The Silver Cord | |
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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 |
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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, and directed by John Cromwell. It was based on the 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]
This article needs a plot summary.(December 2023) |
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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.
Dead End is a 1937 American crime drama film directed by William Wyler. It is an adaptation of the Sidney Kingsley 1935 Broadway play of the same name. It stars Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea, Humphrey Bogart, Wendy Barrie, and Claire Trevor. It was the first film appearance of the acting group known as the Dead End Kids.
Irene Dunne was an American actress who appeared in films during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She is best known for her comedic roles, though she performed in films of other genres.
Frances Marion Dee was an American actress. Her first film was the musical Playboy of Paris (1930). She starred in the film An American Tragedy (1931). She is also known for starring in the 1943 Val Lewton psychological horror film I Walked With a Zombie.
Joel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he became best known.
Sidney Coe Howard was an American playwright, dramatist and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1925 and a posthumous Academy Award in 1940 for the screenplay for Gone with the Wind.
John Cromwell was an American film and stage director and actor. His films spanned the early days of sound to film noir in the early 1950s, by which time his directing career was almost terminated by the Hollywood blacklist.
Madge Evans was an American stage, film, radio, and television actress. She began her career as a child performer and model.
The comedy of remarriage is a subgenre of American comedy films of the 1930s and 1940s. At the time, the Production Code, also known as the Hays Code, banned any explicit references to or attempts to justify adultery and illicit sex. The comedy of remarriage with the same spouse enabled filmmakers to evade this provision of the Code. The protagonists divorced, flirted, or even had relationships, with strangers without risking the wrath of censorship, and then got back together.
Laura Hope Crews was an American actress. Although she is best remembered today for her later work as a character actress in motion pictures of the 1930s, she also was prolific on stage; among her films roles was the role of Aunt Pittypat in Gone with the Wind.
Catherine Townsend Johnson was an American stage and film actress.
Of Human Bondage is a 1934 American drama film directed by John Cromwell and regarded by critics as the film that made Bette Davis a star. The screenplay by Lester Cohen is based on the 1915 novel Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham.
One Man's Journey is a 1933 American pre-Code drama film starring Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Eli Watt. The picture was based on the short story Failure written by Katharine Haviland-Taylor. It was remade by RKO as A Man to Remember (1938). The story tells of a small-town doctor working under difficult circumstances in a rural area somewhere in the United States.
This Man is Mine is a 1934 American pre-Code film directed by John Cromwell and starring Irene Dunne, Ralph Bellamy, and Constance Cummings. It is based on the play Love Flies in the Window by Anne Morrison Chapin.
Rockabye is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film starring Constance Bennett, Joel McCrea, and Paul Lukas. The final version was directed by George Cukor after studio executives decided that the original film as directed by George Fitzmaurice was unreleasable. The screenplay by Jane Murfin is based on an unpublished play written by Lucia Bronder, based on her original short story.
J. Roy Hunt born John Roy Hunt was an American motion picture cameraman and cinematographer. His career began around the time of World War I and continued to the 1950s. Hunt served as director of cinematography on numerous films, such as Beau Geste, A Kiss for Cinderella, Flying Down to Rio, and She.
The Age of Innocence is a 1934 American drama film directed by Philip Moeller and starring Irene Dunne, John Boles and Lionel Atwill. The film is an adaptation of the 1920 novel The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, set in the fashionable New York society of the 1870s. Prolific on Broadway, Philip Moeller directed only two films: this, and the 1935 Break of Hearts with Katharine Hepburn.
The Fountain is a 1934 American romance film starring Ann Harding. It was directed by John Cromwell and distributed by RKO Pictures. It is based on the 1932 novel of the same title by Charles Morgan.
Unfaithful is a 1931 American Pre-Code drama film directed by John Cromwell, written by Eve Unsell and John Van Druten, and starring Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas, Paul Cavanagh, Juliette Compton, Donald Cook and Emily Fitzroy. It was released on March 14, 1931, by Paramount Pictures.
Rich Man's Folly is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by John Cromwell and written by Edward E. Paramore Jr. and Grover Jones. The film stars George Bancroft, Frances Dee, Robert Ames, Juliette Compton, David Durand, Dorothy Peterson, and Harry Allen. The film was released on November 14, 1931, by Paramount Pictures. This modern adaptation of the 1848 novel Dombey and Son is regarded as Hollywood's first major screen adaptation of a Charles Dickens work.
The World and the Flesh is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by John Cromwell and written by Oliver H.P. Garrett. The film stars George Bancroft, Miriam Hopkins, Alan Mowbray, George E. Stone, Mitchell Lewis, Max Wagner and Harry Cording. The film was released on April 22, 1932, by Paramount Pictures.