Thomas Carr's The Desperado 1954

Only a fool sticks his neck out for somebody else.
--Sam Garrett (Wayne Morris) in The Desperado (script my Daniel Mainwaring)

The Desperado comes at the end of the era of B movies, especially Westerns as the Western was moving to TV.  The film stars Wayne Morris, Jimmy Lydon, and Beverly Garland, all of whom were about to go on to long TV careers, along with director Thomas Carr, who had been directing B movies for some time.  The script is by Daniel Mainwaring, who wrote the impressive film noir Out of the Past (1947), a script filled with changing alliances and treacheries, common themes in Mainwaring's work..

Tom Cameron is battling the carpetbagger soldiers (the "bluebellies") in Texas in the early 1870's when he has to flee his hometown and leave behind his girlfriend Laurie (Beverly Garland).  On the trail he runs into gunslinger Sam Garrett (Wayne Morris) and they head to town when Tom's father is killed.  They are accosted by bluebellies and blamed for a killing that Ray Novak (Rayford Barnes) commits and blames Tom for, since Ray fancies Laurie.

The film is filmed in black-and-white by journeyman cinematographer Joe Novak, who mostly worked in TV, and captures effectively the dusty trails and primitive conditions of Texas during the reconstruction period.  There are many examples of Western iconography in the film, including shootouts, cattle drives and stagecoaches, as well as iconic actors, including Dabbs Greer and, especially Lee Van Cleef, who plays twins, each of whom is shot in a gun duel by Tom, who has been taught how to shoot by Sam, who is allowed to leave town unmolested by the sheriff because he never shot an unarmed man, and Laurie and Tom are happily reunited.