’s funds. Hatfield learns of his family’s past connection to Lucy’s and becomes her protector. When Hatfield is rude to Dallas, Ringo comes to her defense, and gradually the woman with the shady past forms a bond with the young man with a history of violence. Buck drives the stagecoach across spectacular desert landscapes to an Overland Stage Lines outpost where Dallas helps a tipsy Doc Boone deliver a baby. They learn of rampaging Apache Indians, and must decide whether to press on to Lordsburg without an expected cavalry escort. Ringo wants very much to proceed to Lordsburg, to seek out and kill Luke Plummer (Tyler), the man who killed his father and brother. For their own reasons, most of the other travelers also want to continue the trip. They leave and soon come under attack by Indians. Buck drives the fresh team of horses with consummate skill, running ahead at full gallop towards Lordsburg. The running battle with the Indians forces Wilcox to free Ringo. Wanted man Ringo and renegade officer Hatfield join forces with lawman Wilcox to fight the savage onslaught. Based on the story Stage to Lordsburg by Ernest Haycox.
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