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Silver Dollar More at IMDbPro »

15 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
Solid, no-frills Americana, 22 May 2001

Author: marcslope

A great, lively American story that happens to be true. The same source material was used, with somewhat more accuracy, in the 1950s American opera "The Ballad of Baby Doe." (The Baby Doe of the title was still alive when the movie was made, hence the need to change all the names and fictionalize some of the details.) Robinson is excellent as a likeable, but foolish and blustering, millionaire miner with political ambitions; MacMahon is flawless as his stern but understanding wife. Their story, of how he made and lost a name and a fortune for himself, is the stuff of fine melodrama. What happens to them says much about the vagaries of capitalism, the arbitrariness of the metals standard, and the pettiness of American moral attitudes, but most of all it's good entertainment. Alfred E. Green's direction is nothing fancy, just capable and fast. And the size of the production is just right. Historical note: The real Baby Doe (Lily in the movie) stuck by her man and held onto the Matchless Mine, as per his instructions. She became a legendary eccentric in Leadville, walking the streets and telling her story to anyone who would listen, before freezing to death in her cabin in 1935.

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Remarkable basically true story of early Colorado, 16 December 2011

Author: vincentlynch-moonoi from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

While fictionalized, this film follows the general outline of the life of Horace Tabor, known as The Bonanza King of Leadville, who was a prospector, businessman, and politician (becoming the Lieutenant Governor of Colorado).

Although called Yates Martin in the film, the story follows Tabor from store owner to silver magnate to Lieutenant Governor to U.S. Senator, to financial ruination -- all basically true. He dumps his faithful wife in favor of a young woman who seems to be after him only for his money, marries the second wife in a scandalous wedding in Washington, and in the film and in real life, she sticks with him through the good times and the bad. The film seems to imply that upon his financial ruination he had a slight stroke, and then died of a heart attack after seeing the "ghosts of his success" in his grand opera house. In reality, Tabor died of appendicitis. The film does not go into what happened to his two wives to any extent. His first wife became relatively wealthy in her own right due to wise investments. His second wife (Elizabeth "Baby Doe" McCourt), then poor, went to live in the tool shed of the Tabor's Matchless Mine for 30 years and died there. Perhaps the screen writers felt that was just too fantastic to be believed, even though it did happen.

This is one of Edward G. Robinson's most notable roles, and he plays each chapter of the life of the silver magnate brilliantly. Not particularly easy, since the character has few redeeming qualities. Aline MacMahon as the first wife is just wonderful, and Bebe Daniels is great as the second wife.

I particularly enjoyed the film because I recently moved to Colorado and was familiar with the real story. Highly recommended, and especially noteworthy since it was made in 1932...more sophisticated than most films of that era.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Though Flashy and Materialistic Robinson Keeps Your Sympathy!!!, 13 February 2012

Author: kidboots from Australia

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

"Silver Dollar" Tabor was a prospector who gained his considerable wealth mining silver at his "Matchless Mine" in Colorado. Before his death he had lost his fortune and bequeathed his widow "Baby Doe" the "Matchless Mine" he vainly thought would make his fortune again. Most people attributed Tabor's change of fortune to the fact that he had deserted his wife and children for a younger, vivacious woman (nearly thirty years his junior). But "Baby Doe" remained faithful to his memory and when she died in 1935 it was as a recluse in a shack near the mine. As the movie was produced while Tabor's widow still lived, the well crafted screenplay had to change names and thinly disguise facts.

"Silver Dollar" shows that even this early in his career Edward G. Robinson was able to give superbly crafted character studies with a depth of dramatic scope.

Even though gregarious Yates Martin (Robinson) has just been elected Mayor of the new city of Denver, he can't keep the wolf from his door!! He is a dreamer who is always looking for the elusive gold strike that he hopes will make his fortune. In the meantime his dour but practical wife (wonderful Aline MacMahon) persuades him to follow the latest lot of miners - as a merchant!!! His "hail fellow well met" air sees this venture almost fail but when two old prospectors, whom Yates had staked to provisions in return for a stake in their mine, hit a silver lode, Yate's fortune is finally made. That same day, a shifty looking miner (it's Walter Long for crying out loud, haven't they seen any of his movies!!) convinces Martin to buy his prosperous mine - "The Matchless Mine" sight unseen and it turns out, initially, that he has been had but he never gives up on it and eventually it proves his greatest success!!!

Pride comes before a fall and while supervising the building of the State's new Opera House, Yates makes the acquaintance of the beautiful Lily Owens (Bebe Daniels). From then on it is all downhill. Martin's larger than life personality combined with his boastfulness and materialism is fanned by Lily's sincere idolatry and flattery. Their house is a monument to bad taste and egotism but Yates is like a babe in arms as far as big business goes. Soon gold forces the price of silver down and by the end Yates has lost everything. When a chance meeting at a hotel with Col. Stanton (Robert Warwick) promises the job of Postmaster General, it unfortunately comes too late.

I actually think this is one of Robinson's greatest performances and he is almost matched by the incomparable Aline MacMahon - they should have bottled her talent, and the lovely Bebe Daniels. Among other players are Leon Waycoff (before he was Ames) and Bonita Granville as the little girl in the store.

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
A Competently Done Boom-to-Bust Biopic, 13 December 2011

Author: Van Roberts (zardoz@bellsouth.net) from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

"Baby Face" director Alfred E. Green charted the rags-to-riches rise and fall of a farmer in "Silver Dollar," a saga about the 19th century silver boom in Colorado over a ten year period in this trim but tragic western. Despite its western setting, "Silver Dollar" focuses more on politics and business as Yates Martin (Edward G. Robinson) emerges from the mines, becomes an entrepreneur, later a millionaire, eventually a senator, but ultimate dies penniless. The hubris of the protagonist is that he leaves his hard-working wife and is seduced by fame and fortune. Men may be the only people who can vote, our hero is warned, but women shape public opinion. Robinson made "Silver Dollar" long after his star-making role in "Little Caesar" and other oddities like the Asian killer in "Hatchet Man." The most interesting scene here occurs when Yates comes home to his wife in a drunken stupor and climbs into bed with her. We actually get to see them occupy the same mattress, a practice that the Production Code Administration later frowned on in Hollywood movies.

Yates Martin dreams of striking it rich with gold. In 1876, Yates' wife Sarah (Aline MacMahon of "Gold Diggers of 1933") convinces him that instead of prospecting for wealth in the ground that he should prospect for wealth in the pockets of other miners. Yates suffers from too much generosity and he allows his customers to buy their supplies and pay for them later. Eventually, he grub stakes a couple of miners who strike it rich and share in the profits. Along the way, Yates is approached to campaign for public office and he enters politics. Our protagonist decides to run for the lofty position of lieutenant governor of Colorado. Before he launches his campaign, he buys out a sickly miner and his daughter, but Yates learns too late that he has been swindled. Fearful that he will lose his bid for lieutenant governor when word spreads that he has been had, Yates orders his men to keep on digging. Miraculously, they strike a vein and Yates is rolling money. Initially, Yates lived to get rich on gold, but he ends up making a fortune in silver and renounces his dreams of gold. Yates is no spendthrift and he shares his fortune with the 'people' of Colorado. He finances the construction of a post office and later he commissions the building of a world-class opera house in Denver.

During the planning stages for the opera house, Yates encounters a beautiful woman, Lily Owens (Bebe Daniels of "42nd Street"), who laughs at his ignorance about classic European figures like Beethoven when his planner suggests that they place figures of these types in his opera palace. Meantime, Sarah languishes ignorantly in a sumptuous house that Yates has built for her and raises their son Max (David Durand) while Yates lavishes clothes and jewelry on the seductive Lily. The turning point for Yates comes when he dedicates the opera house with Ulysses S. Grant (Walter Rodgers of "The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln" where he also impersonated Grant) as his guest of honor. Sarah doesn't attend the festivities, but Lily does and Yates takes his first step down the road to disaster. When Yates decides to run for senator, his advisers warn him that he must be a paragon of virtue, so Yates divorces Sarah and weds Lily in Washington. A distinctly uncomfortable President Chester A. Arthur attends the ceremony. Eventually, Yates uses his wealth to buy a temporary seat as senator, but the bottom drops out of his financial kingdom when President Grover Cleveland institutes the gold standard. Interestingly, Lily remains dutifully at Yates side through his many setbacks, and Sarah—who has hung onto the fortune that Yates gave her—tries to give him some. Yates rejects her offer. Clearly, Yates believes that he can weather this catastrophe, but he doesn't. All along Yates has assured everyone that if they trust him that he see to it that they wallow in silver and ultimately get buried in a silver casket. At the last minute, Yates receives an appointment as the Post Master of Denver, but it comes too late. Sarah and Lily both appear at his funeral.

