User Reviews

This attractive looking western concerning both the logging industry and silver mining in the old west suffers from too much verbal exposition and too many bar fights or sequences of one person destroying an office in an act of sabotage. When the visual description of the industries come in, it is towards the end of the film, and by that time, it is too late. The story surrounds the silver claim made by gruff Edgar Buchannan and his rough and ready daughter, Yvonne DeCarlo, and the various characters who may or may not be out to get a claim in it. Among the good guys are Edmund O'Brien, and the leading bad guy is none other than that "Going My Way" Oscar Winning Priest Barry Fitzgerald, here anxious to get his Irish paws into the claim with the help of various henchmen who have their own interests.

DeCarlo is basically the whole show here, tearing everything else apart with the heat she uses to sizzle up the screen. The amateurish acting of Laura Elliott as the typical society dame who has the manners of a cat on the prowl for mice becomes painfully obvious when in the company of DeCarlo. Like Barbara Stanwyck and Maureen O'Hara, she proves that a woman could be just as handy in the west as a man and stand up to any foe. Poor Gladys George, one of the great character actresses of the golden age of Hollywood, is totally wasted here, as are veterans Buchannan, Fitzgerald and Richard Arlen.

After 80 minutes of mostly mediocrity, the film finally begins to take off with a scene in the logging factory as huge trees are sliced into planks like steaks from a cow. This leads into the type of action the entire film had been screaming for when DeCarlo was off the screen. At least they filmed it in gorgeous Technicolor. Without that and the future Lily Munster, this would have been another "B" grade western that would have sunk as part of a double bill.

Producer Nat Holt had a multi-picture deal at Paramount in the early 1950s, and so did star Edmond O'Brien. Interestingly, Holt cast O'Brien (an actor associated with noir not westerns) to play the lead in a few modestly budgeted oaters. The first one was WARPATH, released in mid-1951; the second production was SILVER CITY, which was filmed in the middle of '51 but not released till the end of the year.; the third title would be DENVER AND RIO GRANDE in 1952. I should note that Holt ran a very efficient "assembly-line" process at Paramount. SILVER CITY was shot in just 24 days which is remarkable for a 90 minute Technicolor production.

This time O'Brien is cast as a bad guy trying to make good. The story's prologue tells us he used to be pals with a well-to-do businessman (Richard Arlen) but stiffed the guy and took off with stolen goods. In the process, O'Brien ditched a gold digger (Kasey Rogers) who ended up marrying Arlen. Later O'Brien started over in the mining town of Silver City. Though not spelled out specifically, the setting is Silver City, New Mexico.

In Silver City O'Brien deals with a ruthless mining and oil baron (played by a slightly miscast Barry Fitzgerald). Fitzgerald's character is probably modeled on Edward Doheny. He doesn't take kindly to guys like O'Brien or Arlen, who arrives in Silver City a short time later, horning in on his territory.

The territory is also home to a sexy woman portrayed by Yvonne De Carlo, who else, and she intends to mine the ore on some land she and her dad (Edgar Buchanan) own. It sort of feels like De Carlo's character is modeled after the infamous Poker Alice, a gambling queen who once operated a saloon in Silver City, NM, but has plenty of other interests in the community. Of course, the bulk of the story is fictional, with De Carlo teaming up with O'Brien. To satisfy the romantic elements, she inevitably falls for O'Brien, though O'Brien still has feelings for Rogers who is stuck in an unhappy marriage to Arlen. And so the western soap opera goes!

We find out that O'Brien never spent the loot he took from Arlen, so he is able to redeem himself in the end and square accounts. As for Fitzgerald's character, he is manipulated by Arlen and tries to ruin O'Brien but of course does not succeed. A showdown occurs between O'Brien and Arlen. There is a lot of double crossing, dirty dealing and outdoor adventure in this picture. Though the stars are not doing Shakespeare they give it their all and render an enjoyable piece of entertainment.

I should add that De Carlo was massively successful in westerns at her home studio Universal. After renegotiating her contract, she was able to do an occasional 'outside' film at other studios. She was probably eager to return to Paramount to prove a point. She had been under contract at Paramount in the war years competing for parts with Dorothy Lamour, not really getting anywhere. But after scoring a breakthrough for Universal in 1945's SALOME WHERE SHE DANCED, she had become a bonafide box office star. She was always right at home in the western genre.