The Silver Horde

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.

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.

In 1930, as films were making the transition from silent to talkies, this pre-code film was released. It even contains a few title cards.

"The Silver Horde" refers to the running salmon as they attempt to make their way from the ocean to the rivers, improbably jumping upstream. The protagonist played by Joel McCrea is a man who runs a cannery. As he falls for a woman of bad reputation, he fights another canner who plays dirty.

The scenes of harvesting fish and inside a cannery are snapshots of an industry's state of the art.

The lily-white society girl who desires to reel in McCrea is played by Jean Arthur with no glimpse of the screwball comedienne she would become. She pales in comparison to the bad girl, played by Evelyn Brent, appropriately called Cherry.

This average film is interesting for its place in the development in cinema.

One of the first talking films, this film has a mediocre storyline but is quite entertaining nonetheless. It was filmed on location in Ketchikan,Alaska and it is very interesting to see the nearly 80 year old footage of that area. It is also worth viewing to see Jean Arthur,even though not her best of roles, and to see a nice early performance from Joel McCrea. Evelyn Brent plays the earthy Cherry Mallott with great finesse.She is very believable in the role and does not over-act as some silent era veterans might.The plot,although average, is not boring at all and it is easy to sit through this delightful piece of cinematic history.