May 22, 1948
Silver River
Lowell E. Redelings
Hollywood Citizen News
There’s a scene in Silver River where Ann Sheridan, on a wagon trek West, sleeps out under the stars. Errol Flynn bunks beneath a wagon for the night, but Ann thinks he’s inside the wagon.
It rains before morning, Ann comes scampering to the wagon, dragging her blankets behind her, and starts to scramble under the wagon.
“Please, lady,” exclaims Errol in feigned indignation, “you might at least first knock on the wheel.”
Whereupon, with a black look of hate (Errol loves her, but she can’t stand HIM, you know) climbs into the wagon, and Errol on the ground below asks questions relating to her private life with her husband.
All this is meat and drink to Errol Flynn’s fans. You could almost hear them drooling in their emotions yesterday at the Warner Hollywood Theater, and there were probably similar demonstrations at the Downtown and Wiltern.
Silver River is a good “schmaltzy” movie entertainment. it is tailored stuff for Errol – the bold, dashing hero of many another frontier epic. It gives Mr. Flynn a chance to wear those frontier clothes, in which he makes the wardrobe department so proud of itself, and too, he has plenty of elbow room in the wide-open spaces to woo Ann between walking over men in his climb to riches and fame.
Errol is a gambler this time out. The time is the Post-Civil War period, and the Westward movement is in full force. Errol acquires some gambling equipment and from this small beginning becomes a silver tycoon in the hub of the silver empire – Silver City.
Ann Sheridan is married to a mining expert – but so far as Errol is concerned he’s just in the way of his conquest of Ann. The Indians finally get her husband, and Errol moves in quickly to make her his wife.
Thereafter, the plot moves to a dramatic climax.
— Tim
