Four Daughters (1938)
SPOILER ALERT….I TALK ABOUT THE ENDING
The film opens with spring in Briarwood. Sweet music and singing fill the air, and Professor Adam Lemp (Claude Rains) conducts his small dreamy-eyed female ensemble. Emma Lemp (Gale Page), his oldest daughter, is the object of affection of Ernest Talbot (Dick Foran). Ernest lives next door and works for the florist. He is constantly sending flowers to Emma, who time-after-time rebuffs his affections. Thea Lemp (Lola Lane) refers to herself as the smart sister. She has met Ben Crowley (Frank McHugh) a wealthy man who has set his sights on her. She is unsure if she loves him, but she knows that he will give her a comfortable life. Kay Lemp (Rosemary Lane) has a chance at a music scholarship, and is constantly practicing her singing under her father’s direction. Kay is very talented, but she is unsure about leaving home. The youngest daughter, Ann Lemp (Priscilla Lane), is cheerful, impulsive, and dreaming of adventures to write in her diary. Ann does not want anything to change in the Lemp household, and that includes her sisters getting married.
Things begin to change when Ann’s violin playing is disturbed by the swinging of the squeaky gate in front of the house. Felix Deitz (Jeffrey Lynn) has come to town to see Professor Lemp for assistance in getting a job at the Briarwood Music Foundation, of which Professor Lemp is Dean of the Faculty. Felix comes across as arrogant, charming, and cheerful. Quickly everyone in the Lemp house falls under his spell. Though all of the sisters appear to have fallen for Felix, it is Ann that Felix is in love with.
Jeffrey Lynn as Felix Deitz
As Felix prepares to win the prize at the music festival, he asks his friend Mickey Borden (John Garfield) to come and assist with the orchestration of his composition. In contrast to Felix, Mickey is dark, sarcastic, and unreliable. Felix who had entered the Lemp house enthusiastically swinging on a squeaky gate, our first introduction to Mickey is him surrounded by a cloud of cigarette smoke playing a moody composition on the piano in the family house. The song is one that Felix has composed himself, with no beginning and no end. Ann is confused by a song that only has a middle she sees it as “dangling in mid-air with no face, no feet.” During Mickey’s monologue, Ann and the audience are given insight into Mickey’s feelings about “fate” being against him.
“They’ve been at me now for nearly a quarter of a century, no let up. First, they said let him do without parents, he’ll get along. Then, they decided, he doesn’t need any education, that’s for sissies. Then, right at the beginning they tossed a coin. Heads he’s poor, tails he’s rich. So they tossed a coin, with two heads. Then for the finally, they got together on talent. ‘Sure,’ they said ‘let him have talent. Not enough to let him do anything on his own, anything good or great, just enough to let him help other people. That’s all he deserves.’ Well you put all this together, and you’ve got Michael Bolgaurd.”
Ann is determined to figure out Mickey, make him laugh and make him feel that he belongs. There is a cute little scene with Ann decorating happy smiling gingerbread cookies for the family and their acquaintances; Mickey’s cookie has a huge frown. She takes it off and puts a smile with the icing. Unlike the cookie which can be changed by human hands, Mickey is still a brooding cloud living in the house. However, he is falling for Ann and kisses her.
Felix too has continued to fall for Ann, and the two decide to get married. Upon the announcement of their engagement, there are mixed feelings in the house. Kay suddenly decides that she will leave for Philadelphia to study for her scholarship. Thea finally decides to set a date for her wedding to Ben. Emma leaves the room crying, telling Aunt Etta that she is in love with Felix.
On the day of Ann and Felix’s wedding, Mickey set on hurting Ann tells her of Emma’s feelings for Felix. Ann sacrificing her happiness for her sisters decides to elope with Mickey. A telegram arrives at the house just as the ceremony is intended to begin, letting the family know that Ann and Felix have eloped. Ernest, typically nervous and unable to find the words to express himself, stands before the guests and speak for the family.
Things are difficult for Ann and Mickey. Mickey continues to struggle to find success and create a stable life for him and Ann. Hoping to raise their spirits, the two return to the Lemp house for Christmas. Emma is engaged to Ernest, having fallen for him after he took care of the family after Ann’s elopement. Felix too returns to the house, having been in Seattle. Absent from the holiday affair is Kay who will be singing on the radio that evening. During the jovial evening Mickey is still an outsider, he realizes that Ann and Felix still have feelings for each other. Mickey offers to drive Felix to the train station to talk to him. He apologizes for having “messed things up” for Felix and Ann. Felix gives him money to use on Ann. On his way home, as if entranced by the falling snow, Felix fatally crashes the car.
The film ends with spring at the Lemp house. The family is gathered around playing their instruments with Kay singing. Ann is distracted by the sound of the squeaky front gate; it is Felix who has returned to the house to ask Ann to marry him.
The daughters in the film are played by three real life sisters; Priscilla Lane, Rosemary Lane, and Lola Lane. The fourth Lane sister Leota Lane was replaced in the film by Gale Page. The film, Four Daughters, was adapted as a radio drama for Lux Radio Theater, broadcast on December 18, 1939. This time the three Lane sisters were joined by their sister Leota Lane as Emma. John Garfield and Jeffrey Lynn also appeared in the broadcast, reprising their roles as Mickey and Felix respectively. The film was so popular that Warner Brothers attempted to re-create the magic in the film Daughter’s Courageous released in 1939. The film includes the same director and much of the same cast, the three Lane sisters, Gale Page, Claude Rains and John Garfield. However, the story line is completely different. The lives of the Lemp family do continue in the sequel films, Four Wives (1939) and Four Mothers.
From left to right: Priscilla Lane, Rosemary Lane, Lola Lane
John Garfield with Dorothy McGuire, Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)
Given Warner Brother’s reputations for gritty realism, it is no surprise that they would be interested in signing John Garfield as a contract actor. Four Daughters was John Garfield’s first film in Hollywood, prior to this he was a well-known stage actor in New York. His performance in Four Daughters garnered him a Best Supporting Actor nomination, and caused Jack Warner to take notice of his new contract player. Before the brooding and dark emotions of Marlon Brando and James Dean, Garfield brought a refreshing realism to his characters emotions that were not often seen during films at this time, and critics and audiences took notice. Over-night, John Garfield became a movie star. To capitalize on his new star, Warner Brothers brought his character back in the film Four Wives in flashbacks using scenes from Four Daughters.
Four Daughters will be shown on May 1st as part of an evening devoted to films starring Priscilla Lane.
Brother Rat (1938) 8:00PM (ET)
Four Daughters (1938) 9:45PM (ET)
Silver Queen (1942) 11:30PM (ET)
Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938) 1:00AM (ET)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) 2:30AM (ET)
Varsity Show (1937) 4:30AM (ET)
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This is a revised version of a post that appeared on March 1, 2013 as part of the John Garfield Blogathon hosted by They Don’t Make ‘Em Like They Used To.
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