''Trader Horn'' is a 1931 American
Pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...
adventure film
An adventure film is a form of adventure fiction, and is a genre of film. Subgenres of adventure films include swashbuckler films, pirate films, and survival films. Adventure films may also be combined with other film genres such as action, an ...
directed by
W.S. Van Dyke
Woodbridge Strong Van Dyke II (Woody) (March 21, 1889 – February 5, 1943) was an American film director and writer who made several successful early sound films, including ''Tarzan the Ape Man'' in 1932, ''The Thin Man'' in 1934, ''San Franci ...
and starring
Harry Carey Harry Carey may refer to:
*Harry Carey (actor) (1878–1947), American actor
* Harry Carey Jr. (1921–2012), American actor
* Harry Carey (footballer) (1916–1991), Australian rules footballer
See also
* Henry Carey (disambiguation)
* Harry Car ...
and
Edwina Booth
Edwina Booth (born Josephine Constance Woodruff; September 13, 1904 – May 18, 1991) was an American actress. She is best known for the 1931 film ''Trader Horn'', during the filming of which she contracted an illness which effectively ended h ...
. It is the first non-documentary film shot
on location in
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. The film is based on the book of the same name by trader and adventurer
Alfred Aloysius Horn and tells of adventures on
safari
A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...
in Africa.
The film's dialogue was written by
Cyril Hume
Cyril Hume (March 16, 1900 – March 26, 1966) was an American novelist and screenwriter. Hume was a graduate of Yale University, where he edited campus humor magazine ''The Yale Record''. He was an editor of the collection ''The Yale Record ...
.
John Thomas Neville
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
and
Dale Van Every
Dale Van Every (July 23, 1896 in Van, Michigan – May 28, 1976 in Santa Barbara, California) was an American writer, film producer, and studio executive.
Biography
Van Every's parents were Wilbert and Estella (Palmer) Van Every from Petoskey, M ...
wrote the adaption.
''Trader Horn'' was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only category ...
in 1931.
Edwina Booth
Edwina Booth (born Josephine Constance Woodruff; September 13, 1904 – May 18, 1991) was an American actress. She is best known for the 1931 film ''Trader Horn'', during the filming of which she contracted an illness which effectively ended h ...
, the female lead, contracted a career-ending illness while filming in Africa, for which she later sued
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
.
Plot
The film depicts the adventures of real-life trader and adventurer Alfred Aloysius "Trader" Horn (
Harry Carey Harry Carey may refer to:
*Harry Carey (actor) (1878–1947), American actor
* Harry Carey Jr. (1921–2012), American actor
* Harry Carey (footballer) (1916–1991), Australian rules footballer
See also
* Henry Carey (disambiguation)
* Harry Car ...
), while on
safari
A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...
in Africa. Much of the film is fictional, including the discovery of a white blonde
jungle queen, the lost daughter of a missionary (Edwina Booth). A scene based upon a genuine incident occurs in which Carey as Horn swings on a vine across a river filled with genuine
crocodile
Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to inclu ...
s, one of which comes very close to taking his leg off.
Cast (in credits order)
*
Harry Carey Harry Carey may refer to:
*Harry Carey (actor) (1878–1947), American actor
* Harry Carey Jr. (1921–2012), American actor
* Harry Carey (footballer) (1916–1991), Australian rules footballer
See also
* Henry Carey (disambiguation)
* Harry Car ...
as Aloysius 'Trader' Horn
*
Edwina Booth
Edwina Booth (born Josephine Constance Woodruff; September 13, 1904 – May 18, 1991) was an American actress. She is best known for the 1931 film ''Trader Horn'', during the filming of which she contracted an illness which effectively ended h ...
as Nina Trent, The White Goddess
*
Duncan Renaldo
Renault Renaldo Duncan (April 23, 1904 – September 3, 1980), better known as Duncan Renaldo, was a Romanian-born American actor best remembered for his portrayal of The Cisco Kid in films and on the 1950–1956 American TV series ''The Cisco K ...
as Peru
* Mutia Omoolu as Rencharo, Horn's native translator and majordomo
*
Olive Golden as Edith Trent
*
Bob Kortman
Robert F. Kortman (December 24, 1887 – March 13, 1967) was an American film actor mostly associated with westerns, though he also appeared in a number of Laurel and Hardy comedies. He appeared in more than 260 films between 1914 and 1952. ...
