Four Sons (1928)
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73% of users liked it
(154 ratings)
Long though lost, Four Sons reemerged in the 1960s, proving anew that the silent films of director John Ford were every bit as accomplished as his talkies. More "Germanic" in tone and texture than later Ford films, Four Sons is the story of the Bernle family of Bavaria. Mother Bernle… More Long though lost, Four Sons reemerged in the 1960s, proving anew that the silent films of director John Ford were every bit as accomplished as his talkies. More "Germanic" in tone and texture than later Ford films, Four Sons is the story of the Bernle family of Bavaria. Mother Bernle (Margaret Mann) dotes upon her four sons Joseph (James Hall), Johann (Charles Morton), Franz (Francis X. Bushman Jr.) and Andres (George Meeker), but is powerless in guiding their destinies. When WW I breaks out, her sons march off to the front: one of the boys fights for the AEF, the others for the Kaiser. The film's most poignant sequence takes place on the battlefield, when one of the sons stumbles upon his mortally wounded brother. Though the dying man's plaintive cries are heard on the Fox Movietone soundtrack, the scene itself is effectively played in pantomime. An updated version of Four Sons, wherein the locale was switched from Bavaria to Czechoslovakia, was filmed in 1940, starring Don Ameche, Alan Curtis, Robert Lowery and George Ernest. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Critic Reviews
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Michael E. Grost, Classic Film and Television
Well made family chronicle offers a blistering pacifist attack on war.
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Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
This is Ford at his most visually baroque.
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Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
The moving sentimental tale about the horrors of war registered with the public, who made it a smashing box office hit.
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Cast
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Margaret Mann
as Mother Bernle
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James Hall
as Joseph Bernle
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Earl Foxe
as Major Von Stomm
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June Collyer
as Annabelle Bernle
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Charles Morton
as Johann Bernie
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George Meeker
as Andres Bernle
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Wendell Franklin
as James Henry
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Albert Gran
as Postman
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Auguste Tollaire
as Burgomaster
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Frank Reicher
as Schoolmaster
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Jack Pennick
as Joseph's American Friend
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Hughie Mack
as Innkeeper
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Ruth Mix
as Johann's Girl
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Leopold Archduke of Austria
as German Captain
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Ferdinand Schumann-Heink
as Staff Surgeon
- Stanley Blystone
- Hans Furberg
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Michael Mark
as Von Stomm's Orderly
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Robert Parrish
as Joseph's son
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John Wayne
as Extra
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Francis X. Bushman Jr.
as Franz Bernle
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L.J. O'Connor
as Aubergiste
- Constant Franke
