- After the Civil War, Cord McNally searches for the two traitors whose treachery caused the defeat of McNally's unit and the loss of a close friend.
- Bent on unearthing the two Union traitors who sold gold shipment information to Confederates and caused the death of a dear brother-in-arms, the battle-tested former Union cavalry officer, Colonel Cord McNally, teams up with a pair of ex-Confederates after the Civil War. Now, as friends, the McNally and the Confederate captain Pierre Cordona ride into Rio Lobo--a dusty town in the middle of the desert overcome by corruption--to bring to justice the remaining traitor who sold McNally out; however, the town is rife with the betrayer's murderous cut-throats. Can McNally avenge his bosom buddy and clean up Rio Lobo?—Nick Riganas
- Colonel Cord McNally, an ex-Union Officer teams up with a couple of ex-Confederate Rebels to search for the two Union traitors who sold information to the South during the Civil War. Their quest brings them to the town of Rio Lobo, where they help recover this little Texas town from ruthless outlaws who are led by one of the traitors they were looking for.—Christopher D. Ryan <cryan@direct.ca>
- During the Civil War, the Union Army's gold was being stolen by a band of Confederate soldiers. When the protégé of Colonel Cord McNally is killed during one of their raids, he tracks them down, but is captured. The leader, Captain Pierre Cordona wants the Colonel to lead them away, but instead leads them into their territory and captures Cordona and his Sergeant, Tuscarora. He knows that the only way they could get away with their raids is if they had inside information, which someone from the Union Army gave them. They refuse to tell McNally anything, and are imprisoned. When the War ends, McNally visits them and asks them to tell him from whom they got their information, but unfortunately, they don't know who they are. Tuscarora is on his way to Rio Lobo, Texas where he grew up. McNally then tells them that if they should ever come across them again, to contact him through a friend of his who is a Sheriff in Texas. Later, McNally is contacted by the Sheriff on instructions from Cardona, but when he arrives, Cardona is indisposed, so while they are waiting, a woman arrives and wants to report to the Sheriff a murder that took place in Rio Lobo, but the Sheriff claims that there's nothing he can do. Later, a posse from Rio Lobo arrives and wants to take the woman away, but she claims that the leader is the killer about whom she is talking. Later, a gunfight ensues with Cardona joining in, and he says that the leader is one of the men, for whom McNally is looking. He then tells him that Tuscarora contacted and told him that he saw one of the men for whom the Colonel is looking, who the assumed is the one who was killed, and that there is trouble in Rio Lobo, and he needs help. So McNally, Cordona, and the girl go to Rio Lobo, and they discover all sorts of graft and corruption going on.—rcs0411@yahoo.com
- During the US civil war, a train transporting Yankee army gold is ambushed by a group of Confederate soldiers, led by a French/Mexican man, Captain Pierre Cordona (Jorge Riveiro). Union Colonel Cord McNally (John Wayne) leads some of his men to pursue them and as the confederates keep splitting up McNally splits his own troops in pursuit. As he ends up on his own in the forest he spots Cordona but as he attempts to capture him, he is jumped and knocked out by Sergeant Tuscarora Philips (Christopher Mitchum). They take him hostage and have him lead them as they try to escape through Union territory but as they approach a Union camp, McNally shouts out and escapes. Most of the confederates escape but McNally manages to pull Cordona from his horse and knock him out. Tuscarora hides under the water and when the Union soldiers ride past him, he goes back to help Cordona but McNally captures him as well. McNally wants information from them as it's the fourth time Union gold has been stolen by the Confederates and he knows they're getting information from someone. McNally offers to let them escape but Cordona and Tuscarora refuse to give him answers and are placed in a prisoner of war camp. After the civil war ends, as Cordona and Tuscarora are being released, McNally is waiting to greet them and invites them for a drink. He doesn't hold them responsible for the acts they committed, he considers it part of war but he wants the traitor who was giving them information about the gold shipments. One of McNally's officers and friends, Lt. Forsythe was injured during the robbery and died. They tell McNally that it was two men, but it was dark and one was a big man with dark hair and the other was smaller with white hair but they don't know their names. Tuscarora tells McNally that he's going to Rio Lobo to work for the old man, Phillips, (Jack Elam) who brought him up. McNally tells them he can be reached through the Sheriff in Blackthorne, Texas if they ever have any more information for him about two traitors.
Some time later, McNally gets a message from Cordona to meet him. The Blackthorne sheriff, Pat Cronin (Bill Williams) tells him Cordona is in the hotel waiting for him. As they are talking, a stagecoach pulls up in the town transporting a woman called Shasta Delaney (Jennifer O' Neill). She tells Pat that there's been a murder in Rio Lobo that was committed by one of the town's sheriff's deputies. Pat insists he can't do anything about it as it's out of his jurisdiction. McNally and Pat go to the hotel to meet Cordona but he's left a message not to be disturbed and they go and sit near Shasta in the bar having a drink. Four deputies arrive from Rio Lobo, including a white haired man called Whitey Carter. They walk into the hotel to arrest Shasta and return her to Rio Lobo. She denies his story and tells Pat that Whitey is the man who killed her friend. Whitey says it was self defense. Pat tells him he's not arresting anyone in his town without a warrant. One of the deputies sneaks in through the back door with a rifle pointing at him. Shasta pulls out a derringer from her bag underneath the table and shoots Whitey. McNally and Pat shoot the other two deputies and the last deputy is just about to shoot McNally when Cordona emerges from his room upstairs with a rifle and saves his life. Cordona recognizes Whitey as one of the men from the war who sold them information. Shasta starts to feel faint after killing Whitey and McNally takes her to Cordona's room to put her to bed. He talks to the stagecoach driver who confirms her story about Whitey killing her friend and her been innocent of murder. Cordona tells McNally that Whitey was working for a rich Yankee but that's all he and Tuscarora have found out. He also tells him that Tuscarora's old friend Phillips is having trouble in Rio Lobo from people who want to take his land away. He's hoping McNally will help him out in return for them helping him and he agrees. Shasta wakes up and offers to go with them as she knows Rio Lobo and knows who to talk to about everything that's going on. The three of them arrive and sneak into the town late at night. They go to see Tuscarora's girlfriend, Maria (Susana Dosamantes). Maria tells them they can stay with her but they'll have to hide their horses out of view of Sheriff Tom Hendricks (Mike Henry) and his men. Cordona hides them but he notices some deputies patrolling the streets. With nowhere to hide he barges into the home of a woman called Amelita, who is topless at the time. They introduce themselves, she dresses and checks outside and when it's all clear he runs back to Maria's. Cordona thinks they should go to Tuscarora's in the morning but McNally doesn't think they should. If the sheriff and his men are watching the town, he reckons they'll be watching the ranch. Shasta suggests going into town faking a bad tooth to talk to the dentist who is a friend of Tuscarora's and find out what's going on so that Hendricks doesn't get suspicious about a stranger arriving. Tuscarora arrives in town with a herd of horses he leaves at the stable and goes to the hotel where Maria works to greet her. McNally arrives and keeps his head down to avoid being noticed and witnesses Hendrick's deputies beat Tuscarora up after accusing him of stealing the horses. Maria tries to intervene but she is knocked down. Hendricks comes walking out and tells them to put Tuscarora in jail. Maria is crying and McNally approaches her as a stranger to avoid suspicion and tells her to go inside. He tells Hendricks he's just in town to the see Doc Jones (David Huddleston) about his tooth. Knowing that Hendricks and his men will be watching them through the window of his surgery Doc Jones pretends to remove McNally's tooth while giving him information about what's going on. He tells him that a man called Ketcham (Victor French) is running the town after arriving when the war ended. Hendricks had killed the old sheriff and been given the job by Ketcham. He tells McNally that they will probably use Tuscarora to blackmail Phillips and run off all his stock so that he's trapped inside and threaten to hang Tuscarora unless he sells his land for a quarter of what it's worth. McNally tells Cordona and Shasta the situation and they go out to Phillips' ranch to try and help him. They knock out the three deputies who are trying to keep him prisoner in his home