''4 Devils'' (also known as ''Four Devils'') is a lost 1928 American Synchronized

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

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. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by German director F. W. Murnau and starring Janet Gaynor. While the 1928 version of the film had no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the

sound-on-film Sound-on-film is a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying a picture is recorded on photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an Analog s ...

movietone process. The synchronized version had only a limited release. The film was withdrawn to add talking sequences and the final Part-Talkie version was released to theatres in June of 1929. Both versions appeared to be lost.

Plot

Four orphans become a high wire act and encounter 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 as Cecchi * Barry Norton as Adolf ** Philippe De Lacy 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 da ...

as Woman

Music

The film featured two theme songs titled "Marion" and "Destiny" which were both composed by Erno Rapee and Lew Pollack.

Production

''4 Devils'' was released by

Fox Film Corporation The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American independent company that produced motion pictures and was formed in 1914 by the theater "chain" pioneer William Fox (producer), William Fox. It was the corporate successor to ...

and was produced by William Fox, who had hired Murnau to come to the United States. It was initially released without dialogue 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% talking 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 film A lost film is a feature film, feature or short film in which the original negative or copies are not known to exist in any studio archive, private collection, or public archive. Films can be wholly or partially lost for a number of reasons. ...

s of the early sound 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 ki ...

for ''

Sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning, at the start of the Sun path. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon. Terminology Although the S ...

'', released by Fox as part of their 20th Century Fox Studio Classics collection. Janet Gaynor and Charles Morton in 1928 film 4 Devils

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. In 2003 the documentary short ''Murnau's 4 Devils: Traces of a Lost Film'' by film historian Janet Bergstrom was released, showing a reconstruction using stills, drawings, sketches and script drafts.

Other adaptations

The source novella by Herman Bang was first adapted into film in 1911 by Robert Dinesen and Alfred Lind, and finally in 1985 by Anders Refn. The screenplay for the 1928 film was novelized by Guy Fowler and published that year by

Grosset & Dunlap Grosset & Dunlap is a New York City-based publishing house founded in 1898. The company was purchased by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1982 and today is part of Penguin Random House through its subsidiary Penguin Group. In recent years, through the P ...

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 drama films Transitional sound drama films Films with screenplays by Carl Mayer Films with screenplays by Berthold Viertel Remakes of American films 1928 lost films Early sound films 1920s American films English-language drama films Synchronized sound films American remakes of Danish films Part-talkie films