(scenes deleted)
*
Marjorie Rambeau
Marjorie Burnet Rambeau (July 15, 1889 – July 6, 1970) was an American film and stage actress. She began her stage career at age 12, and appeared in several silent films before debuting in her first sound film, '' Her Man'' (1930). She was t ...
as Edith Trent (scenes deleted)
*
C. Aubrey Smith
Sir Charles Aubrey Smith (21 July 1863 – 20 December 1948) was an English Test cricketer who became a stage and film actor, acquiring a niche as the officer-and-gentleman type, as in the first sound version of ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1937) ...
as St. Clair, a Trader (uncredited)
* Riano Tindama as Witch Doctor (uncredited)
Production
Many accidents and delays occurred during filming in Africa. Many of the crew, including the director W.S. Van Dyke, contracted
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
. An African crewman fell into a river and was eaten by a
crocodile
Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to inclu ...
, while another was killed by a charging
rhinoceros
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...
. The rhinoceros was captured on film and the scene was used in the final print. Swarms of many insects, including
locusts
Locusts (derived from the Vulgar Latin ''locusta'', meaning grasshopper) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumst ...
and
tse-tse flies, were common and cast and crew were perpetually bitten or stung.
Female lead
Edwina Booth
Edwina Booth (born Josephine Constance Woodruff; September 13, 1904 – May 18, 1991) was an American actress. She is best known for the 1931 film ''Trader Horn'', during the filming of which she contracted an illness which effectively ended h ...
became infected, probably with
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
or
schistosomiasis
Schistosomiasis, also known as snail fever, bilharzia, and Katayama fever, is a disease caused by parasitic flatworms called schistosomes. The urinary tract or the intestines may be infected. Symptoms include abdominal pain, diarrhea, bloody s ...
during filming. It took six years for her to fully recover from this and other conditions she endured. She retired from acting soon after and sued Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The case was settled out of court. A sound crew, sent halfway through filming, were unable to produce good quality work. This resulted in most of the dialogue sequences being reshot at the MGM studios in
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...
. This caused rumours that the entire production had been filmed there, so most of this footage was cut from the final release. Many animal scenes were filmed in
Tecate
Tecate () is a city in Tecate Municipality, Baja California. It is across the Mexico-US border from Tecate, California. As of 2019, the city had a population of 108,860 inhabitants, while the metropolitan area has a population of 132,406 inha ...
,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, by a second unit to avoid the American laws on the ethical treatment of animals. For example, lions were reportedly starved to promote vicious attacks on hyenas, monkeys and deer.
Release
The film earned $1,642,000 in rentals in the United States and Canada and $1,953,000 overseas for a total of $3,595,000. Subsequent reissues added a further $596,000 bringing its total worldwide rental to $4,191,000 and a profit to $1.3 million.
Other adaptations
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer remade the film,
released in 1973. Although filmed on the MGM
backlot
A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction.
Uses
Some movie studios build a wide variety of ...
, the 1973 remake used tinted
stock footage
Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock ...
from the 1931 film. A
sexploitation
A sexploitation film (or sex-exploitation film) is a class of independently produced, low-budget feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s and early 1970s, and that serves largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit s ...
parody film titled ''
Trader Hornee'' was released in 1970. ''Trader Horn'' is the subject of a 2009 documentary, ''Trader Horn: The Journey Back''
Trader Horn: The Journey Back
at IMDB featuring Harry Carey Jr
Henry George Carey Jr. (May 16, 1921 – December 27, 2012) was an American actor. He appeared in more than 90 films, including several John Ford Westerns, as well as numerous television series.
Early life
Carey was born on a ranch near ...
.
See also
* Harry Carey filmography
This is a list of films featuring Harry Carey.
1910
* ''Bill Sharkey's Last Game''
* ''Gentleman Joe''
1912
* ''An Unseen Enemy'' as The Thief
* ''Two Daughters of Eve'' as In Audience
* ''Friends'' as Bob Kyne - the Prospector
* '' So Near ...
* Nudity in film
In film, nudity may be either graphic or suggestive, such as when a person appears to be naked but is covered by a sheet. Since the birth of film, depictions of any form of sexuality have been controversial, and in the case of most nude scene ...
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
Article in ''Daily Herald'' (Utah) by film historian D. Robert Carter
''Trader Horn''
at Virtual History
{{Irving Thalberg
1931 films
1931 adventure films
1930s romance films
American adventure films
American black-and-white films
American romance films
Films about animal cruelty
1930s English-language films
Films based on biographies
Films directed by W. S. Van Dyke
Films produced by Irving Thalberg
Films set in Africa
Films shot in California
Films shot in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Films shot in Kenya
Films shot in Mexico
Films shot in Sudan
Films shot in Tanzania
Films shot in Uganda
Jungle girls
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Films with screenplays by Cyril Hume
Trader Horn
1930s American films
Films with screenplays by Richard Schayer