![4 Devils ad in The Film Daily, Jan-Jun 1929 (page 1452 crop)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/4_Devils_ad_in_The_Film_Daily%2C_Jan-Jun_1929_%28page_1452_crop%29.jpg)
''4 Devils'' (also known as ''Four Devils'') is a 1928 American
silent drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
directed by German director
F. W. Murnau
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; December 28, 1888March 11, 1931) was a German film director, producer and screenwriter.
He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at th ...
and starring
Janet Gaynor. It is considered to be
lost
Lost may refer to getting lost, or to:
Geography
*Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland
* Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US
History
*Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
.
Premise
The plot concerns four orphans (
Janet Gaynor,
Nancy Drexel,
Barry Norton
Barry Norton (born Alfredo Carlos Birabén; June 16, 1905 – August 24, 1956) was an Argentine-American actor. He appeared in over 90 films, starting in silent films from 1925 until his death in 1956. He is perhaps best known for his role a ...
, and
Charles Morton) who become a high wire act, and centers around sinister goings-on at a circus. An old clown takes in the four children Charles, Adolf, Marion and Louise to protect them from the brutal circus owner who is their guardian. He raises them and trains them to become acrobats. The years pass and the four children soon become successful trapeze artists who call themselves the "Four Devils". Charles and Marion are now a couple. But when they perform at Cirque Olympia in Paris, Charles gets involved with a beautiful stranger. Marion learns about the relationship and is distracted by it. At the finale of her performance, in which she works without a net, she crashes. Marion survives, and Charles, touched by the near-catastrophe, returns to his girlfriend.
Cast
*
Janet Gaynor as Marion
**
Anne Shirley
Anne Shirley is a fictional character introduced in the 1908 novel '' Anne of Green Gables'' by L. M. Montgomery. Shirley is featured throughout the classic book series, which revolve around her life and family in 19th and 20th-century Prince Ed ...
as Marion as a girl (billed as Dawn O'Day)
*
Mary Duncan
Mary Duncan (August 13, 1894 – May 9, 1993) was an American stage and film actress. She is best known for her performances in F.W. Murnau's '' City Girl'' (1930) and ''Morning Glory'' (1933).
Early years
Duncan was born in Luttrellville ...
as The lady
*
Anders Randolf
Anders Randolf (December 18, 1870 – July 2, 1930) was a Danish American actor in American films from 1913 to 1930.
Biography
Anders was born in Viborg, Denmark, where he became a professional soldier in the Danish army and a world-class swo ...
as Cecchi
*
Barry Norton
Barry Norton (born Alfredo Carlos Birabén; June 16, 1905 – August 24, 1956) was an Argentine-American actor. He appeared in over 90 films, starting in silent films from 1925 until his death in 1956. He is perhaps best known for his role a ...
as Adolf
**
Philippe De Lacy
Philippe De Lacy (July 25, 1917 – July 29, 1995) was a French-American silent film era child actor who became a film producer, director, and cinematographer in adulthood.
Early life
Born during World War I, the already fatherless Philippe los ...
as Adolf as a child
*
Charles Morton as Charles
** Jack Parker as Charles as a child
*
André Cheron as Old roue
*
George Davis as Mean clown
*
Nancy Drexel as Louise
**
Anita Louise as Louise as a child
* Wesley Lake as Old clown
*
J. Farrell MacDonald
John Farrell MacDonald (June 6, 1875 – August 2, 1952) was an American character actor and director. He played supporting roles and occasional leads. He appeared in over 325 films over a four-decade career from 1911 to 1951, and directed fort ...
as The clown
*
Claire McDowell
Claire McDowell ( MacDowell; November 2, 1877 – October 23, 1966) was an American actress of the silent era. She appeared in 350 films between 1908 and 1945.
