Four Sons (1928)

Very best movie i ever watch

As Good As It Gets

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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.

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.

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.

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