User Reviews

In Silver River Errol Flynn has a go at a kind of role that Tyrone Power took out a patent on at 20th Century Fox, the hero/heel. I'm surprised that Jack Warner didn't give him more roles like Michael McComb in his career.

Flynn appears with Ann Sheridan for the fourth and last time in a joint venture. His character Michael McComb was cashiered out of the Union Army in the Civil War for an error in judgment. The experience has left him a rather cynical fellow and in the days after the war, he's determined to let no one get the better of him.

He's one ruthless character and pretty soon becomes the big kingpin of Silver City. And in the romance department he's determined to get what he wants.

The David and Bathsheba story is an easy comparison to make with what happens to Flynn and Sheridan. Flynn essentially extorts his way into partnership with her husband Bruce Bennett and later with all the other mine owners. He does it by controlling the money supply with his gambling palace. And of course he eyes Sheridan the way King David eyed Bathsheba.

But despite what Thomas Mitchell says, Bennett is no Uriah the Hittite. Flynn doesn't, in fact he's not in a position to order him into harm's way. Bennett goes out quite willingly looking for new silver deposits and the Shoshone Indians make short work of him. Still it does make for gossip.

Flynn and Sheridan work well together, as well as they did in Edge of Darkness. Tom D'Andrea has a nice role as Flynn's sidekick from the Civil War days and Barton MacLane as always makes a nasty villain.

Silver River was the sixth of eight westerns Flynn made and the last film he made with director Raoul Walsh. Definitely a must for western fans and Flynn fans.

Despite being Tasmanian by birth, Errol Flynn did quite a few westerns, and, oddly enough, they were all pretty good. Part of it clearly is that he had the wonderful resources of Warner Brothers behind him. As big dollar projects from one of the top studios, they could put the best directors, cameramen, supporting casts and locations into these films. And so, while "Silver River" isn't among the very best of these films, it's still awfully good.

Flynn plays Mike McComb--the sort of role that Clark Gable also excelled with at the time. He's brave, tough but also VERY jaded--and a man out mostly for himself. You see early on in the picture how Flynn's character became so disaffected with the world and throughout this rags to riches film, you see that Mike is doing everything he can to show the world that he's nobody's man but his own--and he listens to no one. Slowly, he builds a silver empire until finally his own hubris cause his competitors to gang up against him and try to force him into bankruptcy.

Along the way, however, Mike does something far worse than drive hard to be #1. He's fallen in love with a married woman (Ann Sheridan) and later, in a real lapse in judgment, he sets up her husband to die--just like the Biblical story of David and Bathsheba. In fact, the film has a conscience in the form of the reformed town drunk, Thomas Mitchell, as he's seen what Mike has done and won't let him forget it. And, like David, by the end, there is a miraculous change of heart and Mike has a minor redemption as the final credits roll.

Very good acting, an interesting plot and a lot of action--this is well wroth your time even if you aren't a big western fan.

