The starring cast includes Stacy Keach, Pia Zadora, Lois Nettleton, Ed McMahon, James Franciscus, Edward Albert, and Orson Welles.

His wife, Belle Morgan, deserted him 10 years earlier and took their daughters, Janey and Kady, when she ran off with another man, Moke Blue.

Jess begins having a sexual attraction towards his daughter; initially opposed to stealing silver from the mine, he relents and says they can take small scraps after she seduces him.

Belle, suffering from severe tuberculosis, arrives with Blue and a mutual friend, Ed Lamey, ostensibly to celebrate the engagement.

At the hearing, Judge Rauch calls it "a crime against nature, shocking and repulsive to every basic sense of propriety, decency, and good citizenship."

Nevertheless, Zadora won Best Female Newcomer at the 39th Golden Globe Awards for her role (over Elizabeth McGovern and Kathleen Turner).

This occurred after her husband flew members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to Las Vegas to hear Zadora sing, producing accusations that the award had been "bought".