Strong-willed and defiant saloon-keeper Vienna has managed to build a plush and welcoming two-story establishment offering food, drink and gambling, that in contrast to being built outside town in windswept, dusty Arizona, is in fact, strategically situated in the course of the imminent and much-awaited railroad that is coming through. But Vienna's presence is unwelcome, not only because she allows the notorious "Dancing Kid" and his gang to often frequent in her saloon, she also protects them, fanning an old rivalry between her and her arch-enemy Emma Small, an embittered and greedy local woman still in love with the Kid. As the tension gradually builds up, Vienna's long-lost lover for five years, Johnny Guitar, rides into town just when an angry posse of locals under Emma's lead want to lynch the Kid and his men, ignoring though the fact that Johnny has a well-hidden history of his own.—Nick Riganas