Silver City Kid

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Allan Lane, Peggy Stewart, and Wally Vernon in Silver City Kid (1944)

Molybdenum deposits can make a man rich, but Stoner finds that the deposits run under the Clayton Ranch. Judge Ballard wants the Ranch so he has Garvey shoot Steve. When Ruth blames Stoner f... Read allMolybdenum deposits can make a man rich, but Stoner finds that the deposits run under the Clayton Ranch. Judge Ballard wants the Ranch so he has Garvey shoot Steve. When Ruth blames Stoner for the death of Steve, Ballard shoots Stoner and puts the blame on Ruth, who is holding th... Read allMolybdenum deposits can make a man rich, but Stoner finds that the deposits run under the Clayton Ranch. Judge Ballard wants the Ranch so he has Garvey shoot Steve. When Ruth blames Stoner for the death of Steve, Ballard shoots Stoner and puts the blame on Ruth, who is holding the gun. This way, Ballard has no partners. While Garvey tries to shoot Jack over and over, ... Read all

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IMDb RATING

6.7/10

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2User reviews

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5coltras35

Silver City kid

A fighting foreman exposes the local judge as the culprit behind a frontier town's dwindling silver supply in a fast-paced shoot-em up starring Allan Lane. This is a pre-Rocky Allan series, but not any different. It has the formula of chases, shoots and then some, and of course the diabolical schemes of Glenn Strange who is charming as well as being a smart sidewinder. The way he shoots his partner and frames Peggy Castle is clever, but Allan Lane and his sidekick are there to save her. Eschewing psychological or character study, Silver City kid - there's no reference to such character in this film - is a straight-forward, straight shooting western programmer designed to keep you anticipating the moment the bad guy gets his up-commence.

5bsmith5552

Where's The Silver City Kid?

As was the case in many series westerns, the title of the movie had nothing to do with the plot. First of all there's no silver in the story, its an unpronounceable metal (molybdenum) that is used to harden steel. Secondly, there is no one in the cast identified in any way as The Silver City Kid.

Having said all of that, this movie is one of a series that starred Allan Lane in the days before he became Red Ryder and "Rocky" Lane. Lane is Jack Adams the foreman of the Clayton Ranch. Owner Steve Clayton (Lane Chandler) is murdered when he finds out why bad guys Ballard (Harry Woods) and Banker Stoner (Frank Jaquet) are trying to convince him to sell his ranch. It seems that a rich deposit of the ore is right under the ranch.

Clayton's sister Ruth (Peggy Stewart) and Adams and his pal Wildcat (Wally Vernon) take up the fight. There's plenty of action including a pretty good saloon brawl and a couple of gunfights, before the baddies are brought to justice in the final reel.

Director John English keeps the story moving and Republic's expert stunt people keep the action scenes exciting and entertaining. And there is the usual supporting cast of veteran players. In addition to those already mentioned, there is Glenn Strange as the chief henchman and Tom London as the sheriff. Stuntman Tom Steele even has a small role as "one of the boys". "Twinkle" Watts is along for the kiddies as, you guessed it, Twinkle.

Allan Lane had appeared in a few serials at Republic in the early 40s before getting this series. This I believe, was Wally Vernon's only appearance as Lane's sidekick.

Goofs
The film is set in 1885 and concerns the struggle over a mine containing molybdenum. Although at the time the film as made (1944) molybdenum was an important steel alloy which increased its hardness, in 1885 molybdenum was worthless because efforts to manufacture the alloy on a large scale were hampered with inconsistent results, a tendency toward brittleness, and recrystallization. These problems were not solved until after the turn of the 20th century.