Silver River (1948)

After being kicked out of the Union army during the Civil War, an ex soldier (Errol Flynn) goes rogue and confiscates gambling equipment to set up his own saloon and gambling hall and thus begins the growth of his empire. Based on the novel by Stephen Longstreet and directed by Raoul Walsh (HIGH SIERRA). While not wholly successful, I found this western above average. At this stage of his career, Errol Flynn was drinking heavily but his character here is much more complex than many of his swashbuckling hero roles. As he lusts after another man's (Bruce Bennett) wife (Ann Sheridan), the biblical story of David and Bathsheba is reenacted in a western setting. Reputedly, director Walsh was unhappy with the script for being too talky and eliminated what might possibly have been crucial events because the movie loses its way and by the end of the film, it's become just another western instead of the multifaceted western it had the potential to become. With Thomas Mitchell, Tom D'Andrea and Barton MacLane.