In his last film with director Walsh (after many successes), Flynn plays a darker character than was usually his style. During the last gasps of the Civil War, Flynn (A Union soldier) is guarding a payroll wagon and is attacked by Confederate troops. After attempting to outrun them, he decides to destroy the money rather than surrender it. This act of strategy on his part is perceived as treason by the US military and he's dishonorably discharged. Embittered, he sets off on a life of selfishness and conquest, grabbing everything he can get at almost any cost. He starts with gambling, then moves into silver mining and banking, with his war buddy D'Andrea along for the ride. He also befriends a grizzly drunken lawyer (Mitchell) who eventually gets his act together (perhaps a bit too well!) Like King David of The Bible (a point directly addressed in the film), he covets married woman Sheridan whose mild-mannered husband Bennett is rather easily disposed of. Flynn winds up having it all, but once he's at the top, there's only one way to go and that's down. Flynn was, at this stage, beginning to show signs of wear in his looks and his dedication to his craft. He's still good and still handsome, but nowhere near the heights he had previously enjoyed. His character here is more downbeat than audiences may be used to and though he's still roguish (which is when Flynn is at his best), he's less easy to root for than he was when portraying more traditionally heroic men. In some ways (such as near the end of the film) his weariness actually helps the characterization, but his usual sparkle is missed. The actor was experiencing a lot of pressure at the time from the studio and the director to avoid his usual late-night partying and he heavily resented it. Sheridan is solid. Her remarkably deep voice aids her in displaying a woman who is just as at home in either a frilly ball gown or a shirt and dungarees. Her strong persona allows her to emerge from under some of the largest and most ornate hair to be seen in a 1940's western. This is a lady who will politely pour punch and dance, but isn't above thrashing an interloper with a buggy whip if he's in her path! Mitchell gives another showy (some might say hammy), but dedicated performance. Bennett (a former Tarzan) is just right for his role as a kind, but meek, miner who is just too nice to be able to hold on to his possessions. D'Andrea is basically a footman to Flynn throughout, but does have one hilarious scene in which he guides the townspeople through Flynn's new mansion, emphasizing the rare nature of all the furnishings. The film has a nearly epic feel at times, covering several years, despite the reduced budget. Attractive settings and costumes, hordes of extras and a particularly good Max Steiner score help bring it over. It may be a tad too long, but only a few sequences drag. Most of the film clips along, interestingly, until it's fairly predictable conclusion.

Although the first 10 minutes of "Silver River" seem like a typical Errol Flynn western, the story soon takes a turn into more tangled territory.

Mike McComb (Errol Flynn), has shades of darkness that are almost Shakespearean or more appropriately, biblical – part of the plot is based on the story of David and Bathsheba from the Book of Samuel.

Directed by Raoul Walsh, "Silver River" starts as Mike McComb is cashiered from the army during the Civil War. Embittered, he becomes a gambler bent on only looking out for himself. He heads west to Silver River in Nevada to open a saloon and gambling hall. Along the way he falls for Georgia Moore (Ann Sheridan) the wife of Stanley Moore (Bruce Bennett), a silver mine owner.

McComb becomes the wealthiest and most influential man in town. But things unravel when it seems he will stop at nothing to get Georgia Moore. Eventually he seeks redemption when the town turns against him.

Apparently Flynn didn't want to make another western although he appreciated that the script for this one had more depth than usual. In Marilyn Ann Moss' biography of Raoul Walsh, she quotes Flynn as saying, "As a Western I think it is damned good. I wish it would have been given me for one of the five other Westerns they had me do … but I'm not going to be the Gene Autry of the future".

However his contract forced him to make it. The film looks lavish with a powerful score by Max Steiner who didn't believe in music you don't notice. It also had a great cast including Ann Sheridan and Thomas Mitchell.

Flynn and Sheridan were good together and she looks fabulous in the film. Apparently both liked a drink and managed to smuggle alcohol onto the set. The author of the original story and scriptwriter, Stephen Longstreet recalled, "It soon became clear that they were, even if we didn't see how. Later, I went over and tasted the ice water. It was pure 90-proof vodka." It doesn't really show except in a few of Flynn's early scenes where he appears particularly laid-back and mellow.

The stories that surround the stars and filmmakers are often more interesting than the films they made, but "Silver River has surprising layers. This was Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan's last film together; sad when you know they both died relatively young; he at 50, she at 51.

One of the distinctly unsung glories of the '40s studio system days were the Warner Brothers productions of director Raoul Walsh. Whether he was at the helm of a big budget western (They Died With Their Boots On), gangster dramas (High Sierra, White Heat) or turn-of-the-century dramas (Strawberry Blonde, Gentleman Jim), Walsh, at his best, explored character motivation, making his films more emotionally compelling. Walsh made films that had heart.

There was no actor with whom the director worked more often than Errol Flynn, and Walsh helped to bring out much of the best in him as a performer. Silver River was the seventh and last of their collaborations, and was a distinctly troubled production.

In his autobiography, Each Men in His Time, Walsh does not even refer to Silver River, while Flynn made only passing reference to it in his own book, My Wicked Wicked Ways. Silver River died at the 1948 box office, and has never been a film to whom fans, Flynn or otherwise, have ever paid much attention.

