Adventures in Silverado (1948) User Reviews

Pretty Good

[boblipton · 6/10 · 13 May 2020]

Stagecoach driver William Bishop comes to town, has to remain with his team of horses. He gets on poorly with Gloria Henry, who runs the established line, but eventually he goes to work for her, and finds out who the hooded figure who has been robbing mine shipments is.

It's a pretty good little western, mostly standard but a notch above average because of a cast that includes Edgar Buchanan and Forrest Tucker -- and Irving Bacon, naturally; you can't make a movie without Irving Bacon -- but boasts a nice gimmick: it's based on a story by Robert Louis Stevenson, and it has Stevenson onsite, scribbling, scribbling, scribbling. Plus some nice camerawork by Henry Freulich.

Historical context makes this an interesting A budget western with a few TV favorites.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 28 June 2022]

Maybe not on the A level of Westerns the same year starring John Wayne, Robert Montgomery, Randolph Scott or George Montgomery, but pretty big nonetheless, at least for Columbia. It's also a western that puts more character development than normal, given its literary connection with the presence of Robert Louis Stevenson (Edgar Barrier) who is searching for story ideas in the old west. William Bishop is traveling through the area as well, hoping to stop somewhere so he can start his own stagecoach company. When he arrives in a small town, he discovers that there is already a stagecoach company, run by a woman, Lori Henry, and she is more than prepared to deal with his attempts at creating a new one. Romance grows once they reach a truce, and before long, he's aiding her in investigating stagecoach robberies and discovering who the bandit is.

Later the head of F-Troop and the husband of Auntie Mame (and the star of the touring production of "The Music Man"), Forrest Tucker is Bishop's rival, and he makes a believable villain. But the question remains, is he the mastermind behind the stagecoach robberies? He's present for one, with the actual bandit wearing a monk's robe with their face hidden. Edgar Buchanan, the future Uncle Joe of "Petticoat Junction" isn't moving kind of slow here, and in fact, he's quite different as the local doctor, the most slender I've ever seen him, and beloved by everyone in town. Patti Brady is the pre-teen girl who manages to steal a few scenes without effort, and without being annoying. There's also Irving Bacon of the early Blondie movies. The mixture of action, comedy and romance makes this Columbia Western one of the most enjoyable, up there with the same year's "Lust for Gold" which was obviously filmed on the same location sets.

An Ink-Slinger Out West

[richardchatten · 6/10 · 22 June 2022]

Four things make this amiable Columbia oater an agreeable experience: the sinister hooded villain The Monk, the benign presence of Edgar Barrier as Robert Louis Stevenson, the anachronistically tight britches worn by the heroine and the delightful presence of Patti Brady, a child actress you for once don't want to strangle.

Author Robert Louis Stevenson prevents a California lynching.

[horn-5 · 27 November 2005]

Maybe he did or maybe he didn't in real-life, but writers Kenneth Gamet, Tom Kilpatrick and Jo Pagano wrote a Screenplay (with a "Suggested by the story "Silverado Squatters" by Robert Louis Stevenson" credit line)for Columbia for 1948's "Adventures in Silverado" that shows he did. According to their screenplay..."Into California's 1880 frontier country rides Robert Louis Stevenson, the novelist, looking for story material 'in a land of stage-drivers and highwaymen', and soon finds it when Bill Foss (William Bishop) arrives in the mining town of Silverado with a new stagecoach." Foss barely breaks the city limits before he is challenged to a race by Zeke Butler (Forrest Tucker), stage driver for the town's established stage-line operated by Jeannie Manning (Gloria Henry.) Well, the best that can happen in a stagecoach race against a character played by Forrest Tucker in 1948 is that your stagecoach will be forced off the road and your best horse will be injured, even if you are William Bishop.

Doctor Henderson (Edgar Buchanan), noted for his philanthropies to the local miners, advises Foss he can't run his horse for some time to come, and Foss takes a job with Jeannie, hauling water to Squatter's Flats, a desert waste which requires irrigation.

Later, Zeke, carrying gold from Last Dog Ditch Mine to Silverado is robbed by a mysterious bandit called The Monk (because he wears a monk's robe and hood while plying his trade of robbing stagecoaches),and he suspects Foss. To clear himself, Foss suggests both stages take the next gold shipment and see who gets robbed and who doesn't. (The previously-projected "sometime to come" diagnosis has come and Foss is back into the stagecoach business.) This seems to be a good idea among all the involved decision-makers, although none of them even question the thought process of loading the gold onto a stagecoach driven by a suspected gold robber, or even inquire as to what is to prevent Foss, if he is the gold robber, of making a left turn somewhere between Last Dog Ditch Mine and Silverado and driving straight south-by-southwest to Tia Juana with their gold. Plot-wise it is a good thing that wasn't asked because this who-gets-robbed-and-doesn't-get-robbed plan provides the reason that Robert Louis Stevenson ( Edgar Barrier )gets to prevent a lynching.

Foss has another good idea (or what seemed to be a good idea at the time) of hiding the gold in a place known only to him and Jeannie, but The Monk sees this and takes the gold. Foss' explanation to the miners that while he was the only one (he declines to implicate Jeannie) who knew where the gold was hidden but he didn't take it rings more than a bit hollow, and it's only a few film-frames later that George Chesebro or Bud Osborne or Blackie Whiteford or one of Columbia's live-on-the-lot bit players hollers.."somebody get a rope" and a few film-frames after that Foss is close to swinging from a Joshua tree. And would have if Robert Louis Stevenson, gun-in-hand, hadn't stopped his "story material note-taking" long enough to prevent the lynching.

Some more stuff happens before The Monk is identified and Foss is cleared, but you'll have to watch the film to find out who The Monk was, as I'm not one prone to disclose confidential information to those who don't like to know such things before they watch the film.

A Surprisingly Good Little Western

[ToryCorner · 8/10 · 11 August 2021]

A surprisingly good little Western under Phil Karlson's capable direction. The Robert Louis Stevenson twist is original and works nicely. Gloria Henry never looked as pretty although Forrest Tucker is so over-the-top that he makes Irving Bacon come across as subtle. I speculate that one reason this Western may not have been readily packaged for TV distribution is its lead, William Bishop. Although a capable actor, he doesn't have it in him to be personally engaging. His smirk signals the untrustworthiness of a used car dealer and, for that reason, in this lead role he's miscast. Had the movie been made a few years later with Audie Murphy in the lead, it would have achieved more longevity.