Review of Silver on the Sage

Be prepared to be thoroughly befuddled as to which of a pair of identical twins(both played by Stanley Ridges) you are looking at. Dave Talbot is foreman of Tom Hamilton's Lazy J ranch, while brother Earl Brennan runs a casino, in town. But, sometimes they switch roles, and when one is accused of malice, his brother has an alibi that he was somewhere else then. Amazingly, it's not until late in the film that the 2 are caught being in the same place to confirm Hoppy's suspicion that he was dealing with 2 lookalikes. When playing cards in Brennan's casino, Hoppy noticed that when he played with Brennan, sometimes he always licked his thumb before dealing, while at other times, he never licked his thumb, leading Hoppy to suspect that he was dealing with 2 lookalikes.........The criminal activity begins when Lucky(Russell Haydan) and Windy(George Hayes) are put in charge of selling a cattle herd to Hamilton(Frederick Buton). While Lucky and some of the Hamilton crew go in town that evening to party, Windy keeps an eye on the herd. When Lucky returns, he finds Windy tied up and all the cattle gone from the enclosure. Lucky and Hamilton argue about who was the owner of the cattle when stolen. Lucky, Windy and others ride around looking for the missing cattle. Someone comments that it looks like an inside job. When they encounter Mr. Hamilton, Lucky mouths this supposition, and Hamilton doesn't like it. He forbids Lucky and Windy to come on his ranch again........In town, Lucky picks a fight with Talbot, Hamilton's foreman. The two go to see Hamilton at his ranch, and the 3 argue some more, then ride to town to confer with the marshal. But on the way, a gunman on a hill fires at them, then leaves. Lucky takes off after him, but hears a shot back where he came from. He returns to find Hamilton dead, and Talbot gone. Thus, he assumes Talbot shot Hamilton, although he doesn't understand his motive.(Perhaps, the rustlers are planning to raid Hamilton's herd, and want him out of the way so that his demure daughter will be the owner). Lucky takes the body to town, but the sheriff says Talbot(actually Brennan) has been playing cards all day. Lucky is then charged with the murder, and thrown in jail. But, he soon tricks the jailer and escapes, only to be locked up at the Hamilton ranch by Hamilton's daughter, Barbara(Ruth Rogers), who believes him guilty. I will stop with the story here. However, I will mention that Windy went off his rocker and claimed that he was the infamous outlaw Black Bart. He even somehow had fake Wanted fliers printed, and distributed them. Nobody paid attention, until the ending when the sheriff jokingly put him under arrest. He got on his horse and galloped off, ahead of Hoppy and Lucky.......Windy was asked by the casino patrons to demonstrate his prowess with a six shooter. Well, he couldn't even see the playing card target, but made out he could. Hoppy shot at the target at the same time and punched a hole in the middle. A little later, one of the bystanders noticed he had a bullet hole in his hat........Also, when Windy was shooting at a live target: Brennan, Hoppy stood in back of him and shot at the same time. Presumably, it was Hoppy's bullet that plugged Brennan in the back, as he rode off........Actress Ruth Rogers was little used by Hollywood. This is one of only a few films where she had a credited role. She was a good looking blond but, in her role, she comes across as a pampered city girl, not a tomboy, the daughter of a rancher........See it at YouTube