Set in the late 19th century, the story focuses on the forbidden romance between the title character and Johnse Hatfield, whose families have been feuding for many years.

Cap is injured in an accident, and while his parents tend to his wounds, the psychotic Mounts arrives at the Hatfield cabin and threatens Roseanna, who is rescued by Anse.

Thad carries the wounded Tolbert to the McCoy house, where Roseanna and her father are awaiting Johnse's arrival, and reports Little Randall is injured and trapped in the store with the Hatfields.

Samuel Goldwyn originally had commissioned screenwriter John Collier to develop the project for Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell, but when O'Donnell married William Wyler's older brother, the producer - still resenting the fact Wyler had left Samuel Goldwyn Productions to form his own production company - felt betrayed and replaced her with newcomer Joan Evans.

[3] Granger was pleased with the initial draft of the script, which had enhanced the story with undercurrents of witchcraft and superstition, and he was anxious for filming to begin.

"[4] No one in the cast had received a shooting script, and it was not until they were on a train en route to a small town in the Sierra Madre Mountains that would serve as the set that Reis admitted the screenplay still was being written.

[5] Highly regarded script doctor Philip Yordan had been hired to work on the screenplay, and pages of dialogue began to arrive on the set.

[8] The reviewer for The New York Times observed, "There is much feudin', fussin' and lovin' in this pictorially handsome recreation of the fabulous enmity between the Hatfields and the McCoys, but the characters lack the stature of true persons.

It is a lively, noisy battle, but somehow its effect is anticlimatic [sic] and, in this spectator's opinion, heightens the feeling that Roseanna McCoy is not a valid dramatic achievement.

That the producer strove to recreate an authentic picture of early American superstitions and ignorance is quite evident, but, like the Dodgers, the opposition apparently was too much for him this time.