Cattle Empire is a 1958 American Western DeLuxe Color movie in CinemaScope directed by Charles Marquis Warren, starring Joel McCrea and released by 20th Century Fox.
The film also features Gloria Talbott, Don Haggerty, Phyllis Coates, and Bing Russell and serves as something of a forerunner for director Warren's subsequent television series Rawhide starring Eric Fleming and Clint Eastwood, which used the picture's writer Endre Bohem, as well as some of its supporting cast (Paul Brinegar, Steve Raines, Rocky Shahan, and Charles H. Gray).
The story starts with John Cord (Joel McCrea) apprehended by the townsfolk, who have roped him and are dragging him through the streets with the intent to kill him.
Cord is saved from death by Ralph, a prominent cattle owner and major businessman of the town... who turns up with his wife and his brother.
Cord is a skilled cattleman and one of the few people capable of driving the cattle across land, at a time of the year when little grass is available and many of the rivers are dry.