Plot summary

Big Jake McCandles is on the trail of a gang of cutthroat criminals in this action drama which stretches from Texas to Mexico. It's 1909, and the Old West is giving way to modern times. When the outlaw gang led by evil John Fain raids the McCandles' family ranch, kidnapping his 8-year-old grandson, wife Martha, whom he hasn't seen in many years, sends for her husband to bring the boy back alive. While the law gives chase in newfangled, rickety automobiles, Jake saddles up with an Indian scout, his faithful dog, and a box of money. But paying ransom isn't Jake's idea of good old frontier justice.—Robert Lynch