Movie #875 ........................."Four Daughters"

Movie #875 "Four Daughters" is a very weak predecessor to the wonderful film (one of my favorites "Young at Heart").  I woke up the other day with TCM in the background and I was all of a sudden reciting all the lines of dialogue, but wrong people were saying the lines.  It turned out to be this film from 1938, which was first done, and then it was recast in the 50s with Doris Day playing Ann (names were changed in the second cast), Gig Young playing Felix (the charmer), Ethel Barrymore playing the aunt (outstanding!) and the remarkable Frank Sinatra playing Mickey (Barney Sloane in the remake).  If you think Sinatra couldn't act, you are wrong and you need to see this movie and the one he won the academy award for (From Here to Eternity), and I think you would do a turnaround in your attitude.  Anyway, I have always liked "Young at Heart" because of the love story between Sinatra and Day -------well, that was ruined here because of a number of things they changed.  The biggest thing this film lacked was motivation of movement from one scene to the next ---- conflict, and deeper characterization.  So, bottom line, if you think this story is intriguing, in my opinion I'd say don't bother with this one, and move to the better remake entitled "Young at Heart" --- I think you'll enjoy it so much more!  Not even to mention the singing in the remake, esp.  "One for the road" --- it kills me every time I hear it sung by the one and only Frank Sinatra!

Four Daughters (1938)  90 minutes          I give it 2 stars out of 5.

Adam Lemp, the Dean of the Briarwood Music Foundation, has passed on his love of music to his four early adult daughters - Thea, Emma, Kay and Ann - who live with him and his sister, the girls' Aunt Etta, in the long time family home. Of the four, Kay has the greatest promise as a musical performer, specifically as a singer. Theirs is a loving family, however much the girls exasperate their father with their love of popular music, since he loves only the classics, most specifically Beethoven. The girls support each other however they can, but each is an individual with her own distinct personality and wants, including the type of man each wants as a husband. Practical but deep in her heart romantic Emma has long been courted by their next door neighbor, unassuming florist Ernest Talbot, and clever Thea wants to be Mrs. Ben Crowley, he a wealthy up and coming banker with prospects. Only the youngest, the fun loving Ann, states that she doesn't want to get married. Their collective lives change with the entry into their lives of two men. The first is Adam's old friend's son, popular music composer and conductor Felix Deitz, who easily gets a job at the foundation using his natural and sincere charm which he applies to all equally. Many women misconstrue that charm for romantic interest. The second is Felix's acquaintance, musician Mickey Borden, who he hires to orchestrate his latest composition. Mickey has a chip on his shoulders about what life has dealt him, which he uses in turn as a reason for living a reckless life. The two men make each of the four daughters reexamine what she thinks she wants in life, or more precisely who she wants, which for all may be the same person.
Actors:  Claude Rains plays the dad, Jeffrey Lynn places Felix, Frank McHugh plays Ben, May Robson plays the aunt, Priscilla Lane plays Ann and her sisters in real life play her sisters, but the biggest name in the  cast is John Garfield who plays Mickey.