And that is a bit of a mystery, inasmuch as Silver River has much to offer the viewer, even upon repeat viewings. A big budget western that becomes a study of the excesses of one man's ambitious corporate greed, the film remains fascinating in many ways because of the interplay of its strongly developed main characters, as well as the unexpected casting of the normally heroic Flynn as a bitter, disillusioned man strictly out for himself. The actor responds to the material with a skilfully nuanced performance.

As Mike McComb, a Union officer unfairly cashiered from the army during the Civil War, Flynn seeks to make his own way, ready to trample upon anyone along the way, first as a gambler, later in the silver mining business, becoming an undisputed empire builder.

McComb's aggressive pursuit of whatever he wants extends to a woman, too, even though she is married. The Stephen Longstreet screenplay draws deliberate parallels to the Biblical tale of David and Bathsheba, with those characters' names being referenced in the dialogue by a drunken lawyer, Plato Beck, played by Thomas Mitchell in a role clearly inspired by his Doc Boone characterization in Ford's Stagecoach, filmed eight years before.

Silver River has several strong scenes of interaction between the actors, one of the best occurring in a bar in which Mitchell semi-drunkenly lectures Flynn on the evil of his intentions, after it becomes apparent that his character plans on sending Bruce Bennett (Ann Sheridan's husband) into Indian territory for prospecting, in the hopes that he will be killed.

Mitchell is scruffy in appearance, grand and effectively theatrical in this scene, while Flynn, by contrast, is elegantly attired and understated in his response to the accusations. But there's an intensity in the interplay between the two actors in this sequence, which marks a low point in the ruthlessness of Flynn's character, as well as establishing Mitchell as the moral conscience of the film (even, though, in reality, his character could have warned Bennett not to go to the territory, just as much as Flynn).

Flynn and Sheridan have great chemistry as a screen team, whether in the film's earlier scenes in which her character despises McComb or the later ones in which they are in love. Based on this film, Sheridan probably stands second only to Olivia de Havilland as the actor's best leading lady.

Silver River is hurt by a weak ending, which I will not divulge. That, however, takes nothing away from the dramatically compelling drama that has preceded it.

The film has one scene of lingering power towards the end. This is a sequence which takes place after McComb's financial empire (in typical Hollywood production code expectations) has come crashing down around his head.

The scene is set in McComb's palatial home which is now being cleared of its belongings by contractors for McComb's creditors. By this time Sheridan, too, has left Flynn. The only thing left of her is a giant portrait which hangs on the wall. The one time that Flynn responds to any of his possessions being taken is when a workman on a ladder touches that portrait. Flynn threatens physical violence if he touches it again and the workman withdraws.

As the contractors take his possessions, Flynn leans against a doorway, a forlorn figure reading a newspaper, seemingly indifferent to the activity around him. Flynn's McComb may have been a four flusher in many respects but now, at his moment of defeat, he is stoically taking it like a man, and the viewer can't help but feel some admiration for him in that respect.

As Flynn reads his paper, character actor Tom D'Andrea, playing his only friend at this moment, makes a conversation with him, asking him if he will try to see Sheridan again. D'Andrea then comments, "Of course, it's none of my business." "That's right," a proud Flynn responds, still looking at the paper "it's none of your business." D'Andrea departs, leaving McComb alone surrounded by these workmen. Flynn pushes himself away from the door jamb upon which he was leaning, and starts to depart the room.

He stops for a moment, though, and, almost as if by irresistible impulse, can't help but look at the wall beside him and peer upward. The camera follows Flynn's gaze and it rests upon the portrait of Sheridan.

It is a searing portrayal of loneliness and vulnerability. With all of his possessions being taken away from him at this moment, Flynn/McComb's one thought is of the wife he has lost, the woman who previously had been there for him. McComb has reached his personal bottom. He has final received his comeuppance.

It's a scene that reflects the sensitivity that director Walsh could bring to his films, as well as the beautifully understated acting of which Flynn was capable.

I thought this would be your run of the mill western. Instead, it becomes an engrossing film dealing with Errol Flynn's rise as a silver mining magnate in Nevada.

