Fri 13 Jun 2025
A Western Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: SILVER CITY (1951).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[6] Comments
SILVER CITY. Paramount Pictures, 1951. Edmond O’Brien, Yvonne De Carlo, Richard Arlen, Barry Fitzgerald, Gladys George, Laura Elliott, Edgar Buchanan. Michael Moore. Screenplay by Frank Gruber, based on the 1947 novel High Vermilion by Luke Short. Director: Byron Haskin.
Edmond O’Brien takes the lead in Silver City, an overall mediocre Western from director Byron Haskin, whose much better Denver & Rio Grande (1952), also starring O’Brien, I reviewed here on this blog a while ago. In Silver City, O’Brien portrays Larkin Moffatt, a mining assayer who becomes an unlikely hero when he comes to the rescue of the Surrencys – a father and daughter mining outfit.
Both father Dutch (Edgar Buchanan) and daughter Candace (Yvonne de Carlo) are facing immense pressure from claim jumper R.R. Jarboe (Barry Fitzgerald) and his henchman Bill Taff (Michael Moore). Complicating matters is the fact that Larkin has his own criminal past and an ongoing rivalry with his former employer, Charles Storrs (Richard Arlen) and his wife Josephine, who he was once romantically involved with. When all the characters gather in Silver City, Nevada, things come to a boiling point. That’s the plot in a nutshell.
The movie starts off slow, but it eventually finds a solid footing. Still, despite some fightfights and a well-choreographed final showdown at a sawmill, Silver City is a rather uninspired film. It simply doesn’t live up to its potential. If you haven’t seen this one, you’re not missing all that much.

June 13th, 2025 at 9:10 pm
Larkin Moffat? Bent Potato works as well.
June 13th, 2025 at 9:46 pm
Surprising that Frank Gruber should miss the hardboiled edge that made Luke Short novels spark even when the plot was fairly straight forward.
Still, interesting to see Fitzgerald playing a bad guy at this stage in his long career.
Dull, but it certainly has solid credentials.
June 13th, 2025 at 10:34 pm
David, this is probably the close of Fitzgerald’s time at Paramount. My comment about Larkin Moffat means I would rather have had Dick Arlen in that part.
June 14th, 2025 at 3:14 pm
The name of the director, Byron Haskin, is a new one for me, but the cast is certainly above average, and so of course are the screenwriter and the author of the source material. And yet, and yet, the tale on the screen doesn’t have a lot of “oomph” to it. I wish it had been better. It really should have.
June 15th, 2025 at 2:59 am
Haskin did better teamed with George Pal and Ray Harryhausen than here. Though he did a few Westerns were not his best work, that was WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE TIME MACHINE, and others.
June 16th, 2025 at 7:24 am
David, I hope you’ll forgive a couple of corrections. First, Haskin worked with Pal but not with Harryhausen. Second, Pal not only produced both of those films, but also directed The Time Machine himself, per my May 7 M*F post, on which you commented. Haskin directed only War of the Worlds; you can read more about both in my upcoming War post (ditto Harryhausen when I get to First Men in the Moon).