''My Four Years in Germany'' is a 1918 American silent war drama film that is notable as being the first film produced by the four Warner Brothers,

Harry Harry may refer to: TV shows * ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...

, Sam,

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, and

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, though the title card clearly reads "My Four Years In Germany Inc. Presents ...". It was directed by seasoned William Nigh, later a director at

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

, and was based on the experiences of real life U. S. Ambassador to Germany James W. Gerard as described in his book. The film was produced while

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

was still raging and is sometimes considered a

propaganda film A propaganda film is a film that involves some form of propaganda. Propaganda films spread and promote certain ideas that are usually religious, political, or cultural in nature. A propaganda film is made with the intent that the viewer will ad ...

Cast

*Halbert Brown as Ambassador James W. Gerard *Willard Dashiell as Sir Edward Goschen * Louis Dean as

Kaiser Wilhelm II , house = Hohenzollern , father = Frederick III, German Emperor , mother = Victoria, Princess Royal , religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United) , signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...

* Earl Schenck as Crown Prince of Germany *George Riddell as Field Marshall von Hindenburg *Frank Stone as Prince Henry of Prussia * Karl Dane as Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg *Fred Hern as Foreign Minister von Jagow * Percy Standing as Under-Secretary Zimmermann *William Bittner as Grand Admiral von Tirpitz *Arthur C. Duvel as Field Marshal von Falkenhayn *Ann Dearing as Aimee Delaporte *A. B. Conkwright as Socialist * William Nigh as Socialist

Reception

Like many American films of the time, ''My Four Years in Germany'' was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. For example, the Chicago Board of Censors required cuts, in Reel 7, of the intertitle "Do you know where will be quarted tonight?", two scenes of officer entering cabin into which young woman runs and his exit, scene of young woman lying in bed with clothing disarranged after her criminal assault, scene of dead woman on ground, Reel 8, the intertitle "The first night we were quartered with the soldiers", and, Reel 10, scene of man drawing sword out of other man's body. The Chicago board's cuts totaled twenty feet of film.

Preservation

A copy of ''My Four Years in Germany'' is held in the

Turner Entertainment Turner Entertainment Company is an American multimedia company founded by Ted Turner in 1986. Purchased by Time Warner in 1996 as part of its acquisition of Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), the company was largely responsible for overseeing th ...

film library.''Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress'', p. 123 c.1978 by The American Film Institute

References

External links

* * * * Full movie a
Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:My Four Years in Germany 1918 films American silent feature films American World War I propaganda films American black-and-white films American war drama films Warner Bros. films First National Pictures films Cultural depictions of Wilhelm II 1910s war drama films 1918 drama films Censored films American World War I films Films directed by William Nigh 1910s American films Silent American drama films Silent war films 1910s English-language films