User Reviews

Director: NICK GRINDE. Screenplay: Earl Snell. Story: R.R. Harris. Photography: Ted McCord, Joe Novak. Film editor: Bernard Loftus. Art director: Ralph Berger. Music: Lee Zahler, Oliver Wallace, Howard Jackson, Charles Rosoff. Music director: Lee Zahler. Stunts: Cliff Lyons. Sound engineer: Buddy Myers. Producer: Irving Starr. Executive producer: Buck Jones. A Buck Jones Production, presented by Carl Laemmle.

Copyright 2 April 1935 by Universal Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Criterion as a support to Monogram's The Nut Farm: 7 April 1935. U.S. release: 2 April 1935. No record of any Australian theatrical release (though it may well have been booked into Saturday matinees-to the great disappointment of the kids). 7 reels. 63 minutes.

COMMENT: A most unusual entry in the series. There's very little action. Instead, we have two or three sermons and no less than three romantic female leads, led by the lovely Noel Francis. The other main girl, Marion Shilling, is no loser in the looks and charm department either. But oddly, it is number three, Peggy Campbell, who gets our hero in the end, whilst Miss Francis is paired off with Grady Sutton. You heard me right. This must be the only movie in which Grady Sutton gets the girl - any girl, let alone the lead!

Despite many unflattering close-ups, Jones acquits himself ably enough, though hamstrung by a rather hard-to-swallow script which reverses the usual formula of making the local saloon proprietor the bad guy. Instead he is a do-gooder (Jones), ever ready to help out the local preacher (Welch), and manfully resisting any romantic entanglements with his saloon hostess (Francis), because he still carries a torch for a former sweetheart (Campbell). Mind you, for a while there he does seem to have his eye on pretty Marion Shilling, but soon realises it is really the preacher she loves!

So, what we have here is not really a western at all, but a romance with a few western trimmings. Nonetheless, thanks to the skills in both front-of and behind the camera, it's watchable.

"Stone of Silver Creek" was a change of pace for star/producer Buck Jones. In the first place, he uses his full name of Charles Buck Jones in the credits and secondly he throws away his blue jeans for a suit and bow tie. Also he plays, now get this, T. William Stone a saloon owner who runs an honest establishment with several G rated young women serving as "hostesses".

A local businessman George Mason (Murdock MacQuarrie) is being taken by two tin horn gamblers, Graves (Rodney Hildebrand) and Simmons Harry Semels) who coarse the drunken old man to sign over his silver mine. Stone (Jones) intervenes and takes back Mason's money and property, but not before he assumes half ownership in the mine. He drives the gamblers out of town.

As it were, Mason has a religious young daughter Martha (Marion Schilling) whom Stone takes an interest in. She even gets Stone to attend church services. The Reverend, Timothy Tucker (Niles Welch) worships Martha from afar. Saloon girl Lola, Stone's "assistant" is worshipped by the town grocer JImmy (Grady Sutton). Stone meanwhile, laments the girl he let get away, (Nancy Raymond).

Graves and Simmons plot to recover their money taken away from them by Stone. Reverend Tucker over hears their plans, buys a gun and plans to reason with them. He and Stone were supposed to confront the men but Tucker slips by Jones and confronts the baddies. He is wounded in the scuffle. Jones takes off after them in the only real action sequence in the film and..........................................................................

It must have been difficult for Jones' fans to accept him as saloon keeper with three leading ladies to boot. Usually the bad guy ran the saloon and it was never squeaky clean as it is here. There are no fights and little action until the end. Anyway, Jones' serials were always more exciting with plenty of action and death defying cliff hangers.