The Silver Horde *** (1930, Evelyn Brent, Louis Wolheim, Joel McCrea, Raymond Hatton, Jean Arthur, Gavin Gordon) – Classic Movie Review 5538

So the advertising is a major help here. What we have in director George Archainbaud’s creaky but enjoyable 1930 romantic adventure movie is ‘Rex Beach’s Sledge-Fisted Romance of the Great Alaskan Salmon Run.’ Wallace Smith adapts the 1909 novel by Rex Beach, who wrote it as a follow-up to The Spoilers, filmed in 1930, 1942 and 1955.

On the other hand, the advertising is also majorly deceptive – ‘One woman in a land of men’ – when two women feature strongly. For it is basically a love triangle story, as Joel McCrea plays a salmon fisherman called Boyd Emerson who has to choose between notorious woman Cherry Malotte (Evelyn Brent) and wealthy socialite Mildred Wayland (Jean Arthur).

Gavin Gordon plays Fred Marsh, Boyd’s unscrupulous rival in the Yukon salmon fisheries, who fights him for Mildred and control of the fishing business.

Also in the cast are Louis Wolheim as fighting local George Balt, Raymond Hatton as Fraser, Purnell Pratt as Wayne Wayland, William B. Davidson as Tom Hilliard and Ivan Linow as Svenson

The film was shot on location in Ketchikan, Alaska, took $562,000 at the box office but recorded a loss of $100,000, and entered the public domain in the US in 1958 as the copyright was not renewed.

It is McCrea’s second leading role after Cecil B DeMille’s Dynamite (1929). McCrea’s s finest are The Most Dangerous Game (1932), Foreign Correspondent (1940), Sullivan’s Travels (1941) and Ride the High Country (1962).

Blanche Sweet gives her final screen performance as Queenie.

It was shot as a silent in 1920. The title obviously refers to the colour of the salmon fish in the fishing nets.

Betty Compson plays Cherry Malotte in The Spoilers (1930).

It is available free on the Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/details/SilverHorde1930

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5538

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com