mark.waltz Costume, business oriented westerns have plenty of drama already attached, and with a great cast, a potentially explosive set-up and a handsome look, this is plot-wise missing the elements to make it memorable. Priscilla Lane plays the daughter of a wealthy mine owner who loses everything in the depression and leaves Lane penniless and in debt when he dies. But as fast as she loses everything, she gains it back, paying off creditors and ending up with a tidy profit. Two suitors (George Brent and Bruce Cabot) vie for her hand, and it's up to her to discover the truth about each of them to decide whom she'll fall fully in love with.Too many minor details convolute the story in forgetting about the major ones, and as enjoyable as this is for the period color, the stars and the fact that a strong woman is presented, it's a sullen disappointment. Eugene Palette is fine as Lane's father, destroyed by the loss of his fortune, and Janet Beecher adds authoritative matriarchy as Cabot's powerful mother. I figured out right away whom Lane would end up with, which destroys any elements of surprise that this film might have had. Still, with handsome period detail and nice photography and a few intense action sequences, this is worth looking for.

bkoganbing Silver Queen casts sweet young Priscilla Lane in a role that probably should have been done by someone like Barbara Stanwyck. She plays a New York society girl who has to use her gambling wiles to pay back a debt that father Eugene Palette incurred before he died. What was an avocation to her becomes a profession.The debt that Palette incurred is as a result of a high stakes poker game where he lost the root of the family fortune, a Nevada silver mine. Palette lost it to George Brent a professional gambler, but a cavalier if there ever was one. He turns the deed of the mine over to society swell Bruce Cabot who has been engaged to Lane, perennially it would seem.But Cabot is one society rat who keeps the mine for himself. In the end the showdown comes between Brent and Cabot. Guess who wins?Though Silver Queen is a western as categorized, very little time is spent on the lone prairie, most of the film takes place in New York and San Francisco of the 1870s. That showdown climax is abrupt and rather clumsily staged.But Silver Queen's biggest problem is Priscilla Lane. Barbara Stanwyck who played tough and determined women could have carried this part off with a fraction of her talent. Sweet girl next door Priscilla Lane just was not convincing in the part.The film received Oscar nominations for Musical Scoring and black and white Art Direction. But that only serves to inflate an essentially B picture.

boblipton Harry "Pop" Sherman spent most of his career producing superior B westerns and was best known for creating and running for several years the Hopalong Cassidy franchise. With this movie he made a bid for the big time and was rewarded with a couple of Oscar nominations, but the total effect, looked at from seventy years later, is an entertaining picture that is, nonetheless, a high-class B picture.This movie features several Warner Brothers people, both in front of and behind the camera, all trying for their big break, but once you get past the charity party sequence, there is little energy in the performances. Perhaps that is why the camera keeps moving constantly.

jjnxn-1 Average drama was Priscilla's only western. She was never a great actress, not to say she wasn't a good one-she was, but was never given a role that would challenge her. Of course being a Warners girl that would have been tough anyway with Bette Davis and Ida Lupino usually getting the roles that required heavy lifting. She was however a warm presence in all her films providing a pleasant center to her pictures as she does here. The picture has a strong supporting cast with Eugene Palette and Guinn Williams livening up the movie during their scenes and Bruce Cabot playing his typical conscienceless worm. The weak link, wasn't he always, is George Brent. Providing his usual stiff, bland performance he adds nothing to the film.The other weakness is the script, most of the action happens with no real sense of conflict. The running time is short so perhaps there was originally more exposition. As it stands now most of the story moves along with no real explanation or sense of struggle for the characters. The film is handsome and was Oscar nominated for it's sets which at the time included costumes since the categories had yet to be split. It certainly has a rich look and Priscilla and the other women are decked out in sumptuous gowns and head-wear and everything is played out on expensive looking ornate sets. It's nomination for musical scoring is a bit more of a surprise since there is nothing really outstanding about it.A routine film but if you are a fan of any of the stars an enjoyably brisk 80 minutes.