The Silver Horde

This is an excellent film. The location footage of Ketchikan, Alaska, the documentary scenes of salmon fishing and canning, and the clash on the water between the two fishing fleets are all first rate.

The crucial dramatic question of the film, can a decent man fall in love with a woman who has had sex with other men, seems hopelessly outdated. But if you replace that question with the more general, which woman should a man choose, one who can offer him a life of ease, or one who can help him fight for success on his own terms, the dramatic crisis becomes not dated but timeless. Good acting and direction, a lesson in the history of film, and in storytelling, that transcends period.

Fighting against great local opposition by going after THE SILVER HORDE - the magnificent schools of salmon which swarm past Alaskan shores - a decent young man finds himself caught between a bigoted society girl & a notorious prostitute.

A deft combination of action picture & soap opera, this early talkie boasts a fine, stalwart performance from a very young Joel McCrea, who displays some of the talents & charm which would soon make him a major star. A lively Evelyn Brent matches him dramatically as a lady with too much past. Poor Jean Arthur, in a strident, unsympathetic role, shows few hints of the celebrated comedienne she would become by the end of the decade.

Rough-hewn Louis Wolheim steals every scene he's in as a plug-ugly fisherman who's fiercely loyal to Miss Brent - here was an actor who was always fun to watch. Silent screen star Blanche Sweet makes one of her rare sound film appearances, playing a plain speaking harlot. Comic Raymond Hatton is amusing as a trapper with city slicker notions, while handsome Gavin Gordon makes a suave, dangerous villain.

Released in 1930, the first year of all-talkie films in Hollywood, THE SILVER HORDE displays its silent antecedents with the use of the occasional title card. This is not a weakness, however, and actually helps move the story along by explaining the plot a bit more fully.

Location filming on the Alaskan coast gives the ambiance of the film a terrific boost, while the scenes of catching & canning the salmon have a fascinating early-documentary feel to them.

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.

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.

Is there a fan of old-timey Hollywood films out there who is NOT in love with Jean Arthur? With her wholesome good looks, spunky demeanor, inimitable cracked voice and superb acting abilities, Arthur was certainly amongst the top-tier comedic actresses of the '30s and '40s. "The Silver Horde" is an early talkie that she appeared in five years before her breakthrough role in 1935's "The Whole Town's Talking." In this one she is third billed, and her part is a subsidiary one, playing a "pasty-faced namby-pamby" society dame; the fiancée of Joel McCrea, who is trying to get a salmon cannery up and running in the wilds of Alaska. McCrea is being secretly abetted by hooker turned businesswoman Evelyn Brent, while his chances of success are constantly being endangered by a rival operation across the bay. Anyway, this is a pretty taut little picture. It moves along briskly, and features some convincing exterior shots. It also boasts at least three very fine sequences: a dukeout between McCrea and a big Swede who wants to quit his job; a face-off between Arthur and Brent over their common love interest (the viewer's sympathies are wholly with Brent, in this case); and a fascinating look at just how salmon are caught, processed and wind up in cans. You'll never look at your salmon salad the same way again, I promise you! Oh...one other thing. The folks at Alpha Video have done it again; yet another DVD with poor picture quality and even lousier sound. This company has a huge catalog of films available, but when will it realize that quality is just as important as quantity?