Small town businessman Dan Ballard (John Payne) is about to marry his love Rose Evans (Lizabeth Scott) when trouble rides into town: Marshal Fred McCarty (Dan Duryea).
The Marshall has come to arrest Dan for murder.
With time running out, Dan finds his community increasingly unwilling to defend or support him…
Released in 1954, Silver Lode is rife with the paranoia of the early Cold War.
Emerging out of that context, its tale of a community turning against its own remains potent - a metaphor for how mere suspicion can undermine personal localities and community cohesion.
Despite the iconography of the western, the film feels more like a thriller. As the paranoia builds, the film begins to feel closer to a zombie movie.
It is akin to watching a zombie infection spread, as the amiable townsfolk reveal a prejudice and propensity for violence that punctures their self-styled civilised veneer.
The third act becomes more action-oriented as our hero goes on the run in town, trying to hide in spaces where everyone knows his face.
While he appears to be alone, our hero does have one steadfast ally - Dolly (Dolores Moran).
The one character who shows him any kind of sympathy Dolly is also the most ostracised person in town.
The local sex worker, she sees through everyone’s hypocrisy. It is mentioned that she is the richest person in town, which puts paid to the the town’s face of moral probity.
She also sees Dan’s fall as an opportunity - to take back the man she loves.
The film offers a terrifying (and prescient) take on the fragility of democracy.
The judge (Robert Warwick) seems anxious to uphold the law, not because he believes in it, but also because he sees how fragile it is - it is based on consensus.
So is mob rule.
And as the film shows, the conduit between the two is wafer thin.
In an ironic turn, the story ends with another fabrication - Dolly produces last minute ‘evidence’ of Dan’s innocence. While real evidence does eventually show up, there is no sense of resolution - the unease remains.
It did not take much to turn the town against Dan - whose to say it could not happen again?
Allan Dean directs with an un-flashy precision.
The cast are terrific.
Star John Payne is an unknown quantity to me - he a quiet intensity and sells the character’s growing panic.
As McCarty, Dan Duryea is so naturally untrustworthy onscreen. He brings no histrionics or business - it is cellular with him.
The real standout is Dolores Moran as Dolly, who balances the character’s caustic wit and tough-minded pragmatism with a flinty empathy.
Taking place in bright daylight, with decorations celebrating American Independence Day, Silver Lode is a quietly disturbing nightmare, and one of the best westerns of the fifties.
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