Four Men and a Prayer

Last updated

Four Men and a Prayer
Four Men and a Prayer FilmPoster.jpeg
Film poster
Directed by John Ford
Written byRichard Sherman
Sonya Levien
Walter Ferris
William Faulkner (uncredited)
Screenplay byRichard Sherman
Sonya Levien
Walter Ferris
Based onFour Men and a Prayer
1937 novel
by David Garth (1908-1983)
Produced by Kenneth Macgowan
Starring Loretta Young
Richard Greene
George Sanders
David Niven
C. Aubrey Smith
William Henry
Cinematography Ernest Palmer
Edited by Louis R. Loeffler
Music by Louis Silvers
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • April 29, 1938 (1938-04-29)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesEnglish
Spanish

Four Men and a Prayer is a 1938 American adventure film directed by John Ford and starring Loretta Young, Richard Greene, George Sanders and David Niven.

Contents

Plot

After Loring Leigh (C. Aubrey Smith), a British Army Officer, is cashiered in India following accusations of dereliction of duty, he summons his four sons Geoffrey (Richard Greene), Wyatt (George Sanders), Christopher (David Niven), and Rodney (William Henry) to meet him in their family home. Leigh reveals he has been framed, but before he can explain any more he is murdered. With what little they know, the four boys immediately set out to discover the truth. The boys split up and travel to South America, India, and Egypt to gather evidence and restore their father's honour. During their travels, Geoffrey's girlfriend, Lynn (Loretta Young), continuously appears in the same locations as Geoffrey and his brother, Christopher.

First, Geoffrey and Christopher encounter Lynn in Buenos Aires where they witness a mass murder of townspeople that were in a war with the government, while Wyatt and Rodney are in India.

Later, Geoffrey and Christopher run into Lynn in Alexandria while they are reuniting with Wyatt and Rodney to confront Lynn's father, Martin Cherrington (Berton Churchill) who they believe is the person responsible for their father's death. Then they discover that Lynn had no idea of the situation and was not on her father's side about his contribution to being a major arms dealer, but it is also discovered that her father had no part in the death of the boys' father.

Once they discover that Furnoy (Alan Hale) is responsible for Leigh's murder, the four boys journey back home to present the evidence that their father was innocent.

Cast

Reception

The response to Four Men and a Prayer was mixed.

The New York Times' Frank Nugen t enjoyed the film. In his May 7, 1938 review, he describes the film as “A globetrotting, melodrama , a beau-gestive piece directed by John Ford, who loves to stab the murk with a revolver spat. It has been energetically told, compactly presented, and can be relied upon to keep the Roxy pleasantly occupied… the players are uniformly in excellent fettle…” [1]

Mae Tinee from the Chicago Daily Tribune observes "there's nothing like a good melodrama for grinding new grooves in the old thinking machine, and Four Men and a Prayer is a right pert groove grinder." [2]

However, Variety says the film "starts out as exciting melodrama, promising interesting romantic and adventurous...finishes as a piece of disappointing entertainment." [3]

The film has a 50% rating on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer, based on 6 reviews. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Niven</span> British actor and novelist (1910–1983)

James David Graham Niven was a British actor, soldier, memoirist, and novelist. Niven was known as a handsome and debonair leading man in Classic Hollywood films. He received an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Greene</span> English film and television actor (1918–1985)

Richard Marius Joseph Greene was a noted English film and television actor. A matinée idol who appeared in more than 40 films, he was perhaps best known for the lead role in the long-running British TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood, which ran for 143 episodes from 1955 to 1959.

<i>Coal Miners Daughter</i> (film) 1980 film by Michael Apted

Coal Miner's Daughter is a 1980 American biographical musical film directed by Michael Apted from a screenplay written by Tom Rickman. It follows the story of country music singer Loretta Lynn from her early teen years in a poor family and getting married at 15 to her rise as one of the most influential country musicians. Based on Lynn's 1976 biography of the same name by George Vecsey, the film stars Sissy Spacek as Lynn. Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D'Angelo and Levon Helm are featured in supporting roles. Ernest Tubb, Roy Acuff, and Minnie Pearl make cameo appearances as themselves.

The year 1939 in film is widely considered the greatest year in film history. The ten Best Picture-nominated films that year include classics in multiple genres.

The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berton Churchill</span> Canadian actor (1876–1940)

Berton Churchill was a Canadian stage and film actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Sanders</span> British actor and singer (1906–1972)

George Henry Sanders was a British actor and singer whose career spanned over 40 years. His heavy, upper-class English accent and smooth, baritone voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous characters. He is remembered for his roles as wicked Jack Favell in Rebecca (1940), Scott ffolliott in Foreign Correspondent, The Saran of Gaza in Samson and Delilah (1949), the most popular film of the year, Addison DeWitt in All About Eve, Sir Brian De Bois-Guilbert in Ivanhoe (1952), King Richard the Lionheart in King Richard and the Crusaders (1954), Mr. Freeze in a two-part episode of Batman (1966), and the voice of Shere Khan in Disney's The Jungle Book (1967). Fans of radio detective stories know Sanders as Simon Templar, The Saint, (1939–41), and the suave crimefighter The Falcon (1941–42).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Litel</span> American actor (1892–1972)

John Beach Litel was an American film and television actor.

<i>The Little Princess</i> (1939 film) 1939 film by Walter Lang, William A. Seiter

The Little Princess is a 1939 American drama film directed by Walter Lang. The screenplay by Ethel Hill and Walter Ferris is loosely based on the 1905 novel A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The film was the first Shirley Temple movie to be filmed completely in Technicolor. It was also her last major success as a child star. This film was the third of three in which Shirley Temple and Cesar Romero appeared together, second was Wee Willie Winkie (1937) and Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937).

