Silberdollar

Based on the life of 19th century politician Horace Tabor. Here named Yates Martin (Edward G. Robinson), he's a gold prospector who travels to the Colorado frontier with wife Aline MacMahon. He eventually becomes a rich merchant and a prime beneficiary of the Colorado silver boom, which makes him even wealthier. He uses his money to enter politics, growing ever more ambitious. However, his decision to divorce his wife for entertainer Bebe Daniels marks the beginning of his downfall.

Robinson made a number of films with this basic plot: a man starting out with nothing achieves great success through force of will, only to have his love of the wrong woman lead to his undoing. His nouveau riche tastes are also frequently a source of amusement, as they are here with his desire to build a high-class opera house, but insisting on all of the inscriptions being in "American". Robinson is good, as is MacMahon (although she's not given much to do here), but the whole thing is just a bit too routine. This does feature one of the few cinematic depictions of President Chester Arthur, though, so there's that.

A great, lively American story that happens to be true. The same source material was used, with somewhat more accuracy, in the 1950s American opera "The Ballad of Baby Doe." (The Baby Doe of the title was still alive when the movie was made, hence the need to change all the names and fictionalize some of the details.) Robinson is excellent as a likeable, but foolish and blustering, millionaire miner with political ambitions; MacMahon is flawless as his stern but understanding wife. Their story, of how he made and lost a name and a fortune for himself, is the stuff of fine melodrama. What happens to them says much about the vagaries of capitalism, the arbitrariness of the metals standard, and the pettiness of American moral attitudes, but most of all it's good entertainment. Alfred E. Green's direction is nothing fancy, just capable and fast. And the size of the production is just right. Historical note: The real Baby Doe (Lily in the movie) stuck by her man and held onto the Matchless Mine, as per his instructions. She became a legendary eccentric in Leadville, walking the streets and telling her story to anyone who would listen, before freezing to death in her cabin in 1935.

"Silver Dollar" seemed so close to a biopic I had to look it up to see if Yates Martin (played by Edward G. Robinson) was a real person. It turns out that "Silver Dollar" was based upon the life of H. A. W. Tabor, known to his Colorado associates as Haw Tabor.

Yates Martin was a foolish man who lucked into money in "Silver Dollar." He spent money wantonly in order to be popular, much to the chagrin of his smarter, more fiscally conservative wife, Sarah Martin (Aline MacMahon). Yates was so greedy for wealth and attention that it made him a sucker. He chased one mine after another based upon the spurious words of random prospectors. It was Sarah who convinced him to open a store to cater to the prospectors as opposed to him chasing mines himself, but he couldn't even do that right. He was extending credit to EVERYONE, which made him well-liked, but broke. There was one pair of prospectors whom he waived their tab entirely in exchange for a third of what they mined. It was a dumb deal that just so happened to pan out.

Yates went on chasing wealth and fame until he chased another dame named Lily Owens (Bebe Daniels). Truthfully, she was pursuing him and she knew just what to say to get him. She stroked his ego so expertly that he left his wife and married Lily. It was just one more moronic move of the many he'd made, but don't let anyone tell you that every rich person is smart. Even idiots make money sometimes.

As much as I like Edward G. Robinson, I hated his character. He was such a clout chaser that I couldn't respect him. Then, when he left his very good and faithful wife for a shinier object who found him on the mountain top after Sarah made the climb with him, I really disliked him. Having said that, because the movie so mirrored what can be found on historycolorado,org, I can't be too mad. They faithfully followed the available information on H. A. W. Tabor, too bad he wasn't more likable.

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One of the few westerns that is in the catalog of Edward G. Robinson films is this one Silver Dollar. In it Robinson plays the legendary Horace A.W. Tabor of the Colorado Tabors who if you believed this version lucked into a vast fortune. I can't believe the real Tabor didn't have some kind of shrewdness in his makeup.

In the film Robinson's character is named Yates Martin and he's a big hearted big spender type who drives his wife Aline McMahon to distraction with his generous ways. She convinces him that he ought to open a general store, but he grubstakes miners for a return of a share. It pays off beyond anyone's wildest dreams when in played out gold fields rich deposits of silver are found rivaling those of Nevada's Virginia City. In no time he's Lieutenant Governor of Colorado and briefly a U.S. Senator.

He also gets himself a trophy wife in Bebe Daniels after Robinson tires of McMahon's hectoring ways. It's quite true that Robinson owed his fortune to pure luck. But prospecting and grubstaking prospectors is a matter of a lot of luck.

Here and in real life the story was a scandal of the Victorian Age as divorce was something not done in polite society. Today these people would make great fodder for the scandal sheets and Daniels would be the Victorian Age's Anna Nicole Smith.

Robinson is as expansive as he ever has been playing a modern crime boss either seriously or for laughs. He always had a knack for playing characters who liked to live it up when they were in the chips starting with his career role of Little Caesar.

As for McMahon she treads a thin line in her performance. You feel sorry for her when she gets flung out. But at the same time you can understand in more ways than carnal why Robinson did it.

Silver Dollar is a film I wish was shown more. It's Edward G. Robinson in an unusual, but at the same time familiar part.

Smooth,quite engrossing biopic of Horace Tabor, an important figure in the early economic and polirical development of Colorado. EGR plays the kind of character he does so very, very well -- an ambitious go-getter bursting with self-confidence. Sort of like a legal Little Caesar. He makes the film very watchable.