- Messages
- 17,190
- Location
- New York City
Four Daughters from 1938 with Priscilla Lane, John Garfield, Claude Rains, May Robson, Jeffrey Lynn, Rosemary Lane, Lola Lane, Gale Page, Dick Foran and Frank McHugh
Some movies have so many characters and such fast-paced, smart dialogue that you can only really appreciate them the second or third time you see them, when you are no longer focused on getting the names down and the plot straight.
Four Daughters, with its interesting characters and sharp, snappy dialogue, is that type of movie. Its story, really several stories, is romantic, charming, sad and heartbreaking all at once, just as life is in any large family like "the Lemps."
The Lemp family - get ready for it - has four early adult daughters, played by the three real-life Lane sisters Priscilla, Rosemary and Lola and Gale Page, plus a widowed father played by Claude Rains and a spinster aunt played by May Robson.
The male suitors—the bane of any father with pretty daughters - comprise Frank McHugh, Jeffrey Lynn, Dick Foran, and John Garfield. Garfield, here, won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award playing a rebellious young man, a persona that defined his career.
The Lemps are musical. Rains is the dean of music at the local college and the girls either sing or play instruments with Rains conducting his family "orchestra" for fun. It's a spirited, happy and busy household, but change is coming as the girls are thinking of marriage.
There are several relationships in play. Foran, the local florist, is trying to court Page, who is interested in Lynn, who has eyes for Priscilla. Practical Lola is considering a proposal from wealthy McHugh, whom she likes but doesn't love - his money keeps him in the running.
It's humming along with all the ups and downs you'd expect until Tolstoy's "a stranger comes to town" in the form of a handsome and surely pianist, played by John Garfield. He's there to help Lynn with his composition work, but he quickly garners the attention of Priscilla.
Garfield is angry at the world, or "the fates" as he calls them, because of his hard upbringing as an orphan and, as he sees it, his talent being shy of genius, which leaves him frustrated and poor. One could easily argue Garfield's bitterness self sabotages his success.
The happy Lemp home is both appealing and irritating to Garfield. It reminds him of what he never had, but since the Lemps embrace him, he can't help liking it too. It's Priscilla, though, who takes on "making him human" as a project, which sets up the movie's central conflict.
Priscilla and Lynn were on a glidepath to engagement and marriage, until Garfield takes Priscilla out of her comfort zone. Whom she marries, what happens to both men as a result and how her marriage develops is the climax of this engaging melodrama.
It works because the writing is sharp, fast and funny. You will need to see it several times to take in all the lines, such as when Rains playfully threatens to go down to City Hall to have his name removed from his daughters' birth certificates because they like "modern" music.
It also works because the acting talent is excellent. Yes, Garfield earned his Oscar, but each daughter, even the ones with the smaller roles, creates a believable and nuanced character. May Robson all but steals scenes as the lovable aunt.
Jeffrey Lynn gives one of his best performances as the charming and handsome musician who looks like life has always fallen nicely into place for him until Garfield catches Priscilla's eye. Rains is outstanding as the ringmaster of all this who knows he really controls nothing.
Finally, it works because it's charming, but not cloying. The Lemps are lovable but believable. You wish you could spend time with them, but their problems are real and they take some painful body blows along the way. There's a reason they made two sequels.
Director Michael Curtiz professionally moved his large cast through this busy story. Almost every scene is poignant, with transitions flowing so seamlessly they barely register. Even the obvious sets add to the charm, without tipping the movie into mawkishness.
Four Daughters is so well done you can only fully appreciate its seemingly "simple story" with multiple viewings. That's when you'll both catch the numerous smart lines you missed the first time through and pick up the many relationship nuances that flew by too fast.
With all the cultural change since 1938, for some, the focus on marriage in Four Daughters could make it irrelevant. But the well-developed characters of the young women still provide a window into the past and insight into dating and relationships, even today.
Last edited: