Trader Horn deserves to be on dvd

[Phillyrich]

One of the really unique early adventure talking pictures was "Trader Horn" in 1931, with Harry Carey. People often complain about the "studio bound" quality of early talking pictures, but not this one. Woody Van Dyke took his cast to (then) largely uncharted Africa for months to shoot the film.

Don't know why it has never come out on dvd. Rights issues? No demand? Bad surviving film elements? I'd love to see it on dvd, and with a "making of" documentary.

The film seems not to be very well known. Did 16mm prints circulate to repertoiry houses? Maybe because Harry Carey is not remembered today.

[Changsham]

I think TRADER HORN is in the public domain. I've seen a DVD of it for sale from a seller called Cinemamoon. Likely a copy of the old video version and maybe not so good quality.

[bobfells]

TRADER HORN has been shown on TCM and I think I recorded it a couple of years back. American Heritage magazine did a rare story on this film (film history was not one its areas of interest) back around 1967 and I still have it. The author interviewed Duncan Renaldo and they discussed how Edwina Booth (love that name!) became ill because of her time in Africa. The rumor was that she had died years earlier but Renaldo said no she didn't and picked up the phone and called her. Part of the article dealt with speaking to Booth over the phone!

Supposedly, Harry Carey was blacklisted by MGM because he testified on Booth's behalf when she sued the studio over her illness. Carey did quickly drop down from MGM to Mascot serials (THE VANISHING LEGION, THE DEVIL HORSE, LAST OF THE MOHICANS) but managed to get Booth cast as leading lady in them. He also got paid his "star" salary of $10,000 per film and refused to go out on location work.

[Jim Reid]

I think TRADER HORN is in the public domain. I've seen a DVD of it for sale from a seller called Cinemamoon. Likely a copy of the old video version and maybe not so good quality.

I've never heard that it was PD. There's many sellers peddling copyrighted films. I might be wrong, but I've never seen any mention of it being out of copyright.

[Richard M Roberts]

TRADER HORN has been shown on TCM and I think I recorded it a couple of years back. American Heritage magazine did a rare story on this film (film history was not one its areas of interest) back around 1967 and I still have it. The author interviewed Duncan Renaldo and they discussed how Edwina Booth (love that name!) became ill because of her time in Africa. The rumor was that she had died years earlier but Renaldo said no she didn't and picked up the phone and called her. Part of the article dealt with speaking to Booth over the phone!

Supposedly, Harry Carey was blacklisted by MGM because he testified on Booth's behalf when she sued the studio over her illness. Carey did quickly drop down from MGM to Mascot serials (THE VANISHING LEGION, THE DEVIL HORSE, LAST OF THE MOHICANS) but managed to get Booth cast as leading lady in them. He also got paid his "star" salary of $10,000 per film and refused to go out on location work.

Well, the "refusing to go out on location work" is obviously nonsense if you'd ever seen any of Carey's Mascot serials, they're mainly location work, especially LAST OF THE MOHICANS.

TRADER HORN is definitely NOT PD.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

[gjohnson]

Maybe Carey was referring to out of the country locations and not all of the local western ranches.

[Richard M Roberts]

Maybe Carey was referring to out of the country locations and not all of the local western ranches.

Perhaps, it's not likely they ever went farther than Northern California, but if you're signing with Mascot, I think you'd be pretty well assured that there would be no overseas or across the border travel (except to perhaps escape the baliffs).


RICHARD M ROBERTS

[bobfells]

Maybe Carey was referring to out of the country locations and not all of the local western ranches.

Perhaps, it's not likely they ever went farther than Northern California, but if you're signing with Mascot, I think you'd be pretty well assured that there would be no overseas or across the border travel (except to perhaps escape the baliffs).
RICHARD M ROBERTS

I have Carey's Mascots and I agree that "going out on location" is subject to interpretation. In THE VANISHING LEGION he is obviously doubled in some action scenes but there are other long shots where it could have been anybody rather than Carey himself.

[Richard P. May]

According to information I have, TRADER HORN was copyrighted in 1931, and renewed in 1958.
Based on today's revisions, that should mean that it is under copyright.

[Phillyrich]

My old vhs video of Trader Horn came out under MGM. I would think that Warners now owns the copyright. Maybe the Warner Archives will put it out. If its owned by some other studio--who knows if we'll ever see it.

[sepiatone]

TRADER HORN is not an obscure film, it was remade in the 1970s , just like other 30s classics like KING KONG and HURRICANE. Along with TH how about including 'Woody's' NEVER THE TWAIN SHALL MEET. One thing that may keep the film from video is it's mild racism, and this can be based on your opinion. Harry Carey calls one native a "black ape" and as we would later see in many of the MGM Tarzan films a lot of natives end up dying in animal attacks and the like. Woody was a man who (unlike Robert Flaherty) didn't seem to like these far off locations though he traveled and took assignments to Africa, Tahiti(3 times), the Arctic. He would trash the very locations that brought his films a lot of success.

[bobfells]

I always like ESKIMO (1933) especially since Van Dyke plays a role in the film. His voice seems fine but by 1936 when he appeared on Lux Radio Theater his voice had developed that raspy quality that it would have for his remaining years. Scarecrow Press published Van Dyke's letters that he wrote while on location for WHITE SHADOWS ON THE SOUTH SEAS (1928). They form basically a diary of the filming and are interesting reading.