but are unable to approach the door through fear of been shot by the old man. Shasta goes to see him and he pulls her inside and tells McNally and Cordona to enter with their hands in the air. They explain they are friends of Tuscarora's and are trying to help him get out of jail. Phillips knows Ketcham's ranch well so McNally suggests they go and capture him and use him to bargain with Hendricks to release Tuscarora. They leave Shasta with a friend of Phillips' and go out to sneak into Ketchanm's ranch at night. They quietly take care of his men who are patrolling his home. McNally and Cordona look through the window and Cordona recognizes Ketcham as the traitor who sold them information during the war. It's a Sergeant Major who McNally knew. McNally breaks through the door and gives Ketcham a beating while Cordona and Phillips fire bullets at his men outside to keep them from getting in. McNally beats Ketcham until he agrees to sign over all the deeds he has from all the years of stealing. He agrees after an oil lamp is knocked over and his legs catch fire. They use him as hostage to get away on horseback. McNally realizes that that if they trade Ketcham for Tuscarora Hendricks and his men will just pursue them, capture them and kill them. So instead of trading him, McNally thinks they should order Hendricks and his men to leave the jail so they can join Tuscarora and hold out while Cordona goes to get the cavalry. A deputy arrives at the jail to tell Hendricks what has happened at Phillips' ranch. Hendricks tells his men to guard the main road and prevent anyone from going in or coming out. McNally goes to Maria's. She's happy that they have Ketcham but Amelita has been attacked by Hendricks. She shows McNally the scar she has down the side of her face from him slicing her in order to get her to tell what she knows. She says she's going to kill him but McNally says he'll do it first. He and Phillips take Ketcham to the jail and tell Hendricks that they'll kill him unless he and his men unarm themselves and leave the office. They lock themselves away in the office and get Tuscarora out of the cell. They sit back and wait for the cavalry but the plan goes wrong when Cordona is ambushed and taken hostage by the deputies guarding the road before he can bring backup. Doc Jones takes some food to McNally and the others at the office. A deputy delivers a message telling them they have Cordona and they want to trade him for Ketcham. With no other option, McNally agrees to it. He gives Doc Jones the deeds that Ketcham has signed and tells him that no matter what happens the people will get their land back. The next morning, McNally, Phillips and Tuscarora take Ketcham to do the given exchange point. They meet Doc Jones at a cantina with some of the townspeople who are offering to help them. If Hendricks wins this battle they know they will have their land taken away again. Some of the them hide around the town armed while Tuscarora hides in the water that lays between the cantina and the barn where Hendricks and his men are holding Cordona. McNally shouts for Hendricks to release in return for Ketcham. Ketcham and Cordona start walking towards each other and Tuscarora signals to Cordona from the creek and Cordona jumps into the water. McNally orders Ketcham to stop going any further or he'll shoot him. Hendricks wants him back but McNally tells him he's no use to him as the deeds have been signed over to the people and they are both broke. Hendricks is full of rage and guns Ketcham down. McNally shoots Hendricks in the leg and is shot in the leg himself by one of the deputies. A shootout takes place. It isn't long before Hendrick's men are outgunned. After a failed attempt to blow up the cantina with dynamite the remaining men decide to run out on Hendricks. Hendricks tries to stop them from leaving by firing at them. But after using his rifle as a cane to limp with (barrel side down),its become clogged with mud and when he fires it explodes in his face. He limps to his horse but Amelia appears behind him armed with a rifle. He tries to swing around and shoot her but he's not fast enough and she kills him with two shots. Tuscarora is reunited with Marie and Cordona with Shasta. McNally comforts Amelita and limps off with her with Rio Lobo now free from corruption.
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