Don Siegel's "Duel at Silver Creek" opens with vicious gang of claim jumpers let by a killer called Rod Lacy (Gerald Mohr) who'd been forcing miners to sign away their claims through fear of torture or death
These claim jumpers were clever enough not to capture some of the bigger mines where there might be enough men working to put up a fight
Usually they picked on the claims being worked by one or two men
And more defenseless the men were, the better they liked it
Their plan was simple and easy because no one knew who they were
Since their victims either disappeared, or were found dead, there wasn't anyone who could put their finger on them
One day, in the Tomahawks, the same gang forced Cromwell's old man to sign over the little claim he had and then they killed him
Luke went after them and managed to get one of them before they shot his horse out from under him
Then a few miles of Silver City, jumpers moved in and killed an old man who struck it rich
As usual they made a clean getaway but this time they left a trail
The Marshal of Silver City decided to get up a posse to track them down but the posse lost them in the chase and he took a bullet through his right shoulder
So he was dropped off at the army hospital in Fort Lowell and they went back to town
There Lightning met Opal Lacey who promised "Brown Eyes" she's going to find him a nuisance when he gets back in one week
Audie Murphy plays Silver Kid/Luke Cromwell
He didn't have the face of a killer but he had the cold steel look of one
His hands are quick and sure
All he knows is how to handle a six-gun and poker
Faith Domergue plays Opal Lacy, the elegant woman with a secret agenda and a brother who's a mining engineer
Stephen McNally plays the famous Marshal who wasn't interested in the Kid's poker, but he was interested in the way he handled a six-gun
He needed a right hand and he had the fastest one he ever saw
He didn't see it dangerous to make him his deputy
Susan Cabot plays Dusty Fargo, the innocent girl who takes care of the Marshal better than many a wife he knows
Eugene Iglesias plays Johnny Sombrero, the hypocrite man who looks mighty happy about something
maybe for the 'gift' of love he just made that night to prove he'd accomplished it to the girl he wants
