Four Sons (1928)
Directed by: John Ford
Starring: Margaret Mann, James Hall, Charles Morton, Ralph Bushman, George Meeker
Length: 100 min.
Genre: Drama
Based on: "Grandma Bernle Learns Her Letters" by I. A. R. Wylie
One of, what has become, a flood of World War I movies. Throughout the 20s, it seemed like no one would touch the war, but I guess the movie moguls found out that war = ticket sales.
This movie is about the widow Mother Bernle, and her four son who semi-scatter throughout the world. Joseph moves to America, Franz joins the German army while Andreas and Johann both work near home. Andreas tends to the sheep while Johann works the forge.
When war breaks out, Andreas and Johann both join the war. Joseph marries in America and starts running his own store. Things start going bad for Mother Bernle when her sons start coming home dead, and when America joins the war and Joseph enlists for the Americans, Mother Bernle becomes "mother of a traitor".
When the war is over, and Mother Bernle has no reason to stay in her hometown, she moves to America to be with her only remaining son.
Yes, this was quite a downer of a movie. It also wasn't all that good. A very forgettable movie that didn't stand out in any way. One point of trivia would be that this was one of John Wayne's first movies. His 7th, to be exact. He appears as an uncredited extra. He only appears in 1 movie priot to the 1930 movie "The Big Trail" in which he appears in the credits, and that would be "Words and Magic". He appears in almost 20 movies before "The Big Trail" in which he is in extra/uncredited roles.
My Rating: 4/10
IMDB User Rating: 6.9 (151 votes)