In 1845, in Louisiana, the wedding of Phoebe Ann Naylor to the Spanish nobleman Don Andrea Baldazar falls apart after a violent death, and the fugitive heads for Texas, which is not yet a state of the Union. There he teams up with Sam Hollis, a Texan trail guide, and his Native companion Kronk to cross hostile country, where the Comanches and the army complicate every stage of the journey.

How it was made

Filming began in January 1966 in Techniscope, with location work at North Ranch in Thousand Oaks and in San Diego, California. Ken Annakin was offered the director's chair but turned it down, judging the shooting schedule too short. Michael Gordon took over, working on the screenplay with Ben Starr, and later spoke candidly about his clashing working methods with Dean Martin. The title song, performed by The Kingston Trio, was written by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen. Russell Metty shot the film and Frank De Vol composed the score.

Reception and legacy

The available sources do not give reliable details on critical or box-office reception, so its initial response cannot be described with confidence. Its documented afterlife is mainly in home media: it circulated on DVD through Universal's MOD program and on VHS, now out of print, and Kino Lorber released it on Region 1 Blu-ray on January 5, 2021.