La chaîne d'argent

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.

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).

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

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.

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!