Stadt der Verdammten

Federal Marshal Dan Duryea arrives in the town of Silver Lode with three deputies to arrest one of its citizens, John Payne, on a charge of murder. As things start to happen, Payne who at first has the whole town behind him, loses all his friends save for fiancé Lizabeth Scott and former girl friend Dolores Moran who works in the saloon. By the way, Duryea arrives on the 4th of July which was also to be Payne's wedding day.

This is a classic version of the ill effects of mob violence. Some have said it's a polemic against McCarthyism, no doubt helped by the fact that Duryea's character name is McCarty. For myself Silver Lode is in the tradition of The Oxbow Incident and Fury, both classic films from major studios about vigilante justice.

Silver Lode doesn't have the production values that 20th Century Fox or MGM could bring to a movie, it was done by RKO. Nevertheless supporting Payne, Duryea, and Scott are a solid cast of players, very much at home in westerns. This was also Dolores Moran's last film, she was married to producer Benedict Bogeaus.

Payne had already essayed a very good role in Kansas City Confidential of a wrongly accused man and he follows it up here with an equally good portrayal. It's one of his best film parts.

Allan Dwan keeps things moving at a brisk pace, Silver Lode doesn't bog down for a fraction of a second. One of the best B westerns ever done.

Famed Western with a magnificent John Payne and a splendid Lizabeth Scott .This exciting picture tells the story of Dan Ballard( John Payne, Allan Dwan's usual actor)a respected citizen of a little town called Silver Lode , on his wedding day he has just promised marriage a young fiancée(Lizabeth Scott)and settle down for a peaceful existence.Just when they are about to marry on July 4 ,comes a vengeful agent named McCarty (Dan Duryea) and his henchmen(Harry Carey Jr, Stuart Whitman, Alan Hale Jr). McCarthy has sworn revenge and detain to undercover gunfighter. But Ballard escapes and is only helped by a gorgeous saloon girl named Dolly(Dolores Moran).

This classic western is plenty of suspense as the dreaded final showdown approaches and the protagonist realizes he must stand alone against impossible odds as his fellow town people for help ,nobody is willing to help him but they pursue him , while he attempts to clear his name as wrongfully accused of murder . The narration is almost adjusted in real time,from the beginning,the wedding, until the ending confrontation and is approximately developed in eighty one minutes and the starring is given two hours to resolve the accusation as murderer. For that reason it results to be a ¨High Noon¨ (1954,Fred Zinnemann)variation along with a relentless allegory and criticism of HUAC black list and McCarthyst era. Ample support cast full of known secondary actors as Emile Meyer, Robert Warwick, John Dierkes, Harry Carey Jr, Stuart Whitman, Alan Hale, many of them usual in Western. Although made in low budget by the producer Benedict Bogeaus is a very efficient film and very entertaining.The picture contains an excellent cinematography by John Alton( Noir cinema's usual photographer) and appropriate musical score. This quickie is finely directed by Allan Dwan , a craftsman working from the silent cinema, but ¨Silver Lode¨ is his unqualified masterpiece. Dwan directed over 1400 films, including one-reels, between his arrival in the industry (circa 1909) and his final film in 1961. Among them some good Western as ¨ Restless breed, The rivers edge,Cattle Queen of Montana,and Montana Belle¨.

What could easily have been just another low-budget Western oater or, worse still, the poor man's HIGH NOON (1952), is turned by excellent scripting (atypically the work of a woman!) and direction into a true gem of the genre during its golden age. In fact, the film wears its anti-Red Scare intentions proudly on its sleeve by actually naming its chief villain (Dan Duryea in formidable form) McCarthy and making him an outlaw posing as a fake U.S. Marshal! Reformed gunfighter hero John Payne (in his first of four movies for veteran director Dwan) has his 4th of July wedding (to local belle Lizabeth Scott) disrupted by the arrival in town of Duryea and his men (including Stuart Whitman and Harry Carey Jr.) claiming to have a warrant for his arrest for killing Duryea's brother and absconding with the sum of $20,000. So far so conventional plot-wise but what is remarkable here is the way that the film-makers chose to employ the townspeople who are constantly following the protagonists around the streets of Silver Lode, at first forcibly siding with Payne (to the point of holding Duryea et al at gunpoint) but, with time, being swayed by the latter's lies and an unfortunate series of events that lead them to believe Payne guilty of murdering their sheriff (Emile Meyer) and one of the marshals, as well as wounding Scott's hot-headed brother. Aiding Payne, apart from the unwavering Scott (of course), is his ex-flame, sultry saloon gal (Dolores Moran, the wife of producer Benedict Bogeaus and whose last film this proved to be) who spits one-liner put-downs to hero, villain and everyone in between; I really liked her character and, apparently, so did Dwan because he opted to close the film on the image of her running frantically clenching the all-important telegraphic confirmation (Duryea's men had intuitively cut the lines beforehand) of Payne's claims of innocence. However, in view of the film being a thinly-veiled allegory on the ongoing witch-hunts, it is a telling comment on the relative nature of truth that the girls had already won the day by forcing the gullible telegraph official to write down a false reply. The expected climactic confrontation between Payne and Duryea, then, takes place inside a bell tower – with the latter's bullet ultimately ricocheting on himself in God-like retribution – making for a doubly ironic ending to a film (beautifully shot in color by the great John Alton) that had held its audience entranced for all of 77 breathless minutes.

"Silver Lode" has long been labeled as an anti-McCarthy western and has also been compared to "High Noon" (1952). The McCarthy witch hunt for communists in the motion picture business was in the headlines at the time this film was made. The persecution of the hero was said to be a thinly veiled protest of Senator Joseph McCarthy's persecution of the entertainment industry.

All that aside, "Silver Lode" stands as a pretty good western in its own right. True, the story can be compared to "High Noon" however, it is nevertheless an entertaining movie by itself.

Dan Ballard (John Payne) and Rose Evans (Lizabeth Scott) are about to be married when Marshal Ned McCart (Dan Duryea) and his three deputies (Alan Hale Jr, Harry Carey Jr., Stuart Whitman) ride into town looking for Ballard. McCart accuses Ballard of having murdered his brother and has come to arrest him and "take him back". At first the townspeople are on Ballard's side but gradually they turn against him especially when they believe that he has killed the town sheriff (Emile Meyer). Ballard then has to prove his innocence and expose McCart for the person he really is.

In addition to those mentioned above, there is an impressive list of familiar faces in the supporting cast. Dolores Morin plays saloon girl Dolly, Robert Warwick plays Judge Cranston, Hugh Sanders, the Reverend, Morris Ankrum, Scott's father, John Hudson her brother, Roy Gordon the town doctor and Myron Healey, Lane Chandler, John Dierkes, Gene Roth and I.Stanford Jolley as various townspeople.

Director Alan Dwan keeps the story moving and provides us with some good action scenes. And believe it or not there's not one fist fight in the entire movie.

Forget about the comparisons with McCarthyism and "High Noon" and sit back and enjoy an entertaining western.

I must admit here and now that I have not seen this film. However, in my research of such B-Westerns, I found that this film was originally shot in 3-D. That has not been mentioned anywhere.

Perhaps the IMDb crew can investigate and make the appropriate notation wherever it is that such notations are made.

I certainly would like to see this film, as it appears to have an interesting cast... John Payne, Dan Duryea, and Lizabeth Scott usually do good work, and the other reviews have generally been positive.

From the reviews, this could perhaps be one of the best 3-D movies made during the 3-D movie craze in the early 1950's... Hondo being another one that could be better.