Where Forgotten Films Dwell

Welcome to this site! It exists for one reason: to preserve the memory of films that have been forgotten about or under-appreciated throughout the ages. Take a seat, read an entry, leave a comment. You might discover your new favorite movie!

Sunday, July 31, 2011

BLOGATHON DAY #4

It's Day Four of Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear's 50's Monster Mash!!

Remember...follow my twitter feed for up-to-date information concerning new posts and blog updates! Follow me at NateHood257!

Jaime Grijalba
Gojira
http://exodus8-2.blogspot.com/

  The Quatermass Xperiment
Amanda
astairerogers.blogspot.com

 The Tingler
Paul J. Marasa
http://theconstantviewer.blogspot.com/

 The Crawling Eye
Hal
http://hornsection.blogspot.com/

 The Alligator People
Grand Old Movies
http://grandoldmovies.wordpress.com/

 The Giant Claw
Thomas Duke
http://cinemagonzo.blogspot.com/

It Came From Outer Space
Vulnavia Morbius
http://krelllabs.blogspot.com/

Remember! Read, enjoy, and leave comments!
Editor-in-Chief
Nathanael Hood

Saturday, July 30, 2011

BLOGATHON DAY #3

It's Day Three of Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear's 50's Monster Mash!!

Remember...follow my twitter feed for up-to-date information concerning new posts and blog updates! Follow me at NateHood257!

Forbidden Planet
Chris

The Curse of Frankenstein
Barry P.
http://cinematiccatharsis.blogspot.com/

Fiend Without a Face
Erin
http://initforthekills.com/

The Monolith Monsters
Dave
http://davesclassicfilms.blogspot.com/

The Day the Earth Stood Still
Rick
http://classic-film-tv.blogspot.com/

Night of the Demon
Rachel
http://thegirlwiththewhiteparasol.blogspot.com/

 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Brandie
http://trueclassics.wordpress.com/

Remember! Read, enjoy, and leave comments!
Editor-in-Chief
Nathanael Hood

Thursday, July 28, 2011

BLOGATHON DAY #2

It's day two of Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear's 50's Monster Mash!!
On a side note, follow my twitter feed for up-to-date information concerning new posts and blog updates! Follow me at NateHood257!
Now...let's get on with the show!



Mothra/The Thing from Another World 
Team Bartilucci


 This Island Earth
Caftan Woman


It Came From Beneath the Sea
Rich
I Married a Monster from Outer Space
Yvette


The Black Scorpion
Hal C. F. Astell
 Invasion of the Body Snatchers
John Greco

As always...leave comments and have fun!

Editor-in-Chief
Nathanael Hood

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

BLOGATHON DAY #1

It's here!  It's time for Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear's 50's Monster Mash!!


Let's get started with the first seven entries!!


20 Million Miles to Earth
Caroline


Tarantula
Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.



Wasp Woman
100 Years of Movies


Robot Monster
KC


Them!
Kevyn Knox


The Mole People
Cliff


Giant From the Unknown
Kevin

Remember: Read, Leave Comments, and Have Fun!!

Editor-in-Chief
Nathanael Hood

Monday, July 18, 2011

Monster Movie Blogathon Update #2

Alright, folks!  The Monster Mash blogathon is quickly catching up with us!  It's time to start assigning dates.


We have a whopping 43 participants!  Here they are:

