User Reviews

Terrific acting by the 5 stars makes this one a must see.

Based on a stage play, THE SILVER CORD is about "mother love" at its worst. The film was very controversial for its implied homosexuality of the younger son and the mother's unnatural "romantic" feelings for both sons.

Irene Dunne stars as the new bride (and biologist) who travels with husband (Joel McCrea) to visit the family before heading off to New York City for their new jobs. But something seems wrong.

The mother, Laura Hope Crews, seems rude to the younger son's (Eric Linden) fiancée (Frances Dee). But Dunne puts such thoughts aside and ignores a few of the strange things the mother says. Then she finds out "her" room is down the hall from McCrea's, and his room adjoins mother's room.

Later she walks in as "mummy" is tucking in McCrea and kissing him (on the lips) good night. Mummy has also been working on Linden and getting him to doubt his feelings for Dee. Everything blows up and with Dee running into the snowy night toward the frozen pond. As the boys run after her, mummy shouts from the window for boys to come back and get their coats! Dee falls through the ice and is rescued.

As the girls leave the house the following morning, Dunne lets mummy know what she thinks of her and her attachment to the boys. But mummy has a tight hold, faking illness and forever boasting of her sacrifices. The girls leave but the boys stay behind.......

Crews is magnificent as the voracious mother (repeating her stage role); it's a part few actresses would dare play. The sexual overtones are incredible for a 1933 film and Crews take advantage of her best film role. Dunne is also excellent as she tries to maneuver the course without losing McCrea. Dee has some excellent scenes after she gets dumped by bewildered Linden. All 5 stars are terrific in this drama that is bizarrely underrated and unknown.

A neglected gem for anyone who likes great acting......

Irene Dunne and Frances Dee find they have something in common when they join together to fight their mother-in-law to be (Laura Hope Crews), a mother so in love with her sons (Joel McCrea and Eric Linden) that she passive/aggressively makes the attempt to destroy their engagements to the two young women. There have been all sorts of tales (particularly on stage during the first half of the 20th Century and on screen, mostly during the early 1930's) of women from the wrong side of the tracks who dared to fall in love above their stations, causing the wrath of some matronly dowager. Barbara Stanwyck fought Clara Blandick in "Shopworn"; Nancy Carroll fought Pauline Fredericks (already her mother-in-law") in "Wayward". But when two lovely women of good breeding go after Crews' sons, the situation somehow seems sicker and incestuous. What other reason could there be for Crews to hold onto her sons so tightly? One will win, one will loose, but the ultimate looser will be mama Crews, the ultimate "Mommie Dearest". She is magnificent in recreating her stage role, blowing everybody else off screen with the intensity of her performance as if she were Judith Anderson in "Medea" or Laurette Taylor in the original "The Glass Menagerie". The others do admirable work, but when it comes down to it, this will be remembered as the finest film work of the future "Aunt Pittypat" of "Gone With the Wind".

Alternate title: Aunt Pittypat On Steroids!

I can't remember ever seeing Laura HoHope Crews in any signficant role...other than as Aunt Pittypat in "Gone With The Wind", so when I saw this on TCM I wanted to sample it. What a role! It's enought to make you shudder! And while she gets third billing, it's no question that Crew is the focus here. There was one thing I kept wondering throughout the film -- was it appropriate for an old mother to be wearing such lowcut dresses?

This must have been a difficult role for Joel McCrea...to be so emasculated. But he handles it well, here. As does -- similarly -- the brother played by Eric Linden. And when Linden's character kisses his mother full on the lips...well...that was unexpected!

Irene Dunne is the nominal star here, and she does well...especially in her climactic near soliloquy.

I wasn't quite as impressed by Frances Dee, but the suicide attempt is yet another shocker.

I was surprisingly impressed by this film, particularly because it somewhat felt like a stage play (which it was based on).

And yes, not far into the film I did think of Lillian Hellman's works, although they were all in the deep South, while this was in the snowy north.

Irene Dunne was RKO's most popular lead actress during the 1930s. She specialized in dramas during the early years, though she would later find success in comedies. One of the precode dramas the studio assigned her to do was this reworking of a Broadway play by Sidney Howard. On stage, Howard's tale of an overbearing mother (played by Laura Hope Crews) was a hit with audiences, though some of its themes were quite daring.

The studio optioned the rights and had screenwriter Jane Murfin tone down some of the darker aspects, which involved incest and suicide. However, Miss Murfin managed to retain the story's main theme about possessiveness. John Cromwell, who had directed the Broadway version in the late '20s, was hired to direct it on screen. Laura Hope Crews was also hired to reprise her role as the mother, and go toe-to-toe with Dunne who was cast as the new daughter-in-law.

RKO contract player Joel McCrea would take on the role of the oldest son, who brings his new wife from Europe to the family's wealthy New England home. After their whirlwind courtship and elopement, Dunne and McCrea are very much in love...yet it's clear Dunne knows hardly anything about McCrea's background, and she certainly does not realize at first what sort of viper Crews is. But of course, she quickly finds out, and once the niceties are set aside, a sharp conflict between the two women takes center stage.

Crews pulls out all the stops to interfere with this blissful union. When she learns a grandchild is on the way, it seems to unnerve her even more. She views a baby as a stronger bond between her son and the outside woman, so she works even harder to drive a wedge between the newlyweds. In addition to Crews' meddling in McCrea's relationship with Dunne, there is an equally good subplot involving a second son (Eric Linden) and his fiancé (Frances Dee, future wife of Joel McCrea).

In the case of Linden's engagement to Dee, Crews is able to manipulate Linden into jilting Dee. This probably leads to the film's most dramatic moment, when Dee unable to endure another minute in the family's dysfunctional home, decides to venture off to a hotel. She walks across a frozen pond, which has holes in it and she falls through the ice. She is saved by Linden and McCrea who pull her out. But when they return to the mansion and a doctor visits, trouble is far from over.

Crews is worried about an ensuing scandal when news gets out that Dee nearly died. She contrives to take younger son Linden off to Europe and uses the latest problems to inveigle McCrea into joining them. If McCrea heads off with them, then he will abandon Dunne and the unborn child. And this leads into the final showdown between Dunne and Crews. It's all quite melodramatic and satisfying to watch.

Though Dee's histrionics are a bit much when Linden breaks things off with her, and Crews tends to chew on scenery at times, McCrea and Dunne manage to give much wiser, more subdued performances.

I didn't expect Crews to succeed in tearing the lead couple apart, and so the ending-- where Dunne leaves and McCrea chases after her-- wasn't too surprising. But I also thought Dee and Linden would reconcile, and they don't. I found it rather interesting how Crews managed to triumph with the younger son, still maintaining a "romantic" control over him at the end.

Obviously, we're not meant to like or even empathize with Crews. She's a mother from hell who doesn't have a prayer. But we can learn about mental illness watching her, and unfortunately, a lot of mothers still try to smother their sons in unhealthy and unnatural ways. For every ogre like Crews, there is a woman like Dunne who will come along and win the son away from her. You can count on that.