Duel sans merci

"The Duel at Silver Creek" is a 1952 Western starring Stephen McNally and Audie Murphy as a sheriff and green deputy who are trying to track down a murderous gang of claim jumpers. Meanwhile the sheriff pursues a new hottie in town (Faith Domergue) while the deputy is interested in a teenage cutie (Susan Cabot). A 27 year-old Lee Marvin is on hand as one of the possibly shady characters.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this old Western. Murphy is great as the youthful and likable fast-gun and McNally is effective as the sheriff. Domergue is beautiful, but duplicitous and even shockingly evil (e.g. the unexpected strangling scene). Cabot is a joy to watch and it's interesting to see Marvin so young.

The story is interesting with McNally narrating and it easily keeps your attention at only 77 minutes, but what brings my rating down is the roll-your-eyes plot gimmicks (for lack of better word) typical of old Westerns. For instance, the sheriff's bad finger that makes it almost impossible for him to squeeze the trigger of his handgun and how this becomes a big secret. And then there's the way the deputy expertly grazes the sheriff's arm in order to take his place in a fast-draw duel (What if he was off by a couple of centimeters?). If it weren't for these types of lame aspects I'd give "The Duel at Silver Creek" a higher grade.

The locations are good, shot at three California ranches -- Corrigan Ranch, Iverson Ranch and Janss Conejo Ranch – as well as Vasquez Rocks.

GRADE: B-

Don Siegel directed a delightful, fast paced, fun western, with tongue firmly in cheek. Audie Murphy isn't half bad as the poker-loving "Silver Kid", dressed in black leather. Featured are several unique characters like "Johnny Sombrero", who wears extravagant clothes, combs his hair up,and of course puts on a large sombrero. The script makes fun of all the western clichés, camping it up while moving the story briskly. Faith Domergue is alluringly devious and mean as the bad girl and love interest. Lee Marvin has a small but remarkable role, and sports a big mustache.

I like the way the straight hero is played for a fool until the end, and his poker playing sidekick gets all the action and glory. Siegel, as usual, excels with the action scenes, but this is not a thriller per say, more a fast paced action romp very similar in style to "The Big Steal", which Siegel directed before this film. I really enjoyed it.

Stephen McNally is a rugged hero, playing the marshal "Lightning" Tyrone. He goes up against a vicious gang of "claim jumpers" making life miserable for miners. He makes the acquaintance of a youth who's been dubbed "The Silver Kid", played by WWII hero Audie Murphy, and decides that he can put The Kid to use as his deputy.

Although pretty average in terms of story, this is still entertaining thanks to the assured direction of Don Siegel, in the years before he'd graduated to the ranks of major A list directors. He knew how to handle action scenes, for one thing, and "The Duel at Silver Creek" is reasonably rousing at times. Overall, the filmmaking is quite capable, with top notch location work and superb creation of the classic Western look (in glorious Technicolor). You will notice that Siegel and the screenwriters don't exactly bother to keep the identities of certain villains a secret. You're also left in little doubt as to how the predictable script will unfold, so the scenario isn't about suspense, despite the fact that good guy Lightning has been badly wounded and can't handle a gun as well as he used to.

There are very fine performances by a well chosen cast: McNally, a confident young Murphy, lovely ladies Faith Domergue and Susan Cabot, Gerald Mohr, Eugene Iglesias, James Anderson, Walter Sande, Lee Marvin, George Eldredge, Griff Barnett, Harry Harvey, etc.

It's worth noting that the run time is a mere 77 minutes. It's always nice when actors and filmmakers can tell their story in a succinct manner and not drag it out any longer than necessary.

Six out of 10.

The Duel at Silver Creek is directed by Don Siegel and co-written by Gerald Drayson Adams and Joseph Hoffman. It stars Audie Murphy, Stephen McNally, Faith Domergue, Susan Cabot and Gerald Mohr. It's a Technicolor production with Irving Glassberg the cinematographer. The music is scored by Hans J. Salter (director Joseph Gershenson) and location for the shoot was spread over four California locations; Ranches Ray Corrigan, Janss Conejo, Iverson and at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park.

