Trader Horn (1931)

While on safari in an unexplored area of Africa, Trader Horn and Peru find missionary Edith Trent killed by natives. They decide to carry on her quest for her lost daughter Nina. They find ... See full summary »

Director:

W.S. Van Dyke

Writers:

Ethelreda Lewis (based on the book by), Dale Van Every (adaptation),

Stars:

Harry Carey, Edwina Booth, Duncan Renaldo

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Harry Carey	...	Aloysius 'Trader' Horn
Edwina Booth	...	Nina Trent - the White Godess
Duncan Renaldo	...	Peru
Mutia Omoolu	...	Rencharo - Horn's Gun Bearer
Olive Carey	...	Edith Trent (as Olive Golden)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bob Kortman	...	(scenes deleted)
Marjorie Rambeau	...	Edith Trent (scenes deleted)

Storyline

While on safari in an unexplored area of Africa, Trader Horn and Peru find missionary Edith Trent killed by natives. They decide to carry on her quest for her lost daughter Nina. They find her as the queen of a particularly savage tribe, and try to bring her back to civilization.

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Plot Keywords:

trader | africa | missionary | safari | salt | 

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Taglines:

The Miracle of Pictures

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Genres:

Adventure | Romance

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Swahili

Release Date:

23 May 1931 (USA)

Also Known As:

Horn le trafiquant

Filming Locations:

Africa

Box Office

Budget:

$1,312,636 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

122 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to Alfred Hitchcock, audiences at the first screening of this film laughed when C. Aubrey Smith suddenly appeared in the story.

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Quotes

Aloysius 'Trader' Horn: They have a telegraph, though - drums. There's a sound that'll crawl up your spine and down to your gizzard. Maybe you'll hear it one of these days.

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Crazy Credits

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is indebted to the governmental officials of The Territory of Tanganyika, The Protectorate of Uganda, The Colony of Kenya, The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, The Belgian Congo, whose co-operation made this picture possible - and to White Hunters Maj. W.V.D. Dickinson, A.S. Waller, Esq., J.H. Barnes, Esq., H.R. Stanton, Esq., for their courageous services through 14,000 miles of African veldt and jungle.

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Connections

Spoofed in Trader Hornee (1970)

User Reviews

An Amazing Adventure in Africa

I woke up in the middle of the night in my apartment in New York City, turned on Turner Classic Movies, and here is this amazing adventure in Africa captured on film that deserves a "10" for tremendous.

What an effort making this movie must have been for everyone involved. The sheer magnitude of the undertaking is something that would never get produced today. Only though the magic looking glass of film can we witness fiction and nonfiction brought together on such scale.

For kids who love "Star Wars" or "Lord of the Rings" or the new crop of video-game movies, imagining what it was like for the cast and crew of "Trader Horn" to accomplish what they did is something entirely different. There's nothing digital here; it's all real. You can SMELL the animals on the plains of the old (and gone) Africa, a brutal and far more primordial place than it is today, all filmed without CGI or green-screen gimmickry.

The cast includes Harry Carey in the title role (who performed in more than 250 films) along with the arrestingly beautiful young actress, Edwina Booth, playing a bizarre White Goddess, and who, like many of the cast and crew, was so wiped out and sick from what must have been grindingly grueling conditions on location in Africa, in 1930, that it basically ended her acting career. Two of the crew died during filming; one consumed by crocodiles, and one native boy charged by a rhino in a scene captured and kept in the film. Duncan Renaldo (who played the Cisco Kid years later on television) adds another dimension to the ensemble of the four leading players, completed by Mutia Omoolu, a native African playing Trader Horn's gun bearer in the only role of his life, plus hundreds of extras and other African actors whose names are lost to history.

Fortunately, the remarkable effort of the people who created "Trader Horn" is not lost. Today, and for generations to come, we can experience this truly amazing adventure in Africa and "miracle of pictures."