Spikeopath Silver Lode is directed by Allan Dwan and written by Karen DeWolf. It stars John Payne, Lizabeth Scott, Dan Duryea, Dolores Moran and Emile Meyer. Music is by Louis Forbes and cinematography by John Alton.Dan Ballard (Payne) is a respected resident of the town Silver Lode, but on his wedding day Marshal Fred McCarty (Duryea) rolls into town looking to arrest him, accusing him of having murdered the Marshal's brother. The townsfolk refuse to accept the charge and stand up for Dan, and Dan loudly protests his innocence, but once suspicious mud is thrown it begins to stick and soon Dan finds himself running out of friends and is forced to prove his innocence.Two things always pop up when the film Silver Lode is spoke about, one is its similarities to High Noon, the other is its veiled allegory of Senator McCarthy and his witch hunts. These are two things which are hard to ignore, though as a "British" lover of Westerns myself, the McCarthy politico aspect doesn't really resonate, but Silver Lode deserves to primarily be known for being the damn fine Western that it is.Fickle mob rule and knee jerk reactions drive Silver Lode forward, it's a thematic powder keg ignited with some skill by the prolific Dwann. Aided by the supremely talented Alton, Dwann achieves so much mood and tension from a small town set up, this is never dealing in expansive vistas, its primary goal is to suffocate Dan Ballard. Where once was freedom and love, now is a place closing in on him, with the story moving into a noir realm as Dan becomes a man whose past is proving to be inescapable, while fate, another big noir ingredient, has a big part in proceedings as events conspire to make Dan seem more of a guilty man the harder he tries to prove his innocence.It's a lean and mean screenplay, devoid of filler and characterisations are colourful. Payne makes for a good put upon hero, his Dan Ballard as written is stoic and tough, and resilience needs to be his middle name. Duryea does another in his great line of weasels, and here he is wonderfully cloaked in suspicion from the off. Tagging behind him are his three equally suspicious cohorts played by Stuart Whitman, Alan Hale Junior and Harry Carey Junior, while the upstanding town elders (Sheriff, Judge, Reverend) have time to make a mark before the fragile nature of small town justice begins to take a hold and the clock ticks down on Dan Ballard's life.Most impressive is the influence on the story of the lady characters, so often a token interest in the B Westerns of the 50s. Deftly perched on either side of Ballard, the femmes are key characters in the piece. Rose Evans (Scott) is virtuous, brightly attired in white, she's the town sweetheart who Dan is set to marry, the question is will her loyalty to Dan remain? Dolly (Moran giving the best performance in the film and getting all the best lines) is a slinky saloon gal, in purple frills and with a tongue as sharp as a scorpion's sting, she still carries a torch for the unobtainable Dan.Alton's colour photography is most appealing but we don't see the best of his work until the finale inside the town church. With clever use of light, shadows and colour enhancements, Alton is able to sum up the whole tone of the story in this segment. As for if the finale is worth the wait? It is but it's a little mischievous. Certainly it's interesting, a quirk of fate again playing a hand as two men do battle in the church bell tower. But there's a religious angle dropped into the narrative and I'm at a loss as to why that would be the case? Still, it's a very small irritant, for this is a cracker of a Western, a lesson in achieving big things from such small beginnings. 8.5/10