Early years
Claire MacDowell was born in New York City on November 2, 1877, the ...
as Woman
Production
''4 Devils'' was released by
Fox Film Corporation
The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American Independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attractions Film C ...
and was produced by
William Fox, who had hired Murnau to come to the United States. It was initially released as a silent with a synchronised music score and sound effects in October 1928, and grossed $100,000 in New York City, but because of the talkie picture craze, Fox pulled it from distribution and ordered sound to be added. A 25% sound version, incorporating "synchronised sound effects, music and dialogue sequences", was made without Murnau's cooperation.
Preservation status
No copies of either version of the film are known to exist, and ''4 Devils'' remains among the most sought after
lost films
A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress.
Conditions
During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...
of the silent era. Details of the movie can be found on the
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
for ''
Sunrise
Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon and its accompanying atmospheric effects.
Terminology
A ...
'',
[ released by Fox as part of their 20th Century Fox Studio Classics collection.
Film historian and collector ]William K. Everson
Keith William Everson (8 April 1929 – 14 April 1996) was an English- American archivist, author, critic, educator, collector, and film historian. He also discovered several lost films. Everson's given first names were Keith William, but he r ...
stated that the only surviving print was lost by actress Mary Duncan
Mary Duncan (August 13, 1894 – May 9, 1993) was an American stage and film actress. She is best known for her performances in F.W. Murnau's '' City Girl'' (1930) and ''Morning Glory'' (1933).
Early years
Duncan was born in Luttrellville ...
, who had borrowed it from Fox Studios. Martin Koerber, curator of Deutsche Kinemathek
Die Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen is a major German film archive located in Berlin.
History
The Deutsche Kinemathek opened in 1963. Until the opening of a permanent display in the Museum of Film and Television Berlin (Mu ...
, is more hopeful, writing that the print was given to Duncan, and that her heirs, if any, may yet have it.[
]
Other adaptations
The source novella by Herman Bang
Herman Joachim Bang (20 April 1857 – 29 January 1912) was a Danish journalist and author, one of the men of the Modern Breakthrough.
Biography
Bang was born in Asserballe, on the small Danish island of Als, the son of a South Jutlandic vicar ...
was first adapted into film in 1911 by Robert Dinesen
Robert Theodor Camillo Dinesen (23 October 1874 – 8 March 1972) was a Danish film actor and film director, director. He was first married to actress Laura Johanne Winter (1882-1930) and secondly to Christine Marie Christensen (1877-1935). He is ...
and Alfred Lind
Søren Estrup Alfred Lind (27 March 1879 – 29 April 1959) was a Danish cinematographer, screenwriter, and film director of the silent era. Lind was a prominent director in early Scandinavian cinema, and also worked in the German film industry. ...
, and finally in 1985 by Anders Refn
Anders Refn (born 8 April 1944) is a Danish film editor and director.
Biography
Refn graduated from the National Film School of Denmark in 1969. He has credits for 72 features and TV series, as well as a 10 shorts and 26 documentaries. Refn ...
. The screenplay for the 1928 film was novelized by Guy Fowler
Guy or GUY may refer to:
Personal names
* Guy (given name)
* Guy (surname)
* That Guy (...), the New Zealand street performer Leigh Hart
Places
* Guy, Alberta, a Canadian hamlet
* Guy, Arkansas, US, a city
* Guy, Indiana, US, an unincorpo ...
and published that year by Grosset and Dunlap as a hardcover Photoplay (movie tie-in) Edition.
References
External links
*
*
''4 Devils''
at Virtual History
{{F. W. Murnau
1928 films
1928 drama films
Fox Film films
Silent American drama films
American silent feature films
American black-and-white films
Circus films
1920s English-language films
Films about orphans
Films based on works by Herman Bang
Films based on Danish novels
Films directed by F. W. Murnau
Films produced by William Fox
Lost American films
Transitional sound drama films
Films with screenplays by Carl Mayer
Films with screenplays by Berthold Viertel
Remakes of American films
1928 lost films
Lost drama films
Early sound films
1920s American films