a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This might not be a very long film but it packs plenty of action into its seventy seven minutes! The story opens with an introduction about how a group of claim jumpers are forcing miners to sign over their claims before murdering them. Their latest attack leaves one man dead but his son Luke survives and manages to shoot three of them before his horse is shot from under him. We don't see him again for a little while as the action moves to Silver City where Marshal 'Lightning' Tyrone is setting off with a posse to arrest the claim jumpers; unfortunately he gets shot and wounded. He is taken to the nearest army camp to recuperate and while he is there a survivor of a jumper raid is brought in; this could be their best lead yet but he is murdered by a woman who claimed to have nursing skills. Lightning might be quick on the draw but he doesn't spot that Opal Lacy is a killer; in fact he falls for her almost straight away. When he gets back to Silver City he finds that his elderly deputy has been murdered. He suspects one Johnny Sombrero but Opal's brother gives him an alibi and points the finger out a newcomer called 'The Silver Kid'; The Kid is none other than Luke and the marshal trusts him enough to make him his deputy. The two of them work together to catch the jumpers but their relationship is strained to breaking point when Luke questions the marshal's unquestioning support for Opal.I was surprised just how much I enjoyed this early Don Siegel film; it shows he knew how to direct action well before his more famous later films even though here he had to work with in the strict rules of the Hayes Code. Audie Murphy was pretty good as Luke 'The Silver Kid' Cromwell as was Stephen McNally who played Marshal 'Lightning' Tyrone; a part at least as important as Murphy's; I can only assume he got lower billing because he was less well known at the time. It wasn't just an actor's film; Actresses Faith Domergue and Susan Cabot did good jobs as the devious Opal Lacy, who is cahoots with the man running the claim jumpers, and the feisty 'Dusty' Fargo respectively. While this isn't a classic it passed an hour and a half (including adverts) when it was on television and even though it is full of action and shooting there is little to make it unsuitable for younger viewers too.

"Big Steal" director Don Siegel's first western outing, "Duel at Silver Creek," bristles with gunfights galore, posses of dust-raising horsemen, and a hefty body count. Decorated World War II veteran Audie Murphy co-stars with Stephen McNally and Faith Domergue. Lee Marvin lurks on the periphery as a minor supporting character while perennial bad guy Gerald Mohr portrays the chief villain who leads a gang of homicidal henchmen. Friendship, deception, intrigue, and betrayal emerge as the major themes in this briskly-paced, 77-minute, Technicolor, horse opera that doesn't wear out its welcome. "Armored Car Robbery" scenarist Gerald Drayson Adams and "Buccaneer's Girl" scribe Joseph Hoffman have fashioned an interesting sagebrusher that takes advantage of several film noir elements. First, leading lady Faith Domergue is a murderous siren who takes McNally for a ride. Second, the McNally lawman provides the narration and endures the paranoia that comes with getting crippled by a bullet. "Duel at Silver Creek" was among the earliest westerns that used the gimmick of the gunman who had trouble pulling the trigger. This theme would become a convention during the 1950s. Third, the Silver Kid is a black, leather-coat clad trigger-happy gambler out for revenge that the McNally lawman exploits because he cannot reveal his own dark secret without jeopardizing his life. Indeed, while most of the action occurs during the day, a murder takes place at night. Nevertheless, "Duel at Silver Creek" could be classified as a film noir western.Against a vigorous montage of murder and mayhem, the narrator (Stephen McNally) establishes the conflict in "Duel at Silver Creek." He begins: "For some time there'd been reports about a vicious gang of claim jumpers who'd been forcing miners to sign away their claims through fear of torture or death. The claims were then transferred to one of their own men or were sold to innocent miners who had just arrived in the territory and were looking for new claims to work. These claim jumpers were smart enough not to try to grab some of the bigger mines where there might be enough men working to put up a fight. Usually, they picked on claims being worked by one or two men. And the more defenseless these men were, the better the claim jumpers liked it. Their plan was simple and foolproof, because nobody knew who they were. Since their victims either disappeared, or were found dead, there wasn't anyone who could put their finger on these jumpers. Working a claim became a might dangerous business for any miner because no one knew when or where they'd turn up next." Two miners are shot dead in cold blood by the claim jumpers. Luke Cromwell (Audie Murphy of "Comanche Creek") and his father have just made a gold strike when the claim jumpers ride up for their next foray. "There's enough dust there to blind a man. The jubilant father proclaims, "Looks like we staked one with some pay dirt this time, son!" The father beams with joy. "Now, you can buy all the silver you want. You won't have to go around playing poker for it." Rod Lacey (Gerald Mohr of "Invasion, U.S.A.") sends two men to ambush Luke after he rides away. Luke thwarts the two ambushers.McNally resumes his narration: "Then old man Tompkins struck it rich a few miles north of Silver City and the jumpers moved in and killed him. As usual, they made a clean getaway, but this time they left a trail I thought we could follow and as I was Marshal of Silver City, I decided to get up a posse to track them down." Marshal Tyrone's mentor, Dan 'Pop' Muzik (Griff Barnett of "Cass Timberlane"), wants to serve as marshal for Tyrone while the marshal is out with the posse. Tyrone leaves him in charge of Silver City. The posse runs down the claim jumpers, but Tyrone catches a slug in his right shoulder. The posse continues their pursuit, while Tyrone recuperates at Fort Lowell. He meets Opal Lacy (Faith Domergue of "Where Danger Lives") before she takes a stage to Silver City. The authorities bring a dying man to Fort Lowell and Opal offers to assist the physician. She sends the wounded Tyrone off on an errand. After the two men leave the man with Opal, she strangles him quickly.Later, she tells Tyrone that she is heading to Silver City to help her brother, Rod, run his mining business. When Tyrone returns, he learns that Pop was gunned down at night in the back. Immediately, Tyrone suspects the culprit in Pop's murder is a Mexican gunman named Johnny Sombrero (Eugene Iglesias of "The Brave Bulls") who has been a burr under his saddle. Rod provides Johnny with an alibi, and Opal suggests the killer may be the Silver Kid. "They say the Silver Kid is awfully fast with his guns," she warns Tyrone. Instead of arresting the Silver Kid (Audie Murphy), Tyrone deputizes him because he knows that he needs a fast gun to back him up.Opal strings along Tyrone. They call each other Brown Eyes and Lightning and he falls for him lock, stock and barrel. The Kid and Tyrone have an on-again, off-again relationship because he tries to convince the marshal that Brown Eyes is treacherous. Eventually, Tyrone learns about Brown Eyes' treachery. Initially, Tyrone believes that the Kid betrayed him when he informed Johnny about his inability to pull the trigger. The surprise ending where one of the heroes shoots the other one in the arm is clever, and Siegel and his writers ramrod a lot of exposition down our throats under the circumstances. Although Silver Creek is never seen, one character describes the setting for the finale as located near Silver Creek. Evidently, Universal Studios decided to bank on a sizzling, tell-all title like "Duel at Silver Creek" rather than something like "Duel near Silver Creek." The flavorful dialogue, especially the exchanges between Murphy and McNally, is quite good.

