Four Daughters (1938)

How refreshing it is to see America as it was, once upon a time. A depiction of family life that no longer exists, a design for living that would seem alien in the 21st century. Dressing up for dinner. An entire family with a cultural background. And no one seems to own a car, to say nothing of a television - they gather around the living room radio! Director Michael Curtiz has created a look back at what may be an idealized version of 30's americana and leaves us elated and uplifted, which might have been the point during the depression era. Three of the four Lane sisters are the title characters and get immeasurable help from a stellar supporting cast including Claude Rains, May Robson and Frank McHugh. Long story short, you can't go wrong here. It's an entertaining 90 minutes, taken cum grano salis and allowing for a lapse of 80 years.7/10 - The website no longer prints my star ratings.

Four Daughters (1938) *** 1/2 (out of 4) A musician and father (Claude Rains) does his best to raise his four daughters (Priscilla Lane, Rosemary Lane, Lola Lane, Gale Page) the right way, which he does but things start to go wrong when a rebel musician (John Garfield) enters their house. I was surprised to see how much I enjoyed this film because I was really just expecting a lot of melodrama and sappy scenes but the film became much more than that due to Curtiz's tight direction of the material and a terrific performance by Garfield. The story is certainly mainly for women but Rains and Garfield both make it more entertaining for the men and both of them also give a lot of backbone to the story. Rains is terrific as the old-fashioned father and the four women are also very strong with Priscilla being the real stand out. The supporting cast includes May Robson, Jeffrey Lynn and Dick Foran and all of them are very good. It's easy to see why Garfield received an Oscar nomination and jumped to stardom after this one role because it's one of the most memorable performances from this late 30s period. Garfield brought along a new style of acting and it's still quite refreshing seeing it where it started.

The sisterly affection is almost insufferable in FOUR DAUGHTERS, so wishy-washy is the script that has them treating each other with such tender care. One sister (PRISCILLA LANE) even runs off with the wrong man in an effort to spare her sister's feelings about the man she truly loves. This noble act eventually goes unrewarded, since the man she runs off with (JOHN GARFIELD) decides to end his life--which then makes it possible for Priscilla Lane to end up with the handsome suitor she originally loved--JEFFREY LYNN.If this all sounds like sentimental tripe, it is--but at least Michael Curtiz gets three fine performances from the cast. JOHN GARFIELD made the biggest impression on critics at the time of release, since nobody had seen an actor of his ilk before, contemptuously tossing off lines in a manner that would later suit Marlon Brando or James Dean. He became an overnight star with his Oscar-nominated supporting role.PRISCILLA LANE, as the youngest sister who makes the noble sacrifice, is refreshingly natural and extremely sensitive as the only Lane sister who is really given a part that she can grab hold of. The other sisters, ROSEMARY and LOLA LANE, have roles that are so underwritten that they're unplayable. JEFFREY LYNN is fine as the handsome and carefree young man that all of the sisters are attracted to.Unfortunately, CLAUDE RAINS seems miscast as the girls' father, giving the role none of the distinctive Rains traits that always made his supporting roles so memorable. He just fades into the background, as do GALE PAGE, DICK FORAN, MAY ROBSON, FRANK McHUGH and others among the Warner contract players, while Garfield and Lane hold the spotlight.A musical version called YOUNG AT HEART starring DORIS DAY and FRANK SINATRA used pretty much the same script, word for word, with the addition of WarnerColor and music. Not bad at all and Sinatra was just as good as Garfield in the role of the sullen songwriter who saw himself as victimized by fate. The musical version changed the ending, the only big difference.

"Four Daughters," a sentimental story of a solid middle class family with four sisters, was notable in one respect: into this romantic, idealized milieu enters Mickey Borden… Carelessly dressed, with an uncompromising attitude to all bourgeois values, he really sets the hearts of the sisters aglow… His criticisms are not only directed towards those about him but also towards himself… One day Ann (Priscilla Lane) discovers him passionately playing the piano… "That's beautiful," she says… "It stinks," he replies… He falls in love with – and marries – Ann but eventually, realizing that their basic incompatibility is leading their marriage into disaster, he takes the equally uncompromising step of causing his fall… The role was superbly played by John Garfield, and it brought him not only stardom but also, and perhaps more important, won for him his place in cinema history as the screen's first rebel hero… Garfield was born in New York's East side of Russian immigrant parents, and spent his adolescence as a delinquent, a real life role that he only relinquished when he began to portray the rebel on screen… He continued, however, throughout his life to question and reject certain traditional values… He was occasionally suspended by the studio and maintained a cynical view of Hollywood…Finally he ended his career and his life as one of the victims of McCarthy's witchhunt… He was blacklisted by Hollywood because of his suspected left wing sympathies and friends claimed that being banned from working contributed to the heart attack' that killed him at the early age of 39