The Blob - Ivan Lerner (http://ivanlandia1.blogspot.com/)
Them! - Kevyn Knox (http://themostbeautifulfraudintheworld.blogspot.com/)
Plan 9 From Outer Space - Stacia (http://www.shebloggedbynight.com)
The Day the Earth Stood Still - Rick (http://classic-film-tv.blogspot.com/)
Curse of the Undead - Toby (http://fiftieswesterns.wordpress.com/)
Gojira - Jaime Grijalba (http://Exodus8-2.blogspot.com)
Tarantula - Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. (http://thrillingdaysofyesteryear.blogspot.com)
Mothra/The Thing from Another World - Team Bartilucci (http://doriantb.blogspot.com/)
Bride of the Monster - Michaël Parent (http://cinephiliaque.blogspot.com/)
Curse of Frankenstein - Barry P. (http://cinematiccatharsis.blogspot.com/)
Forbidden Planet - Chris Michael (http://recentlyviewedmovies.blogspot.com/)
War of the Worlds - The Film Connoisseur (http://filmconnoisseur.blogspot.com/)
The Crawling Eye - Hal (http://hornsection.blogspot.com/)
The Tingler - Paul J. Marasa (http://theconstantviewer.blogspot.com/)
The Black Scorpion - Hal C. F. Astell (http://www.apocalypselaterfilm.com/)
Robot Monster - KC (http://classicmovieblog.blogspot.com/)
The Alligator People - Grand Old Movies (http://grandoldmovies.wordpress.com/) 
Wasp Woman - 100 Years of Movies (http://100yearsofmovies.blogspot.com/)
The Giant Behemoth - Lauren (http://laurenhairston.blogspot.com)
The Quatermass Xperiment - Amanda (astairerogers.blogspot.com)
The Monolith Monsters - Dave (http://davesclassicfilms.blogspot.com/)
20 Million Miles to Earth - Caroline (http://garbolaughs.wordpress.com/)
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms/The 7th Voyage of Sinbad - Jim Lane (http://jimlanescinedrome.blogspot.com/)
It Came From Beneath the Sea - Rich (http://widescreenworld.blogspot.com/)
Earth vs. Flying Saucers - Stuart (http://www.undy-a-hundy.com)
I Married a Monster From Outer Space - Yvette (http://yvettecandraw.blogspot.com/)
The Screaming Skull - Tim Brannan (http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/)
Giant from the Unknown - Kevin (http://kevinsmoviecorner.blogspot.com/)
The Aztec Mummy Against the Humanoid Robot - JHeft (http://whatheft.com/)
Curse of the Demon - Mr. Exploit (http://xploiting.blogspot.com/)
This Island Earth - Caftan Woman (http://caftanwoman.blogspot.com/)
Fiend Without a Face - Erin (http://initforthekills.com/)
Not of This Earth - Doug Bonner (http://www.postmodernjoan.com/wp02/)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers - John Greco (http://twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/)
Night of the Demon - Rachel (http://thegirlwiththewhiteparasol.blogspot.com/)
The Mole People - Cliff (http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com)
The Giant Claw - Thomas Duke (http://cinemagonzo.blogspot.com/) 
She Demons - W.B. Kelso (http://microbrewreviews.blogspot.com/)
It Came From Outer Space - Vulnavia Morbius (http://krelllabs.blogspot.com/)
The Manster - Dr. Strangefilm (http://www.moviefanfare.com/)
The Phantom Creeps - Secret Sanctum of Captain Video (http://captainvideossecretsanctum.blogspot.com) 
It Conquered the World - Josh (http://forgottenclassicsofyesteryear.blogspot.com/)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Brandie (http://trueclassics.wordpress.com)

There are six days of the blogathon. 

Dates are FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE.  Once a date fills up, you can't use it.

Here are the dates available:

July 28 (CLOSED)
- 20 Million Miles to Earth - Caroline (http://garbolaughs.wordpress.com/)
- Tarantula - Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. (http://thrillingdaysofyesteryear.blogspot.com)
- Wasp Woman - 100 Years of Movies (http://100yearsofmovies.blogspot.com/)
- Robot Monster - KC (http://classicmovieblog.blogspot.com/)
- Them! - Kevyn Knox (http://themostbeautifulfraudintheworld.blogspot.com/)
- The Mole People - Cliff (http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com)
- Giant from the Unknown - Kevin (http://kevinsmoviecorner.blogspot.com/)


July 29 (CLOSED)
- Mothra/The Thing from Another World - Team Bartilucci (http://doriantb.blogspot.com/)
- This Island Earth - Caftan Woman (http://caftanwoman.blogspot.com/)
- It Came From Beneath the Sea - Rich (http://widescreenworld.blogspot.com/)
- I Married a Monster From Outer Space - Yvette (http://yvettecandraw.blogspot.com/)
- The Black Scorpion - Hal C. F. Astell (http://www.apocalypselaterfilm.com/)
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers - John Greco (http://twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/)

July 30 (CLOSED)
- Forbidden Planet - Chris Michael (http://recentlyviewedmovies.blogspot.com/)
- Curse of Frankenstein - Barry P. (http://cinematiccatharsis.blogspot.com/)
- Fiend Without a Face - Erin (http://initforthekills.com/)
- The Monolith Monsters - Dave (http://davesclassicfilms.blogspot.com/)
- The Day the Earth Stood Still - Rick (http://classic-film-tv.blogspot.com/)
- Night of the Demon - Rachel (http://thegirlwiththewhiteparasol.blogspot.com/)
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Brandie (http://trueclassics.wordpress.com)

July 31 (CLOSED)
- Gojira - Jaime Grijalba (http://Exodus8-2.blogspot.com)
- The Quatermass Xperiment - Amanda (astairerogers.blogspot.com)
- The Tingler - Paul J. Marasa (http://theconstantviewer.blogspot.com/)
- The Crawling Eye - Hal (http://hornsection.blogspot.com/)
- The Alligator People - Grand Old Movies (http://grandoldmovies.wordpress.com/) 
- The Giant Claw - Thomas Duke (http://cinemagonzo.blogspot.com/)
- It Came From Outer Space - Vulnavia Morbius (http://krelllabs.blogspot.com/)


August 1 (CLOSED)
- The Screaming Skull - Tim Brannan (http://timbrannan.blogspot.com)
- Plan 9 From Outer Space - Stacia (http://www.shebloggedbynight.com)
- Bride of the Monster - Michaël Parent (http://cinephiliaque.blogspot.com/)
- The Blob - Ivan Lerner (http://ivanlandia1.blogspot.com/)
- Earth vs. Flying Saucers - Stuart (http://www.undy-a-hundy.com)
- She Demons - W.B. Kelso (http://microbrewreviews.blogspot.com/)
- The Manster - Dr. Strangefilm (http://www.moviefanfare.com/)
- War of the Worlds - The Film Connoisseur (http://filmconnoisseur.blogspot.com/)


August 2 (CLOSED)
- The Aztec Mummy Against the Humanoid Robot - JHeft (http://whatheft.com/)
- The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms/The 7th Voyage of Sinbad - Jim Lane (http://jimlanescinedrome.blogspot.com/)
- Not of This Earth - Doug Bonner (http://www.postmodernjoan.com/wp02/)
- The Phantom Creeps - Secret Sanctum of Captain Video (http://captainvideossecretsanctum.blogspot.com)
- The Giant Behemoth - Lauren (http://laurenhairston.blogspot.com)
- Curse of the Undead - Toby (http://fiftieswesterns.wordpress.com/)
- It Conquered the World - Josh (http://forgottenclassicsofyesteryear.blogspot.com/)
- Curse of the Demon - Mr. Exploit (http://xploiting.blogspot.com/)

So get notify me via email or comments to choose which dates you want!  I'll update THIS post with the taken time slots.

Editor-in-Chief
Nathanael Hood

Monday, July 11, 2011

Daleká Cesta (Distant Journey)

Directed by Alfréd Radok
1949
Czechoslovakia




How long must the cinematic world wait before it can properly address great tragedies?  After the horrific terrorist attacks in New York City on September 11th, nobody was sure how long filmmakers needed to wait before they could create films about it.  For the most part, it took five years before Hollywood and the independent film scene could muster up the courage to dramatize the events surrounding the attacks in World Trade Center and United 93.  I remember watching those films and thinking that despite their genuinely noble intentions (I firmly believe that both films were NOT the result of a producer trying to make a quick buck on latent patriotism) that they still were made too soon to the attacks.  I still feel that way.  I’m not sure that my fellow Americans will EVER get to a point where they can think and feel clearly and rationally about the attacks. 

