Four Daughters (1938)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Michael Curtiz

Writers:

Fannie Hurst (novel) and
Lenore J. Coffee (writer)

Release Date:

9 August 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Music | Romance

Plot:

Musician Adam Lemp and his four equally musical daughters, Emma, Ann, Kay, and Thea, live happily together...

Plot Keywords:

Daughter | Composer | Widower | Blizzard | Melodrama

Awards:

Nominated for 5 Oscars.

Cast

Priscilla Lane	...	Ann Lemp
Rosemary Lane	...	Kay Lemp
Lola Lane	...	Thea Lemp
Gale Page	...	Emma Lemp
Claude Rains	...	Adam Lemp
Jeffrey Lynn	...	Felix Deitz
John Garfield	...	Mickey Borden
Dick Foran	...	Ernest Talbot
Frank McHugh	...	Ben Crowley
May Robson	...	Aunt Etta
Vera Lewis	...	Mrs. Ridgefield
Donald Kerr	...	Earl
Tom Dugan	...	Jake
Eddie Acuff	...	Sam
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joe Cunningham	...	Waiter
Wilfred Lucas	...	Doctor

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG (TV rating) | Australia:G | Finland:S

Company:

First National Pictures

Trivia:

Remade as a musical, Young at Heart (1954) with Frank Sinatra and Doris Day.

Quotes:

Mickey Borden: I wouldn't win first prize if I were the only entry in the contest.
Ann Lemp: Mathematically speaking, I think you'd stand a fine chance.
Mickey Borden: You think they'd let me win?
Ann Lemp: Who?
Mickey Borden: They.
Ann Lemp: Who?
Mickey Borden: The fates, the destinies, whoever they are that decide what we do or don't get.
Ann Lemp: What do you mean?
Mickey Borden: They've been at me now nearly a quarter of a century. No let-up. First they said, "Let him do without parents. He'll get along." Then they decided, "He doesn't need any education. That's for sissies." Then right at the beginning, they tossed a coin. "Heads he's poor, tails he's rich." So they tossed a coin...

Movie Connections:

Version of Young at Heart (1954)

Soundtrack:

Bridal Chorus

Fresh family drama introduced a new star . . .

It isn't hard to see why frequent moviegoers in 1938, wise to the formulas of most movies, would have found FOUR DAUGHTERS a fresh and surprising picture. The story of four musical sisters and their romantic problems begins as conventionally as any Deanna Durbin musical but quickly evolves into an absorbing romantic melodrama.

Director Michael Curtiz keeps all four actresses bubbling sweetly and predictably, but when Jeffrey Lynn enters the picture trouble begins. Though one sister is engaged and another nearly so, all four in some way become smitten by this young musician. Then the script tops itself (and electrified audiences) by introducing a further complication named John Garfield. Cynical, depressive, darkly attractive and clearly a New York 'ethnic' type, Garfield is in every way the opposite of tall, handsome, WASPy Jeffrey Lynn, who in any other picture would probably have made more of an impression. Though friends, the men vie for Priscilla Lane, whose unaffected acting style creates a nice tension with both actors. Believing it best for her sister, Priscilla marries the wrong man, at once confounding and satisfying audience expectations. Halfway through this film you are apt to wonder what will happen next and how events will play out, which is not what you expect from the sunny opening.

Garfield's success overshadowed every other good thing about this film. Clearly Warners' thought they had a successor to Jimmy Cagney. In fact they had the forerunner of Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Montgomery Clift, Brando and James Dean, though Garfield was warmer and more likable than any of those.

This movie was remade in 1955 as a Technicolor musical called YOUNG AT HEART starring Doris Day and Frank Sinatra. Though not a bad idea in theory, the original is a better film.