The Silver Cord (film)

The Silver Cord
The Silver Cord
Directed by	John Cromwell
Screenplay by	Jane Murfin
Based on	The Silver Cord; 1926 play; by Sidney Howard
Produced by	Pandro S. Berman; Merian C. Cooper
Starring	Irene Dunne; Laura Hope Crews; Joel McCrea
Cinematography	Charles Rosher
Edited by	George Nicholls, Jr.
Music by	Max Steiner
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures
Release date	May 5, 1933;
Running time	74 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Silver Cord is a 1933 American pre-Code film produced and released by RKO Radio Pictures, directed by John Cromwell, and based on a 1926 Broadway play, The Silver Cord by Sidney Howard, that starred Laura Hope Crews as an overly possessive mother.

Crews reprises her domineering mother role in this film with Joel McCrea and Irene Dunne as her son and daughter-in-law. Another Hollywood film dealing with an overbearing mother figure was Broken Laws (1924), produced by and starring Dorothy Davenport.^[1]^[2]

Plot

Cast

Irene Dunne - Christina Phelps
Joel McCrea - David Phelps
Laura Hope Crews - Mrs. Phelps
Eric Linden - Robert Phelps
Frances Dee - Hester

unbilled

Helen Cromwell - Delia
Paul Irving - Taxicab Driver
Perry Ivins - Phelps Family Doctor
Reinhold Pasch - Lab Technician
Gustav von Seyffertitz - German Doctor

Production

Director John Cromwell welcomed the opportunity to adapt The Silver Cord to the screen as he had directed Sidney Howard's play in its 1926 Broadway production. Film historian Kingsley Canham reports that Cromwell “felt that he could pull it off better than any other [film] director.” ^[3]

Joel McCrea and Frances Dee first met during filming, and would be married soon after in October 1933. They remained married for 57 years, until McCrea's death.

Footnotes

^ The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1931-40 by The American Film Institute (1993)
^ The Silver Cord as produced on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre, December 20 1926 to March 1927, IBDb.com; accessed July 27, 2015.
^ Canham, 1976 p. 65

References

Canham, Kingsley. 1976. The Hollywood Professionals, Volume 5: King Vidor, John Cromwell, Mervyn LeRoy. The Tantivy Press, London. ISBN 0498016897

External

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[1] The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1931-40 by The American Film Institute (1993)

[2] The Silver Cord as produced on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre, December 20 1926 to March 1927, IBDb.com; accessed July 27, 2015.

[3] Canham, 1976 p. 65

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