A train carrying a Japanese delegation with a ceremonial sword for President Grant is robbed by bandits led by Link (Charles Bronson) and Gauche (Alain Delon). When Gauche double-crosses him and leaves him for dead, Link is ordered to team up with Kuroda Jubei (Toshirô Mifune), one of the ambassador's guards, who has a week to recover the sword or commit suicide. Hoping to find out from Gauche where the gang buried their spoils before Kuroda can kill him, Link tries to escape from the samurai.
Aging rancher George Washington McLintock, a wealthy self-made man, is forced to deal with numerous personal and professional problems. Seemingly everyone wants a piece of his enormous farmstead, including high-ranking government men, McLintock's own sons and nearby Native Americans. As McLintock tries to juggle his various adversaries, his wife, who left him two years previously, suddenly returns. But she isn't interested in her husband -- she wants custody of their daughter.
Newlywed Benjamin Taber is in town with his bride when a bank robbery goes awry, and she disappears in a chaotic shootout. Determined to find her, Benjamin seeks out the help of crusty Quentin Leech, a bounty hunter who has his own reasons for wanting to catch the outlaws. As they follow the group's trail, they receive help from several unlikely sources, including Flora Mae Pepper, the owner of a brothel that doubles as a safe haven.
Rafe Hollister, a farmer with a golden voice, is chosen to represent Mayberry at a musical, but Mayor Stoner believes he looks too seedy. It is then up to Andy to make Rafe presentable enough.
After a botched heist, Wild West bandit Paris Pitman Jr. (Kirk Douglas) hides his newly stolen money where no one will find it, then loses his entire gang in a blaze of bullets before being captured by the law and given a lengthy sentence in a desert jail. Paris believes that he can buy his way out of his predicament by offering some cash to the guards, but the upstanding Sheriff Lopeman (Henry Fonda) makes sure his men remain honest. Running out of options, Paris begins plotting a jailbreak.