The Fourth Commandment is a 1927 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

Emory Johnson Alfred Emory Johnson (March 16, 1894 – April 18, 1960) was an American actor, director, producer, and writer. As a teenager, he started acting in silent films. Early in his career, Carl Laemmle chose Emory to become a Universal studio leading ...

and based on the short story "The Fourth Commandment" by

Emilie Johnson Emilie Johnson (1867 – 1941) was a Swedish-American author, scenarioist, and movie producer. She was the mother of American actor, director, producer, and writer Emory Johnson. In 1912, Emory Johnson dropped out of college and embarked upon a ...

. The film stars

Belle Bennett Belle Bennett (born Ara Belle Bennett; April 22, 1891 – November 4, 1932), was a stage and screen actress who started her career as a child as a circus performer. She later performed in theater and films. Early life and career Bennett was ...

Henry Victor Henry Victor (2 October 1892 – 15 March 1945) was an English-born character actor who had his highest profile in the film silent era, he appeared in numerous film roles in Britain, before emigrating to the US in 1939 where he continued ...

June Marlowe June Marlowe (born Gisela Valaria Goetten, November 6, 1903 – March 10, 1984) was an American film actress who began her career during the silent film era. She was best known for her performance of "Miss Crabtree" in the ''Our Gang'' sho ...

, and

Mary Carr Mary Carr (née Kenevan; March 14, 1874 – June 24, 1973), was an American film actress and was married to the actor William Carr. She appeared in more than 140 films between 1915 and 1956. She was given some of filmdoms plum mother roles in ...

. The film was released on March 20, 1927 by

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

. The Fourth Commandment is - "Honor your father and your mother. . ."

Plot

The Graham family falls on hard times. A childhood love affair between Gordon Graham, played by Malcolm Jones, and Marjorie Miller, played by Lorraine Rivero, is squashed by Marjorie's mother, the social climber Mrs. Miller played by Catherine Wallace. Gordon, now played by

, goes away to college, returns home, and marries Virginia, played by

. Four years after their child's birth, Sonny (Wendell Phillips Franklin), Virginia, no longer wants to be a stay-at-home mom. She wants to return to the workforce. Virginia's mother-in-law, Mrs. Graham, played by

, makes an offer to the couple. Gordon and Virginia can move in with her, and she will take care of Sonny. After living awhile with Mrs. Graham, selfish Virginia becomes jealous of her mother-in-law's devotion to her son. She issues an ultimatum – Gordon's mother goes, or she will leave. Gordon can't kick his mother out of her house. Frustrated, Virginia takes Sonny, moves out, and gets a divorce. Virginia then sets her sights on her wealthy boss - Frederick Stoneman, played by Frank Elliott. They get married. Later Stoneman is found guilty of embezzlement and sent to prison. Virginia is now destitute, unmarried, and no future prospects. Sonny, played by

Robert Agnew Robert Agnew (June 4, 1899 – November 8, 1983) was an American movie actor who worked mostly in the silent film era, making 65 films in both the silent and sound eras. He was born in Dayton, Kentucky. A review of ''The Heart of Broadway'' i ...

, is now a grown man and happily married. Sonny arranged for his poor mother to live with him and his wife. Soon Sonny's wife becomes jealous of Virginia's devotion to her son. Sonny and his wife move to Paris and take Virginia with them. Virginia has trouble dealing with the demands of Sonny's wife. The circle is now complete; Virginia decides to disappear in the streets of Paris. Gordon and his wife, Marjorie, are attending a business function in Paris. They are recognized on the streets of Paris by a haggard-looking woman. As the mystery woman walks to greet them, Virginia dies in the street.

Cast

Film name

A few periodicals have incorrectly labeled the film as - FOURTH COMMANDMENT. The final determination can be made by company's registration with the US government office of copyrights. Shown below is the entry from the Catalog of Copyright Entries-Cumulative Series dated 1951 -

Preservation status

A report created by film historian and archivist David Pierce for the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

claims: * 75% of original silent-era films have perished. *14% of the 10,919 silent films released by major studios exist in their original 35mm or other formats. *11% survive in full-length foreign versions or on film formats of lesser image quality. Many silent-era films did not survive for reasons as explained on this Wikipedia

page Page most commonly refers to: * Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to: Roles * Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation * Page (servant), traditionally a young m ...

directed 13 films - 11 were silent, and 2 were

Talkies A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

. ''The Fourth Commandment'' was the first film in Emory Johnson's eight-picture contract with

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...

. The film's original length is listed at 8 reels. According to the

website, this film has the status of:The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: ''The Fourth Commandment''
/ref> *Archive: BFI / National Film And Television Archive (London) bb Library of Congress (Washington) sw*Holdings: Foreign Archive *Completeness: complete *Note: Digital files produced from 16mm print on loan from a private collector: Usw *Note: BFI is 35mm incomplete Copies of this movie are not available on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

, movie vendors, or the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

Gallery

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fourth Commandment, The 1927 adventure films 1920s romance films 1927 films 1927 drama films American adventure films American black-and-white films American romantic drama films American silent feature films Film Booking Offices of America films Melodrama films Lost American films Universal Pictures films Films directed by Emory Johnson 1920s English-language films 1920s American films Silent romantic drama films Silent adventure films Silent American drama films