Nevada Smith

Upon the death of his father in 1928, Jonas Cord Jr., who has thus far led a wild life, assumes control of the Cord business empire centered on a Nevada chemical company, that control despite the animosity that existed between father and son about business issues. With the exception of a few trusted people including his best friend, aging cowboy Nevada Smith, business manager "Mac" McAllister, and longtime butler Jedidiah, Jonas in turn trusts no one in his effort to take complete control of the business and his life, buying out other "friends", business associates and adversaries in his "I know best" attitude. In the process, he begins to diversify his business interests into areas which he either has an interest and/or believes will be industries of the immediate future, including aviation and the movie industry. The poor way he treats people extends to his personal life, including the many women closest to him, such as his stepmother, Rina Marlowe, who was his girlfriend before she married his father, and who would become his wife, Monica Winthrop, the daughter of a business associate. The question becomes if this life is sustainable for him, especially as people try to usurp him, and those he trusts may no longer be able to tolerate his behavior, which he may not be able to let go of in much of it stemming from issues ingrained into him when he was a child.

Nevada Smith is the young son of an American-Indian mother and white father. When his father and mother are killed by three men over gold, Nevada sets out to find them and kill them. The boy is taken in by a gun merchant. The gun merchant shows him how to shoot, to shoot on time, and to shoot straight. Everything that Nevada does goes to killing those three men. He learns to read and write just to learn their location. He pays people to tell him where they're at. He even goes to prison to kill one of them. While the movie is a Western and has plenty of action, it also takes a deep look into vengeance and how one can change after a haunting incident.