Thomas Mitchell shines here as a drunken attorney, who when he becomes sober begins to oppose Flynn for his selfish ways and campaigns for senator, only to be assassinated while ready to praise the Flynn character.

As Flynn's sidekick, Tom D'Andrea sounds more like Gillis, William Bendix's next door neighbor in television's "Life of Reilly."

Ann Sheridan sparkles as the wife of Bruce Bennett, a mining expert who goes prospecting on the advise of his new partner, Flynn and is killed in an Indian attack.Mitchell accuses Flynn of purposely getting the Bennett character to go and compares it with King David and Bathsheba, the biblical characters.

Flynn has the right temperament as the selfish magnate for the part.

I just re-watched this film and my rating will slip from a "7" to a strong "6".

There was a time when, like most of America, I'd watch any western movie. Things have changed for America, and widely-watched westerns are a rarity. And, the western that will hold my attention is a rarity, as well. This film is not one of the great westerns, but it was interesting enough to hold my attention. I'm not sure that's a very high bar.

The beginning is interesting...a rebel raid on a Union payroll just outside of Gettysburg on a fateful day. Rather than surrender the payroll, Errol Flynn burns it, and as a result is drummed out of the army. Incidentally, there is one little problem here -- the landscape looks absolutely nothing like Gettysburg. Ah well.

Errol Flynn (with sidekick Tom D'Andrea) then strikes out for Nevada, but his attitude has soured against life and he becomes ruthless. He takes over some gambling equipment and heads west, taking away a wagon train business from a lady (Ann Sheridan) who had already rented the wagons for her and her husband's mine...of course, in the same town as Flynn had decided to set up a saloon. Romantic spanks fly, although only on Flynn's side.

Once in the wild west town, the saloon is built and Flynn gains a share of the mine owned by Sheridan and her husband. Flynn remains rather ruthless, although he does drink milk rather than whiskey. But, like many ruthless men, Flynn goes too far. He sends Sheridan's husband into Shoshone Indian country, knowing that it means almost certain death. And although he has second thoughts and attempts to rescue him, he is too late. The town begins to turn against him, led by lawyer Thomas Mitchell. Oddly enough, Sheridan is the only one who softens, and marries him. And that's the first BIG problem -- a complete reversal in her attitude toward Flynn's character...and it's not quite clear why. Of course, Warner Brothers can't have Errol Flynn ride off into the sunset (which he actually does here) being the bad guy. So, after lawyer-turned-politician Mitchell is shot to death, Flynn rouses the silver miners to hunt down the guilty party, and in the town center Flynn confesses that all the town's problems rest on him. Cheers. Sunset. Well, that's actually the second big problem -- a sudden reversal in Flynn's character. At least here we understand why...Mitchell's death...but it still seems way too abrupt.

If there's a problem with this film it's that there really is no good guy. It's difficult to like Flynn because of his ruthlessness. Ann Sheridan is too hard a woman to like. Thomas Mitchell, as Flynn's lawyer is just as ruthless as Flynn. Bruce Bennett (as Sheridan's husband) is a weakling. And of course, Barton MacLane is always a bad guy. Perhaps only Tom D'Andrea (later Gillis on "The Life Of Riley") comes off as a likable character.

But saying that the characters are not likable, is not questioning the ability of the acting. It's decent acting here. Flynn was beginning his decline about this time, mostly due to drinking, and while I wouldn't say it's visible, he got a lot of blame for what was seen as an ineffective film. Flynn, though in more of a business character than a swashbuckler, is reasonably good here, as is Sheridan. But perhaps the highest honors should go to Thomas Mitchell, who alternately plays a drunk, a serious lawyer, a drunk again, and then a rising politician who goes against Flynn's silver interests.

And then there's the score by Max Steiner. I can't tell what the problem is with this score. Was it just a plodding score (rather unlike Steiner) or was the film not preserved well, resulting in distortion. All I know is that what was broadcast on TCM this time around was annoying in terms of the score.

This is one of those films that had a strong story that simply didn't quite come together. And that's the director's fault -- Raoul Walsh. He and Flynn had a negative history together already, and here I think it affected the film.

