Drifter Cole Harden is accused of stealing a horse and faces hanging by self-appointed Judge Roy Bean, but Harden manages to talk his way out of it by claiming to be a friend of stage star Lillie Langtry, with whom the judge is obsessed, even though he has never met her. Tensions rise when Harden comes to the defense of a group of struggling homesteaders who Judge Bean is trying to drive away.

• Samuel Goldwyn Productions
• Gary Cooper
• Walter Brennan
• Doris Davenport
• Fred Stone
• Forrest Tucker
• Paul Hurst
• Chill Wills
• Lilian Bond