Keep in mind that in the attacks, horrific as they were, only approximately 3,000 people were killed.  Now let’s pretend that the attacks didn’t kill 3,000 people, but almost 7 million.  And those 7 million were killed in one of the cruelest, most inhuman(e) acts of evil in history.  What would you say if you were effected by that tragedy and you heard that somebody was making a feature film about it only THREE YEARS after it happened?   To me, it would be unthinkable.  But that was the situation that Europeans found themselves in when Distant Journey was released in 1949.  Released only three years after the attempted systematic slaughter of an entire race of people, Distant Journey was one of the first films to ever directly address the horrors of the Holocaust.  As a film, it is a remarkable piece of craftsmanship.  As a witness to history, it is a stirring piece of courage that should be admired and venerated throughout the ages.

Distant Journey’s complex narrative follows the slow tide of anti-Semitism wash over Prague in the late 30s and early 40s.  We see the evolution of Czech society through the viewpoint of Hana Kaufmannová, a Jew, and her Aryan husband, Toník.  At first, the anti-Semitism is vague and casual: there is resistance to their marriage (Toník’s father deliberately misses their wedding) and they receive the usual stares and glares.  But soon Hana is forbidden from practicing medicine. Then she is forbidden from attending the theater and other cultural events.  Then come the “relocation” orders.  Here starts the harrowing core of the film: the transportation of Jews to concentration camps. 

Instead of being immediately shipped to a death camp, Hana, along with several thousand other Jews, are sent to a “special” camp named Terezín.  This particular camp was a site where the Nazis incarcerated thousands of Jews to be put on show to international authorities.  The Jews had to keep the town clean and presentable.  In one scene many women are forced to wash the streets before a visit from the Red Cross.  This town was both a blessing and a curse.  On the one hand, the Nazis gave them limited self-government and allowed them to maintain certain Jewish customs.  History shows that this camp gave birth to drawings, poems, diaries, and even an opera.  But on the other hand, it was still a Nazi concentration camp.  Conditions were horrible.  In one scene a woman drops a plate of food and nearly a dozen passersby dive onto the scraps and whisk them away before she can even recover (one wonders if Roman Polanski was inspired by this scene to do a similar one in his film The Pianist).  35,000 Jews died in this camp.

Conditions get worse and worse as the Jews of Terezín are forced to work on a strange construction project.  They labor on until a shipment of young children are forced into the building.  They are told to strip down naked and get ready for a shower.  As they enter the inner chamber, they see, to their horror, that it contains pipes and and valves for a strangely opaque gas...

Of course they are eventually liberated.  This leads to an uncomfortable scene of the Jews spilling out of Terezín and cheering like it’s New Year’s Day.  Perhaps Radok was unaware or unwilling to portray the Jews how they really were when they were liberated by Allied forces.  But it gives the film a strange, uneasy ending.  But this film isn’t about the liberation...it is about the suffering, the deaths, the ones who didn’t make it...


The story of Distant Journey can hardly be told without recounting the life of its director, Alfréd Radok.  Although he was only half Jewish, he lost much of his family in to the Holocaust.  Radok was also imprisoned in a camp near Wrocław, but he managed to escape.  After the war ended, he began production on Distant Journey, his very first film project.  A large part of the film was actually shot on location in Terezín where, coincidentally, both his father and grandfather were killed.  By the time the film was finished, the Communists had taken over postwar Czechoslovakia.  Distant Journey was one of the very last films that were made before Communist censorship clamped down on the movie industry.  Distant Journey was subsequently banned for over forty years.  The film wallowed away until it was shown on television in 1991 after the Velvet Revolution.  It was immediately hailed as a masterpiece, drawing comparisons to none other than Citizen Kane (1941).

It’s easy to understand why the film was so enthusiastically hailed upon viewing.  It utilized dense, highly expressionist filming techniques and cinematography.  Radok utilized extremely heavy symbolism as the film incredibly doesn’t show a single person being killed onscreen.  There are several scenes that seem to be lifted straight out of a silent film.  In an incredible article for the Central Europe Review, Jiří Cieslar recalls one potent example of Radok’s visual and symbolic storytelling in a scene where a highly respected Jewish professor commits suicide by jumping out of his office onto the street:

“The scene is composed of very unusual camera angles, with a highly impressive use of soundtrack and a variety of symbolic objects, such as: a Jewish rucksack with a special prisoner number (402) on it; a globe on the table, as a symbol of a world this professor refused to escape to; and also a clock, the hands significantly stopped.

