Four Sons | |
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Directed by | John Ford |
Written by |
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Based on | "Grandmother Bernle Learns Her Letters" by I. A. R. Wylie |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography |
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Edited by | Margaret Clancey |
Distributed by | Fox Film Corporation |
Release date |
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Running time | 100 minutes |
Country | United States |
Languages | Sound (Synchronized) (English Intertitles) |
Box office | $1.5 million [2] |
Four Sons is a 1928 American synchronized sound drama film directed and produced by John Ford and written for the screen by Philip Klein from a story by I. A. R. Wylie first published in the Saturday Evening Post as "Grandmother Bernle Learns Her Letters" (1926). While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process.
It is one of only a handful of survivors out of the more than 50 films Ford directed between 1917 and 1928. It starred Margaret Mann, James Hall, and Charles Morton. The film is also notable for the presence of the young John Wayne in an uncredited role as an officer. The film's soundtrack was recorded using the Movietone sound-on-film system but was also released in the sound-on-disc format.
A family is torn apart by the advent of World War I. It was remade in 1940 with the same title, starring Don Ameche and Eugenie Leontovich, and directed by Archie Mayo, although the war was updated to World War II.
Mother Bernle is a widow in Bavaria with four sons: Franz, Johann, Andreas and Joseph.
Joseph receives a job offer from the United States, and he is given money to travel there by his mother.
The First World War is heating up. Franz, who is already serving in the German army, is joined by first Johann and then Andreas who is forced into the army.
In New York, Joseph is married with a newborn son. He is running a delicatessen and when America enters the war, Joseph enlists to fight for the American side. When Joseph's enlistment is discovered, it causes problems for Mother Bernle because she is shunned in her village.
Franz and Johann are killed on the Eastern Front. Andreas is wounded on the Western Front and dies in the arms of his brother Joseph.
Joseph returns to New York to discover that the delicatessen has prospered in his absence. He sends for his mother to join him, and she departs her village only to end up hopelessly lost wandering New York. A policeman brings her to Joseph's apartment, where she joyfully joins her son, daughter-in-law and grandson.
The film featured a theme song entitled "Little Mother" which was composed by Erno Rapee and Lew Pollack.
The Academy Film Archive preserved Four Sons in 1999. [3]
7th Heaven is a 1927 American synchronized sound romantic drama directed by Frank Borzage, and starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the Movietone sound system. The film is based upon the 1922 play Seventh Heaven, by Austin Strong and was adapted for the screen by Benjamin Glazer. 7th Heaven was initially released as a standard silent film in May 1927. On September 10, 1927, Fox Film Corporation re-released the film with a synchronized Movietone soundtrack with a musical score and sound effects.
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is a 1927 American synchronized sound romantic drama directed by German director F. W. Murnau and starring George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, and Margaret Livingston. The film's plot follows a married farmer (O'Brien) who falls for a woman vacationing from the city (Livingston), who tries to convince him to murder his wife (Gaynor) in order to be with her. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the Movietone sound-on-film process. The story was adapted by Carl Mayer from the short story "The Excursion to Tilsit", from the 1917 collection with the same title by Hermann Sudermann.
Street Angel is a 1928 American synchronized sound drama film. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process. The film was directed by Frank Borzage, adapted by Harry H. Caldwell (titles), Katherine Hilliker (titles), Philip Klein, Marion Orth and Henry Roberts Symonds from the play Lady Cristilinda by Monckton Hoffe. As one of the early, transitional sound film releases, it did not include recorded dialogue, but used intertitles along with recorded sound effects and musical selections.
The Black Watch is a 1929 American Pre-Code adventure epic film directed by John Ford and starring Victor McLaglen, Myrna Loy, and David Torrence. It was written by James Kevin McGuinness and based on the 1916 novel King of the Khyber Rifles by Talbot Mundy. The film features an uncredited 21-year-old John Wayne working as an extra; he also worked in the arts and costume department for the film. This was director John Ford's first sound film.
What Price Glory? is a 1926 American synchronized sound comedy drama war film produced and distributed by Fox Film Corporation and directed by Raoul Walsh. The film was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the Movietone sound system. The film is based on the 1924 play What Price Glory by Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings and was remade in 1952 as What Price Glory starring James Cagney. Malcolm Stuart Boylan, founder of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, was title writer on the silent Fox attraction.
