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Don Siegel was still a journeyman director at the time he made The Duel at Silver Creek at Universal. Most of the studio's B-Westerns of this period looked as though the cast directed themselves, and their scripts were filled with so many clicheé that they're almost a joke to watch today. Siegel did better with this film than most, adding the occasional unexpected close-up, treating the chase scenes with unusual energy, and focusing in on the violence of the story -- including the shooting of a key female character -- in ways that anticipate his treatment of more conventional crime subjects, such as The Lineup and The Killers. The result is the most unconventional of these assembly-line Universal oaters.