Supposed killer and Army deserter Randolph Scott heads to Los Angeles sometime before the Civil War. Posing as a schoolteacher who can't shoot straight, he gets knee-deep in some intrigue involving a group of separatists, the assassination of a US senator, and their attempts to split California into free and slave states.
Costumes and sets are lavish and there's lots of great old-California atmosphere. However, The Man Behind The Gun is disappointingly routine. It's really too bad, because this is really one handsome production!
The actors are game and some of their characters are quite colorful. The filmmakers should have pumped a little more action and suspense into the script, or trimmed the final product to about an hour.