Silver Lode **** (1954, John Payne, Dan Duryea, Dolores Moran, Lizabeth Scott) – Classic Movie Review 5539

Cult director Allan Dwan’s minor but exceptionally impressive 1954 Western follows in the footsteps of High Noon (1952) as Marshal Fred McCarty (Dan Duryea) leads a sinister gang of deputies into town to arrest Dan Ballard (John Payne) for killing his brother, though Ballard’s mind is on other things – like his wedding to Rose Evans (Lizabeth Scott).

Just as with Gary Cooper before him in High Noon, the townsfolk will not help Payne when they believe that he has killed the town sheriff (Emile Meyer). Indeed, they want to lynch him (there are shades of The Ox-Bow Incident and Fury here). So he has to find his own way out of the jam by proving his innocence and exposing his old acquaintance McCarty, with only 81 minutes of screen time to clear his name of murder.

Dolores Moran also stars in her final film as Dolly, Ballard’s former girl friend, a burlesque queen who works in the town saloon. Moran was producer Benedict Bogeaus’s wife.

Despite its similar plot to High Noon, there is a good, well-constructed story and screenplay by Karen DeWolf, and neat acting all round by the solid cast, with Payne and Duryea outstanding. Dwan’s direction is fast moving, imaginative and conscientious, and John Alton’s Technicolor cinematography helps a great deal for enjoyment.

Also in the cast are Emile Meyer, Robert Warwick, Morris Ankrum, Stuart Whitman, Alan Hale Jr, Harry Carey Jr, John Hudson, Frank Sully, Paul Birch, Florence Auer, Roy Gordon, Edgar Barrier, Al Hill, Gene Roth and William Haade.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5539

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