We don't see the professor's jump from the open window onto the pavement, everything is done by means of off-screen sounds and by dramatic camera-shots of other places.”

But Radok doesn’t just rely on symbolism.  He was greatly aided by a powerful cast of actors.  In one scene an old Jewish man holds an Iron Cross that he must have won a long time ago fighting for Germany.  He cradles it softly, and marches around his room with the proud visage of a soldier come home from a successful campaign.  But his face softens and turns to tears as he tightly clutches the Cross.  He realizes that not even his history as a hero of Germany can help him now.  Even though the entire scene is done in one long take, it is mesmerizing to watch this conflicted, tortured man come to terms with the horrors of reality.

Radok used one other fascinating technique in the construction of Distant Journey: the inclusion of documentary footage from sources such as The Triumph of the Will (1935).  Several times during the film Radok uses a freeze frame and then shrinks it down to the lower right hand corner of the screen.  This early version of picture-in-picture allowed Radok to juxtapose reality  with reconstruction.  In one instance Radok bravely used footage of murdered corpses on the lawns of concentration camps, a technique that many modern Holocaust films refuse to do.  The use of documentary footage creates a strange distancing effect on the film: we are emotionally attached to the characters but are forced to approach the truth about the Holocaust objectively. 

Distant Journey can occasionally be difficult to watch.  Its use of documentary footage can be jarring and discomforting.  Meanwhile, the nearly hyper-stylized narrative can be challenging to follow when Radok relies too much on suggestion and symbolism.  But despite its flaws, Distant Journey is a devastating film of great historical import.  It was one of the first films to ever acknowledge and address the horrors of the Holocaust.  It brought one of the worst tragedies in human history to life.  In doing so, it bares careful watch over our future, making sure that such horror will never be repeated.


I apologize that I could not include many pictures in this review.  I was unable to get screencaps from the video source that I used.

This film is free for viewing on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXRwGuH0C-g

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distant_Journey_%28film%29#Trivia
http://www.ce-review.org/01/20/kinoeye20_cieslar.html
http://www1.epinions.com/review/mvie_mu-1147881/content_276914409092

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Blogathon Update

Well folks, we finally have a banner!


Many, MANY thanks to Rachael Hood, the designer of this banner!

So far we have a whopping 40 participants!  They are:

The Blob - Ivan Lerner (http://ivanlandia1.blogspot.com/)
Them! - Kevyn Knox (http://themostbeautifulfraudintheworld.blogspot.com/)
Plan 9 From Outer Space - Stacia (http://www.shebloggedbynight.com)
The Day the Earth Stood Still - Rick (http://classic-film-tv.blogspot.com/)
Curse of the Undead - Toby (fiftieswesterns.com)
The Creature From the Black Lagoon  - Becky (http://www.classicbeckybrainfood.blogspot.com)
Gojira - Jaime Grijalba (http://Exodus8-2.blogspot.com)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers - John Greco
Tarantula - Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. (http://thrillingdaysofyesteryear.blogspot.com)
Mothra/The Thing from Anther World - Team Bartilucci (http://doriantb.blogspot.com/)
Bride of the Monster - Michaël Parent (http://cinephiliaque.blogspot.com/)
Curse of Frankenstein - Barry P. (Cinematic Catharsis)
Forbidden Planet - Chris Michael (http://recentlyviewedmovies.blogspot.com/)
War of the Worlds - The Film Connoisseur (http://filmconnoisseur.blogspot.com/)
Crawling Eye - Hal (http://hornsection.blogspot.com/)
The Tingler - Paul J. Marasa (http://theconstantviewer.blogspot.com/)
The Black Scorpion - Hal C. F. Astell (http://www.apocalypselaterfilm.com/)
Robot Monster - KC (http://classicmovieblog.blogspot.com/)
The Alligator People - Grand Old Movies (http://grandoldmovies.wordpress.com/) 
Wasp Woman - 100 Years of Movies (http://100yearsofmovies.blogspot.com/)
The Giant Behemoth - Lauren (http://laurenhairston.blogspot.com)
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman - Page (http://myloveofoldhollywood.blogspot.com/)
The Quatermass Xperiment - Amanda (astairerogers.blogspot.com)
The Monolith Monsters - Dave (http://davesclassicfilms.blogspot.com/)
20 Million Miles to Earth - Caroline (http://garbolaughs.wordpress.com/)
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms/The 7th Voyage of Sinbad - Jim Lane (http://jimlanescinedrome.blogspot.com/)
It Came From Beneath the Sea - Rich (http://widescreenworld.blogspot.com/)
Earth vs. Flying Saucers - Stuart (http://www.undy-a-hundy.com)
I Married a Monster From Outer Space - Yvette (http://yvettecandraw.blogspot.com/)
The Screaming Skull - Tim Brannan (http://ttimbrannan.blogspot.com)
Giant from the Unknown - Kevin (http://kevinsmoviecorner.blogspot.com/)
The Aztec Mummy Against the Humanoid Robot - JHeft (http://whatheft.com/)
Curse of the Demon - Mr. Xploit (http://xploiting.blogspot.com/)
This Island Earth - Caftan Woman (http://caftanwoman.blogspot.com/)

The following people need to send me their information:

Night of the Demon - Rachel (http://thegirlwiththewhiteparasol.blogspot.com/)
She Demons - W.B. Kelso (http://microbrewreviews.blogspot.com/)
It Came From Outer Space - Vulnavia Morbius (http://krelllabs.blogspot.com/)
Fiend Without a Face - Erin (http://initforthekills.com/)
Not of This Earth - Doug Bonner (http://www.postmodernjoan.com/wp02/)
It Conquered the World - Josh T.

If you have not done so, please send me your email address and site link.  Send them to nahood@ursinus.edu.

Also, two more quick pieces of news:

First, I have a new blog!  It's Nate's Mini Reviews, a site where I write very, VERY short reviews of all of my cinematic conquests.  Consider it a movie journal.

http://natesminireviews.blogspot.com/

Second, I now have a twitter page!  It's NateHood257.  Feel free to join for blogathon updates and general snarkiness.

If you have any more questions, drop me a comment and let me know!

Editor-in-Chief
Nathanael Hood

Monday, July 4, 2011

Four Sons

Directed by John Ford
1928
The United States of America



John Ford has rightfully gone down in history as one of the most influential and charismatic figures of American cinema.  With his ever-present dark glasses and pipe, he ruled over the production of nearly 150 films.  Of all of his films, none were as beloved as his Westerns.  Many of his offerings to the Western genre would go on to be hailed as supreme classics: Stagecoach (1939), My Darling Clementine (1946), The Searchers (1956), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).  But to those who yearn to venture beyond his dust-covered explorations of the frontier, Ford directed some of the most emotional and gripping dramas in early American film.  The Informer (1935) won Ford his first of four Academy Awards for Best Director.  The Grapes of Wrath (1940) devastated audiences and aroused America’s anti-Communist agencies with its truthful depiction of Dust Bowl migrant workers.  How Green Was My Valley (1941) won the Academy Award for Best Picture, beating out films like Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon.  But despite all of his accolades and praises, many of his greatest works go unnoticed: of the 60+ silent films that Ford directed, less than a dozen survive.   Of these survivors, the two most important were The Iron Horse (1924), a pioneering Western, and an oft-forgotten masterpiece simply titled Four Sons (1928).

