Four Sons (1928) User Reviews

Popular in Its Day, Still Engaging Today

[dglink · 7/10 · 7 May 2008]

Sentimental, but not mawkish, the early John Ford silent, "Four Sons," is a well made film that exemplifies early 20th century values. The four sons of a Bavarian widow are swept up in the events of World War I. Three of the boys fight for the Kaiser, while the fourth, who had emigrated to the United States, is on the opposite side. The screenplay does not dwell on politics, although the German officers have villainous characters, and the American son chastises an employee for advocating war, because "America is neutral." Most of the action takes place in a small village in Bavaria, and the unspoken message is that ordinary Germans are as kind and feeling as people everywhere.

Despite a predictable storyline, the performances avoid the "grand style" that gave silent acting a bad name. Made in 1928 at the apogee of the American silent era, John Ford's direction is solid, and the film foreshadows his adaptation of "How Green Was My Valley" more than a decade later. Certainly the two strong mothers who suffer the absence of their sons have much in common. If John Ford had not directed "Four Sons," the film could have been largely forgotten. Plot holes abound, and coincidences occur that "only happen in the movies." However, the film is a good example of popular entertainment in the late silent era, and modern audiences will likely be engaged, especially students of Ford and those with an affection for silent movies.

God Bless You And Keep You, Mother Bernle

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 30 May 2010]

Other than The Iron Horse we rarely see John Ford's silent films. But in viewing Four Sons we can certainly spot a lot of stylistic traces and themes that mark Ford's more well known sound films.

Before The Iron Horse Ford was a director of Grade B westerns mostly starring Harry Carey. After The Iron Horse Ford started doing other kinds of films. A story with a German setting one might think would be unusual for Ford, but you examine it closely this film is as sentimental as any of his Irish films. And Margaret Mann who played the mother of the Four Sons was a harbinger of such later mother characters in Ford films as Olive Carey, Irene Rich, and the grandmama of them all, Jane Darwell.

Watch also how Ford handles the military sequences in both the German and American settings. The cultural differences are there, but the military way is universal. John Wayne is listed in a bit role as an Officer and I think I spotted him during a scene at a railway station where a particularly nasty Teutonic major played by Earle Foxe. Wayne I believe is one of his aides.

The story is a simple one Margaret Mann is a widow with four grown sons in a village in Bavaria. The sons are James Hall, Charles Morton, Ralph Bushman, and George Meeker. Hall has been in communication with a friend in America urging him to emigrate from Germany and he does. Hall does achieve the American dream, opening a successful business, marrying June Collyer and giving Mann her first grandchild. Then World War I comes and that's the rest of the story as Paul Harvey used to say.

Four Sons holds up well even after 80+ years. Mann's trials and tribulations as a mother certainly is a universal theme. And the ending is as happy and sentimental one as John Ford ever devised in any of his films.

"The Old World"

[Steffi_P · 7/10 · 1 January 2009]

In late 1920s Hollywood there was a brief craze for German cinema, especially at Fox, who had recently appropriated FW Murnau. It was no surprise then that, as well as bringing over the genuine article, the studios would also begin cranking out a few pictures that were Germanic in setting if not in style. Four Sons also takes advantage of the trend for World War pictures after the success The Big Parade.

As well as directing Four Sons, John Ford was also the producer, which is bit of a mixed blessing. With the director allowed greater executive control you get all the best and worst of the free-range Ford. As has often been remarked, Ford had "economy of expression" – that is, the ability to convey information and story in as few shots as possible. The flipside of this however is that he did tend to get bogged down with comedy scenes, or in this case restating and reinforcing the sense of rural simplicity and family unity until it becomes more monotonous than moving. The comic moments are particularly weak in this picture – just fat men with moustaches and Prussians with monocles being stereotypically Teutonic.

