Nonureva Really Surprised!

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Scott LeBrun 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.

Tweekums This might not be a very long film but it packs plenty of action into its seventy seven minutes! The story opens with an introduction about how a group of claim jumpers are forcing miners to sign over their claims before murdering them. Their latest attack leaves one man dead but his son Luke survives and manages to shoot three of them before his horse is shot from under him. We don't see him again for a little while as the action moves to Silver City where Marshal 'Lightning' Tyrone is setting off with a posse to arrest the claim jumpers; unfortunately he gets shot and wounded. He is taken to the nearest army camp to recuperate and while he is there a survivor of a jumper raid is brought in; this could be their best lead yet but he is murdered by a woman who claimed to have nursing skills. Lightning might be quick on the draw but he doesn't spot that Opal Lacy is a killer; in fact he falls for her almost straight away. When he gets back to Silver City he finds that his elderly deputy has been murdered. He suspects one Johnny Sombrero but Opal's brother gives him an alibi and points the finger out a newcomer called 'The Silver Kid'; The Kid is none other than Luke and the marshal trusts him enough to make him his deputy. The two of them work together to catch the jumpers but their relationship is strained to breaking point when Luke questions the marshal's unquestioning support for Opal.I was surprised just how much I enjoyed this early Don Siegel film; it shows he knew how to direct action well before his more famous later films even though here he had to work with in the strict rules of the Hayes Code. Audie Murphy was pretty good as Luke 'The Silver Kid' Cromwell as was Stephen McNally who played Marshal 'Lightning' Tyrone; a part at least as important as Murphy's; I can only assume he got lower billing because he was less well known at the time. It wasn't just an actor's film; Actresses Faith Domergue and Susan Cabot did good jobs as the devious Opal Lacy, who is cahoots with the man running the claim jumpers, and the feisty 'Dusty' Fargo respectively. While this isn't a classic it passed an hour and a half (including adverts) when it was on television and even though it is full of action and shooting there is little to make it unsuitable for younger viewers too.

MBunge The Duel at Silver Creek is a nice example of how much fun the Western used to be before the genre got all serious and realistic.In this story, claim jumpers are running wild near the town of Silver City. They're bushwacking people who have small claims around the gold rich Silver Creek, forcing them to sign over their claims and then killing them. But they get more than they bargain for when they try to jump the claim of a father and son. They do get the claim and kill the old man, but his son (Audie Murphy) kills three of the gang with his silver-handled revolvers. "Lightning" Tyrone (Stephen McNally), the marshal of Silver City, rounds up a posse to go after the claim jumpers but he ends up shot in the shoulder and the gang escapes. "Lightning" is taken to nearby Fort Lowell, where he's patched up but his shooting hand is crippled. He doesn't have the strength to pull a trigger anymore. While recovering at Fort Lowell, "Lightning" becomes infatuated with Opal Lacey (Faith Domgergue), a pretty lady in a pretty dress he takes to calling "brown eyes". But the audience soon discovers those brown eyes disguise a great many unpleasant things. "Lightning" returns to Silver City to find an old friend dead, shot in the back. He suspects Johnny Sombrero (Eugene Iglesias), the local bad man who happens to look like a Mexican Liberace, but has no proof. The marshal also runs into the son of the gold miner slain at the start of the film. Dubbed the Silver Kid now, the young man becomes "Lightning's" deputy and the two of them are pitted against the machinations of Johnny Sombrero, the claim jumpers and the beautiful Opal. Joining them is Dusty (Susan Cabot), a tom boy who's had a crush on the older "Lightning" for years. He doesn't see her as anything more than a little sister, but the Silver Kid has more romantic intentions toward her. The fast moving story has quite a few twists and turns before climaxing in a big gun battle between the claim jumpers and a new posse, which finally ends when one of the oldest and dumbest tricks in the book actually works.I liked this film a lot but I have to admit, it's a fairly generic 1950s Western. By modern standards it's corny with two-dimensional characters and unremarkable dialog. The plot is a bit more involved than you might expect, however this isn't a story with any great depth or meaning to it. It's a fairly basic Western with good men, a bad woman and guns getting shot out of people's hands. If you're looking for gritty realism and edgy storytelling, this isn't the movie for you.The Duel at Silver Creek is never anything more than a pleasant diversion and I don't think the filmmakers wanted it to be anything more than that. It moves at a brisk pace with plenty of traditional Western action. There's actually a great deal of stuff going on in the story, leading to simplistic but believable conflict between the characters. It's a great looking film with a couple of scenes that have a quite a visual kick to them. All of the actors do a good job for this sort of melodramatic tale. It's just a nice piece of entertainment.It's nowhere near being one of the great Westerns, but The Duel at Silver Creek is a good Western. If you can get past stuff like the claim jumpers leaving a ransom note and literally signing it "The Jumpers", I think you'll get a kick out of this movie.

bkoganbing The Duel at Silver Creek refers to the place where the final confrontation between the good guys led by Stephen McNally and Audie Murphy and the bad guys headed by Gerald Mohr. Mohr heads a nasty group of bad guys who go around shooting hard working prospectors after they've signed over their claims. One of them is the father of gunfighter Audie Murphy.Marshal Stephen McNally is also on their trail, but he's slowed up by a gunshot wound that's left his trigger finger a might unsteady. He turns to Murphy as an ally of convenience.There's a lot of action in The Duel at Silver Creek even more than the usual Audie Murphy western. Unfortunately it's to cover up some really serious problems with the story.I don't know about how you would feel, but even to the kid crowd for which this western was clearly intended, when someone shows up with title to those claims it's going to be rather obvious who was behind all the homicides. My guess is that Don Siegel's film got butchered in the editing. In fact you know there's a piece out of it because McNally just all of a sudden shows up in an army hospital being treated for a gunshot wound you never see take place.Susan Cabot plays the good girl with first a yen for McNally and then for Murphy. Faith Domergue is the bad girl, bad as they come in westerns. She's in cahoots with the bad guys and shamelessly flirts with McNally and young gun Eugene Iglesias while all the time she acts as Mohr's moll in a more modern gangster film style. Domergue has the best role in the film, too bad the film itself is so weak.Look for Lee Marvin in a small role as one of the outlaw gang, if you're looking at all at The Duel at Silver Creek. Definitely for die-hard Audie Murphy fans.