Duel At Silver Creek [DVD]

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The tropes and structure that he's working with here are certainly very conventional since it looks, acts, and is executed like a pretty typical Western of the classic variety. The damaged, vulnerable hero and the anti-hero are facets in the same persona and cannot be separated, even when the harm is physical as in The Duel at Silver Creek. Kass remarks that Audie Murphy is “ludicrously attired in black leather, like a Western The Wild One (1953).

A half-hearted attempt to steer a little Western slightly off the beaten trail was unfolded with the Palace's new stage show yesterday. This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Leonard Goldstein, the producer, has propped this routine affair against some average Technicolor scenery, and the commotion remains as pat and unsurprising as the kicked-up dust, which, in all fairness to Don Siegel's direction, is plentiful. Audie Murphy is the main star as the Silver Kid, two six-guns and black leather vest, while Faith Domergue plays Opal Lacy, a sexy cold-blooded killer. I came to this film on the basis of it being Don Siegel's first western and the first film he made in colour.Aside from Domergue the 'baddies' are fairly unmemorable; when the film started they were tough and violent but eventually we are presented Mohr's words in place of this and it really isn't enough for a fun B-movie.

I know there hasn't been that many new releases during the pandemic, cinematic visits have been scarce, with cinemas closed for long periods of time and studios holding back films to make the most from their investment. Faith Domergue was so striking and charismatic, it’s unfortunate that she never rose above B pictures.

However, that doesn't make this any less enjoyable of a film because Siegel throws in a lot of shootouts and chases to make it all exciting, while the Technicolor photography is sumptuous and the story has enough twists and cool characters to make it work.

That all combines to make The Duel at Silver Creek a solid little Western that uses the conventions of the genre well in a swift and colourful manner. Despite it's obvious flaws this is a really good fun B-movie western and you'll like it if you view it as such. DUEL AT SILVER CREEK; screen play by Gerald Drayson Adams and Joseph Hoffman; directed by Don Siegel; produced by Leonard Goldstein for Universal-International. Luke manages to find out that the marshal's girlfriend is really one of the gang and exposes her and her brother as the real killers. The issue of vulnerability, of the complementary nature of good and evil, is central to the comprehension of Seigel’s films.When Marshall 'Lightning' Tyrone takes a party after the gang he leaves old timer Dan Music as Deputy of the town. Set in the town of Silver Creek, it seems like there's a lot that goes on beneath the surface all the time.