But one great advantage of having Ford as producer is that the picture is relatively free from unnecessary intertitles. All the great silent directors were of course skilled visual storytellers and Ford is no exception, and of course different screenwriters vary in their wordiness, but the frequency and necessity of intertitles would ultimately be down to whoever was in overall charge of the production. Ford has here cut down the title cards to a minimum, and so we get some great little moments such as the postman turning the first letter over in Mother Bernle's hands to let us know that she cannot read, or the villagers approaching the postman to find out if is their family who is to receive the black envelope – moments which would have been ruined by a load of intertitles in many other productions of this era.

And the visual style of Ford's pictures was by now more or less fully developed. It's interesting to see here how in Ford's world there is no midpoint between town and country. We don't see, for example, the village framed by surrounding hills or fields, or even against the sky. The village itself is the frame and the background, as if to make it an enclosed and totally civilized space. In contrast, whenever Ford shot a scene out in the wilderness he emphasised its openness – although Four Sons never really gets out in the open air so you don't see that here.

While Four Sons may be somewhat awash with sentimentality, Ford's simplistic approach of showing the tenderest moments with delicate shot composition does at least allow the picture some dignity. For example, he uses the overhead light to throw an almost heavenly glow over the family meal scene, then later echoes this with the shot of Mother Bernle grieving in a shaft of daylight. The most effective shot of all though is when Joseph says goodbye to his wife before going off to war. Ford goes against convention by filming the couple from behind in long shot, and the beauty of this moment almost makes me forgive all the other flaws of the picture. It's also a good decision not to show their faces, because James Hall was not a particularly good actor, as we can see in the scene where he returns home again.

In spite these touches of brilliance, the picture as a whole is weakened because it continually bombards us with either sentiment or tragedy. Of course, cinema would be dull indeed without poignancy, but poignancy only works in small doses. Saturate a picture in emotions and the individual tugs lose impact. Four Sons is a good work for Ford the director, but this fact doesn't quite save it from the poor judgment of Ford the producer.

Nice

[davidmvining · 7/10 · 15 October 2021]

This could have used an extra hour of screen time. John Ford's Four Sons, adapted from the story "Grandmother Bernle Learns Her Letters" by I. A. R. Wylie, tells a far larger story than its 96-minute runtime holds well, but the heart of it is so warm and endearing that by the movie's final twenty minutes it had won me over. I can easily see why it would have been very popular back in 1928. Dealing with the Great War, the immigrant experience, and ending with heartfelt touches while pushing a pro-American message, it has a lot of what made popular silent film popular at the time.

In a bit of a twist, Ford tells a story of the Old World in Bavaria, Germany rather than his ancestral Ireland. Little Mother Bernle (Margaret Mann) is the proud mother of four adult sons. Franz (Ralph Bushman) is an officer in the German military, Andreas (George Meeker) is a shepherd, Johann (Charles Morton) is a fun-loving young man, and Joseph has dreams of going to America. The family is a happy, close family, well-loved in their small Bavarian town. The only people who don't seem to love them are the military personnel stationed in the town. Everyone else is happy to suddenly arrive at the Bernle house and celebrate Mother Bernle's birthday. This is all fine, perhaps a bit overlong, but it's a nice introduction to the world and characters.

Joseph leaves for America, and very soon afterwards the Archduke Ferdinand is assassinated and World War I breaks out. Reminiscent of All Quiet on the Western Front, the townspeople are overjoyed at the outbreak of conflict with young men eagerly joining up to fight the fight that will be over by Christmas. Franz and Johann (newly joined into the military) march off to war with the rest, but word soon comes to Mother Bernle that two of her four sons have died in the opening battles of the war. This is where I really feel like the movie needs its extra hour. It goes, tonally, whole hog into the muck of World War I, especially when Andreas gets forced into the army by the local military officer in retribution for Joseph living in America and "supporting" the enemy. I'll just take a moment here to say that Four Sons is the best looking movie Ford had made up to this point. There's intelligence around framing, composition, and lighting that helps sell moments and their emotional reality, one of the best moments being when Mother Bernle is desperately clinging to Andreas' hand out of a train car window, Ford using the entire vertical space of the frame to tell the emotional moment visually, the two characters' fingers desperately clinging together until the last moment.

