''Four Frightened People'' is a 1934 American

Pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

adventure film directed by

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...

and starring

Claudette Colbert Claudette Colbert ( ; born Émilie Claudette Chauchoin; September 13, 1903July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent of talking pictures ...

Herbert Marshall Herbert Brough Falcon Marshall (23 May 1890 – 22 January 1966) was an English stage, screen and radio actor who starred in many popular and well-regarded Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s. After a successful theatrical career in the Uni ...

Mary Boland Mary Boland (born Marie Anne Boland; January 28, 1882 – June 23, 1965) was an American stage and film actress. Early years Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Boland was the daughter of repertory actor William Augustus Boland, and his wife M ...

, and

William Gargan William Dennis Gargan (July 17, 1905February 17, 1979) was an American film, television and radio actor. He was the 5th recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1967, and in 1941, was nominated for the Academy Award for Be ...

. It is based on the 1931 novel by E. Arnot Robertson.

Plot

The film tells the story of two men (Marshall and Gargan) and two women (Colbert and Boland), who leave from a

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pe ...

-ridden ship and reach the Malayan jungle. The relationships between the four people before they enter the jungle are examined and are transformed as they interact with natural phenomena and the natives who populate the jungle. The film also relates how each of the four people carried on in life after they emerged from the jungle.

Cast

as Judy Jones *

as Arnold Ainger *

as Mrs. Mardick *

as Stewart Corder *

Leo Carrillo Leopoldo Antonio Carrillo (; August 6, 1880 – September 10, 1961), known professionally as Leo Carrillo, was an American actor, vaudevillian, political cartoonist, and conservationist. He was best known for playing Pancho in the television ...

as Montague *

Nella Walker Nella Walker (March 6, 1886 – March 22, 1971) was an American actress and vaudeville performer of the 1920s through the 1950s. Biography The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Walker, she was born and raised in Chicago. In 1910, she marrie ...

as Mrs. Ainger *

Tetsu Komai (23 April 1894 – 10 August 1970), also known as Tetsuo Komai, was a Japanese-American actor, known for his minor roles in Hollywood films. Biography Born in Kumamoto, Kyushu, Komai had small parts in over 50 films from the 1920s until the ...

as Native Chief * Chris-Pin Martin as Native Boatman * Joe De La Cruz as Native *Minoru Nishida as Native * Teru Shimada as Native *E.R. Jinedas as Native *Delmar Costello as Sakais *

Ethel Griffies Ethel Griffies (born Ethel Woods; 26 April 1878 – 9 September 1975) was an English actress of stage, screen, and television. She is remembered for portraying the ornithologist Mrs. Bundy in Alfred Hitchcock's classic '' The Birds'' (1963). Sh ...

as Mrs. Ainger's Mother

Filming locations

* Hilo, Island of Hawai'i, Hawaii

Production crew

*Executive producer (uncredited) – Emanuel Cohen *Art Direction –

Roland Anderson Roland Anderson (November 18, 1903 – October 29, 1989) was an American movie art director. He received 15 Academy Award nominations but never won an Oscar. Anderson's first Oscar nomination was for his first film in 1933, ''A Farewell to Arms ...

*Production Manager (uncredited) – Roy Burns *Assistant Director (uncredited) –

Cullen Tate Cullen Tate (March 10, 1886 – October 12, 1947) was an American assistant director as well as a director. He was nominated for an Oscar in the dead category of Best Assistant Director at the 1934 Academy Awards for the film '' Cleopatra''. ...

, James Dugan *Sound Mixer (uncredited) – Harry Lindgren *Double (uncredited) – Mildred Mernie as Claudette Colbert, Bruce Warren as Herbert Marshall,

Leota Lorraine Leota Lorraine (1899–1974) was an American film actress. A leading lady and supporting player of the silent era. After the introduction of sound she generally played minor, often uncredited, parts. A stint as Mary Boland's stand-in led to h ...

as Mary Boland, Carl Mudge as William Gargan, Curley Dresden as Leo Carrillo

Reception

The film was a box office disappointment for Paramount.

Home media

This film, along with '' The Sign of the Cross'', '' Cleopatra'', ''

The Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

'' and ''

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

'', was released on DVD in 2006 by Universal Studios as part of ''The Cecil B. DeMille Collection''.

References

External links

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Stills
at pre-code.com 1934 films American black-and-white films Films directed by Cecil B. DeMille Films based on British novels Paramount Pictures films 1934 adventure films Films set in Malaysia American adventure films Films scored by Karl Hajos Films scored by Heinz Roemheld 1930s American films {{adventure-film-stub