The Silk Express

The Silk Express (1933)

** (out of 4)

A rather bizarre murder/mystery about a businessman who makes the price of silk go sky high on the market so Donald Kilgore (Neil Hamilton) calls him into his office and threatens that if he doesn't bring the price down everyone's going to start importing from Japan. The business owners decide to import the product so it boards a train in Seatle and makes the journey to New York but along a way a murder occurs and it's clear someone doesn't want the train to arrive. Whenever one of these murder/mysteries show up on Turner Classic Movies I try to watch them and quite often it appears that most of them are working off the same formula so I'll at least give THE SILK EXPRESS some credit because I can't think of another movie where the battle is over imported silk. Outside of that there's very little in this film that works because it really drags along with a poor pace even at just 61-miutes. I think the biggest problem is the actual story and that includes the silk. While this might be an original topic I can't say it's an entertaining one. The entire time it's hard to get caught up in the story simply because you really don't care about what's at the heart of it. Even worse is that there's simply not enough reason to care about who the killer is and the number of red herrings is more than the actual running time. Hamilton is energetic in the lead but he's not given much to do. Arthur Byron plays the part as if he's angry at the world. Sheila Terry is the quick love interest. Guy Kibbee plays a redneck detective who is exited at finally getting to solve a murder. Several other Warner contract players show up but the most interesting casting is that of Allen Jenkins. I won't spoil what he plays but it's quite a twist and especially the look he has going for himself.

The Silk Express is a fast moving crime story loaded with Warners' supporting actor regulars: Guy Kibbee, Robert Barrat, Harold Huber, Allen Jenkins and Arthur Hohl. For train fans, there are scenes of an actual train filmed for the movie, along with stock footage of a train going through a snow storm on the way to New York. If the basis of the screen story seems odd, about importing a load of silk to break the "corner" a speculator has on silk supplies, at least the story is different. Warner Bros. in 1933 had an unequaled team of professionals who could turn out polished movies on the cheap. There are probably as many scenes in this 62 minute movie as a 90 minute movie now. And, just like in another Warners crime movie, Fog Over Frisco, when someone receives a telegram, you see an authentic looking telegram on the screen. The only things out of place in The Silk Express are the leads, Neil Hamilton and Sheila Terry, apparently brought in on a trial basis to see if they were Warners material. They did not stick around at Warners. Soon they would have company, as Jack Warner's cost cutting at the studio caused a migration of acting talent to other studios (among them Loretta Young and William Powell). The Silk Express is an example of the quality that Warner Bros. routinely put on the screen from 1931 to 1934, movies set in the Depression-era present that have not dated as badly as the studio product from MGM and other studios.

Silk is in and everybody is looking to buy. Unscrupulous businessman Wallace Myton (Arthur Hohl) has cornered the market. Donald Kilgore (Neil Hamilton) imports silk into Seattle and intends to transport it on the train to New York. Myton's men intend to stop it by any means necessary including murder.

Silk is a weird McGuffin for a gangland movie. I guess a story could make it into anything and real world fashion business could be this ruthless. One does have to overlook a lot of the specific details. It all boils down to a gangland murder thriller on the enclosed setting of a train. It is fine.

One can count on one hand, nay, one finger, the number of Hollywood movies that deal with the importation of silk from Asia. This may be the only one and it goes way back to the beginning of talkies. Using this subject as the basis for a fairly good mystery that involves murder aboard a fast-moving train is rare indeed. The cast consists mainly of well known character actors under contract to Warner Brothers. Guy Kibbee plays Railway Detective McDuff who wants to slow the train down. Since the silk traders must get their shipment to New York within a certain time frame, the railway detective must be dealt with by the entrepreneurs. Competitors are also at work trying to sabotage the entire operation to make sure the train does not reach New York on schedule. They will stop at nothing including murder to stop the train so they can corner the market on silk. Kibbee did well when his role was limited to a few lines. When given a large role as in this movie, his loud banter becomes irritating at times rather than amusing. It is good to see the antics of Allen Jenkins toned down. He is actually a fairly decent actor when given the right role as in this film. He too tended to overact outrageously when given the opportunity. The rest of the cast including the two leads are adequate for their parts. The result is an entertaining little whodunit. And you may be surprised at the end unless you pay really close attention to detail.

With advance information that all the designers will be using silk for their spring lines, Arthur Hohl corners the commodity. Industry leader Neil Hamilton arranges for a major shipment from Japan. But when it arrives in San Francisco, it still has a train journey to the silk mills in New York. If Hamilton can get through, Hohl will be ruined. If not, Hamilton. Hohl has an agent aboard the train. Hamilton has the train's staff, Dudley Digges, whose scleroderma is turning him to stone, Digges' daughter Sheila Terry, and doctor Vernon Steele, and his lawyer. With railroad detective Guy Kibbee coming aboard to investigate a murder, can the train get through?

It's a highly imaginative set-up for a murder mystery, with the motive apparent from the beginning. It also deals with the motionless of many a mystery by putting it aboard a moving train, ably realized by Ray Enright. He was one of Warners' workhorse directors. He was able to turn out a musical or a war movie on demand. Studio directors like him are not held in such high esteem as 'auteurs', whose styles and themes are instantly recognizable. But directors who worked in a large variety of genres had the advantage of letting the well of creativity fill up a bit between, say westerns, while they worked on a comedy. They might not be possessed of a singular voice, but they turned out solid work and kept the standards of film making high. This improbably plotted movie is a good example of that sort of work.

With Arthur Byron, Allen Jenkins, and Vernon Steele.