Gregg Leech (Earle Lyon) has just been elected the new town sheriff when a stranger named King Daniels (Richard Bartlett) arrives at the local saloon with a plan to murder him. Fearful of losing his life, and despite the urgings of local townsfolk, Leech struggles to meet Daniels face-to-face.

Bear with me here. In the mid-1940s film exhibitor Robert L. Lippert had a problem. He owned a chain of movie theatres across California and Oregon, but felt financially pressured by the high fees attached to Hollywood’s latest blockbusters. Feeling that movies could be a lot cheaper and still attract an audience, Lippert established his own production company to make his own inexpensive content. It turned out to be a reasonably fruitful proposition: between 1945 and 1956 Lippert produced more than 160 features, including Superman and the Mole Men (1951) and six films from director Samuel Fuller.

Putting those more famous productions aside, that still leaves more than 150 low-budget B-movies made on a shoestring and a truncated production schedule, starring whatever actors were cheapest, and aimed at an audience less interested in seeing a specific film and more in just going out to the movie theatre at all. Lippert did not spend much on any of these productions, and generally speaking you get what you pay for.

The Silver Star is essentially a low-budget remake of Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon (1952), minus depth, suspense, originality, or talent. Often when it came to B-movies, producers would not care about the content much and this would enable writers, directors, and actors to do some genuinely interesting work without too much interference. In the case of The Silver Star it seems the creative personnel did not much care about the content either.

Action costs money, so there is precious little activity to be had during the film. As King Daniels, Richard Bartlett waits in the saloon while waiting for Leech. Meanwhile a reluctant Leech wastes time consulting with various people around town, all the while wringing his hands at the risk of meeting Daniels face-to-face. Action costs money, but talk – as they say – is cheap. There is an awful lot of talking in The Silver Star. The film was written and directed by Bartlett himself – it is a wonder he did not give himself anything more interesting to do.

The quality of acting on display is woeful, particularly nominal star Earle Lyon as Leech. He does not sufficiently emote, and in all honesty seems unconvincing when just walking around on camera. The only notable performers in the film are Earl Buchanan – later to appear in Petticoat Junction and Green Acres – and Lon Chaney Jr. The latter practically appears in cameo. The film opens with a ballad composed and sung by Jimmy Wakely. It appears likely that it was the most expensive item on the film’s budget, and Lippert certainly gets his money’s worth out of it.

The Silver Star is static, weakly composed, and tremendously dull. Even at a scant 73 minutes it outstays its welcome. It may have saved Lippert some money in screening fees, but the cost was borne by the audience’s valuable money and time.

1955 West is a review project to watch as many western features from 1955 as possible, in order to gain a ‘snapshot’ view of the genre at its height. According to Letterboxd, there were 72 westerns released that year. You can see all of FictionMachine’s reviews of them to date by clicking here.