The Duel at Silver Creek is a 1952 American Western film directed by Don Siegel; his first film in the Western genre. It starred Stephen McNally, Audie Murphy and Faith Domergue. It was the first time Murphy had appeared in a film where he played a character who was good throughout the movie. The working titles of the film were Claim Jumpers and Hair Trigger Kid.
Luke Cromwell, aka the "Silver Kid" (Audie Murphy), loses his father to mining claim jumpers. He is deputised by Marshal Lightning Tyrone (Stephen McNally) of Silver City, who wants to defeat the claim jumpers. The two men fall for different women. Tyrone pursues the treacherous Opal Lacey (Faith Domergue), who is secretly in league with the claim jumpers, and Cromwell falls for tomboy Dusty Fargo (Susan Cabot) who is only interested in Lightning.
Quentin Tarantino called The Duel at Silver Creek "a very well conceived and executed picture, as well as being obviously a Siegel picture."
Film critic Judith M. Kass remarks that Audie Murphy is âÂÂludicrously attired in black leather, like a Western The Wild One (1953).âÂÂ
The Duel at Silver Creek dramatizes the perils of personal isolation and infirmity, conditions likely to prove fatal in the face of evil. Film critic Judith M. Kass writes: