The Homesteaders

Mace Corbin (Elliott) wants to get the dynamite to Oregon homesteaders who desperately need it to blast rocks out of their farmland and to open up a passage to good grazing territory.

Dynamite is hard to come by after the Civil War, and Kroger (James Seay) persuades Mace's broke farmer friend Clyde (Robert Lowery) to sell Mace out and double-cross him by giving Kroger the dynamite once it arrives.

Mace and Clyde make the journey with a bunch of ex-military prisoners; some are glad to be sprung from the fort and make a little money, with the prospect of filing homesteading claims, but others are a downright angry bunch. And then there's those Indians...

Not many westerns are centred around dynamite ( unstable like nitroglycerine) - well not carrying it over a long trek in the hope of blasting away rocks and trees so they can farm their land. Interesting idea, plus the crew consist of prisoners - the dirty dozen style and you have a mixed assortment of characters, some obedient to wild Bill Elliott's command and some plain disobedient. The film moves along briskly, the events flow naturally, and with some good action scenes.