Four Daughters Information

Four Daughters is a 1938 musical drama film that tells the story of a happy musical family whose lives and loves are disrupted by the arrival of a cynical young composer who interjects himself into the daughters' romantic lives. The movie stars the Lane Sisters (Priscilla Lane, Rosemary Lane, and Lola Lane), and features Gale Page, Claude Rains, Jeffrey Lynn, John Garfield and Dick Foran. The three Lanes were sisters and members of a family singing trio.

The film was written by Lenore J. Coffee and Julius J. Epstein, adapted from the Fannie Hurst novel Sister Act, and was directed by Michael Curtiz. The movie's success led to two sequels with more or less the same cast: Four Wives and Four Mothers.

Plot

The Lemp sisters, Emma (Gale Page), Thea (Lola Lane), Kay (Rosemary Lane), and Ann (Priscilla Lane) are prodigies in a musical family headed by their father, Adam (Claude Rains). The Lemps also run a boarding house, and among the tenants is Felix Deitz (Jeffrey Lynn), a young composer whom the four daughters want to attract.

Emma, the oldest daughter, is the object of affection for a nervous neighbor, Ernest (Dick Foran), but she rebuffs his attentions. Thea, a pianist and the second eldest, is courted by Ben Crowley (Frank McHugh), a local wealthy man, but she is not sure she loves him. Kay, the third daughter, is a talented singer and has a chance at a music school scholarship, but doesn't want to leave home. The youngest daughter is Ann, a violinist. A new boarder in the house is a young man named Mickey (John Garfield), an orchestral arranger and friend of Felix. Mickey immediately falls in love with Ann, but Felix also has had his eyes on her and proposes marriage.

Academy Award nominations

The film was an Academy Award nominee for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (John Garfield), Best Adapted Screenplay and Sound Recording (Nathan Levinson). For Best Picture and Best Director it lost to Frank Capra's You Can't Take It with You. Best supporting actor went to Walter Brennan in Kentucky, while the adapted screenplay honor went to Pygmalion.

Four Daughters film series

Four Daughters is the first in a series of four films by Warner Bros. featuring the Lane Sisters and the other cast members. It was followed by 1939's Daughters Courageous, also directed by Michael Curtiz and co-starring Claude Rains and John Garfield, though it is a story about a different family. However, the storyline of Four Daughters and the Lemp family is continued in the 1940 film, Four Wives, and 1941's Four Mothers.

Cast

	Priscilla Lane as Ann Lemp		John Garfield as Mickey Borden
	Rosemary Lane as Kay Lemp		Jeffrey Lynn as Felix Deitz
	Lola Lane as Thea Lemp		May Robson as Aunt Etta
	Gale Page as Emma Lemp		Frank McHugh as Ben Crowley
	Claude Rains as Adam Lemp		Dick Foran as Ernest Talbot

Remake

Four Daughters was remade in 1954 as Young at Heart starring Frank Sinatra and Doris Day.