The Silver Queen (1942)

The Silver Queen takes place in the 1870s. James Kincaid (George Brent) has made his fortune gambling and runs a successful casino in New York City with his friend. One night he is invited to a charity party being given by a Coralie Adams (Priscilla Lane) at her home.

            Coralie is engaged to Gerald Forsythe (Bruce Cabot) who is a rich man. Her father wants her to marry Gerald as soon as he can because of her gambling and that he can give her whatever she wants. Coralie likes to gamble and bet on things the same as her father. Her father is expecting James to gamble. Before the party Coralie had never met James. When she sees him she is taken with him.

            Some time after the party the stock market crashes. Coralie’s father loses all his money. They could have been alright had he not lost of his mine deeds gambling. Her father dies leaving her penniless and in debt. Coralie swears to pay of his debt by herself. Gerald wants to buy James’s gambling house to give to Coralie as a wedding present. James refuses to sell it to Gerald. That night James runs out of town.

            Coralie wants to run away. She tells Gerald she cannot marry him. Since he does not want to break the engagement she has him promise to wait for her so long until he wants to move on. Coralie goes out to San Francisco. She gets the idea to gamble to make her money. For the next few years Coralie has been sending Gerald money so he can pay off her father’s debts. Gerald has been squandering the money. He asks his mother for thirty thousand dollars the amount he has taken from Coralie. His mother refuses to help him since he got himself into the mess.  

            James is at a hotel in San Francisco. He hears two men talking about a woman known as the Silver Queen. James wants to play against this Silver Queen. When James sees that the Silver Queen is Coralie and she sees her old friend they are happy to see each other. James hears from Coralie’s uncle Hector that the creditors never got the money Coralie had been sending. James decides to help her. He leaves so suddenly he does not even say goodbye to Coralie.

            Gerald travels out to San Francisco to see Coralie. When her maid tells her “he’s here” Coralie thinks the maid meant that James was there to see her. She tells Gerald that her uncle told her he was never paid off. Gerald passes it off as if Hector had gambled the money away. He still wants to marry Coralie and suggest they get married in Nevada City where she was born. Neither one of them knows that James is out in Nevada City.

            My note taking ended at that scene and for the life of me cannot remember how the rest of the film went. I think it is safe to say that Coralie and James wind up together in the end.   

            The Silver Queen was very boring. I felt bad for the actors because all three of them are very good and they were put into this B picture. Neither one of them was leading actor material but they did not deserve to be leading actors in a film like this. Priscilla Lane did not look good in period clothing at all. She had a modern face and her who disposition was so modern that she did not really fit into the role. Someone wrote in their review on IMDB that Barbara Stanwyck could have carried this role off better. Yeah she could have but a role like this for Stanwyck would have been a part she would have done early in her career. I can only suggest looking for The Silver Queen and watching it if you are a fan of George Brent, Priscilla Lane, and Bruce Cabot otherwise skip it.