Four Sons (1928)

Information from IMDb

Plot Summary
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 Johann and Andreas.
In America, Joseph has married and is running a delicatessen
. when America enters the war,
Joseph enlists to fight for the American side.
This causes problems for Mother Bernle, who is shunned in her village.
By ethanedwards

Full Cast
Margaret Mann ... Mother Bernle
James Hall ... Joseph 'Dutch' Bernle
Charles Morton ... Johann Bernle
Ralph Bushman ... Franz Bernle (as Francis X. Bushman Jr.)
George Meeker ... Andreas Bernle
June Collyer ... Annabelle
Earle Foxe ... Maj. von Stomm
Albert Gran ... The postman
Frank Reicher ... The schoolmaster
Archduke Leopold of Austria ... A captain
Ferdinand Schumann-Heink ... A staff sergeant
Jack Pennick ... The Iceman (Joseph's American friend)
Frank Baker ... Soldier (uncredited)
George Blagoi ... Officer (uncredited)
Stanley Blystone ... Officer (uncredited)
Carl Boheme ... Officer (uncredited)
Harry Cording ... (uncredited)
Constant Franke ... Officer (uncredited)
Wendell Phillips Franklin ... James Henry (uncredited)
Hans Fuerberg ... Officer (uncredited)
Joseph W. Girard ... Ellis Island examiner (uncredited)
Hans Joby ... Officer (uncredited)
Carmencita Johnson ... Baby (uncredited)
Bob Kortman ... German barber (uncredited)
Hughie Mack ... Innkeeper (uncredited)
Michael Mark ... Von Stomm's orderly (uncredited)
Tom McGuire ... Police sergeant (uncredited)
Ruth Mix ... Johann's girl (uncredited)
L.J. O'Connor ... Aubergiste (uncredited)
Robert Parrish ... Joseph's son (uncredited)
Harry Tenbrook ... Officer (uncredited)
August Tollaire ... The burgomeister (uncredited)
Tibor von Janny ... Officer (uncredited)
Duke Morrison ... Officer (uncredited)

Writing Credits
(Herman Bing uncredited
H.H. Caldwell titles (uncredited)
Katherine Hilliker titles (uncredited)
Philip Klein adaptation
I.A.R. Wylie story "Grandma Bernle Learns Her Letters" (as Miss I.A.R. Wylie)

Original Music
Carli Elinor (uncredited)

Cinematography
Charles G. Clarke
George Schneiderman

Art Department
Duke Morrison .... props (uncredited)

Trivia
* F.W. Murnau's city sets from Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) were re-used for the New York sequences.

Goofs
* Anachronisms: In the New York City sequences, which take place immediately after World War I (1919-1920), all of the women's fashions are strictly in the style of 1928, and all of the automobiles are of late 1920's design.

Filming Locations
Unknown

Four Sons is a 1928 silent 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).
It is one of only a handful of survivors out of the more than fifty silent films that
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. Though "silent," it was released
with a Movietone music and sound effects track.

It was remade in 1940 with Don Ameche and Eugenie Leontovich, directed by Archie Mayo,
albeit the time frame was moved up to World War II.

John Ford asked that Duke be assigned,
to the crew of this picture.
In what was supposedly an autumn scene,
and whilst the mother was crying
Duke's job was to toss up maple leaves,
so that a fan would blow them onto the set.

Duke remembered.

Quote

I'd go out and sweep the leaves away,
and get ready to do another take....
We kept doing this, over and over again,
and it got to be fairly monotonous

During one take, Duke the still in-experienced prop boy,
threw the leaves into the air, and watched them waft across the set.

Quote

I figured the scene was over

Said Duke

Quote

and I picked up the broom, went in, started to sweep.
I looked up, and I'm looking right into two cameras-
and they're turning!.
I just threw down down my goddamn broom
and started to walk off.

Ford shook his head and broke up laughing

Duke said

Quote

They took me back to Ford
and he bent me over, and kicked me in the a**

User Review

Quote

B]This classic John Ford masterpiece has been spoiled by bureaucratic incompentece.[/B]
Author: finki from Chelsea, MA

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.

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