Bitter Creek

Haunted drifter Jim Sutter rides into heavy trouble his first night in Bitter Creek, a Dakota Territory cowtown. Caught up in the epic 1886 drought, the town is the focal point for an escalating feud between stockmen and homesteaders as well as a feud between the stockmen and the sodbusters for control of the river.

Jim Sutter, a diminutive, sad-eyed drifter with a hidden past, rides into the South Dakota cowtown of Bitter Creek in a time of savage drouth. Set upon and beaten by toughs, he is rescued by widowed rancher, Jenny Olds, who he soon comes to love. Jim decides to stay on with Jenny and soon finds himself in the middle of a blood feud between the powerful cattlemen's association and the sodbusters, led by fiery Lucas Brand. Hugh Tallant spearheads the fight for the ranchers, seeking to crush the sodbusters that control the vital Bitter Creek River. Tallant is ably aided by Gil Fetterman, a notorious gunfighter, and Milo Pitt, a sadistic bruiser. And before long, Sutter is torn between his desire to protect Jenny and the sodbusters and his own solemn oath to give up the gun. Into this brew rides a cast of lively characters including courageous Nell Vermillion, a local shopkeeper, George Armstead, a man uncertain of his own mettle, Red West, Jenny's dying foreman, Dottie Lister, a soiled dove, Randy Pinto, a boy who has to grow up in a hurry, and gunfighter Jack Counts who makes a bargain with the devil.