Mother Machree is a 1928 American synchronized sound drama film directed by John Ford that is based on the 1924 work The Story of Mother Machree by Rida Johnson Young about a poor Irish immigrant in America. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score, singing and sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process. Rida Johnson Young had invented Mother Machree in the stage show Barry of Ballymoore in 1910. John Wayne has a minor role in the film.
Margaret Mann, was a Scottish-American actress.
Christina is a lost 1929 sound part talkie starring Janet Gaynor and directed by William K. Howard. The supporting cast includes Charles Morton, Rudolph Schildkraut, Harry Cording, and Lucy Doraine. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Movietone sound-on-film system.
4 Devils is a lost 1928 American synchronized sound drama film directed by German director F. W. Murnau and starring Janet Gaynor. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process.
The Duke Steps Out is a 1929 American synchronized sound comedy-drama film directed by James Cruze and starring William Haines and Joan Crawford. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film is lost, but the Vitaphone sound discs track of music and sound effects survive in the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
The Trail of '98 is a 1928 American synchronized sound action-adventure/drama film featuring Harry Carey and Dolores del Río about the Klondike Gold Rush. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score, with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film was originally released by MGM in a short-lived widescreen process called "Fantom Screen". The film is based on the 1910 novel of the same name, written by Robert W. Service.
Riley the Cop is a 1928 American synchronized sound comedy film directed by John Ford. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process.
Strong Boy is a 1929 American sound comedy film directed by John Ford. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film Movietone process. The film, which was Ford's last silent film, is now considered to be lost. A trailer for the film was discovered in the New Zealand Film Archive in 2010 and subsequently preserved by the Academy Film Archive the same year.
The Battle of the Sexes is a 1928 American synchronized sound comedy film directed by D. W. Griffith. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score, singing and sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film starred Jean Hersholt, Phyllis Haver, Belle Bennett, Don Alvarado, and Sally O'Neil. It was released by United Artists. The film was a remake by Griffith of an earlier film he directed in 1914, which starred Lillian Gish. Both films are based on the novel The Single Standard by Daniel Carson Goodman; the story was adapted for this production by Gerrit J. Lloyd.
The Single Standard is a 1929 American synchronized sound romantic drama film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer directed by veteran John S. Robertson and starring Greta Garbo, Nils Asther and Johnny Mack Brown. The film has no audible dialogue but featured a synchronized musical score and sound effects. The soundtrack was recorded using the Western Electric Sound System sound-on-film process. The soundtrack was also transferred to discs for those theatres that were wired with sound-on-disc sound systems.
The Red Dance is a 1928 American synchronized sound film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Dolores del Río and Charles Farrell that was inspired by the novel by Henry Leyford Gates. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process.
The Far Call is a 1929 American sound drama which is currently believed to be a lost film. Although the film had no dialogue, it featured a synchronized Movietone sound track of music and sound effects. The film was directed by Allan Dwan and starring Charles Morton and Leila Hyams. Produced and distributed by the Fox Film Corporation.
New Year's Eve is a lost 1929 sound film drama produced and distributed by Fox Film Corporation and starring Mary Astor and Charles Morton. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process. Veteran Henry Lehrman, who had worked with Mack Sennett and Charlie Chaplin, was the director. Samuel L. Rothafel wrote the music for film. As was the case for the majority of films during the early sound era, a silent version was prepared for theatres who had not yet converted to sound. Max Gold was an assistant director.
Fazil is a 1928 American synchronized sound drama film directed by Howard Hawks and written by Philip Klein and Seton I. Miller. The film stars Charles Farrell, Greta Nissen, John Boles, Mae Busch, Tyler Brooke and John T. Murray. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process. The film was released on June 4, 1928, by Fox Film Corporation.
Mother Knows Best is a lost 1928 American sound part-talkie film directed by John G. Blystone, based on a novel by Edna Ferber, fictionalizing the life of vaudevillian Elsie Janis. The film was Fox's first part talkie, using the Movietone sound system which had primarily been used for synchronised music scores and effects tracks in Fox features beforehand, although as early as "Mother Machree" (1928), a single synchronous singing sequence was included in the film. The talking sequences in Mother Knows Best were directed by actor Charles Judels, while the synchronized sequences were directed by John G. Blystone. The film starred Madge Bellamy, with Louise Dresser as her domineering mother, Barry Norton, and Albert Gran.