It seems strange that such a magnificent film would be forgotten.  At the time of its release, it was hailed by many as the best film of the year.  From a financial standpoint, it made an absolute killing at the box office.  On its fiscal success, Ford remarked, “Strangely enough, it became one of the biggest money makers ever made. It still holds the attendance record at the Roxy, which was one of the biggest theatres in the world. Of course, other pictures have outgrossed it because the admission prices were much lower in those days -- a quarter instead of two dollars.” It’s acting won near universal praise and admiration from audiences and critics.  From an artistic standpoint, it was one of Ford’s most startling, drawing comparisons to none other than F.W. Murnau (ironic considering that Ford reused the village sets from Sunrise in Four Sons). 

Four Sons follows a family living in a small Bavarian village shortly before the outbreak of World War One.  Their matriarch, Mother Bernle, is a much beloved village elder, offering drinks to the mailman and honey cake to little children.  Bernle is the proud mother of four strong, fully grown sons.  The oldest son, Joseph, has dreams of life in America.  Mother Bernle gives him her life savings to travel to America and make his fortune.  It is a tearful departure, but one highlighted by visions of hope and prosperity.



However, war soon comes to knock on Mother Bernle’s door.  Two of her sons are recruited by the evil and imperialistic Major Von Stomm.  Still, the war seems light years away from Berle’s happy little village...at least until the postman comes bearing a black-bordered envelope that declares that BOTH of her sons had been killed.  Before Bernle has proper time to grieve, Von Stomm barges into her house.  Apparently Joseph, who has become successful and married, has joined the American army.  Von Stomm sneers at the grieving mother and delivers one of the most chilling and frightfully evil things that I have encountered in a silent film, “What right have you to eat your country's food and burn your country's oil? Must I fight and starve for you -- you, the mother of a traitor?”  A subordinate points out that she has already sacrificed two sons to the war effort.  Von Stomm ignores him and snatches Bernle’s last son, the young Andreas, and orders him to the barracks to report for duty.


As fate would have it, Joseph and Andreas end up on opposing sides of the same battlefield.  Fog envelops the killing fields.  Men enter the no-man’s land and only silence, punctuated with occasional screams and cries for help, leave.  In this infernal hell-scape, Andreas meets his doom.  As he closes his eyes for the last time, he is embraced by Joseph.  Of course, this kind of coincidence stretches all credulity.  But Ford creates a world where such meetings are not only possible, but inevitable. 



With the news of Andreas’ death swallowing Mother Bernle whole, the war ends.  Joseph calls for her across the Atlantic and she comes to live with her new family.  At first she is victimized by America’s immigration process.  she arrives in New York City, ignorant of the language and terrified.  Never before has she seen so many people.  She is tossed asunder on a crowded subway and deposited alone and confused on the harsh city streets.  She collapses on a street corner where she is rescued by a city cop who directs the frightened woman to Joseph’s house.  Joseph and his wife, who had been searching for her, arrive home to find a bottle opened and a piece of cake missing.  They find her in the living room where she has fallen asleep with her grandson on her lap, clutching her breast.  Slowly she wakes.  She stares into the eyes of her last son and knows...she is home.




For such an emotional and melodramatic film, Ford shows admirable and almost other-worldly restraint.  It prophesies the film Make Way For Tomorrow (1937) in its use of subtlety in the elderly characters’ acting.  One reviewer pointed out that Mother Bernle never really cried, even when she learns that her sons are dead.  Instead, the emotion is all in the performance, the movement of the hands, the expressions on the face.  While the story does rely on title cards to promote the plot, the emotional toll of the story is all expressed clearly through how the actors react.  If Four Sons had been released a year later, Margaret Mann, the actress who played Mother Bernle, would have been a shoe-in to win the first Academy Award for Best Actress.


It has been said of Ford that “politically and socially, [he] may possibly best [be] described as a populist; emotionally as a sentimentalist.”  Ford was never concerned with politics in his films.  Instead, of chief concern were the people.  Yes, Four Sons does have a strong pro-American message.  But Ford’s focus is on the poor mother who nearly lost her entire family.  It is the loss, not the salvation, that makes Four Sons a masterpiece.



I will be posting this film in its entirety on this blog's youtube channel later today.

Sources:
http://www.silentsaregolden.com/featurefolder5/fscommentary.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018909/