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 (1933-05-05)
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.