Adam hatte vier Söhne

Somewhat stolid drama is immeasurably boosted by a terrific performance by Susan Hayward on her way up. This was really the first role that allowed her any kind of showcase and she takes full advantage as the grasping cat that's up to no good. From here on she started a steady if not meteoric rise to the very top but even at this early stage she demonstrates the fiery star quality that took her there.

This second American outing for Ingrid Bergman is obviously designed as a star vehicle for her but except when pitted against Susan's shrew she is only required to show pallid goodness, not the best star making material. She only had to work her way through one more indifferent picture, Rage in Heaven, before hitting her stride as the cheap Ivy in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and of course following that up with the luminous Ilsa in Casablanca and on to immortality.

As far as the rest of the film goes it's standard hokum with Warner Baxter stiff as the head of the household and the sons all lacking in personality. Fay Wray isn't given anything to do in her tiny amount of screen time but June Lockhart is all sweet faced and dewy youthfulness, at least making her nothing part stand out by her vivacity.

This was a good early melodrama--the first of Ratoff's films I have seen (at least to my knowledge) and American films starring Ingrid Bergman, one of my favourite actresses (three earlier Swedish films she's in, that I found in an inexpensive boxed set by Kino Lorber, is delightful). This boasted a strong supporting cast too, as Bergman's Emilie does everything she can to provide support for the family she loves working for so dearly.

It was short and sweet, and is good value for the cinephile if you like the 30's-and-40's style of filmmaking, and enjoy melodramas. Other fine directors who are great at this style are John Stahl, Douglas Sirk, and, more recently, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Todd Haynes.

At this stage of her career, Bergman isn't as fun to watch, at least for me, as similar actresses of her era, such as Bette Davis, Greta Garbo or Joan Crawford. I prefer Bergman's work after she risked everything to marry Roberto Rossellini. I believe the great difficulties she had to endure gave her a much deeper palette of possible behaviours for her to choose from. I significantly feel that if a thespian can survive trauma, it's the best thing in the world for their craft. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger--and I would definitely posit it makes one a much better actor as well.

There are some plot gaps in 1941's "Adam Had Four Sons," possibly because 25 minutes have been cut. As it is, it's an okay film thanks to the performances.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Ingrid Bergman plays Emilie, a young foreigner hired as a governess for the Adam Stoddard family's four boys. Everyone takes to her immediately, and she becomes one of the family. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes the family when the boys' mother Molly (Fay Wray) dies. Then there is a reversal in the stock market, and Adam Stoddard (Warner Baxter) loses his business. His aunt (Helen Westley) puts up the money to send the older boys to school, and Stoddard has no choice but to sell his house and move into an apartment with the youngest boy, Phillip. He has to send Emilie back home, but he promises that as soon as he can, he will send for her to return.

Years later, before World War I, Adam sends for Emilie, and she comes back. The three older boys, and eventually Philip, all fight in World War I. One of the boys, David, brings home the manipulative, trashy Hester (Susan Hayward) as his wife, and she lives in the house while he is away. Emilie has her number right away. Hester has an affair with the oldest son, Jack (Richard Denning), and, so Adam will not find out, Emilie claims that it was she that he saw in Jack's room.

Well, the big question any viewer will have is, why did Adam send for Emilie to return when his kids were grown and, in fact, about to go off and fight a war? And what the heck was Emilie doing all those years? This may be what is missing in the 25 minutes that were cut. My hunch is that Emilie continued to work as a governess, and probably even turned down a couple of offers of marriage, because she had fallen in love with Adam. When he sends for her, it's because he needs her to run his household. But I'm guessing because we see none of that.

Ingrid Bergman is beautiful and charming, and she has excellent scenes with Susan Hayward, who is a real spitfire. Richard Denning makes a strong impression as Jack, and Warner Baxter is very good as Adam, a gentle, optimistic man who loses his beloved wife. Fay Wray is the wife, and she, too, is quite beautiful but doesn't have a huge role.

This is an enjoyable movie if you fill in the story so it makes sense.

