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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)

Long before the Freudian craze in the forties thrillers ,"the silver cord" depicted a terrifying mother/children relationship where mom is in love with her boys (and at least in one case vice versa: the boy kisses her on the mouth).

The movie looks like a filmed stage production for we almost never leave the house and there are only five actors (plus a short appearance by the doctor),but it's absorbing from start to finish .Irene Dunne ,as a scientist ,predates woman's lib by thirty years .Frances Dee says the words that are the keys to the movie: " give birth to them ,raise them ,and let them live!" To keep her sons by her side,the mother-in-law you would not imagine even in your worst dreams ,would do anything:she urges her sons to break up ,she even blackmails them with the poor condition of her heart (whereas the physician says she is all right);when her younger son's fiancé tries to commit suicide ,she is not moved that much :Laura Hope Crews ' playing may seem old fashioned by today's standards;but this portrayal of a self-absorbed woman remain convincing and Mrs Phelps is a distant relative of Tennessee Williams' Mrs Venable in "suddenly last Summer"

Devastating portrayal of just how far a mothers love for her children will go. Unfortunately, her love is more possessive than normal and this type of love is ruinous in a relationship with ones children.

Laura Hope Crews gives the greatest performance of her career, unfortunately, it is overshadowed by her appearance in "Gone With the Wind".

Joel McCrea and Eric Linden are outstanding as her sons while Irene Dunne and Frances Dee are equally well as the women in their respective lives.

If you ever get the chance to see this film, then you will never forget it. It may have been made quite awhile ago, but the movie still packs a wallop.

Who won the best actress Oscar for 1933? It should have been Laura Hope Crewes for her magnificent portrayal of the most monstrous mother ever. She truly is one of the great character actresses of all time. She played the frivolous Prudence Duvernoy in "Camille" (1936) and her best remembered role is Aunt Pittypat in "Gone With the Wind".

Irene Dunne was the "official" star of the film but her scenes with Laura Hope Crewes were dynamite.

David (Joel McCrea) is in Heidelberg when he is offered a job in New York. His wife, Christine (Irene Dunne) can continue her studies at the Rockafellar Centre. Their first stop in America is a visit to David's mother, Mrs. Phelps. To say that Laura Hope Crewes dominates every scene is an under-statement. From her first entrance - in a frantic burst of effort to greet her "big boy" - all attention is on her. Even sitting around the tea table, when she forgets Hester's existence, even forgetting how she takes her tea, you know something is not quite right.(Hester has been living there for a while.)

Frances Dee is completely sweet and so right in her role as the adorable Hester. Her performance in this film, especially the scene where she has hysterics and the aftermath proves how under-rated as an actress she was.

All the young cast are excellent. Eric Linden is superb as Robert, the younger son who comes to the realization that his mother is horrible but can do nothing about escaping from his mother's spell. Joel McCrea, at one point says "painting roses on bathtubs - that's more your style". There is a very subtle suggestion in the film of Robert's sexuality.

Irene Dunne is excellent in whatever film or genre she tried.

I had heard this film highly recommended on the Classic Movies website, so, after checking out the IMDB notes as well, I was able to obtain it for viewing. The warped scenario deals with the fates of two women when their respective visits to meet the "in-law" (Laura Hope Crews in a tour de force surprising from the woman best known as Aunt Pittypat) turns into the horrifying recognition of the ultimate "out-law". There's little time to spare before we get a good idea of why there is no father figure in the picture. At times, the obsessive nature of Mom's voracious emotions toward her sons suggests an incestuous factor that only a precode film could feature. An absorbing, and sometimes frankly disturbing, film which is hard to obtain but worth a look.