The Silver Horde

This film, originally made by RKO but fallen into the public domain, is probably not going to appeal to most people, and not even to most fans of precode. However, it is still interesting viewing. It was made in 1930 - that first full year of all-talking pictures, and we are beginning to see the end of some silent acting careers and the beginning of some talking ones.

The story is that of Boyd Emerson (Joel McCrea), a man who wanders into a very unfriendly Alaskan town. He practically breaks down the door of the town lady of the evening, Cherry Malotte (Evelyn Brent), and demands hospitality, which kind of spoils the idea behind hospitality in the first place. Boyd is in love with a society girl, Mildred Wayland (Jean Arthur), but needs to prove himself worthy to her dad before they can marry. He decides to make his home in this small Alaskan outpost and set up a salmon fishery to compete against that of his underhanded and better capitalized rival for Mildred's hand, Frederick Marsh.

Everyone from "San Francisco to Sitka" apparently knows about Cherry's profession, everyone but Boyd. Cherry uses her bodily assets at one point to insure Boyd gets the loan he needs to start his fishery, without Boyd knowing of course. When he finds out what Cherry does and that she did it at least once to help him, fireworks ensue.

Evelyn Brent was a holdover from the silents, and this is the best talking role I've seen her in. She delivers her hooker's manifesto speech to anemic society girl Mildred with gusto that rivals Barbara Stanwyck in "Baby Face". Jean Arthur is stiff as a board and unrecognizable here as the star of the screwball comedies that are to follow, and it is ironic that in spite of that stiff performance and Brent's animated one that Arthur's star is to rise and Brent's is to fall very shortly.

Louis Wolheim is another holdover from the silents. They just don't know what to do with him here and so they basically make him a mindless brute that enjoys busting heads open. He is much better served in 1931's "Danger Lights", and so is Jean Arthur for that matter.

After spending two, hard years searching for gold in the northernmost part of Alaska, two friends named "Boyd Emerson" (Joel McCrea) and "Fraser" (Raymond Hatton) finally decide to give up on their dream and head back south to civilization. On the way, however, they happen to stop in a small village where they meet a wealthy woman named "Cherry Malotte" (Evelyn Brent) who provides them with food and lodging for the next few days. It's during this time that Boyd is informed by Cherry that there is a lucrative business opportunity right there in that same village focusing on a totally different resource other than gold--salmon. The problem is that part of the bay where the salmon spawn is owned by a ruthless businessman named "Fred Marsh" (Gavid Gordon) who will do whatever it takes to prevent anyone else from setting up a rival fish cannery in that area. Even so, Boyd soon becomes intent upon opening one up and, with Cherry's help, he travels to Seattle to obtain the necessary money from a bank. While there he also runs into his girlfriend "Mildred Wayland" (Jean Arthur) who loves him very much and wants to marry him as soon as possible. What Boyd doesn't realize, however, is that Cherry has also fallen in love with him and that, sooner or later, he will have to make a choice between them. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this turned out to be a rather entertaining film--especially since it was produced so long ago. Admittedly, there were more than a few times the film showed its age, but even so, I enjoyed it for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

The part of The Silver Horde that I like was the location filming in Ketchikan, Alaska and the realistic depiction of the salmon cannery over which our cast is battling. Unfortunately it's a most old fashioned story that doesn't wear well for today's audience.

Joel McCrea who was the noblest of all screen heroes and when cast right could be an admirable performer was given wrong direction here. He really comes off as a pompous self righteous clod, I can't believe both Jean Arthur and Evelyn Brent are fighting over him.

The film is based on a novel by Rex Beach who wrote the popular and many times filmed The Spoilers. In fact Evelyn Brent's character is named Cherry Malotte, the same as the heroine in The Spoilers.

Evelyn's a bad girl with a notorious reputation that our fastidious hero is repulsed by even though he's falling for her. Jean Arthur in the first film she did with Joel McCrea is totally wasted in the fluffy society girl he's first engaged to. This is hardly as good as The More The Merrier.

In this old fashioned drama you have an old fashioned villain and that's Gavin Gordon who's a villain in the best Snidely Whiplash tradition.

The best performers in the film are Louis Wolheim and Raymond Hatton, a pair of Arctic rustics is the best way you can describe them. Wolheim had he not died the following year probably would have shared a lot of the roles Wallace Beery did in the sound era.

Fortunately better films were on the way for Joel McCrea. Otherwise his career would have terminated in the early Thirties.

Evelyn brent, louis wolheim, jean arthur. Even joel mcrea, in an early, credited role. In the cold north of alaska, history tells us there was a shortage of women in the territory. But here, a fisherman with big plans has to choose between two women, cherry and mildred. It's a remake of the 1920 silent film! With the brutal weather conditions, and shortage of jobs, there isn't much time for etiquette here. It's okay. A couple of the actors seem to be channeling wc fields when they talk. This was the first of three films that arthur and mcrea worked on together. People here are not who they seem to be. And may actually be working against their own "business partners". Will anyone be successful in love? Or in their work? Directed by george archainbaud, for rko. Arthur and mcrea would go on to huge film careers. Arthur will be nominated for the more the merrier fourteen years later. This was one of her early talkies; she had started in the silents way back. Check her out in "only angels have wings" with cary grant in 1939, for columbia. Louis wolheim died young at age fifty.

Although I enjoy old movies, this was just a bit to early for my liking. It was an early talky movie and you could tell by watching it that the equipment that it was filmed on and the actors and actresses were vintage. That being said, it was an interesting movie and easy to watch. Very simplistic plot with not much depth as was the case in this period of cinematography. It was very typical of the time period plot line where the guy gets the girl, even though she has a reputation of being a bad girl. The scenes that showed the actual canning of the salmon was of interest to me, in that it gave a glance back in history of the processing plant and early machinery.