The Duel at Silver Creek (1952)

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General		Extras
Category	Western	Main Menu Audio Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1952
Running Time	73:36 (Case: 77)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Don Siegel
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Audie Murphy Faith Domergue Stephen McNally Susan Cabot Gerald Mohr Eugene Iglesias James Anderson Walter Sande Lee Marvin George Eldredge
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Hans J. Salter

    A band of claim jumpers (the film is also known as Claim Jumpers) led by Rod Lacy (Gerald Mohr) is stealing the claims around Silver City. They kill old man Cromwell, and his son Luke (Audie Murphy) goes looking for them, as The Silver Kid, gunslinger and gambler. Meanwhile the marshal in Silver City, Lightning Tyrone (Stephen McNally) is wounded in the shoulder chasing the claim jumpers, which gives him a stiff trigger finger. He is being menaced by Johnny Sombrero (Eugene Iglesias), who wants to gun for him. Then Tyrone meets Opal Lacy (Faith Domergue), apparently the sister of Rod, with whom he falls in love, or something resembling it. The marshal doesn't know that Rod is the leader of the claim jumpers, but when he talks the Silver Kid into becoming a deputy, a train of events is started that will lead to the duel of the title.

    This is a dull by-the-numbers B-western made during a time when war hero Audie Murphy was only mildly popular as an actor, and studio executives were unsure whether he could carry a film himself. Stephen McNally was a villain in A-pictures, and here he not only plays a hero, but despite his billing under Murphy the film really revolves around him. It is directed by Don Siegel, a director who occasionally lifted B-material above the average, but unfortunately he cannot do much with this film, which seems longer than an hour and a quarter. Of note is the appearance of Lee Marvin in a small role. And a bunch of rocks which I can recall were passed often by Cisco and Pancho, or was that the Lone Ranger and Tonto? Recommended only if you are a western fanatic.

Video

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, close to the original 1.37:1.

    The image is quite sharp and clear throughout, not bad for a transfer of a second feature. There is a reasonable amount of detail visible even in shadows, which is not frequent in this film.

    Colour is quite good, although there were a couple of occasions where it seemed as though the alignment of the Technicolor elements was slightly out. Flesh tones are variable, with some shots making the actors' faces look too brown (or is that just a suntan?). Black levels are not so good, with some blacks seeming more blue in colour, such as at 46:56.

    Some edge enhancement is visible, though it is only obvious on a few occasions. There is an instance of the moire effect at 59:56, and there are some frequent blue spots that appear very briefly, such as from 47:00 for about two minutes.

    There are frequent film artefacts, mainly dirt and small white spots, appearing throughout the film. Grain is evident but never in unnatural proportions.

    English subtitles are provided in white lettering, which is clearly visible and quite accurate to the spoken word.

    This is a single layer disc, so there is no layer change to worry about.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The default audio track is Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, with no surround encoding.

    Dialogue is always clear and distinct, and while this is not an audio track of the highest fidelity, the soundtrack is accurately rendered without problems like hiss or distortion.

    The music score is credited to Hans J. Salter, and it sounds like material that has been lifted from the studio library, as it is very generic for a western. Still, it serves its purpose.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Audio

    The audio under the main menu sounds like stock western music, and I am not certain that it even comes from the film.

Trailer (2:09)

    An original trailer for the film, in reasonably good condition. "Recklessly they faced the outlaw guns that held the West in a grip of terror!" I think you get the picture.

    The Region 1 appears to be identical to the Region 4, so there is no reason to prefer one above the other.

    A mild and undistinguished western, this may be of interest if you are looking for something obscure.

    The video quality is good but has a couple of issues.

    The audio quality is satisfactory.

    The extras do not amount to much, but this is not the sort of film you would expect to have substantial extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall