Calamity Jane is busted out of a sheriff's jail by a couple of government agents under Governor Johnson and Commissioner of Internal Affairs Emerson. Johnson and Emerson wish to hire her to uncover white traitors illegally selling guns to an Indian tribe near Buffalo Flats, one of the frontier areas; because the agents they previously sent to investigate have turned up dead, they instead have conceived a plan to use Jane, both as a woman and skilled gunfighter. In return for her services, Johnson and Emerson offer her a full pardon for her past crimes. The plan is for Jane to meet in Port Deerfield with Jim Hunter, another government agent, pose with him as a married couple, and join a settler's trek to the area where the gun running is taking place. However, the mastermind behind the gun smuggling is revealed to be Jasper Martin, Johnson's secretary. Jane finds Hunter dead and herself hounded by assassins. Evading an attempt on her life, she hitches a ride with Peter "Painless" Potter, a travelling dentist fleeing town following one of his habitual blunders, and marries him to maintain her cover. The gun smugglers also join the wagon train to deliver a stash of dynamite and to track the federal agent sent to thwart them, believing Potter is their target. After mistakenly straying into Indian territory, one part of the trek is attacked by the Indians while taking a rest at a log cabin. Locked out, Potter hides inside a barrel and shoots wildly while Jane secretly takes out several Indians. Potter is credited with this achievement, reinforcing the smugglers' assumptions. After arriving in Buffalo Flats, Jane meets with her contact, Hank Billings, and tasks him to find out where the dynamite will be delivered. Meanwhile, Potter incurs the wrath of Big Joe, a bad-tempered gunslinger. When this clash leads to a duel, Jane initially plans to have Potter killed to throw off the smugglers, but instead ends up aiding him again because she wants to use him as a decoy and because she has begun to fall in love with him. The same night, Billings reports to Jane that the conspirators have hidden the dynamite in the undertaker's shop, then dies from an arrow in his back. Jane sends Potter to the undertaker and prepares to follow in his wake, but both are captured by the smugglers and taken to the Indians' camp, where Johnson has arrived with the rest of his weapons shipment. In order to punish Potter for killing their braves, the medicine man prepares to have Potter ripped apart by two bent-down trees; however, the contraption instead catapults Potter into the forest, leading to the medicine man being banished. While returning to the camp to free Jane, Potter runs into the medicine man, knocks him out and takes his clothes as a disguise. Not knowing about his opposition's banishment, Potter prepares to free Jane from the stake when the tribesmen close in on him. Taking a powder flask, Potter strays through the camp, laying a powder trail that eventually ignites and blows up some of the smuggled weapons. In the confusion, Jane and Potter escape in Potter's wagon, which is loaded with the dynamite, with the Indians and smugglers on their tail. After Potter drops a lit dynamite stick, he and Jane abandon the wagon just as the smugglers reach it and get themselves blown up. With the mission accomplished, Jane and Potter embark on their honeymoon for real, only for Jane to conclude the film by falling victim to one of the film's running gags.
The Paleface was a critical and commerical success, earning $4.5 million in domestic rentals, which made it Paramount's most successful film of 1948. The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
The Paleface was presented on Stars in the Air March 6, 1952. The 30-minute adaptation starred Bob Hope and Jane Russell recreating the roles they had in the film. Hope and Russell also starred in an adaptation on Screen Directors Playhouse on March 3, 1950.
