Four Daughters

Four Daughters (1938)

Musician Adam Lemp and his four equally musical daughters, Emma, Ann, Kay, and Thea, live happily together. Each daughter has an upstanding young man for whom she cares. However, the arrival of a cynical, slovenly young composer named Mickey Borden turns the household upside-down, and romantic and tragic complications ensue.

Date of release
1938-08-09
TMDB
6.6 / 10 (35)
Runtime
1h 30m
Genres
Drama, Music, Romance
Director
Michael Curtiz
Collection
Four Daughters Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: Sister Act
  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 5

Four Daughters is a 1938 American romance film that tells the story of a happy musical family whose lives and loves are disrupted by the arrival of a charming young composer who interjects himself into the daughters' romantic lives. His cynical, bitter musician friend comes to help orchestrate his latest composition and complicates matters even more. The movie stars the Lane Sisters and Gale Page, and features Claude Rains, Jeffrey Lynn, John Garfield, and Dick Foran. The three Lanes were sisters and members of a family singing trio.

Production

Contemporary sources report that Errol Flynn was originally cast as Felix, but dropped out because of illness. According to TCM, Flynn was actually unhappy with the size of the part. Modern sources indicate that Michael Curtiz wanted Burgess Meredith to play Mickey, but he was unavailable. Garfield modeled his performance on troubled pianist Oscar Levant (with whom Garfield would later co-star in 1946's Humoresque).

The classical music that plays a key part in the film is not identified and the composers are not credited on screen. The only onscreen credit is “Music by Max Steiner”. Records credit Franz Schubert and his Serenade, which opens the film and is played again near the end. According to TCM.com, Harry Warren, Al Dubin, Allie Wrubel, Elliot Grennard, Hugo Friedhofer, Heinz Roemheld and Bernard Kaun contributed to the music.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended