User Reviews

"Shriek of Silence" opens with Johnny Yuma forced into a gunfight by Jake Fellows (William Ballin), a rebel hating father with a deaf mute son named Paul (Tommy Nolan). Having no choice but to kill or be killed, Yuma then takes responsibility for the boy, who wasn't born with his affliction, but hasn't been able to speak or hear since his mother's death. Yvette Vickers, later seen in "Decision at Sweetwater," plays Nancy, the woman who gives Johnny a book of sign language to enable him to communicate with Paul, who is initially resentful of the man who killed his father. Nancy herself is roughed up by Richard Sturges (Frank De Kova) and his partner Bill Wilson (Charles Heard), part of a trio of bank robbers looking for the other third from their last holdup, Paul's late father supposedly in possession of the loot. Neither Nancy nor Paul are even aware that Jake had a hand in robbing banks, but that won't stop Sturges, who must resort to posing as a preacher to steal what he wants. A tension filled climax ends happily for all, and Johnny earns a new friend where he could have found an enemy. Frank De Kova was a familiar face adept at villainy, though the role of Chief Wild Eagle on F TROOP showed he could also do comedy (his character's middle name of Aloysius just happened to be the same for Nicholas Aloysius Adamschock, better known as Nick Adams). Pretty Yvette Vickers virtually gave up her promising career within three years, but remained forever remembered as Playboy's Playmate of the Month for July 1959, a year after iconic roles in "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" and "Attack of the Giant Leeches" (she was the longtime paramour of ELLERY QUEEN's Jim Hutton). Jack Lester would later appear in "The Found."

Found an old VHS tape at the flea market with 5 The Rebel shows that someone had recorded off their TV years ago - this show "Shriek of Silence" is one of them. Nick Adams as Johnny Yuma is trying to eat his meal in a saloon when a rebel hater forces him into a gun fight. Johnny then discovers the man had a teenage son played by Tommy Nolan (a fine actor with a familiar face). Yvette Vickers is in this story and tells Johnny that she used to watch the boy who does not talk or seem to hear since his mother's death. Johnny decides to take the boy to an orphanage in hopes someone can help him. The boy hates Johnny for killing his father and Johnny will have to win his trust. In the mean time, two outlaws who were partners of the boy's father, are looking for money he hid from them. They find Yvette does not know, so they decide to go after the boy thinking he must know where the money is and they will make him show them. Sorry, can't reveal the ending, but great acting as in all The Rebel shows.