Bill, a boy whose father was killed and mother and sister were gang-raped and murdered in front of him by five robbers, sets out 15 years later to exact revenge, having used the time to become an expert marksman.

Each of the outlaws bears a characteristic which Bill memorized while watching his family be slaughtered and his house set on fire: The first has a tattoo of four aces on his chest, the second a scar, the third one a distinctive earring.

Bill manages to kill Cavanaugh in a duel after recognizing him as the man with the four aces, and Ryan saves him after his gun goes dry.

They cross paths again in Lyndon City, where Ryan meets with a rich banker named Walcott and demands 30,000 dollars: 15,000 for the 15 years in prison, plus the money Cavanaugh owed him.

In the final shootout, which takes place during a dust storm, Bill and Ryan cleverly whittle down the gang members until it seems like Walcott is the last man standing.

Uncredited (in order of appearance) The screenplay and story of Death Rides a Horse was written by Luciano Vincenzoni.

[1][2] Vincenzoni went to work with director Giulio Petroni after having a falling out with Sergio Leone while the latter was making The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.

[4] "Robe" of Variety said that the film wouldn't reach the popularity of earlier Clint Eastwood westerns, noting that the script borrows from other Italian Westerns and that "good color photography and an interesting score by Ennio Morricone are the pic's strong points.

"[5] In his investigation of narrative structures in spaghetti Western films, writer Bert Fridlund ranges Death Rides a Horse, together with Day of Anger as prime examples of a "tutorship variation" that further develops the play on age/experience between the protagonists in For a Few Dollars More, with Lee Van Cleef playing the older partner in all three films.

In the "Tutorship" films, a younger protagonist seeks the more or less reluctant partnership of an older one, but differences of motivation eventually bring them into conflict.