This restoration-in-progress print of The Valley of Silent Men has some misplaced scenes and lacks most of the last two reels. But for modern viewers, its present flaws are compensated for by wonderful landscape scenes taken on location in the Canadian Rockies, and a powerful performance by Alma Rubens. She has the central heroic role in a late Borzage Western that, like the earlier ones, "dealt with emotional union and betrayal more than contests of masculine power" (Gunning). She also some harrowing mountain-climbing scenes. Of this film, based on a novel by James Oliver Curwood (the "poor man's Jack London"), the original Variety review theorized, "...impressive vistas of awesome mountain peaks in series upon series give a commanding atmosphere that overshadows the drama and compels a sense of reality. It is a curious case of mere settings creating a real illusion for a set of theatrical situations. The romance is in the environment..."