vitaleralphlouis THE SILVER LODE is a pretty good Technicolor western from RKO. The story is good, the cast is top notch, and the photography is particularly fine. This movie is supposedly an anti-Senator McCarthy parable, and if so I'll rate it an "F" and No Stars, but the idea this is about McCarthy is nonsense.John Payne and Lizabeth Scott have their wedding interrupted by a US Marshal (named McCarty, not McCarthy) and played by dependable bad guy Dan Duryea on a charge of murder. Duryea is a fake, and it seems he's more interested in a certain $20,000 than the untimely shooting of his brother. This "parable" obviously has exactly zero to do with investigating Communist infiltration of the film industry during the Cold War Era.One of the most cowardly things a filmmaker, author or journalist can do is to attack Senator McCarthy. McCarthy was a war hero who offended Hollywood's lefties by daring to expose the many Communists in their industry --- as verified by testimony from the much-honored director Elia Kazan. They took their revenge out by attacking the man with mountain-upon-mountain of cheap shots and lies for the past 50 years; and the lies continue today.Almost any American, not just the left, many otherwise well informed people, believe the lies, if only through sheer abundance. To pile more lies on top of this is sheer cowardice -- as is the idea of re-defining this 1953 western in terms of their evil and vindictive spin.Rent this one and enjoy it for the good western that it is.

bkoganbing Federal Marshal Dan Duryea arrives in the town of Silver Lode with three deputies to arrest one of its citizens, John Payne, on a charge of murder. As things start to happen, Payne who at first has the whole town behind him, loses all his friends save for fiancé Lizabeth Scott and former girl friend Dolores Moran who works in the saloon. By the way, Duryea arrives on the 4th of July which was also to be Payne's wedding day.This is a classic version of the ill effects of mob violence. Some have said it's a polemic against McCarthyism, no doubt helped by the fact that Duryea's character name is McCarty. For myself Silver Lode is in the tradition of The Oxbow Incident and Fury, both classic films from major studios about vigilante justice.Silver Lode doesn't have the production values that 20th Century Fox or MGM could bring to a movie, it was done by RKO. Nevertheless supporting Payne, Duryea, and Scott are a solid cast of players, very much at home in westerns. This was also Dolores Moran's last film, she was married to producer Benedict Bogeaus.Payne had already essayed a very good role in Kansas City Confidential of a wrongly accused man and he follows it up here with an equally good portrayal. It's one of his best film parts.Allan Dwan keeps things moving at a brisk pace, Silver Lode doesn't bog down for a fraction of a second. One of the best B westerns ever done.

FilmFlaneur Veteran director Dwan made hundreds of films over a long career (and indeed was of the most prolific of the classic Hollywood school) yet even amongst a body of distinguished work this tour de force is a masterpiece.Produced during the McCarthy period, when film directors, writers and stars where called to account in a political witch hunt, Silver Lode (like another colour Western laced with similar concerns, Ray's fabulous Johnny Guitar) is concerned with the nature of liberty, truth and memory in a free society.Dan Duryea is superb as the scheming villain 'McCarty' and John Payne makes a Ballard a suitably stalwart hero who has to prove his innocence before a deadline.The plot is structured around a number of instances which, each in turn, ostensibly weaken Ballard's claim to innocence. Ultimately he finds he is on the run - alone in a town full of people formerly his friends, but who now aim to hunt him down on the basis of accusation, suspicion and circumstantial evidence alone. Ballard's travails also reflect the nature of substantiation and memory, both in a political and cinematic sense, as he undergoes his constant quest for redemption.John Payne's stoic exterior has never been put to better use as he grabs desperately to each chance to prove his innocence as, one by one, those who welcomed him into their community as 'respectable' fall away. This may be his best film. The repetitive nature of this process, as incident follows incident only highlights the significant nature of his predicament and makes the audience 'could this happen in real life?' The answer in the 50's, sadly, was 'yes'. SPOILER In the superbly staged ironic finale, Ballard and McCarty fight it out in the town clock tower, and the villainous false Marshall is killed by his bullet ricochet from the Liberty bell. In a further ironic note, the document which has relieved Ballard from suspicion is itself a forgery, accepted unquestioningly by his supporters. And this all takes place on a national holiday, amongst flags and patriotic celebration, and on the eve of Ballard's wedding.Within the constrictions of a B-movie, and the repression of a communist witch hunt, this movie manages to slip through a neat and entertaining indictment of a system that forces the innocent to defend themselves against accusation, slander and lies. What adds to all this is the consistency of the film, its reiteration of political truth without digression or fudge.