4 Devils ad in The Film Daily, Jan-Jun 1929 (page 1452 crop)

''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 and starring Janet Gaynor. It is considered to be lost.

Premise

The plot concerns four orphans ( Janet Gaynor, Nancy Drexel, Barry Norton, 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 as Marion as a girl (billed as Dawn O'Day) * Mary Duncan 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 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 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 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 stated that the only surviving print was lost by actress Mary Duncan, who had borrowed it from Fox Studios. Martin Koerber, curator of Deutsche Kinemathek, 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 was first adapted into film in 1911 by Robert Dinesen 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. The screenplay for the 1928 film was novelized by Guy Fowler and published that year by Grosset and Dunlap as a hardcover Photoplay (movie tie-in) Edition.

References

External links

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''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