I'm not really sure what director Don Siegel was going for here, but it looks like he might have been trying to put one over on the movie Western fan. The first tip off is the scene where we're introduced to Marshal Lightning (Stephen McNally) of Silver City and a confrontation he has with Johnny Sombrero (Eugene Iglesias). Johnny Sombrero? This felt like one of those Mel Brooks spoofs to come down the pike a couple of decades later, I'm thinking of "Blazing Saddles". Even the name of bad guy Lacy's business, the Acme Mining Company, brought me back to those Wile E. Coyote cartoons where the hapless varmint just couldn't keep up with the Roadrunner. Are you starting to get the picture? Siegel then peppers the script with characters like the Silver Kid and Dusty; he even gives the outlaw leader's moll two names - Opal Lacy and Brown Eyes. All very camp.But also all very entertaining. The principals take the ball and run with it, and give them credit for for doing it without cracking up. There are so many inconsistencies in the picture that I almost lost count. How about Opal Lacy's (Faith Domergue) first scene when she chokes the claim jumped miner brought into the Army Hospital? With no time to loosen the bandanna, the Cavalry doc simply picks it up to cover the face of the dead miner. No suspicion there, right? And say, didn't the Silver Kid (Audie Murphy) gun down Tinhorn (Lee Marvin) after that card game when the Kid laid down three aces? Tinhorn shows up later none the worse for wear. At least Marvin stayed dead after he got shot by John Wayne in "The Comancheros". But I did get a kick out of The Kid's name for Tinhorn - 'sheep dip'. Audie Murphy may not have had the face of a killer, but he killed me with that line.I'll say this for Murphy though - even though he never quite brought his film persona up to the level of his real life war record, he has about the boldest action move I've ever seen in a Western in this flick. At the final shoot out at the mining camp, Murphy dives through the window and INTO the outlaw cabin! There could have been a whole boat load of bad guys in there and he could have come out like a sponge. But he did it in the name of love, rescuing his gal Dusty (Susan Cabot). I thought it was pretty cool the way Kid compared relationships and life to a hand of poker; with that save he showed all his cards.Of course the good guy team of Marshal Lightning and Silver Kid come out on top in the finale. It blows by pretty quickly, but it's revealed that Rod and Opal Lacy weren't siblings, which didn't make a whole lot of sense given the way the story was going. Lightning uses the old 'throw the rock in the other direction' trick to gun down the bad guy, and the only thing missing was a big old Cadillac to drive the heroes off into the sunset. Mel Brooks would have thought of that.

The Dual At Silver Creek is a very entertaining western from the early fifties,the main stars are Stephen Mcnally and Audie Murphy. The story is about a Marshal{Mcnally} who is out to stop a murderous gang who have killed one of his friends and are also terrorising and killing local miners.Because the Marshal has lost the use of his trigger finger he hires the help of a sharp shooter named the Silver Kid{Murphy}.Along the way the marshal has fallen for a classy but treacherous new lady in town named Opal who is really working for the bad men,she makes out she loves the marshal,but we all know different and will he see through her in time? For a B movie Dual At Silver Creek is highly entertaining,its one of those films that id seen years ago as a kid but couldn't remember properly,and viewing it today it actually seems better. Some of the scenes are actually seem quite campy now days especially whenever the bad character Johnny Sombrero and chums appear,and then there's Audie Murphy{who does look very attractive}is dressed in black leather,say no more. I've often read reviews on Audie Murphy films and people often describe his acting as stoic,wooden,bland etc which i think is a bit harsh,{okay he wasn't Bogart or Tracy}but i feel he was competent enough for these sort of films and he more than holds his own in this one, viewed today he doesn't seem any worse than a lot of other actors who by todays standards over acted. One of my favourite scenes in the film is between Murphy and Lee Marvin at a poker table, where Marvin makes some rather insulting and bitchy remarks to Murphy and its really quite funny to watch.You don't see much of Marvin but when you do he more than makes you aware that his in this film he did have a strong screen presence and you wonder why he wasn't given bigger parts earlier on in his career.Faith Domergue is also very good as the treacherous and scheming Opal or Brown Eyes as the marshal calls her. Dual At Silver Creek is a good way to waste about 80 minutes its a fun movie.