Meanwhile, in America, Joseph quickly moves upward, earning enough as a stock boy to buy the little shop he works at in New York, soon marrying and having a son. He's decided to become full-American, so when his German born assistant rails about the war while working, Joseph chastises him, reminding him that America is neutral. When America joins the fight, so does Joseph. He's off to fight.

And then we get the movie's relatively short timeframe rearing its ugly head. There's contrivance aplenty when Joseph hides behind a wall by No Man's Land, hears the calling of a German voice calling for his "Little Mother", and Joseph taking water to his own dying brother on the battlefield. I get it, but this is pretty much the extent of our direct view into battlefield life, and it's dedicated to a moment that beggars belief. It ends up feeling false precisely because so little time is dedicated to it. Having this central section be significantly longer as we watch the two brothers get closer together over the course of some period of time (weeks, perhaps) might have given the moment the feeling of tragic inevitability it was obviously shooting for.

The war comes to an end (seemingly less than half an hour after it started, also evidence that this movie should have been longer), and news of Andreas' death has not reached Mother Bernle. The postman (Albert Gran) has delivered the black bordered letters for her two other sons before, and he's loathe to deliver news of the third. The scene where Mother Bernle receives this news is another concentrated instance of Ford's increasing command of the frame, and it's a strongly emotional scene. And then there's a stark tonal shift when we suddenly cut to jaunty music as Joseph returns home to New York. It's a weird moment to go from deep sadness to jaunty and amusing little scene as Joseph finds that his store has flourished under his wife's management. It was here where I was really beginning to feel like the movie was just too uneven for my tastes.

And then it really gains focus, and it's significantly lighter than the middle act. Joseph, at the pleading of his son, decides to send for Mother Bernle and bring her to America, but Mother Bernle is illiterate. She'll need to learn her letters to be admitted. The ending is about her doing just that while going to America and encountering the kindly bureaucracy at Ellis Island. The pure goodness of Mother Bernle eventually finding her way home with her never before seen grandson falling asleep in her lap is just so endearing that I simply couldn't resist it by the end.

Yeah, the movie's uneven. It really is. However, I ended up enjoying it on the whole by the end. In terms of straight production, it's probably the best movie Ford had made up to this point. It ends up between genres a bit, and that ends up creating contrivance where it shouldn't be as well as some tonal jumps that end up feeling more jarring than they should be. However, the heart of the film is Mother Bernle, and by the end, it's easy to forgive some of the film's earlier issues and just be happy to see Mother Bernle find some peace after the ravage of war tore her family apart.

Don't buy the DVD... Demand the restoration of the original soundtrack

[finki · 10/10 · 30 December 2007]

This classic John Ford masterpiece has been spoiled by bureaucratic incompentece.

Somebody in 20th Century-Fox has decided to remove the original Movietone soundtrack and replace it with an inappropriate score. it seems that for certain people, the original intentions of director John Ford were no good enough for today. Hence, the film was stripped of its sound... which means that we do not have the film as it was originally intended to be seen.

Even though in most parts of the world, as well here in the United States, most people saw the film in a silent version, the original soundtrack is a crucial element of the film and without it, the experience is incomplete.

A great film, but avoid the DVD until an authentic restored version with the original soundtrack becomes available.

An oddly truncated "epic"

[ofumalow · 6/10 · 25 October 2015]

It would be interesting to know the history behind this late silent release, which was apparently quite popular at the time but now feels like a somewhat butchered edit of what was originally planned as a "Big Parade"-like epic--I have no idea if that's what actually happened to it, but that's how it plays. (It's possible that the talkie craze had escalated such between its green- lighting and completion that the studio decided a long, elaborate silent would only reduce the number of screenings/box office per day, and ordered the film severely cut.)