Still worth watching, but hardly one of Flynn's best movies.

This is my choice for Errol Flynn's best post war film. It's often dismissed by reviewers and film historians, but it combines him most complex character with elements of a traditional Flynn film: action, a great musical score and a big ending, if an unconventional one.

We go back to the Civil War, which Flynn had visited twice before in 'Santa Fe Trail' and 'They Died With Boots On'. Here, Flynn, (looking a decade older than he did in those films), is a Union Captain in charge of the Army's payroll, which is a million dollars, all in one wagon. When JEB Stuart's cavalry approaches, (Max Steiner plays the action theme he wrote for Santa Fe Trail in which Flynn played Stuart for Stuart's charge in this film), this Flynn, named Mike McComb, hightails it out of there with his sidekick 'Pistol' (Tom DeAndrea). When they realize they can't out-run Stuart, McComb decides to burn the money so the Confederates can't use it to finance their war effort. They are rescued when the Union cavalry, (George Custer? Steiner doesn't tell us), drives away the rebels. But the Army is unsympathetic. All they can see is all that burned cash and besides, McComb was told not to leave his position. The idea of improvising based on charging battlefield conditions isn't in the 'book'. McComb and Pistol are cashiered from the Army and Mike tells his lawyer that he thanks the Army for the lesson: from now on, when anyone gets pushed around, he'll do the pushing. Flynn's Mike McComb will now be the most cynical and opportunistic hero that he has played, (with the possible exception of Jean Picard in "Uncertain Glory"). McComb is perhaps closer to Flynn's real character than Captain Blood, Robin Hood, Geoffrey Thorpe or any of the idealists he's played in the past.

He and Pistol travel west and McComb becomes a successful gambler with Banjo Sweeney, (Barton MacLane) as an even more ruthless but also more inept rival. MacLane took over Humphrey Bogart's job as the lead heavy at Warner's after Humphrey Bogart reformed and became a hero. When Bogart, Jimmy Cagney or Eddie Robinson was playing a guy who straddles the fine line between being a good guy and a bad guy, they needed a 'worse guy' to make them sympathetic and MacLane was often the 'worse guy'. He performs that function for Flynn here.

McComb also encounters Georgia Moore, (Ann Sheridan), who, in the grand tradition of Flynn's on-screen paramours, immediately hates him. She's bringing some mining equipment from the east and has hired wagons to ship it to the mine she and her husband, Stanley, (Bruce Bennett), are working. McComb wants those wagons to haul gambling equipment to Silver City. He gets their owner into a poker game and wins them, then takes them for his own purposes. McComb sells the wagons to the Moores in exchange for a partnership in the mine. He then sets up a gambling house and a bank that allows him to suck in the wealth the miners produce.

But he wants Georgia for his wife and convinces Stanley Moore to scout out the Black Rock Range without telling him of an Indian uprising. Moore is killed and McComb uses his charm to win over his widow. He then builds a marble palace for himself and hosts President Grant in a lavish ball. He's made it as big as it gets. Grant comments that he got thrown out the army twice.

Banjo Sweeney organizes a rival trust to do battle with McComb. Mike has aliened so many people that his organization started to come apart. The most important loose brick is his alcoholic attorney, Plato Beck, another fine performance by one of my favorite character actors, Thomas Mitchell. The last straw for Beck is the maneuver to send Stanley to his death, which he compares to King David sending his trusted lieutenant, Uriah, to his death so David could have his wife, Bathsheba.

Mike McComb, like Kirk Douglas's Chuck Tatum in the 1951 classic "Ace in the Hole", (see my review) is a rat but not a reptile: he's still got some warm blood in his veins and can be persuaded to feel guilt by Beck. He wasn't unfeeling, just mad at the world. He had told Georgia that he'd "just heard" of the Indian uprising and led a group of men to find him and bring him back, only to find out that they were too late, (in a nice bit scene positioning, the men with him ride down a hill to examine the body and confirm that Stanley is dead while Flynn remains above them, afraid to deal with the reality of what he has done. (Bruce Bennett played miners who died at the hands of the natives in two 1948 films, the other being "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre".)

