(1952) Of apples and men: Technicolor western, directed by Anthony Mann, screenplay by Borden Chase, and based on Bill Gulick's novel, Bend of the Snake, of a post-Civil War wagon train of settlers going from Missouri to a valley on the Columbia River in Oregon, led by conflicted Glyn McLyntock (James Stewart), was innovatively psychodramatic for its time.

Having got the wagons through the Black Hills safely, while scouting up ahead Glyn rescues an accused horse thief from hanging. Formerly a raider on the Kansas-Missouri border, Emerson Cole (Arthur Kennedy) joins the settlers just as a band of Shoshone braves attacks, wounding with an arrow to her upper torso Laura (Julia Adams), the older daughter of wagon master Jeremy Baile. Together Glyn and Cole stealthily eliminate the five Indians, with Cole saving Glyn's life.

Cole asks Glyn whom he's running away from and if Laura's his girl; from his former self, also a bushwhacker back in Kansas, replies Glyn, but he's got no claim on Laura.

Upon reaching Portland, Laura's younger sister Marjie (Lori Nelson) takes a shine to Trey Wilson (Rock Hudson), a gambler up from San Francisco; during in a card game Trey wounds Don Grundy, the owner of the saloon, whom Cole then kills, for cheating and being identified from the past. The 100 future farmers of America board the steamer River Queen under the command of Capt Mello ("Never should have left the Mississippi"), also acting as a surgeon for Laura, who needs at least a month of bed rest before traveling on.

Expecting supplies along with Laura to have been delivered from Portland as Tom Hendricks promised by September, Jeremy and Glyn ride back over 100 miles to the town in October to find the cause of the delay. Portland has become a boomtown with the discovery of gold; prices have escalated as a result, and supplies of food with winter approaching are scarce. As for Laura, she's recovered and decided to remain in Portland with Cole, who's working for Hendricks along with Trey.

Nevertheless, when Glyn hires a crew of men to load the steamer with the goods already paid for and Hendricks pulls a gun on him, both Cole and Trey enter the fray on Glyn's side.

Convinced that once a man has gone bad, like an apple, Jeremy believes there's no hope of redemption. For awhile Cole seems to prove Laura's father wrong, having fallen in love with a good woman and aiding Glyn's efforts to escape Hendricks and his men; Glyn hopes Jeremy's mistaken as well for his own sake. But when miners from the gold camp offer $100,000 for the supplies to get them through the winter, Cole - with the backing of Shorty (Henry Morgan), Red, and the other greedy hired hands - turns on Glyn, Jeremy, and Laura; Trey, a betting man judging the odds, switches sides as well.

What would he rather have, Cole asks Glyn, the miners' money or a cheap "thank you" from the farmers, followed by a boot in the butt once they find he's just another bad apple? Sparing Glyn's life - "I figure we're even" - Cole leaves his erstwhile comrade without horse or weapon as he redirects the supply wagons and cattle toward the gold camp with Laura and Jeremy as hostages. From the rear, Glyn thunders his threat: "You'll be seein' me!"

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