The Broken Star 1956

A deputy marshal Smeed kills a ranch hand and runs off with a sack of gold, claiming it was a fair fight. Yet the story doesn’t sit well with Marshal Wayne Forrester, the authority in Arizona’s Southern Territory, who has his doubts about the encounter. Unknown to Smeed, a witness named Nachez has seen the murder, and as the investigation unfolds, Smeed works hard to obscure the evidence and eliminate anyone who could implicate him.

Another deputy Gentry, who has always admired Smeed, defends him to his girlfriend Alvarado, but his faith wavers when Alvarado translates the written eyewitness account from Spanish, revealing the truth behind Nachez’s testimony. Enraged by the revelation, Smeed kidnaps Nachez and drags him to a mine, where he murders him and hides the body. Gentry arrives at the scene, only to be overpowered by Smeed, bound, and left to be buried in a cave-in caused by a blasting charge.

The marshal arrives with his posse and closes in on Smeed inside the mine, employing an alternate entry to trap him. Meanwhile, Gentry, who survived the cave-in, frees himself and joins the pursuit. The standoff culminates as the posse corners Smeed; he fires first, but Gentry replies with the fatal shot.

In the final moments, Gentry, now with a new bride, Alvarado, is presented with a fresh badge by Forrester and congratulated for being named the marshal of Arizona’s Northern Territory. The story closes on a note of earned justice and a quiet, but hopeful, frontier future.