<i>Broken Bridges</i> 2006 film by Steven Goldmann

Broken Bridges is a 2006 American drama film starring Toby Keith, Lindsey Haun, Burt Reynolds and Kelly Preston. The film, a music-drama, is centered on a fading country singer's return to his hometown near a military base in Tennessee where several young men who were killed in a training exercise on the base were from. He is reunited with his former sweetheart and estranged daughter, who returns to the town as well.

<i>Eternally Yours</i> (film) 1939 film by Tay Garnett

Eternally Yours is a 1939 American comedy drama film produced and directed by Tay Garnett with Walter Wanger as executive producer, from a screenplay by C. Graham Baker and Gene Towne. The film stars Loretta Young and David Niven, and also features a strong supporting cast including Broderick Crawford, Billie Burke, Eve Arden, ZaSu Pitts, and C. Aubrey Smith. Composer Werner Janssen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Music.

<i>Sailors Lady</i> 1940 film

Sailor's Lady, also known as Sweetheart of Turret One, is a 1940 film directed by Allan Dwan and starring Nancy Kelly and Jon Hall. The supporting cast includes Joan Davis, Dana Andrews, and Buster Crabbe. Football player Amby Schindler had an uncredited appearance in this motion picture after portraying one of The Winkies in The Wizard of Oz (1939).

<i>The Statue</i> (1971 film) 1971 film by Rod Amateau

The Statue is a 1971 British comedy film starring David Niven, Robert Vaughn, and Virna Lisi and directed by Rodney Amateau. John Cleese and Graham Chapman appear in early career roles as the Niven character's psychiatrist and a newsreader, respectively. Niven plays a Nobel Prize-winning professor who suspects his wife, played by Lisi, of infidelity when she makes and unveils an 18-foot statue of him with private parts recognisably not his own. The film is based on the play called Chip, Chip, Chip by Alec Coppel.

<i>Family Classics</i> American TV series or program

Family Classics is a Chicago television series which began in 1962 when Frazier Thomas was added to another program at WGN-TV. Thomas not only hosted classic films, but also selected the titles and personally edited them to remove those scenes which he thought were not fit for family viewing. After Thomas' death in 1985, Roy Leonard took over the program. The series continued sporadically until its initial cancellation in 2000.

<i>Wee Willie Winkie</i> (film) 1937 film by John Ford

Wee Willie Winkie is a 1937 American adventure drama film directed by John Ford and starring Shirley Temple, Victor McLaglen, and Cesar Romero. The screenplay by Julien Josephson and Ernest Pascal was based on a story by Rudyard Kipling. The film's story concerns the British presence in 19th-century India. The production was filmed largely at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, California, where a number of elaborate sets were built for the film. This film was the first of three in which Shirley Temple and Cesar Romero appeared together, second was Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937) and The Little Princess (1939).

<i>The Story of Alexander Graham Bell</i> 1939 film by Irving Cummings

The Story of Alexander Graham Bell is a somewhat fictionalized 1939 biographical film of the famous inventor. It was filmed in black-and-white and released by Twentieth Century-Fox. The film stars Don Ameche as Bell and Loretta Young as Mabel, his wife, who contracted scarlet fever at an early age and became deaf.

<i>The Kings Thief</i> 1955 adventure film by Robert Z. Leonard

The King's Thief is a 1955 swashbuckling CinemaScope adventure film directed by Robert Z. Leonard, who replaced Hugo Fregonese during filming. Released on August 5, 1955, the film takes place in London at the time of Charles II and stars Ann Blyth, Edmund Purdom, David Niven, George Sanders and Roger Moore.

<i>The Last of the Duanes</i> (1924 film) 1924 film

The Last of the Duanes is a 1924 American silent Western film directed by Lynn Reynolds and starring Tom Mix, with his horse Tony the Wonder Horse. It is based on a 1914 Zane Grey novel, Last of the Duanes. A print of the film exists, after it was discovered in a chicken farm in the Czech Republic.

The following list shows the recipients for the Country Music Association Award for Song of the Year. This Award goes to the songwriter(s) and is for artistic achievement in songwriting. Any Country Music song with original words and music is eligible based upon the song's Country singles chart activity during the eligibility period. It is the sister category to the Country Music Association Award for Single of the Year, which recognizes the artist, producer and engineer.

<i>Family Camp</i> 2022 American film by Brian Cates

Family Camp is a 2022 American religious comedy film directed by Brian Cates and written by Cates and Rene Gutteridge. The film stars Tommy Woodard, Eddie James, Leigh-Allyn Baker, Elias Kemuel, and Gigi Orsillo, and follows two polar-opposite families who are forced to camp together, the fathers' struggles to hold onto their families and marriages as they compete for the coveted camp trophy. The film was released on May 13, 2022 in the United States, by Roadside Attractions. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $4 million at the box office.

References

  1. "THE SCREEN; In Melodramatic Vein Is Four Men and a Prayer' at the Roxy--Lonely White Sail' Opens at Cameo At the Cameo At the Teatro Hispano At the 86th St. Garden Theatre At the Modern Playhouse". The New York Times. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  2. Tinee, Mae. "'Four Men and a Prayer' Tops in Melodrama: "FOUR MEN AND A PRAYER."." Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963), May 14, 1938, p. 13.
  3. Flin. "Film Reviews: Four Men and a Prayer." Variety (Archive: 1905-2000) Apr 27 1938: 22.
  4. "Four Men and a Prayer - Movie Reviews - Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved October 25, 2023.

Bibliography