Synopsis
Canadian mounted policeman Cpl James Kent (Cody) pursues a thief through a snowy forest. The thief ambushes Kent and wounds him. Kent shoots and kills the fleeing thief. Suffering from his wound, Kent proceeds to the cabin of John Barsley, a dealer in illegal furs. In the cabin he finds his friend Jacques Radison and the body of Barsley who has been strangled with a single strand of hair. Another man had recently been killed by the same method. Radison declares his innocence of the crimes, and Kent believes him. Sargent Buck O’Connor (King), Kent’s best friend, arrives at the cabin and arrests Radison. As O’Connor, the wounded Kent, and Radison arrive at the station of the Mounted Police, a somewhat deranged individual, known as The Prophet, greets them loudly.
The doctor says the bullet is close to Kent’s heart, and he will die from the wound. Radison is in jail on the charge of murder. Kent, believing that he will soon die, confesses to the murder. Buck tells Kent that he does not believe that Kent is a killer, but Kent signs a confession.
A young woman, Marette (Rubens), arrives by dogsled. She is looking for Chief Inspector Kedsty. She announces that she will be staying at Kedsty’s house. He refuses until she writes the names of the two murdered men on a piece of paper and adds Kedsty’s name. He agrees that she can stay. Buck thinks that Kedsty’s response to the coming of Marette was unusual.
The doctor has re-examined Kent and admits that he was mistaken. Kent is not seriously wounded and will soon recover. Now, Kent is a self proclaimed murderer and will be arrested. The prophet is hanging around the jail. Buck tells him to leave.
Marette visits Kent and admits she knows that he lied to save Radison. She also knows that Radison is not the murderer. Although she knows who the murderer is, she cannot (or will not) name him. She kisses Kent and salutes him as a brave man, loyal to his friend.
Kent is arrested and held in jail. A special constable arrives to take Kent to the nearby town where he will be tried. Marette holds up Buck and the special constable and frees Kent. She locks the mounties in the cell. They will not be released until the relief comes the next morning.
Marette takes Kent to her room at Kedsty’s house. Nobody else is home, and he should be safe overnight. In the morning she has a boat for him. She must stay at Kedsty’s, but does not tell Kent the reason. Marette says her presence is necessary to protect Kedsty, but he is killed while she is with Kent. He is strangled by a single hair.
They must flee. Marette and Kent take the boat. The constables, released from the cell, pursue them. Leaving the boat, Marette and Kent flee through the snow covered hills and across a glacier. On the glacier, they are separated. They search for each other through the snow covered terrain. Kent finds a cabin. Marette and the dying prophet are in the cabin. The prophet, Marette’s father, strangled the three men. Years before, these men had attacked the prophet’s wife, Marette’s mother, resulting in her death, Marette had tried to protect Kedsty, but the prophet had gotten at him and completed his revenge. Buck arrives in time to hear the prophet’s confession. Buck accepts this story of the murders. Returning to Mounted Police headquarters, Buck leaves Kent and Marette at the cabin.
Marette and Kent travel to their home in the Valley of Silent Men. The silent men are the ring of mountain peaks surrounding the valley.
Discussion
The film is distinguished by its impressive panoramas of the winter scenery of snow covered hills and mountains photographed in Banff National Park and the Canadian Rockies. To reach the valley of silent men, Cody and Rubens trudge across these snow covered terrains.
Photography of the actors consists mostly of medium shots indoors and broad views of the characters moving through the snow when outdoors. Closeups are few. Plot continuity is not always maintained as only 5 reels exist of a 7 reel film.
The film is based on a novel of the same name by James Oliver Curwood (1878-1927). Curwood, a popular action/adventure novelist, often set his stories in the northeastern wilds of the US and Canada. Many of his novels, including “Kazan, the Wolf Dog” (1914), “The Grizzly King, A Romance of the Wild” (1916). "Baree, Son of Kazan” (1917), and “The River’s End” (1919), remain popular in both on-line and printed versions.