A gang of crooks are murdering miners for their gold claims. Luke Cromwell (Murphy) loses his father to the gang and quickly reinvents himself as a gambling gunslinger known as The Silver Kid. Down in Silver City, Marshal Lightning Tyrone (McNally) is determined to bring to justice the claim jumping murderers. But he has a problem, his trigger finger is inoperative after he was shot, thus he can't let the bad guys know he is no longer "Lightning" on the trigger. After witnessing some of The Silver Kid's handy work, Tyrone hires him as a deputy to watch his back as he sets about weeding out the bad in Silver City. Luke is only too happy to help, he wants vengeance for his father's murder. But two ladies in town are to have a big impact on both of their lives, the question is if both men can finally achieve their goals without further loss of life.

Brisk,colourful and highly entertaining Western fare for the undemanding matinée crowd. Forget all hopes of depth and intricate characterisations and expect an action packed shoot em' up instead. Siegel would go on to much bigger things and leave a lasting mark in cinema, here he makes a standard screenplay ping with excitement whilst getting spirited performances out of the cast. One look at the character names gives you a clue to what sort of Western this is: The Silver Kid, Lightning Tyrone, Opal Lacy, Johnny Sombrero, Rat Face Blake, Pop Muzik, Tinhorn Burgess (Lee Marvin in his first credited big screen outing) & Jane Dusty Fargo. Wonderful. Throw in some lovely scenery, Domergue's explosive costumes and the nice pairing of McNally & Murphy, and it's a film that's hard to dislike. Hey! It even comes with a film noir like narration as well.

Don't dwell too long on the dialogue and simplicity of it all, just enjoy it for what it is. Good fun. 7/10

I watched this film when it was recently shown on British television, largely because it was an early work by Don Siegel, at the time an up-and-coming young director, but later to become one of Hollywood's most distinguished directors, responsible for films as good as "Dirty Harry" and "The Shootist". It is a Western of the traditional heroes-and-villains variety. The villains are a gang of claim jumpers whose victims are the local miners. Their method of working is a simple one. They pick on a lone miner, force him to sign over his claim under threat of death, and then kill him anyway so he cannot inform on them. (The film does not point out the obvious hole in the scheme, namely that the claim jumpers will not be able to enforce their rights to the claims they take over in this way without revealing their identities).

The main heroes are the local Marshal and the Silver Kid, a young gambler and gunfighter whose father was one of the claim jumpers' victims and who joins forces with the Marshal to seek his revenge. There are two complicating factors. One is that the Marshal has fallen in love with a young woman named Opal Lacey who is secretly in league with the killers. The other is that the Marshal has been shot in the shoulder, an injury which affects his ability to handle a gun.

The best-known actor in the film is Audie Murphy. He made a few good films, most notably "The Red Badge of Courage", but a lot of his output consisted of routine Westerns. Murphy always seemed to be struggling against two disadvantages. The first was the fact that because he had become well-known to the American public for something other than his acting- he was a much-decorated war hero- he was unable to ditch his odd, feminine-sounding Christian name in favour of something more rugged. The second was his smooth, youthful looks which meant that he was frequently typecast as a callow young greenhorn even when he was in his thirties.

Here, however, Murphy is pretty good as the Kid, a brash and undisciplined but basically decent young man who gradually grows in courage and stature. I would agree with the reviewer who pointed out that the relationship between the Kid and Steve McNally's older, wiser Marshal is similar to that between John Wayne and Ricky Nelson in "Rio Bravo". (I've never seen "El Dorado", the other film he mentions).

"Duel at Silver Creek" is a fairly standard Western. As others have pointed out, its plot- the one about the heroic lawman tackling a gang of bandits- is familiar enough to be called a cliché, although that in itself does not mean that the film itself will be a bad one. After all, some very good Westerns, and at least two great ones ("High Noon" and "Gunfight at the OK Corral") have been based around it. "Duel.." is in nothing like the same class as those two films, but Siegel handles the action well, showing signs of the great director he was to become. It may be a B-movie, but it is a fast-paced, entertaining and enjoyable one. 7/10.