Reviewed by JONATHAN LEWIS:         

   

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.