The cluttered story about a loving Bavarian small-town family and its fate during WW1 is staged with lavish care in virtually every shot, with beautiful lighting/camera-movement effects and frequent large numbers of extras and bit players involved. Yet the story itself hurtles along with so little time for detail and characterization that the emotional impact is blunted. Of the titular four sons, only the one who goes to America is given significant screen time, which greatly lessens the intended impact when siblings become combat casualties. So the primary focus falls on their widowed ma, a Mother Macree type (curiously, Ford made another film of that precise name the same year) whose selfless suffering over the years is portrayed gracefully, yet is a rather one-note and predictable characterization to base the entire film around. And the villainous German officers who send her boys off to their deaths are even more caricatured "Dirty Hun" types, complete with omnipresent sneers and monocles.

Scene by scene, "Four Sons" is directed in such a virtuoso fashion, and the production so ambitious in story arc and physical scale, that it feels like a leisurely, sentimental but masterly 2 1/2 hour epic that unfortunately somehow got reduced to a 90-minute highlight reel with little nuance or breathing room. That Ford could do better is clear from such films of the same era as "The Iron Horse" and "3 Bad Men." "Four Sons" is still well worth seeing, for its visual qualities in particular as well as numerous effective individual sequences. But it plays like the truncated shell of something that was originally planned as a much more expansive project.

Ford Arms to Hold You

[wes-connors · 9/10 · 5 June 2010]

In Germany, at the dawn of World War I, widow Margaret Mann (as Frau Bernle) is blessed with "Four Sons" - strapping soldier Francis X. Bushman Jr. (as Franz), dreamy rustic James Hall (as Joseph), handsome metalworker Charles Morton (as Johann), and fair-haired shepherd George Meeker (as Andreas). And, she makes the best honey-cakes in Bavaria. With one son serving the Fatherland, and two more about to join him on the battlefield, Ms. Mann arranges for adventurous Mr. Hall to emigrate to democratic America. There, he opens a delicatessen and marries sweet, beautiful June Collyer (as Annabelle). Eventually, the Great War results in multiple brother tragedies, testing old mother Mann's ability to count her blessings.

The last years of the "silent film" era produced an avalanche of stunning motion pictures; in hindsight, you wonder if the "talkie" might have prevented the silent from advancing even beyond its late 1920s peak. "Four Sons" is another artful example, with John Ford and his picturesque cameramen, George Schneiderman and Charles C. Clarke, directing under the influence of F.W. Murnau - the combination produced a winning film, full of memorable scenes and images. Ford's best symbolic double whammy has two white birds flying to heaven, followed by postman Albert Gran hurling stoning the church's reflection. The restored print looks lovely, but lacks the original's innovative "synchronized sound effects" track, which will hopefully turn up somewhere.

The film won the "Best Picture" of 1928 medal from "Photoplay" and placed #4 on the annual "Film Daily" honor roll.

********* Four Sons (2/13/28) John Ford ~ Margaret Mann, James Hall, George Meeker, Charles Morton

Four Sons review

[JoeytheBrit · 7/10 · 4 May 2020]

Wartime tale from John Ford which offers a rare opportunity to catch James Hall, a one-time major star whose career failed when he fell victim to booze. Ford reins in the sentiment for once, despite building the film around sweet little Margaret Mann as the mother of the four brothers who find themselves on opposite sides during WWI. The result is quite enjoyable thanks largely to an array of comical supporting characters.

Beautiful heart

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 17 July 2020]

The biggest interest point for me seeing 'Four Sons' was John Ford, a truly fine director and a versatile one, doing many films in many different genres. Including from personal opinion the definitive director of the Western genre. Also really liked the subject matter and appreciate silent film hugely, the positive reception to the film also helped. Even if there was the potential trap of it being too melodramatic and over-emotive, though actually it sounded very emotional.

