Accompanied by his sidekick, Gabby Whittaker, Roy returns to his home in Kelso, Missouri to sell a string of horses and visit some old friends. Roy arrives to find the town troubled by talk of war, for although the state of Missouri is pledged to fight for the Union, the sympathies of Kelso lie with the Confederacy. Roy is also disturbed by the news that his boyhood friend, Dave, plans to join a band of renegades led by the dashing cutthroat Val McBride. Dave ignores Roy’s warnings about McBride and, at the onset of the war, joins McBride’s division of the army. It soon becomes apparent that McBride is using his Confederate uniform to mask his activities as a guerilla, earning the renegade captain a reprimand from his superiors. When McBride seizes upon the reprimand as an excuse to bolt the army, Roy, now a Confederate scout, is ordered to take a band of men and subdue him. After McBride is wounded in a skirmish with Roy’s men, Dave takes him to Dr. Radford’s, where Roy and Dave meet again, and Roy warns his friend once more to abandon McBride. Once again, Dave ignores Roy’s warnings, and soon after, Roy is forced to order his friend’s execution when he traps the guerillas as they try to ambush a shipment of ammunition. Escaping Roy’s trap, McBride rides to the inn owned by his sweetheart, Bess Warren. Roy follows and brings the renegade to justice with the barrel of his gun. More on Wikipedia or Mubi
Watch The Arizona Kid (1939)
