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.

The reason that led me to watch this movie is because it's listed in the book ''The 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die'', and in the end it was worth-watching!

This Western follows the footsteps of ''High Noon''; here John Payne plays Dan Ballard, a man arrested by four marshals for a murder he didn't commit, and while he struggles to find the real culprit the townspeople start leaving him to his destiny. The only ones on his side are his soon-to-be-wife Rose (Lizabeth Scott) and saloon lady Dolly (Dolores Moran).

The things I liked about the movie are the music and the supporting cast: Dan Duryea shines as the evil sheriff McCarthy (that was a subtle reference to Joseph McCarthy) and in the end is killed by Payne in the church of Silver Lode; Stuart Whitman, Alan Hale jr. and Harry Carey jr. are great as the sheriff's henchmen, and they were specialized in Western movies.

Still a well-made Western and I liked it very much.

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.

Released in 1954 - Silver Lode stands tall as a pretty decent Western in its own right. True. Its familiar story can easily be compared to "High Noon" in many ways, but, nevertheless, it is an entertaining cowboy flick, all the same.

Filmed with the obvious restrictions of its B-movie budget, this vintage, Technicolor Western tells the tale of Dan Ballard, a decent man (relatively new to town) who (on his wedding day, which also happens to be the 4th of July) finds himself being accused of cold-blooded murder and the theft of $20,000.

This unjust accusation is leveled at Ballard by Marshal McCarty, a very mean and forceful lawman, who unexpectedly arrives in town from Discovery, California, in the company of his 3 rough-looking deputies.

Needless to say, an intense conflict takes place that quickly escalates into an all-out gunfight which has almost every able-bodied man in town involved (and even some of the women).

With his life now hanging delicately in the balance, Ballard soon finds himself a hunted man in his own hometown. A vicious, mindless mob-mentality takes over as the citizens of Silver Lode pursue Ballard with a blind, hateful vengeance.

Silver Lode was a film that was very much a product of its time. It was produced during the "McCarthy" era, when film producers, writers and actors were called to account during a (literal) political witch hunt.

This film's screenplay reflects the concerns of the American people of that time in regards to matters such as truth and liberty in what they believed to be a free society.

With a running time of only 80 minutes, Silver Lode moved along at a really good clip. Its cast included John Payne, Dan Duryea, Harry Carey Jr., and Lizabeth Scott.

"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.