Customer Reviews

Silver Horde [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It's rough-and-ready action set against the background of Alaskan salmon fishing. McCrea, in his first he-man part, is fighting both for control of a fishery as well as control of his love life. Dance hall floozy Evelyn Brent helps the macho man defeat Gavin Gordon, who plays Fred Marsh, a villainous competitor. Brent proves to be the real lady for him, not the high class Mildred Wayland (Jean Arthur). It's a fair piece of early talking cinema which works as well as can be expected. The scenes showing the canneries in action are interesting for their documentary style. It is seen best as a curio: Jean Arthur hasn't much to do here, as her comedic talents weren't realised yet. The great silent star, Blanche Sweet is shown in the inconsequential role of Queenie, and it belied her status in motion pictures (this was her swan song performance). Raymond Hatton, who plays McCrea's comic side-kick, Fraser is okay. Based on the hugely popular novel by Rex Beach, who also wrote THE SPOILERS.

Thanks to Amazon I had the chance to watch a movie, not even listed in Maltin's Movie Guide, a real rarity. The vhs copy is ok, considering its age, and the plotline is entertaining indeed. You have silent movie star, Evelyn Brent, in the leading role, as the tough , hard-boiled, Cherry Malotte, so perfect for the role, that makes you wonder why didn't she achieve greatest stardom in the talkies. Physically speaking she resemebles ingenue Frances Dee (Joel McCrea's wife since 1933), but her screen persona is in the style of an early '30s Barbara Stanwyck type. Also in the cast, a young Joel McCrea, as the regular guy Cherry falls for, a pre-Capra Jean Arthur, as McCrea's silly and spoiled rich fiancée, Gavin Gordon, who the same year co-starred with Garbo sans-moustache in "Romance", as the bad guy, Louis Wolheim and Raymond Hatton, as McCrea's sidekicks, and Silent Screen Star Blanche Sweet, as Queenie, in her final film appearance as a floozy who's Cherry's pal. In all it's a pleasent experience and film buffs will have a field day with it. Very realistic footage of the Salmon Business and some fine location filming in Alaska. '30s fanatics, give it a try.

I was surprised at the high ratings the other reviewers gave this movie but after reading them I see we don't dissent that much.
It's true the movie has great production values and interesting docu-style scenes, but it's mostly a curio, and for 30's fanatics only.
I consider myself in love with pre-code movies, but that doesn't mean I'll swallow anything, and this one really didn't deliver for me. It's slow, boring, not any fun.
If I'm being a little too hard, maybe it's because the image quality was a big turn off. Roan can claim whatever they want in their covers but this wasn't mastered from nothing near original elements. The master seems a mega-soft vhs tape or something like that. This is only good for no bigger than 28'' square tv-s and the like.

THE SILVER HORDE is a remake of a 1920 silent photoplay. It's set in Alaska, where the novel's author Rex Lease spent five years as an unsuccessful Gold Rush prospector. The titled "horde" are salmon.

THE STORY:
Boyd Emerson (McCrea) and his pal Fraser (Hatton) explore Alaska's wilderness. They meet copper miner Cherry Malotte (Brent) and she puts together a business deal for Boyd, as operator of a salmon fishery. Cherry loves Boyd but his heart belongs to a Seattle deb named Mildred Wayland (Arthur). Mildred's jealous father (Pratt) and the owner of a rival fishing fleet (Gordon) try to sabotage Boyd's business. The ensuing confrontation has tragic results.


ALPHA VIDEO is a provider of vintage movies, serials and TV programs, many of which aren't available elsewhere. Their prices are fair, but so is transfer quality of some of their offerings. None have undergone restoration, yet the market scarcity of their material and an honest price make these DVDs a worthwhile purchase.

SHADOW OF CHINATOWN (1936) is another interesting ALPHA obscurity. This Bela Lugosi feature was originally a 15-part serial.


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.

(6.4) The Silver Horde (1930) - Evelyn Brent/Louis Wolheim/Joel McCrea/Raymond Hatton/Jean Arthur/Gavin Gordon/Blanche Sweet/Purnell Pratt


CAST TRIVIA--

EVELYN BRENT was a fashion model as a teenager. In the late silent era, she was a favorite of director Josef Von Sternberg.

LOUIS WOLHEIM had a minor role in John Barrymore's DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1920), and was the executioner in D.W. Griffith's classic ORPHANS OF THE STORM (1921).

Pasadena, CA native JOEL MCCREA was the grandson of a western stagecoach driver who fought against the Apaches.

RAYMOND HATTON had a 48 year movie career that began in 1909. He's best remembered for the Rough Riders and Three Mesquiteers western series.

JEAN ARTHUR debuted on screen in CAMEO KIRBY (1923), and was last seen in SHANE(1953).

Except for a cameo in THE FIVE PENNIES (1959), this was Blanche Sweet's last film.

I loved Jean Arthur in later films like Only Angels Have Wings and Talk Of The Town, and my mother is a fan of both Arthur and Joel McCrea, so I got this one for my mother just to see them in an early role. Frankly it turned out that's all it's good for. The plot concerns a feud between fishermen and miners up north, and a resulting love triangle, but it had me bored to the point I couldn't follow the plot clear through, started to nod off a few times. It's one of those early talkies that has no score, and Jean Arthur is in only a few scenes so it's hardly worth it for her. If there are any die-hard Joel McCrea fans left, you might like it.

I am a tour guide here in Ketchikan, AK. One of the tours I do is the "George Inlet Cannery". This cannery is historical and was where Grandpa Libby (Libby's Foods) got his start. It is the cannery in the movie SILVER HORDE. I wasn't completly aware of this but was told so by some old timers. I got the movie and watched it and sure enough it was filmed here.

The cannery looks almost the same from the outside, this website http://www.capefoxtours.com/canneryphotos.html has some old photos and newer ones as well. Take note of the mountian behind the cannerey, that is a good landmark. Notice the windows also, they look almost the same today.

The city of Ketchikan is in the movie as well, when they are walking down the boardwalk, that is over by Inman St. (about a block from Creek Street)See the island view from the boardwalk, that is Pennock Island.

The Salmon coming up the creek are going up Ketchikan Creek, it still has 50% of the worlds pacific salmon. If you go to the pedestrian bridge by the Museum and Library on one side and the Chinese Restaurant on the other side, look up stream. There are the rocks seen in the movie where the creek is rushing through and the salmon go every summer. (they still do)

I've been told that the first scenes with the snow and all is up in Loring. Loring is only reachable by boat and was the first city on Revilla Island. (where Ketchikan is) Harldy anyone lives there today.

If you ever get to visit Ketchikan, these sites are all with in walking distance. Except Loring, only Salmon Falls Jet Boats go there anymore.

So now while your watching the movie, you have a clue where the location is. I like the movie. Hope you enjoyed this tidbit.

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 interesting for a couple of reasons. First, 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 hook er'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.

Alpha tends to have very uneven quality in their products. This one was pretty good. It has a little noise on the audio and video, but all in all I was pleased with the quality of the product.

this is an old poorly made and acted movie. It wasn't worth my money to ship, much less buy. Not even a good B movie.