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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.

From 1932, Silver Dollar stars Edward G. Robinson, Aline McMahon, and Bebe Daniels.

This film is based on the life of silver magnate Horace Tabor, whose life is the subject of an opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe. Baby Doe was a signature role for Beverly Sills.

It's a rag to riches to rags story, of a man named Yates Martin and his wife Sarah, who left their farm to come to Colorado to search for gold. Sarah encourages Yates to open a store rather than continue what she thinks is a fruitless hunt, so he does. To her disgust, he makes deals with the miners that he will give them free goods if they will sign over one-third of whatever they find. Of course, Sarah expects them to find nothing. She's wrong.

Yates over time becomes terribly rich, successful politically, and too big for his britches. He falls in love with the beautiful Lily Owens and leaves Sarah, settling the house and $250,000 on her. Then the Panic of 1893 occurred, and silver was devalued to almost nothing.

This was a wonderful role for Edward G. Robinson, a little man with a huge talent. He does a fantastic job. Aline McMahon is fantastic as Sarah, and she is indeed like the real Augusta Tabor, at least as I've seen her portrayed. In the film, Sarah wants to help Yates, but he refuses.

Augusta Tabor in real life invested her money and died one of the wealthiest people in Denver. In the opera anyway she is bitter and angry, and even when she wants to go to her ex-husband, she can't.

Bebe Daniels glitters as Yates' mistress and second wife, Lily. Like the Tabor situation, this was a true love match, and she stayed by her husband.

The real Horace did hold the postmaster position for a year before he died, unlike in the film. Horace's final wish was that Baby Doe never give up the Matchless Mine. She never did; in fact, that's where she died, in a nearby shack.

The script is somewhat spotty -- this strong story could have used better writing. It's a real piece of Americana.

Silver Dollar (1932)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Based on the life of Horace 'Silver King' Tabor with only the names changed. Edward G. Robinson plays Yates Martin, a poor man from Kansas who moves to Colorado with his wife (Aline MacMahon) and soon finds himself a millionaire when silver is found in his mine. He soon enters politics and starts to rake in all sorts of cash and this is when he meets a showgirl (Bebe Daniels) and soon everything changes. I'm guessing Warner didn't want to pay any fees so they decided to change up all the names but no matter what they changed or kept the same, to call this film a disappointment wouldn't be an understatement. The movie starts off pretty good but around the twenty-minute mark you already know where the story is headed and there's really no connection to any of the characters. This almost seems like a greatest hits package instead of one complete story. We see the poor Martin, then the popular Martin, the rich Martin, the powerful Martin, the broke Martin and the pitiful Martin. There's never any real connection that you get because it just seems like he's a one dimensional character without any meat on his bones. Throughout the film I kept waiting to get to know the character and that simply never happens. We never get to know the wife, the mistress, the kid or anyone else and in fact there's a daughter who makes an important part of the film only to disappear without a word after that. The film takes a pretty big story and one that could have turned into an epic and does very little with it. The one saving grace are the performances with Robinson turning in another great job. I'm always surprised to see how terrific an actor Robinson was and it's a shame he's never really gotten the credit he deserves. Daniels is also very seductive in her part and MacMahon nearly steals the film as the caring, first wife. SILVER DOLLAR is worth watching for fans of the cast but there's no denying that a new script was needed.

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.

"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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