The Sword of Valor was the penultimate starring vehicle for Snowy Baker. By the end of his Phil Goldstone productions period in 1924, it’s fair to say that Snowy’s acting skills had been fully tested, and, while becoming a well-known and well-liked member of the Hollywood community, he was not a serious contender for any more major film projects. Greg Growden comments in his biography, The Snowy Baker Story (Random House, 2003): “…his acting was wooden, story lines fragmented and one-dimensional, but the series of movies he was involved in are still innocently endearing.” This was written with particular reference to Baker’s Australian phase, but the same can certainly apply to his American efforts.
The Sword of Valor is another such simple saga, set in northern Spain and the French Riviera, and filmed largely in the California countryside, with Snowy as Captain Grant Lee Brooks of the U.S. legation. Captain Brooks meets Ynez, the lovely, slightly wild daughter of Don Guzman de Ruiz y Montejo, in the company of Roderigo, her gypsy childhood friend. The plot thickens as Ynez’s father rejects Roderigo’s request to marry Ynez and decides instead to find her a rich husband on the Riviera. Ynez and Brooks meet again there, and romance and adventure ensue, with Brooks saving Ynez from drowning and punching unctuous “duellist for hire” Henri di Leon in the face when the duellist slaps him with a glove in an attempt to force a duel. (The professional duellist is played by Fred Cavens, a noted real-life fencing master who coached many film actors in the art of swordplay.) Meanwhile, her father’s attempts to promote a match for Ynez with Ismid Matrouli, governor of an Oriental province, lead back to the Pyrenees, a duel, the re-emergence of Roderigo as a desperate suitor, and a wild horse chase (Boomerang the Wonder Horse is back!). Brooks fights off gypsies single-handedly before pursuing Roderigo and Ynez to a cliff-top and cliff-edge fight to the death.
Writing about this style of low-budget film, historian William K. Everson observed that “the very lack of facilities challenged them to come up with creative ideas”. The very limited sets and use of the natural countryside as much as possible are typical of the genre, and the film’s cinematography is adequate and sometimes genuinely atmospheric. Snowy Baker’s penchant for athletic physical action similarly provides low-cost benefits that no amount of money could buy.
But by now Snowy’s career was morphing away from film stardom, with Fighter’s Paradise swiftly following The Sword of Valor as his final significant film performance. His unquestionable athletic skills would shortly translate into a dynamic career in the glamorous world of the Riviera Country Club for almost another twenty years – with polo matches, coaching stars in fencing, horsemanship, and boxing, and occasional stunt doubling in films.
In 1949 Snowy Baker told Sydney’s Herald newspaper, “I still swim, take two and a half turns of the springboard, box a little, ride twenty to twenty-five miles daily, play polo three days a week all year round, and generally keep myself in condition.” His confident sense of self remained constant to the end. – Meg Labrum