"Silver Dollar" is neither particularly exciting nor charismatic. Robinson delivers a strong performance as an individual who is clearly out of his element when he blunders into the arena of politics and big business. The scene with William Jennings Bryan serves as another turning point in his career. Yates believes that his company can excavate twice as much silver to compensate for the sudden prominence of gold. Actually, there are no villains to speak of and Yates' first wife doesn't bear him any ill will. Green directs this biographic epic with competence, and "Silver Dollar" never wears out its welcome. Nevertheless, nothing truly memorable happens. "Silver Dollar" is a well-made potboiler with a sturdy cast. Robinson's character is derived from the legendary Horace Austin Warner Tabor known best as 'The Bonanza King of Leadville.' Scenarists Carl Erickson and Harvey Thew based their screenplay on David Karsner's biographical novel about Tabor. Later, Douglas Moore immortalized Tabor's life in his opera, "The Ballad of Baby Doe," in 1956 in Colorado.

Stay with it, Robinson shines at the end, 21 January 2012

Author: audiemurph from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

"Silver Dollar", a very early E.G. Robinson vehicle, is not a great movie by any means, but it is more interesting to watch if you know that it is essentially the true story of Colorado miner and politician Horace Tabor, although his character is named Yates Martin here. In fact, the accuracy with which Tabor's basic life story is told is quite surprising for a Hollywood flik. Perhaps the only failure on this point is that in the film, Martin receives his Postmastership of Denver while on his death bed, while in real life Tabor served a full year as postmaster before dieing (a small concession to the need to find a dramatic finish).

For most of the film, Yates Martin, as played by Robinson, is bufoonish and mildly irritating; not because Robinson's acting is bad - that is impossible - but rather because of Martin lack's common sense and tact in his dealings with others. He is vain and a braggart, and ridiculously optimistic, as miners are often characterized to be (even in poverty he claims, "stick with me and we'll be buried in silver caskets). The only difference is, with enormous luck, Martin succeeds beyond his dreams, falling into unimaginable wealth despite his poor business judgment.

The payoff, however, is at the end, when Martin goes bust. Here is where Robinson truly shines. Usually when younger actors are made up to appear old, the result is unconvincing and unsatisfying. But Robinson's portrayal of the old, broke, and slowly declining Martin is magnificent and convincing. As Martin slides into mild dementia, Robinson's acting skills really come to the fore. It is well worth the wait of an hour through an otherwise unremarkable movie.

"Silver Dollar" is helped greatly by a particularly strong cast of supporting players. Russel Simpson has a good role as a party boss, and Aline MacMahon, as Robinson's wife, gives a great preview of a coming career specializing in weary and cynical women. A special treat is silent star Walter Long, in a brief appearance as the miner who sells Martin a supposedly worthless mine for $50,000. Long played the foil in several Laurel and Hardy movies, and may best be remembered for playing Gus, the terrifying "renegade Negro", in Birth of a Nation.

Is there such a thing as time wasted watching Edward G. Robinson? Definitely not. And how often will you ever see a movie that gives a speaking role to President Chester A. Arthur?

0 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Fine Performances in Need of Better Script, 29 December 2011
Author: Michael_Elliott from Louisville, KY

Silver Dollar (1932)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Based on the life of Horace 'Silver King' Tabor with only the names changed. Edward G. Robinson plays Yates Martin, a poor man from Kansas who moves to Colorado with his wife (Aline MacMahon) and soon finds himself a millionaire when silver is found in his mine. He soon enters politics and starts to rake in all sorts of cash and this is when he meets a showgirl (Bebe Daniels) and soon everything changes. I'm guessing Warner didn't want to pay any fees so they decided to change up all the names but no matter what they changed or kept the same, to call this film a disappointment wouldn't be an understatement. The movie starts off pretty good but around the twenty-minute mark you already know where the story is headed and there's really no connection to any of the characters. This almost seems like a greatest hits package instead of one complete story. We see the poor Martin, then the popular Martin, the rich Martin, the powerful Martin, the broke Martin and the pitiful Martin. There's never any real connection that you get because it just seems like he's a one dimensional character without any meat on his bones. Throughout the film I kept waiting to get to know the character and that simply never happens. We never get to know the wife, the mistress, the kid or anyone else and in fact there's a daughter who makes an important part of the film only to disappear without a word after that. The film takes a pretty big story and one that could have turned into an epic and does very little with it. The one saving grace are the performances with Robinson turning in another great job. I'm always surprised to see how terrific an actor Robinson was and it's a shame he's never really gotten the credit he deserves. Daniels is also very seductive in her part and MacMahon nearly steals the film as the caring, first wife. SILVER DOLLAR is worth watching for fans of the cast but there's no denying that a new script was needed.

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