Silver River

Erroll Flynn epitomizes the American dream in his movie.he is the perfect go-getter,uneducated but very smart,who pushes everyone out of his way .Hints at David and Bethsabea are thoroughly relevant and gave the whole movie a timeless side.Stanley is a scientist,an engineer ,but what can he do?Wife Georgia is more reluctant but for her too,it's just a matter of time.

The story is parabolic:the rise and fall of a young Turk ,during the "silver rush" .The most important scene is the banquet ,in Mike's desirable property which chic people are quick to leave when a "drunk"

PLato has finished his long diatribe against his pal.Those posh people would never accept a nouveau riche in their aristocratic circle anyway.That scene is the central one,cause it contains both McComb's apex and his downfall.

This is another great movie by a director who made dozens of gems.

Flynn plays an unscrupulous sleaze-bag for most of the film, and it fits him like a glove. Sheridan is plucky but not quite as beautiful as I'm used to seeing her. Flynn is out after the married Sheridan with a leer in his eye, but there's not a lot of sexual tension once he's got his hands on her. Large-scale battle and mob scenes show off the large budget. Better than usual score from Max Steiner. A nice A-production from Warner Brothers that you probably haven't seen, but not much more than that.

Despite Stephen Longstreet and Harriet Frank's too verbose screenplay (was it really necessary to give Thomas Mitchell THREE condemnatory speeches of Errol Flynn when one would do?) and noted action director Raoul Walsh's obvious discomfort with examining the vicissitudes of the passionless Ann Sheridan/Bruce Bennet marriage to say nothing of trying to enliven business intrigue centered around cornering the silver market, I kind of enjoyed this rare foray of Flynn into anti hero-dom. Don't know whether it's because it mirrored what was going on in his private life or if he's just an under rated actor, but the guy does dark complexity of character rather well, in my opinion. Give it a B minus.

PS...The scene with U. S. Grant has to be the most superficial Hollywood portrayal of an American president until Pat McCormick essayed Grover Cleveland in Altman's "Buffalo Bill And The Indians", (another flawed but fun western).

Directed by Raoul Walsh, who undoubtedly was one of the maestros of the western genre, Silver River hardly can be called one of director's best works. It was the last Walsh's film made with Errol Flynn, and the only one they made together that hadn't achieved success at the Box Office.

The story of Silver River is based on a novel by Stephen Longstteet, but it's also an apparent `western' retelling of Bible's story of King David. The film begins at the time of battle of Gettysburg during American Civil War with a quite remarkable chase sequence where the wagon of Captain of the Union Army Michael McComb (Errol Flynn) is chased by Confederate soldiers who are after the 1 million $ of Union money destined to be paid to the soldiers. In order to avoid that the Confederates take the money, McComb decides to simply burn it. As a consequence of this act, he's expelled from the army.

An unscrupulous adventurer, McComb moves to the silver mine town in the west, where he quickly becomes rich and powerful mines' owner along with his partner Stanley Moore (Bruce Bennett) controlling all the town's industry and banks. Nothing can stop his greed and ambition and he further rises to power and an enormous wealth, promptly sending his business partner to death, marrying his beautiful wife Georgia (Ann Sheridan) and becoming the only master of the town and one of the most influential and rich men in the state. But his triumph doesn't last for a long time for his achievements tend to be impermanent as everything in this world, so by the twist of fate he finds himself again on the bottom of the well losing everything.

Quite an average western with nothing particularly good or particularly bad about it, thou in my opinion worth watching, but don't expect to be much entertained by it or you might be very disappointed. 7/10

This Raoul Walsh's movie looks like a Republic western, most of them urban western taking place in Frisco in music halls, lobbies, or aboard a river boat more than a classic western shot in Death Valley. It is not what you could expect it to be, especially with Errol Flynn. It could have been written by an optimist Norman Mailer or Scott Fitzgerald, because this movie is not sad, not gloomy, saving a predictable ending for Hollywood standard. Good stuff for gem lovers. Not my Raoul Walsh's stuff for sure. And far too long for my taste.