'Four Sons' turned out to be exactly that. While it may not be one of the great director's very best or most iconic films (am most familiar with his films from the 40s and 50s decades), it is one of his best early ones and one of not many to be properly great. 'Four Sons' overcomes all the potential limitations that silent film can have that have eluded quite a few films around this time and to me it was definitely more genuinely emotional than it was overly melodramatic.

Very, very little wrong, though the brothers' reunion on the battlefield did seem too much of a too much by chance coincidence.

However, 'Four Sons' is incredibly well made. Ford's films always did look great, namely in his Westerns with how the photography captured those majestic locations. Even for so early on there is nothing primitive looking here, it is beautifully and atmospherically filmed and really admired the attention to detail in the setting. The farewell to wife scene is one of the standouts of particularly well shot scenes. The music is haunting and has an emotional but not overwrought edge.

Moreover, Ford directs with ease and doesn't seem uncomfortable or uninterested. 'Four Sons' is incredibly moving, of all my recent first time viewings this is easily in the top 3 films that made me weep the most. Hankies and tissues are absolutely needed for the heart-breaking climax, though there is emotional impact throughout without it getting too heavy. The film is always compelling with not a dull stretch.

All the acting is more than fine, Margaret Mann's performance is an affecting powerhouse and should have gotten some award consideration.

Summing up, great. 9/10

This flick covers the same ground as "Best Picture" Oscar Winner . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 21 October 2016]

. . . ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, except that Melodramatic Hokum and Sappy Schmaltz have been substituted for FRONT's Gritty Authenticity and Cutting-Edge Realism. The only character who rings True in FOUR SONS is the Fascist German "Major Von Stromm," because "it takes one to know one," and SONS director John Ford often infamously Out-Hitlered Hitler. Just as Adolph had a guy behind-the-scenes engineering his "Final Solution," Hollywood's version of J. Edgar Hoover--John Ford--conspired in the Shadows with Anti-American Traitors whom could have been shot for High Treason, such as Marion Mitchell Morrison and Joe McCarthy, to foment a virtual military coup against the U.S. Constitution, Freedom, and Democracy, outlawing Decency and Intelligent Thought. Ford's decades-long Reign of Terror was so total that it thoroughly traumatized Tinseltown into awarding his Second-Rate Output Umpteen Oscars as they declared him The Movie Messiah. SONS version of World War One comes from Fox Studio, so its relationship to Actual War is the same as Fox "News" connection to Actual News: an exercise in Total Distortion.

Incredibly beautiful direction and cinematography

[planktonrules · 10/10 · 9 January 2010]

When this film begins, you'll no doubt notice how beautiful the cinematography is as well as the accompanying musical score. Although this is a silent film, technically it is lovely--one of the prettiest silents I have ever seen--and I have seen a ton of them! The way shots were framed, the camera angles and the composition were perfect. All this is very evident--even with a print that is far from perfect.

The next thing I noticed was the look of the film itself. Perhaps it was because the film was made only a decade after WWI, but regardless, the look of the villages, the characters and the costumes were great. The muttonchops, the clothes, the haircuts, the buildings--everything looked as if it were filmed in Bavaria at about 1910. As a former history teacher, I had to admire this attention to detail.

The story is about a family in which a widow has four sons. One of them, a gentle soul, will eventually go to America and the other three good sons will stay behind. Ultimately, you know that this will bring the three into conflict during WWI--but all this is much later in the film. The only inkling of this are scenes involving one son (who is in the military) and some nasty stereotypical career German officer who struts about the town-showing his contempt for pretty much everyone--an obvious allusion to German militarism.

