In the town of Gunlock, a range war rages between farmers and cattlemen. Hired killer Sam Hall (Richard Boone) gunned down three farmers and now waits to hang at sundown. Sheriff Bill Jorden (John Agar) is set to go through with the hanging - only he finds himself in the middle of two groups, the cattlemen and farmers, because one lot wants to help Hall escape, and the other wants to lynch him immediately. At the casino, betting is 8 to 3 Hall won't make it to the gallows. Hall himself is hatching a scheme for escape with the help of his girl Nellie Mason (Colleen Gray). Sheriff Jorden is also determined to find out who exactly hired Hall to intimidate the homesteaders - a leading suspect is the Sheriff's future brother-in-law, cattleman George Ballard (Leif Erickson). Aside from his two trusty deputies, Jorden - already carrying the weight of not being as good as his dad was at the job - can't trust anyone and has his hands full trying to see that the law is carried out!

First off for fans of the western genre, don't miss an uncredited appearance by Clint Eastwood around the 6:30 mark. Star in the Dust is directed by Charles Haas and adapted to screenplay by Oscar Brodney from the novel "Law Man" written by Lee Leighton. It stars John Agar, Mamie Van Doren, Coleen Gray, Richard Boone, Leif Erickson, Harry Morgan, Randy Stuart and James Gleason. Music is by Frank Skinner (Joseph Gershenson supervising) and Technicolor cinematography is by John L. Russell Jr. There's a decent fist fight on show, and a wickedly enjoyable girl scrap which involves any weapons that are handy! A brilliant piece of stunt work in the finale is to be highly applauded. Atmospheric musical score by Frank Skinner and the interesting sort of Greek Chorus in the form of ballads sung by a street minstrel, written and performed by Terry Gilkyson who is credited as The Music Man. Trivia fans may like to note that this is the second Western in which Delmonico's famous restaurant is mentioned in some Agar dialogue; Harry Carey jnr taunts him about eating there in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon".