Four Sons (1928) August 19, 2006
Posted by derek in : Reviews, Action-Adventure , trackback
This is a very good movie, just a pity Fox don’t restore it and put it properly on DVD, there are a lot of marks on the print though it certainly didn’t spoil my enjoyment.
This to me is the best of the early John Fords. Basically it tells the story of a German family with a mother and four sons. One of the sons doesn’t like the regimentation of the country and goes to live in the US. This gets interesting when the Great War breaks out. I thought the idea of splitting the family having one son in the US was very clever it gave it an extra dimension as an anti-war or even anti-authority movie.
Nice touch though possibly a little convenient for the US brother to discover his brother Andreas (fighting for Germany) dead on the battlefield but this was beautifully acted.
After the war the mother is invited to the US by the one surviving son. I liked the depiction of Ellis Island and the mother blundering around New York in a daze in the subway etc. Fascinating to see what the mother had to do to enter the US and how this is almost sent up in the movie.
I’m not an expert on these things but I’m unsure was Ellis Island still in existence as a gateway for immigrants in 1928 ? Whatever this was really interesting to see so close to the peak period of immigration from European countries. Lovely Movietone score with great song to accompany the heart warming ending. On the whole a fine film. (3 stars out of 5)
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Derek; is this available anywhere on DVD?
Sadly no John, the copy I saw came I think from a US broadcast on the Fox Movie channel.