Later, when the war comes, the family is destroyed. Three sons fight for the Germans and the fourth fights for his adopted land, America. This is all very touching and sad. There is even a scene where the American son meets one of his dying brothers on the battlefield. It, too is touching, but also a bit ridiculous--after all, what were the odds against such a meeting?! Following the war, the three sons who fought for Germany are dead and the surviving son returns to America. Soon, he sends for his mother and in a touching series of scenes, she's off to a new land. Oddly, to get into the country, according to the film, a person needed to know the alphabet! And, since she is unschooled, this poses a bit of a problem. In an odd mix-up, however, she leaves Ellis Island and gets lost in the crowd--not knowing the language and having no idea how to find her beloved Joseph. Fortunately, all is well--leading to one of the finest and most sentimental endings I have ever seen.

Overall, a wonderful silent--one of the best. It not only is technically well made, but is incredibly sentimental and shows an aspect of American history that has been mostly forgotten. A great film--one of the best of the era--yet sadly few today have heard of it. So why is this film currently only rated 6.9 on IMDb?

Moderately effective soaper

[mgmax · 5/10 · 4 October 1999]

A huge, huge hit in 1928 and the winner of the Photoplay Medal of Honor (a fan-chosen award that was very big then), this soap opera actually offers little that you wouldn't have seen in an earlier and more powerful hit, The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. (Except the village sets-- you saw those in Sunrise.) It's a similar saga about a family whose members wind up on opposite sides of the big war (WWI); only after the war ends does the story take a new direction, when the mother comes to America to visit the son who moved there. These scenes, though somewhat manipulative (the mom gets lost at Ellis Island and winds up on a subway car in the city-- a neat trick if it didn't involve ever being on a boat), are the most moving parts of the movie.

Must see Classic

[ROC-7 · 9/10 · 30 May 2010]

By chance I wound up watching this wonderfully beautifully crafted film on all counts this evening on Turner. The film work is masterfully done with John Ford's usual care and sensitivity to his audience. Mary Mann is outstanding as the mother of her ever faithful sons who go to war. Many will remember her right away as the sweet Grandma in The Little Rascals "Go fly a Kite" and proves what a powerful performer she was and it's a pity she was not given more opportunities.

James Hall who plays Joseph who goes to America to seek his fortune is a real find and I would like to know more about him. Handsome and quite charming and it's puzzling why he was not utilized in his career as well. A silent film that would be a nice introduction to anyone who has been hesitant about watching this lost art form. Worth the time and love to own this if it ever comes out in DVD.

A Dreamy and Evocative Time

[kidboots · 8/10 · 19 August 2010]

Expressionist cinema hit Hollywood in a big way in the mid twenties. With the release of such European masterpieces as Fritz Langs' "Metropolis", Mauritz Stiller's "The Saga of Gosta Berling", Murnau's "The Last Laugh" and "Variety" and of course "The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari", Hollywood became very self conscious and, for a time turned to Europe for inspiration. No studio embraced this exciting new cinema more than Fox studios - William Fox signed F.W. Murnau and gave him a free reign to direct the film "Sunrise". Even John Ford, who was heavily influenced by D.W. Griffith, changed and slowed down his style in "Four Sons" to match Murnau. Sets of the small village in "Sunrise" were re-used for the New York sequences in "Four Sons". The script was also taken from a "stream of consciousness" screen treatment by an uncredited Herman Bing.

This movie is slow and sentimental (but in a nice way), telling the story of Mother Bernle and her four sons - Frans (Ralph Bushman), a soldier, fun loving Joseph (James Hall), Johann (Charles Morton), a blacksmith and Andreas (George Meeker), a goat herd. The mood is instantly darkened when Major Von Stromm gets off the train - uniforms not buttoned correctly and stray animals are a source of irritation to him. Joseph, who is yearning to go to America, also falls foul of him for dropping hay from a wagon. That night there is a big birthday celebration for Mother Bernle - the last piece of happiness before the war comes.

