Fort Bravo is a Union prison camp with a strict disciplinarian named Captain Roper (William Holden).

He does just that, but on the way back to the fort, they are attacked by fierce Mescalero Apaches who are hostile to both sides and the group ends up trapped in a shallow exposed depression.

The next morning, in an effort to save Carla and Beecher, Roper walks out in plain view, making it appear that he is the sole survivor.

While he found Sturges's direction full of "professional smoothness," he had many problems with Frank Fenton's "fuzzily defined" characters.

"[4] Leonard Maltin disagreed, calling the film "well-executed" and awarding it three stars in his independent movie review guide.