The Silk Express

The Silk Express is a fast moving crime story loaded with Warners' supporting actor regulars: Guy Kibbee, Robert Barrat, Harold Huber, Allen Jenkins and Arthur Hohl. For train fans, there are scenes of an actual train filmed for the movie, along with stock footage of a train going through a snow storm on the way to New York. If the basis of the screen story seems odd, about importing a load of silk to break the "corner" a speculator has on silk supplies, at least the story is different. Warner Bros. in 1933 had an unequaled team of professionals who could turn out polished movies on the cheap. There are probably as many scenes in this 62 minute movie as a 90 minute movie now. And, just like in another Warners crime movie, Fog Over Frisco, when someone receives a telegram, you see an authentic looking telegram on the screen. The only things out of place in The Silk Express are the leads, Neil Hamilton and Sheila Terry, apparently brought in on a trial basis to see if they were Warners material. They did not stick around at Warners. Soon they would have company, as Jack Warner's cost cutting at the studio caused a migration of acting talent to other studios (among them Loretta Young and William Powell). The Silk Express is an example of the quality that Warner Bros. routinely put on the screen from 1931 to 1934, movies set in the Depression-era present that have not dated as badly as the studio product from MGM and other studios.

"The Silk Express" is a strange little B mystery from Warner Brothers. It's also not all that good. It begins with some manufacturers needing silk for their clothing BUT some jerks have control of all the domestic supplies of silk--and they naturally want to way overcharge for the material. So, Kilgore (Neil Hamilton) personally goes to arrange for the silk to be sent by train from the West Coast to the East. But the jerks who control the silk market will stop at NOTHING to stop the shipment--even if it means killing in order to stop that train. Along the way, murders start happening and soon a cop comes aboard and threatens to stop the shipment.

This film has so many dopey clichés--a paralyzed man who is 100% frozen except for his eyes is about to use them to identify the killer when HE is murdered, a black guy called 'Snowflake' (uggh!) and much more that make this seem like an ultra-low budget Agatha Christie knock-off. None of it is particularly inspired or well written. The only thing that interested me in the least was seeing Guy Kibbee playing a person who wasn't stupid--a real departure for this character actor! Silly non-sense.

The Silk Express (1933)

** (out of 4)

A rather bizarre murder/mystery about a businessman who makes the price of silk go sky high on the market so Donald Kilgore (Neil Hamilton) calls him into his office and threatens that if he doesn't bring the price down everyone's going to start importing from Japan. The business owners decide to import the product so it boards a train in Seatle and makes the journey to New York but along a way a murder occurs and it's clear someone doesn't want the train to arrive. Whenever one of these murder/mysteries show up on Turner Classic Movies I try to watch them and quite often it appears that most of them are working off the same formula so I'll at least give THE SILK EXPRESS some credit because I can't think of another movie where the battle is over imported silk. Outside of that there's very little in this film that works because it really drags along with a poor pace even at just 61-miutes. I think the biggest problem is the actual story and that includes the silk. While this might be an original topic I can't say it's an entertaining one. The entire time it's hard to get caught up in the story simply because you really don't care about what's at the heart of it. Even worse is that there's simply not enough reason to care about who the killer is and the number of red herrings is more than the actual running time. Hamilton is energetic in the lead but he's not given much to do. Arthur Byron plays the part as if he's angry at the world. Sheila Terry is the quick love interest. Guy Kibbee plays a redneck detective who is exited at finally getting to solve a murder. Several other Warner contract players show up but the most interesting casting is that of Allen Jenkins. I won't spoil what he plays but it's quite a twist and especially the look he has going for himself.

Silk is in and everybody is looking to buy. Unscrupulous businessman Wallace Myton (Arthur Hohl) has cornered the market. Donald Kilgore (Neil Hamilton) imports silk into Seattle and intends to transport it on the train to New York. Myton's men intend to stop it by any means necessary including murder.

Silk is a weird McGuffin for a gangland movie. I guess a story could make it into anything and real world fashion business could be this ruthless. One does have to overlook a lot of the specific details. It all boils down to a gangland murder thriller on the enclosed setting of a train. It is fine.

There was a time when lousy movies were entertaining. And "The Silk Express," released in 1933 when films were just learning to talk, is a prime example. First, you gotta' believe that a criminal syndicate has cornered the entire American silk market and unless a trainload of silk from the Orient reaches New York within three days, the nation's fashion industry will collapse. A mysterious criminal mastermind has been planted aboard the silk express to stop it in its tracks. But who is he? The paralyzed scholar being rushed to New York for emergency surgery? His beautiful daughter? The doctor who doesn't seem to know as much as he should about medicine? The erudite hobo? The smooth-talking lawyer? It couldn't possibly be the bellowing railroad detective played by Guy Kibbee, could it? This ain't Agatha Christie. But the dialogue's crisp, the pace never lags and the solution to the mystery actually comes as a surprise.