Sweeny finally gets the upper hand on McComb and, with help from a drunken Plato, forces a run on the bank that ruins him. This puts banjo in a position to corner the silver market and become the colossus Mike wanted to be. Meanwhile Plato Beck has sobered up and is trying to get elected Senator where he will fight against both McComb and Sweeny and anyone like them. He's proving too popular and Sweeney makes the mistake of assassinating Plato while he's making a speech. He and his men then ride to Silver City.

McComb witnesses the event and Georgia's pain at Plato's death and Mike's involvement in her husband's death. He's had enough of being what he has become and what he has wrought. There follows one of the remarkable scenes in any of Flynn's films. He admits to the crowd what's he's done and, having taken this mea culpa, wants to know what they are going to do about Sweeney and his gang. The mob wants to lynch him. McComb leads them, not in a charge but on an inexorable march to Silver City, where he directs them to split up and enter the city from every street to trap Sweeney and his henchmen in the town. We then see a montage of shots of horsemen galloping down a western street to escape the mob, then turning back and seeing another root while an angry mob on foot marches forward. Eventually the horsemen are trapped in the main plaza and pulled from their horses. This is all done to an impressive slow march composed by Max Steiner, a piece as impressive in its own way as the higher-tempo march he did a dozen years before for 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'. The music moves through the scene like a steamroller that grows larger with each turn of the wheels until reaching a climax when the bad guys are trapped.

Here McComb completes his rebirth as a complete human being. He convinces the crowd not to lower themselves to Sweeney's level: put them on trial and punish them legally. He promises to reopen the mines and get the "silver river" flowing again. He's still a rogue: he muses that he had a perfect opportunity to shoot Banjo Sweeney in the back. Georgia tells him that he "hasn't changed a bit". But he's come full circle and is again the Mike McComb he was when entrusted with all that payroll money at the beginning of the movie. Georgia climbs aboard his horse and they literally ride into the sunset.

A decade after this Warner Brothers had entered the TV realm and prepared a show called "Maverick". They outfitted James Garner in outfits Flynn had worn for 'San Antonio' and 'Silver River', (the black jacket is clearly from the latter). The opening episode is called "The War of the Silver Kings" and features frequent Flynn colleague John Litel as an alcoholic judge who sobers up, regains his self-respect and runs for office. Maverick comes into town virtually broke but through a series of deceptions and other maneuvers winds up starting a mining company. One of the characters is called "Big Mike McComb". Warner's never lost an opportunity to recycle their movies into their TV shows.

I'm a Biden man and when Joe won the 2020 election but Trump was making noises that he wouldn't leave I had fantasies of Biden leading a march on Washington with the ending similar to what happens at the end of this film, (hopefully with Steiner's music). That turned out to be unnecessary but Trump's supporters had the same vision. (I don't know what music they were listening to.) It's often said that "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." The statement is supposed inspire good men into action. It's also often said that "You can't tell the players without a scorecard". Everyone tends to, or comes to, view themselves as the good guys and those who oppose them as the bad guys. You need more than an old saying to send you off into the right direction.

It's almost criminal that this long, almost epic, Flynn western was left out of the Flynn Westerns DVD package, which includes only 4 of his 8 westerns. Most of the others are played occasionally on Encore Westerns or on TCM. I had been waiting years to see this, finally during a TCM month-long tribute to Flynn movies. I was surprised to learn that a DVD has been out for a few years.

We start with clashes between Union and Confederate cavalry near Gettysburg. Officer Mike McComb(Flynn) is charged with defending a small group of supply wagons, including the payroll wagon, and told not to move the wagons. However, when it becomes evident that a Confederate detachment is about to capture the wagons, he tries to outrun them, but when he senses that he can't, he decides to burn the very large payroll. Later, his superiors see this as an unacceptable response , and he is court marshalled and dismissed. However, incredibly, McComb is soon back in the army, commanding a company??!! He commands his men to rough up and throw out the owner and employees of a local gambling establishment that the soldiers have been losing their payrolls to. Then, orders them to take out the gambling equipment. From now on, McComb is driven to succeed as an important business man, using the stolen gambling equipment to get started. In the next scene, he is no longer in an army uniform. Rather, he is on a river steamer, with his gambling equipment, bound for Silver City, NV(Yes, there was a Silver City, NV, near Virginia City, long since virtually a ghost town) . I don't know where McComb started his journey from nor what river his steamboat supposedly was plying. But, based upon subsequent events, it couldn't have been too far from Silver City. I've been unable to find any mention of steamboats on any Nevada rivers near Silver City, although there were steamboats on the lower Colorado River, that stopped at some towns in Nevada. Steamboats from San Francisco to Sacramento is another possibility.

