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Sunday 26 February 2012

Four Daughters (1938) Review

Its DVD is on Warner Archive which has no special features or even subtitles.This film is in Glorious Sparkling Black & White.Print on the DVD is fabulous and the innocence,purity and the Angelic quality of the movie just gets through.Music by Max Steiner is wonderful,sentimental and elevating.

Its  about four sisters and their romances and coming of age.First scene in itself creates the magical aura of bygone era of simpler times and peasant memories.As the camera sweeps into the Courtyard of their house focusing on the shady tree,clean swept lane and lush lawn fenced with a swinging wooden gate on which the youngest sister loves to swing.And on the swing she falls in love too.Then we are taken inside the house into their lively household where the musician father teaches his daughters music.



Michael Curtiz deftly directs this simple heart touching movie.John Garfield whom the youngest daughter played by Priscilla Lane marry has this sequence where he is miserable about his finances and he drives himself to suicide.This was John Garfield's first film and he won an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of sardonic, quick talking Mickey Borden,this role made him an instant star. May Robson is really nice and funny as their spinster Aunt Etta.The picnic scene in the movie is delightful.This movie was nominated for 5 Oscars including Best Picture.

The movie also stars Claude Rains as widowed Adam Lemp and the Lane sisters, Lola, Rosemary, and Priscilla, and Gale Page as his spirited daughters.Its definitive scene takes place in the Lemps' living room. Cigarette hanging from his lips, Borden is playing one of his own compositions. Priscilla Lane's Ann Lemp tells him the piece is beautiful. But he says, "It stinks." He continues: "It hasn't got a beginning or an end, only a middle." Ann urges him to create a beginning and an end. Borden replies, "What for? The fates are against me. They tossed a coin--heads I'm poor, tails I'm rich. But they tossed a two-headed coin." Audiences loved the way Garfield, in his tough city voice, said It stinks. That scene created Garfield's screen persona as the eternal outsider. Four Daughters is a slice of Americana with Garfield, in a compelling performance, supplying more than a hint of darkness.

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