ADAM HAD FOUR SONS (Columbia, 1941), directed by Gregory Ratoff, could easily be mistaken for a Biblical story about Adam and Eve and their offsprings, starting with Cain and Abel, but it isn't. Taken from the novel "Legacy" by Charles Bonner, it's a turn of the century tale about a family man with a wife and four sons living in Connecticut, and how a French governess becomes part of their lives.

The story begins in 1905 with the Stoddard family, consisting of Adam (Warner Baxter), Molly (Fay Wray), and their four sons, Jack (Billy Day), David (Steven Muller), Charles (Wallace Chadwell) and Philip (Bobby Walberg) posing for their family portrait. Later the Stoddards head for the train station to greet their new French governess, Emilie Gallatin (Ingrid Bergman). Surprised to find her so young, she immediately makes a good impression with the family. During a family Thanksgiving, Molly becomes ill and later dies. Adam, finding it hard to go on without his wife, sells his house, sends his boys, except for the youngest, away to school, but most of all, his hardest decision in sending Emilie back to her homeland. Years pass. With the Stoddard company a success, Adam purchases his former home and remodels it, but most of all, sends for Emilie to return to her former household position. It is now 1918 and the boys, David (Johnny Downs), Jack (Richard Denning), Philip (Charles Lind) and Charles (Robert Shaw) have grown to fine young men. The surprise comes when David returns home with Hester (Susan Hayward), his bride. Hester remains in the Stoddard home while David goes off to war. While the men like Hester, both Emilie and the visiting Cousin Phillipa (Helen Westley) take an immediate dislike to her, for reasons of their own. Their hunches are proved correct when the family becomes more divided than together because of Hester, and it's now up to Emilie to do something about it before it is too late. June Lockhart (Vance), the girl next door who likes Philip; Pietro Sosso (Otto); Gilbert Emery (Doctor Lane); Renie Riano (Miss Bonson); Clarence Muse and William B. Davidson also complete the cast.

A good story that, by today's standards, is completely underrated and forgotten through the passage of time. Maybe the title or fact that having the audience accept the Swedish born Ingrid Bergman playing a French governess instead of a Swedish one might have something to do with it. For her second movie role in America, Bergman was popular enough to award feature billing over such veteran performers as Warner Baxter and Fay Wray. While Bergman doesn't really age through the passage of time, at least Baxter gets his limited share of gray hair around his temples. Of the members of the cast, the one who gathers the most attention is the young and youthful Susan Hayward. Having been in movies for a short time, her role as Hester allows her to improve her ability as an actress, and make the most of it around such a capable cast before becoming a major actress herself by the end of the decade to the next. Another added bonus to this production is having the characters dress according to time frame rather than wearing 1941 costumes and headdresses for an early 1900s setting. One surprise is to how small Fay Wray's (star of the legendary 1933 classic KING KONG) role was for this production.

A fine family film where the attention falling mostly Hayward's character, ADAM HAD FOUR SONS at least did get its share of revivals over the years through home video distributions as early as 1984, (much later on DVD), followed by rare cable broadcasts as Turner Network Television (TNT) in 1992, and Turner Classic Movies where the film has been showing occasionally since August 29, 2006. For anyone who's never seen nor heard of this movie, should give it a try. (***)

Warner Baxter plays Adam, and he has four sons: Richard Denning, Johnny Downs, Robert Shaw, and Charles Lind. He's in charge of a grand estate, but when his wife dies and his fortune is wiped out, he has to scramble to be able to afford his lifestyle again. Ingrid Bergman plays the governess who helps him pick up the pieces of his struggling family. When the boys grow up, some marry and some enlist in WWI-what will happen to the family dynamic?

If you like movies about governesses sent in to take care of a brood of children, you'll probably like this one. It's got all the elements: struggles with the children, eventual acceptance and bonding, a little romance with the father, and family tensions when the children grow up. Ingrid is always very good when playing someone strong, so if you're a fan, you won't be disappointed in her performance in Adam Had Four Sons. Even though the title features Warner Baxter's name, it's Ingrid who's the star of the show. She may be only the governess, but she's the glue that keeps everyone together. And keep on the lookout for a young Susan Hayward in one of her first major roles. She's beautiful and cunning, and it's amazing that she wasn't forever typecast as a villain after a movie like this!