When he departs the steamboat, he needs a couple of wagons to carry his equipment on to Silver City. He tries to buy a couple from a Mrs. Georgia Moore( the beautiful Ann Sheridan), who was also on the boat, but she needs them to transport some mining equipment to her Silver River mine, near Silver City. However, the wily McComb plays poker with her wagon master and, incredibly, wins the wagons!. To say Mrs. Moore was irate would put it mildly. McComb offers her a ride, but she prefers the stage. Unfortunately, her stage breaks down on the way. Serendipitously, McComb's wagons happen by, and he again offers her a ride, which she reluctantly accepts. Now, we are positive that McComb and Mrs. Moore will end up together eventually, as unlikely as may now seem.

McComb soon establishes a gambling-oriented saloon. Somehow(?), his saloon soon becomes the dominant such establishment in town. Meanwhile, the Moores need wagons to bring more mining equipment, and inquire if McComb would sell his. Problem is they have no money. So, McComb offers to accept payment in shares in their company, which they agree to. Later, they again need money, which he agrees to give them on condition that he own 1/3 of the company, which they agree to. Some other silver-mining companies also need money, which enables McComb to also buy into their companies. He's becoming the 'silver king' of the region and starts a bank to extend his reach. Eventually, McComb and the Moores decide they need to expand their operations by buying some promising land nearby. Mr. Moore is a mining engineer, so has a good eye for promising areas. Unfortunately, he concludes that the most promising area is near hostile Shoshone territory.

Now, drunkard lawyer Plato Beck(easily recognized character actor Thomas Mitchell), who has been handling the legal aspects of McComb's wheeling and dealing, suddenly turns hostile toward McComb. He brings up the well-known bible story about King David lusting after the wife of one of his military leaders. So, he sends this leader on a dangerous military mission. Sure enough, the leader is killed, and David woes and marries his widow(Bathsheba).. Plato then suggests that McComb may be planning to mimic this story. Actually, Mr. Moore decides to go himself and have another look at this area near the Shoshones. When McComb learns this, he decides to take a group and look for him. Unfortunately, they are too late. Thus, this portion of Plato's King David analogy prophesy doesn't happen as he predicted, to McComb's credit. However, McComb does soon woe his widow. Surprisingly, she quickly changes her attitude toward McComb, and they marry. So, this part agrees with the King David story. And they lived happily ever after, right? Wrong!!. Soon, things start to go terribly wrong! I won't go into the details. Hope you get a chance to see the film some time and learn the messy details of the last part. Overall, it's quite a sprawling yarn, that even features a visit by President Grant, to encourage the mining owners to produce silver faster. The film generally lacks Flynn's frequent charm and sense of humor, but emphasizes his frequent rebellious upstart and can do characterization.

In closing, I would like to give a rundown on the changing gold/silver value ratio. In the 1800s. Until around 1870, the gold/silver value was generally pegged at about 15/1, which was close to the value since Roman times. However, beginning about 1870, the ratio began to increase, due to oversupply of silver from US mines, and to the general change from dual gold/silver monetary standard, to a gold standard. During the 1900s, the ratio fluctuated wildly, but typically was between 40 and 80/1. During the early 21st century, it has been mostly between 70 and 100/1. Thus, during the time period represented by this screenplay, the relative market value of silver compared to gold was much greater than we are used to thinking of today. In terms of its actual price, recently, it has been about 17X more valuable than its price during the 1860s, again, with very great fluctuations during the 20th and 21st centuries, in contrast to the 1800s..