The Silver Cord

THE SILVER CORD (RKO Radio, 1933), directed by John Cromwell, is a story about two sons (Joel McCrea and Eric Linden) whose widowed mother (Laura Hope Crews) tries to destroy their happiness with the women (Irene Dunne and Frances Dee) they love and marry. The movie adaptation, taken from the 1929 stage play, also directed by Cromwell, starred Laura Hope Crews. While Dunne and McCrea have feature billing in the screen version, it is Crews, reprising her stage role, who carries the story from start to finish. Inasmuch as it is a filmed staged play, very talky with little action, the story itself is never boring, especially when it relies on the shock value of Crews' excessive selfishness that gives the plot some entertaining bite.

THE SILVER CORD became the very first movie I got to see when American Movie Classics was added to the system by my local cable system. It fact, up to that time, it was rarely televised anywhere, with the exception of its dubbed Spanish TV broadcast in the early 1970s on WNJU, Channel 47, in Newark, New Jersey. For a while, American Movie Classics aired THE SILVER CORD from 1984 to 1994 until Turner Classic Movies finally got to air this now rarely seen gem May 3, 2020.

As for Crews (born November 13, 1879), the actual star of this product, resumed her movie career mostly in secondary character parts, up to the time of her death (December 12, 1942). She never had a finer opportunity of screen than she did in THE SILVER CORD, and never did again. With a small list of actors credited in the cast, seen in a brief role is Gustav Von Seyffertitz, the same nasty villain who terrorized Mary Pickford in the silent classic, SPARROWS (United Artists, 1926). Overall, highly recommended. (***1/2)

Ugh....this movie gave me the creeps. Like another reviewer, I have only seen it once and have never seen it repeated on AMC,TCM or late night film fests. But, oh do I remember it. A very unpleasant but enthralling film about mother love gone bad. Laura Hope Crewes is the epitome of evil and it is hard to believe that she went on to be Aunt PittyPat in GWTW. She tears up the screen with her portrayal of the mother obsessed by her "love" for her sons. Eric Linden, a rather weak actor, is perfect as the one son.....Joel McCrae is ok as the other, but, since he is usually a man of action, you hope he will pull out a pistol and blow Crewes' brains out. When one remembers a film several years after seeing it but one time, it must be recommended. You will either be attracted or repelled by this little gem

Irene Dunne has married Joel McCrea and is going to meet his mother, played by Laura Hope Crews. But what Irene doesn't know is that Laura had her own plans for her son – to live close by her side and visit often. Based on a stage play, this can come across as rather talky and stagy, but I find the subject matter fascinating and most absorbing as we see the mother trying subtly and sometimes not so subtly to manipulate her sons so that they may never leave her. Eric Linden is another son, who is engaged to Frances Dee, unless "poor, pitiful" mother has anything to do with it. I don't know much about the movies and career of Laura Hope Crews, who played "Aunt Pittypat" in "Gone with the Wind," but I would surmise that this is one of her best and meatiest roles. The film belongs to her, as she has tantrums and wraps her sons around her little finger. By the way, costars Joel and Frances would marry in real life. If you happen to discover "The Silver Cord," which I doubt, don't pass this up. You may be looking for the best films of the great Irene Dunne, but instead you will discover the under-appreciated Ms. Laura Hope Crews at the zenith of her career.

I really felt the movie was ahead of its time. The one potential daughter-in-law was such a strong, career oriented woman. She knew what she wanted and was diplomatic but firm with the over-bearing mother-in-law to be. The mother's role was played extremely well (you just loved to hate her). Her need to control her son's lives was neurotically evil. If you've ever been in a relationship where you've been judged and found lacking (and everybody involved knew it) this may hit too close to home. It's been years since I saw this movie and I remember thinking that this plot and dialog would work in a 50's or 60's movie. It is difficult to watch because of the mother and sons' dynamic but I would love to watch it again. I keep hoping to find it on one of the old movie channels but so far no luck. Attempts to buy it were also futile (I don't believe it's on tape or DVD).

Yikes! and we all thought Joan Crawford was THE horror Mommy Dearest...well Laura Hope Crewes as Mom in this stinging 4 character film delivers (and cops) the goods in this cracker of a marital Mommy mangle.....THE SILVER CORD is a genuinely sensational pre code drama from RKO made in 1932 released in '33 from a 1929 play. So astonishing, frank and honest is each startling verbal exchange between one son's wife (IreneDunne) along with the other's fiancé as these two younger girls together go to war - gleefully angrily unwrapping the clearly incestuous hankerings of Mom towards her hunky eldest son played by virile Joel MacCrea and her younger 'beau'/son payed by delicate and beautiful 25 year old actor Eric Linden. I would think this film played to many howling appreciative audiences in huge theaters in 1933 and offers viewers even in 2005 a very fruity melodrama enlivened by crackling dialog not afraid to call Mother exactly as she is. This film would have been impossible to make after the censorship code came in after 1934. Other viewer comments on the IMDb support my reaction and you will find almost everyone lucky enough to see (and tape) THE SILVER CORD will agree it is an unforgettable and pungent script in a superbly produced film. It would have played like the VIRGINIA WOLF of 1932. Laura Hope Crewes must have kissed the sound stage at RKO for this role of a lifetime..even more than her fluffy turn in GWTW. Irene Dunne is as gorgeous and casual and believable as ever, fighting for her husband yet again, and it is well worth seeing The Divorcée made in 1929 as a companion piece to THE SILVER CORD. Joel MaCrea is certainly in the same league as Cary Grant and Randolph Scott in the handsome and lovable stakes. I had never seen Eric Linden in a real acting role before (he played the leg amputee in the hospital horror scene in GWTW) and here he is startling and youthful with an excellent role as Robert, the younger and more sensitive son. Some verbal barbs leveled at him again would not get past the Code office if made later. This is a really good film, and if the viewer forgives some of the creakiness of its time and settles in for a sparring match of unequaled pungency for a 1932 movie, you will be well rewarded. At first I thought some of the throat clutching melodrama of Mother was dated until I realized it was a set up of the excellent screenplay to make the viewer laugh at her as though she is a weak little old lady......NOT..... but nor are the other two women in this powerhouse play on film, hence the fantastic retort dialog. That ocean-liner seen in reel one is THE LEVIATHAN the monster ship the US won from the Germans in WW1 that was so huge and unwieldy that crews were nervous wrecks trying to wrestle with it upon the Atlantic. It is infamous for ploughing headfirst up a colossal wave in a storm and shot over the crest at such an angle the spine along the bottom cracked and the ship split vertically between the funnels. It limped to port with rattling steel panels and winking rivet holes...and mentally shattered crew and passengers. It was scuttled in 1935 after being cursed and plagued with horror mechanical problems all its existence. Not such a war prize after all.

Anyway, the dialog in THE SILVER CORD is enough excitement for one night: eg: "Mother! the Doctor said there was nothing wrong with you, in fact he said it would take a stick of dynamite to kill you". Whammo!