John Payne is Dan Ballard, and the story unfolds on his wedding day, when a U.S. Marshal named McCarty arrives in the town of Silver Lode with three deputes to take him back to the town of Discovery, Calif., to be tried for murder. He’s accused of shooting the sheriff’s brother in the back and making off with $20,000 from a crooked card game.
At first, the unbelieving townsfolks rally around their friend. The sheriff even gets together a posse to accompany Ballard and McCarty on their journey to ensure he isn’t harmed en route to jail.
But one circumstance after another foils Ballard’s attempts to prove his innocence and his friends come to believe he truly is a murderer, especially after he’s found in a stable holding two guns with a dead sheriff and a dead duputy at his feet and a wounded McCarty nearby.
Only his fiancee (Lizabeth Scott as Rose Evans) and an old flame (Dolores Moran as dance hall girl Dolly) stick by him until the end.
John Payne as Dan Ballard, the man accused of murder and robbery by McCarty in Silver Lode (1954)
Dan Duryea as McCarty, diligent in his pursuit of the man who killed his brother in Silver Lode (1954)
Review:
At the time, the film was meant as an indictment of McCarthyism, a thinly veiled one considering the villain’s last name. And director Dwan does some wonderful work. The opening scene features a group of kids playing with a firecracker. “Watch it explode,” one shouts out as all the kids jump back. At that moment McCarty and his deputies ride into town and are about to make it explode.
Plus the movie takes place on July 4, and many of the action sequences include Ballard dodging bullets by crawling under picnic tables adorned in red, white and blue. Payne does a find job as an innocent man becoming more desperate by the minute. Duryea is superb, as always.
The only off-key notes: Dolly spouts some wonderful lines, but they sound like they belong in a 1940s gangster flick, not in a 1880s saloon. And after a clever climax, the final scene seems overly joyous.
Longtime character actor Frank Sully has a humorous role as a telegraph officer forced to do as Dolly says, lest she makes up stories about the two of them and tell his wife. Duryea’s deputies include Harry Carey Jr., Alan Hale Jr. (the future Skipper on Gilligan’s Island) and Stuart Whitman in just his third credited role.
This marked the final film for 1940s bombshell Moran, who was married to the film’s producer, Benedict Bogeaus. And this marked one of only two Westerns for Lizabeth Scott, who also played a lead in the Alan Ladd film “Red Mountain” (1951).
Lizabeth Scott as Rose Evans, fretting over the life of her fiancee with her father (Morris Ankrum as Zachary Evans) by her side in Silver Lode (1954)
Stuart Whitman as Wicker and Harry Carey Jr. as Johnson, two of McCarty’s deputies in Silver Lode (1954)
Directed by:
Allan Dwan
Cast:
John Payne … Dan Ballard
Dan Duryea … McCarty
Lizabeth Scott … Rose Evans
Dolores Moran … Dolly
Emile Myer … Sheriff Wooly
Harry Carey Jr. … Johnson
Alan Hale Jr. … Kirk
Robert Warwick … Judge Cranston
Stuart Whitman … Wicker
Frank Sully … Paul Herbert
Morris Ankrum … Zachary Evans
Hugh Sanders … Rev. Field
Florence Auer … Mrs. Elmwood
Roy Gordon … Dr. Elmwood
Runtime: 81 min.
Dolores Moran as saloon girl Dolly with telegraph operator Paul Herbert (Frank Sully) in SIlver Lode (1954)
Alan Hale Jr. as Kirk and Dan Duryea as Fred McCarty, his boss, in Silver Lode (1954)
Memorable lines:
Dan Ballard: “I need your help, Dolly.”
Dolly: “Yeah, you must, to come slumming on your wedding day.”
Dan: “A drowning man grabs at straws.”
Dolly stretches out a shapely leg: “Straws?”
Dolly to McCarty, after he has inspected her closet for trap doors: “We nailed it up to keep out the rats. Seems it didn’t work.”
McCarty to Dolly: “Did you ever hear the fable of interfering cats.”
Dolly: “Yeah, she hated rats.”
Dolly to churchgoer: “Do you call yourself respectable?”
Churchgoer: “I certainly do.”
Dolly: “Then I’m glad I’m not.”
Dolores Moran as Dolly, the saloon girl and former flame who helps Ballard in SIlver Lode (1954)
Lizabeth Scott as Rose Evans and John Payne as Dan Ballard, their wedding interrupted in Silver Lode (1954)
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