I came to this film on the basis of it being Don Siegel's first western and the first film he made in colour. I don't know what surprised me the most, a western directed by Don Siegel and such a clean one (in the sense it is not very gritty and it follows the plot points of most westerns of the 50's) or the fact that Lee Marvin once had hair which was not white. There are a lot of elegant tracking shots here, and the way the titular duel is shot makes it clear that director Don Siegel was really relishing getting to play around in the western sandbox.

That all combines to make The Duel at Silver Creek a solid little Western that uses the conventions of the genre well in a swift and colourful manner. This focused plot is improved by a good range of fun characters – with fancy names and exaggerated characters to match: the tough broad, the kid, the tough sheriff, the old coot etc. The prettiest, Miss Domergue, not only dresses to the ears but, as one of the chief culprits, is not above garroting a wounded man to death.But before the smitten sheriff manages to pin the goods on this cowtown Mata Hari, "Duel at Silver Creek" has frittered away as just another Western, loud and grim, with a stale corn kernel for every flying bullet. Tyrone pursues the treacherous Opal Lacey ( Faith Domergue), who is secretly in league with the claim jumpers, and Cromwell falls for tomboy Dusty Fargo ( Susan Cabot) who is only interested in Lightning. The screen play written by Gerald Drayson Adams and Joseph Hoffman familiarly stacks the motivations and incidents and, unfortunately, blunts some picaresque possibilities. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.

don 'the don' siegel directs with intense grit -- a comparative trifle, but the seeds of greatness to come; the rare one of his films that actually has interesting female characters, including a high-femme villain! As for the ladies, the nice one, Miss Cabot, runs around garbed like the village blacksmith, complete with smoking revolver. This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Set in the town of Silver Creek, it seems like there's a lot that goes on beneath the surface all the time. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book.Don Siegel's cool western bubbles over with action while there's a lot of stuff you can read into it that's hidden between the lines. All the clichés are here but they are delivered with a slight sense of fun that helps it move smoothly.