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.

The story of "Four Daughters" starts with the real-life Lane sisters. The idea was for the four sisters to play the four roles in the film. During casting, one Lane sister did not make the grade, but the other three appear in the film, and it was the first film for the youngest, Priscilla, who went on to a successful career, though she quit films after ten years. The other sisters were not in film long either.Michael Curtiz directs this story of a wholesome, loving family whose equilibrium is upset by the young men who enter the daughters' lives. The youngest, Ann, is the perfect role for the bright-eyed Priscilla Lane. She serves as the catalyst for conflict due to the affections of more than one man.If it sounds like the film has a foreboding, dark quality, it really doesn't. Even in its darkest moments, the film maintains a warm feeling that centers around the loving family vignettes. John Garfield also gets his film debut as Mickey, the cynical guy who latches on to the family, hoping their happiness might rub off on him. The film is worth watching, especially to see novice Priscilla Lane dominate the film with her cheery portrayal.

The film is about four daughters (three of which are real life sisters) and their deliriously happy life with their father (Claude Rains) and crusty but lovable aunt (May Robson). They live in a large house and spend most of their time singing and adoring each other's company. They are certainly a happy bunch. When the story begins, it seems that these four grown daughters are starting to discover men--and each, in turn, has a romance. Clearly the daughter who gets the main focus of the film is played by Priscilla Lane--and this is probably because of the three Lane sisters, she was the most famous.As for Priscilla, while I know it will give away much of the film, I just couldn't understand her romance in the film. The guy who you think is going to marry her has everything--he's handsome, clever and makes you laugh. Yet, on her wedding day, Lane runs off with the broody and rather annoying John Garfield (in his first film). He is clearly the disaffected bad-boy type and emotionally incapable of showing love--interesting, of course, but it made no sense why Priscilla chose him. So, while this is an interesting plot line, it never seemed particularly real--though I liked how they worked it all out at the end.Overall, not a great film due to the odd plot (you really do HATE Priscilla's character at times) but the acting is great and the mood is sweet. Apparently, the public loved it, as Warner Brothers made several follow-up films.

A tight-knit musical family, cranky-benevolent father and four vivacious adolescent daughters, is up-rooted by, first, the appearance of Felix, a dashing young composer, and, secondly and most profoundly, Mickey, his insolently attractive orchestrator friend.It takes a while for Michael Curtiz to get this piece of Americana floating. The first part looks almost like a paraphrasing of a cereal commercial, not without a certain quaint, highly bourgeois charm, and then John Garfield enters the scene as the doomed Mickey, making his first appearance in motion pictures, with mussed-up black curls, sleepy, hung-over eyes, rude and disheveled, the absolute opposite to Jeffrey Lynn's smoothly persuasive, madly charming Felix. Garfield is in complete, and DIRELY needed, counterpoint to the rest of the household ("Nothing I would do would surprise me", he muses), and suddenly the movie becomes interesting, although I agree with critics that find the plot-turns insufficiently motivated.The four sisters are rather blandly played and seriously underwritten, but Claude Rains as the pater familias has his moments.Watch it for Garfield, though, he is the only really lasting thing about it.