Joseph, with money his mother has given him goes to America but even though his letters are full of his new family and the store he now manages, he can never forget the indignity he suffered at the hands of Von Stromm and as soon as America enters the war he enlists. For once adding dialogue to a silent film gives "Four Sons" one of it's most powerful moments, when in the trenches, Joseph hears a soldier calling "Mutterchen" - "little Mother" and when he goes to his aid, finds it is his brother, Andreas, dying. After this the film slips into triteness - instead of finishing with the mother's reunion with Joseph, there is about 20 minutes of the mother's efforts to pass an English exam to migrate to America, her problems at Ellis Island (she is made to look like a naughty schoolgirl as she attempts and fails to recite the alphabet) and the "lost in the big city" scene, where a kindly policeman directs her to Joseph's home. I think the film would have been more heartfelt without the last part.

Frans - Ralph Bushman - Francis X. Bushman's son, this was probably his most prestigious film and his name was usually found down the cast list.

Johann - Charles Morton was a leading man of the late silents/ early talkies but by the mid 30s his career had fizzled out.

Andreas - George Meeker - "Four Sons" was the first in a long career that stretched to the early days of TV. For me his most memorable role was as Sidney Fox's straitlaced fiancé in "Strictly Dishonorable" (1931).

Joseph - James Hall, in 1928, had the film world at his feet (he was yet to star in "Hell's Angels"). He was a great bet for film stardom but booze got in the way. By the time he made "Millie" he looked bloated and old (he was only 31) and he made his last film in 1932.

Highly Recommended.

Pinnacle of Silent Film-making

[pursnickety · 8/10 · 13 January 2010]

John Ford is truly great filmmaker this is the pinnacle (well in my opinion) of silent film. Margaret Mann is a revelation her performance is so enthralling especially in some of the final scenes at the end of the picture.

The story is a strong one but the direction and the way it is put together is truly sensational Ford himself is Irish and this film i feel may be close to his roots.

I was amazed the film didn't have many title cards however it was so simple to follow and by the end of it you're moved by mann's performance. you feel and care for the characters the whole way through that's the mark of a great film.

And for the film buffs watch the early scenes in the film you got to love the tracking shot the mark of master John Ford

One Of Ford's Best

[januszlvii · 10/10 · 6 May 2020]

Four Sons is without question one of John Ford's best films, and should be better known. It is about a Bavarian woman named Mama Bernie, and her four sons. This is a God fearing woman who despite tragedy's always made life better for those around her. For example one of her son's named Joseph ( James Hall) wanted to take a job opportunity in America, she gave him the money she had hidden away, and would make "The best honey cakes in Bavaria" for the kids. All she ever wanted was grandkids. Spoilers ahead: Three of the kids join the German military and die, while Joseph joins the American military and for that reason people in her small town shun her, because they consider her the mother of a traitor. Joseph is the one who gets married and has a son, and while he is away fighting the war, his wife ( June Collier) makes their small business successful ( turning a deli into a restaurant). When he gets home, his son reminds him you forgot to bring grandma with you. So he sends her money to come. Of course, things do not work out perfectly because at Ellis Island you need to know the alphabet to enter the US, and she cannot read or write. She ends up in New York very lost. But a policeman comes up to her and because she only spoke German, has a German speaking policeman talk to her and bring her to Joseph's home. Earlier,Joseph and his wife went out to get her and left the sin home, but when they came back, they found her sleeping in his chair, cuddling her grandson. She was happy, because she finally got what she wanted. Again a great film and one of Ford's best. 10/10 stars.

In The Mood For Ford?

[FerdinandVonGalitzien · 4/10 · 19 July 2008]

In the typical German provincial town of Burgendorf lives a charming old woman, Dame Bernle, and her handsome and beloved four sons; they live a tranquil life among their classic Teutonic neighbours until one day war starts and Dame Bernle's beloved sons must join the army.

This German count must confess that the films of Herr John Ford, the director of "Four Sons", have never been much to the liking of this aristocrat. His characters are stereotypes and he repeats the same themes again and again throughout his career. For these reasons it is not strange that this German count is not usually in the mood for Ford.

This time "Four Sons" also includes stereotyped characters, Germans this time, not Irish… ( fortunately there is one true-life character in the whole film, a wicked, evil Maj. von Stomm with monocle included ) . People walk around in the bucolic provincial German town where everyone dresses like Germans, drink like Teutons and you have small girls with pigtails, martial geese splash in a pond nearby and everyone is happy. Absolute nonsense, natürlich! Germans are serious not merry people!.

Such German incongruities are at least visually perfect thanks to superb sets and great cinematography, all elegantly filmed by Herr Ford whose use of the camera is especially astonishing during the war trenches scene.

But the most interesting aspect, indeed the great revelation made while revisiting "Four Sons" for this German count was that this aristocrat noticed a strange and perverse undercurrent in the story. Each time that charming Mutterchen Bernle gives thanks to God, something terrible happens almost immediately afterwards. The first time that she does so, war starts; the second time she intones the mysterious incantation, three of her beloved sons die in the war. The third time that Mutterchen Bernle give thanks to God she is in New York, in order to be together with her only surviving son, and -remembering that "Four Sons" was produced during the silent year of 1928- well… logically Mutterchen Bernle was the cause of the Wall Street crash of 1929!!.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must avoid old German ladies who bring bad luck.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/

John Ford's Expressionistic WW1 Film

[springfieldrental · 8/10 · 1 May 2022]

Director John Ford was always intrigued by the expressionistic movement emerging out of Germany in the 1920s, especially when German director F. W. Murnau was hired in 1926 by the same studio he was working. Ford was able to personally witness Murnau's techniques while directing his first Hollywood movie, "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans" (1927). Ford's observations were put to good use in his World War One drama, February 1928's "Four Sons." Based on a short story by I. A. R. Wylie, "Four Sons" contains elements of expressionism that would remain with the director throughout his career.

Three particular visual scenarios stand out in "Four Sons" to reflect Murnau's influence on Ford. Set in Bavaria before the Great War, a widowed mother is given a letter by a mailman who appears as a spitting image of actor Emil Jannings in Murnau's 1924 "The Last Laugh." The mailman twists his long mustache in the same manner Jannings did as a hotel doorman. The letter is from one of her son's friends who has invited him to America for a job. The mother funds her son Joseph's trip by giving him all of her life savings without telling him where the money came from.

Another expressionistic element is the film's use of shadows, so reminiscent of Murnau's 1922 "Nosferatu." As her two sons, now in the German Army, are leaving her for the Russian front, Ford uses the shadow of the mother's hands to show her caressing their faces, a premonition of what lies ahead for the brothers. Later, when the postman delivers mail informing her the two sons have died, the mail carrier is shown in a long shadow and not as the jovial man portrayed earlier.

A sequence that imitates Murnau's "Sunrise" famous camera movement through the marshes following actor George O'Brien, Ford uses the exact Fox Studio set with the same moving camera suspended from the ceiling to track Joseph on the front lines. Joseph runs in front of his fellow soldiers to answer the call of a wounded German crying for his mother. Coincidentally, it is the fourth brother, Andreas, who Joseph stumbles upon, setting up a highly-emotional farewell between the two brothers, all bathed in expressionistic lighting.

The tale is not anti-German but an anti-war message of the needless killing of young men. Ford still retains his sentimental touch in "Four Sons." The director uses his soft focus during the highly-charged emotional scenes, he frames busy backdrops with the sharp focus foreground of his main characters, and he includes the portrayal of the vulnerable in a sea of humanity (the New York City scenes used the same city sets Murnau constructed for his "Sunrise".). But "Four Sons" also witnesses a new Ford with his camera moving much greater than in the past, his use of shadows and his sharper contrasting lighting, all gleaned from the stylistic elements he learned from the German director.