Since 1913, dozens of films have been based on Curwood’s novels and short stories. As recently as 1988, director Jean-Jacques Annaud produced a family film The Bear, (released by Tri-Star,) adapted from “The Grizzly King”.
Produced by Cosmopolitan Pictures, The Valley of Silent Men was made during director Frank Borzage’s formative period. The film is one of his final westerns and one of his few later pictures shot on location, rather than in a studio. His reluctance for location filming may have been influenced by the death of Jack Robinson, a technical advisor on the film. The crew were filming on Lake Temiskaming and the Ottawa River (on the border between Ontario and Quebec). A prop became stuck on a rock in the river; Robinson, attempting to dislodge it, was swept away in the rapids and drowned before he could be brought to shore. Borzage was reportedly deeply moved by his death.
Frank Borzage began his show business career in 1906 as a twelve year old errand and prop boy for touring stage companies. In 1912, he moved to California and started as a $3.00 a day extra for the Thomas H. Ince Film Company. Borzage soon became a star of westerns and the director, not only of his own features but also of the films of many other western stars. By 1918, Borzage had left acting to concentrate on directing.
In 1920, Borage moved to Cosmopolitan Pictures, a newly formed production company. Newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst had founded Cosmopolitan Pictures in 1919 as a general film production company and to produce the films of movie star Marion Davies.
Humoresque (1920), from a story by Fannie Hearst, was Borzage’s first hit and a breakthrough production for both the director and the production company. The Nth Commandment, made for Cosmopolitan and starring Colleen Moore, was another box-office success from a Fannie Hearst story. During his time at Cosmopolitan, Borzage directed his final westerns, several features starring cowboy actor Fred Stone.
Borzage’s later silent films, such as Secrets (1924), The Circle (1925), 7th Heaven (1927), and Street Angel (1928), are romantic dramas with an emphasis on the redemptive power of love. Borzage won the first “Best Director” Oscar for Seventh Heaven (1927), a film of intense emotional interactions between the leading characters. Borzage easily bridged the silent-to -sound transition and continued to make powerful romantic and sentimental drams until the 1960’s.
Age 15, Alma Rubens’ film career began with bit parts in Thomas H. Ince and Vitagraph productions. By 1918, age 20, Rubens had advanced to playing the love interest of film stars Douglas Fairbanks and William S. Hart.
She joined Cosmopolitan Pictures in 1920 and appeared in some of the studio’s most important productions, including Humoresque, Valley of Silent Men, Enemies of Women (1923. with Lionel Barrymore), and Under the Red Robe (1923, with John Charles Thomas).
After 1925, Rubens’ life and career were disrupted by an overpowering drug addiction. She made a few films in between residences in treatment facilities. Her final films were two part-talkies made in 1929. Despite several years of treatment, Rubens could not break her addiction. Her health deteriorated, and she died of pneumonia in 1931 at age 34.
After college, Lew Cody pursued a career in show business. He played in vaudeville and traveling stock companies. He organized his own stock companies that played the eastern circuits. In 1915, Cody joined the Thomas H Ince Company in California. He worked for several film companies. During the later twenties, Cody reached the apex of his career at Metro where he specialized in amusing rogues and debonair bon vivants in films such as Husbands and Lovers (1924), The Sporting Venus (1925), and Adam and Evil (1927). He successfully transitioned to talkies, freelancing until his sudden death of a heart attack in 1934.
Cinematographer Chester A Lyons began his career in 1917 at Thomas H Ince Productions. HIs first films, directed by Victor Schertzinger, starred Ince’s popular juvenile Charles Ray. From 1921, Lyons photographed many of Frank Borzage’s films, silent and talkie, including The Circle (1925), Lucky Star (1929), Liliom (1930), and Bad Girl (1931). His photography in Silent Men emphasizes the beauty and starkness of the snow covered landscape.
Further Reading