Proud Rebel: Alan Ladd is the proud rebel in this taut suspenseful drama. Searching for a doctor to cure his mute son, he settles in a sheep ranching town to raise money for the operation. The warmth of love, the beauty of the country and the violence of the greedy men combine to make this one of the most dramatic and emotional Westerns in film history. “Kansas Pacific”: Hayden is the army engineer sent to speed up the work on completion of the Kansas Pacific Railroad which is being slowed down by confederate sympathisers, just prior to the break out of the Civil War.