Daughters Courageous

Nancy Masters has a happy life with her four grown daughters; Buff, Tinka, Linda, and Cora. She is to marry gentleman Sam Sloane in a few weeks. Suddenly, her wandering first husband Jim Masters (Claude Rains) returns after twenty years absence. Nobody is happy with the man who abandoned the family. Buff (Priscilla Lane) falls for Gabriel Lopez (John Garfield) who has a lot in common with Jim.

I don't know anything about the Four Daughters series of films. Apparently, this is unrelated to those. So I'm ok. I like this group although it's hard to differentiate all the sisters. Maybe they could drop one to make it easier on me. This movie starts like a light silly comedy and then Claude Rains adds a dark cloud to the story. This clashing of tones makes it hard to reconcile with this forced family reunion. There are relationships happening at cross-purposes. If these are real ships, they would be crossing paths and crashing into each other. In the end, the resolution left me empty.

This is more of a reworking of the previous big hit Four Daughters than an actual remake. Not as good as the original film it is still entertaining and helped by the addition of old pros Donald Crisp and the great Fay Bainter fresh off her Oscar win for Jezebel.

Garfield just as he did in the original film jumps off the screen with a charisma and sexuality the other performers just can't match. He and Claude Rains, whose character from the first film undergoes the greatest change, strike up a good rapport as two wandering spirits.

The entire cast from the first film is back in this with May Robson pushed into the background unfortunately and all the girls having less defined personalities. Priscilla still gets the featured spot and interacts well with John Garfield but the others are background dressing more or less. The one thing this has in its favor over the original is the lack of emphasis on both Jeffrey Lynn and that blank slate Dick Foran since both are such vapid screen presences that any spotlighting of them is wasted film.

... because you've got the same cast, but Four Daughters was John Garfield's film debut, causing an ending that prevented him from being in any sequels.

I liked the film and the performances, but the whole thing just seems odd when you compare it to the previous film. And actually, this film just takes the cast from Four Daughters and puts them in an entirely different plot, taken from a play. In this one, Claude Rains is the father who deserted his family twenty years before and just shows up, not the masterful musician. The mother is alive, and left to raise her daughters alone after dad's desertion. And yet the daughters can't help but eventually warm to dad. Who can resist Claude Rains after all? Even as a cad he is charming. And yet dad's timing couldn't be worse, because mom is about to be remarried to a respectable businessman who is not going anywhere. Another complication - dad was declared dead years ago, but now here he is alive, nullifying that declaration.

This time, though, Priscilla Lane is drawn to ...Gabriel Lopez??? ( I think the name Mickey Borden was more up Garfield's alley) rather than just marrying him as a way of being self sacrificing, and bland Jeffrey Lynn is correctly the suitor who is putting her feet to sleep. May Robson is just the housekeeper here not the elderly relative. You have to remember Ms. Robson is 81 by the time this film is made, and yet she is so energetic.

I'd recommend it. Oddly enough the actual sequels to "Four Daughters" - "Four Wives" and "Four Mothers" were made after this film that had no relation to the actual film trilogy.

I must disagree with the previous comment. This is not merely a rehash of "The Four Daughters"! While I enjoyed the former very much, I find the dialogue in "Daughters Courageous" much snappier and the characters more believable. From idyllic upstate New York, to an almost seamy California bordertown, there is a world of difference here! I suppose Garfield is an acquired taste, but I find him compelling as the Mexican layabout (maybe because I'm a layabout myself). In addition, this film gets more milage out of the luminous Priscilla Lane than the other films (she is clearly THE female star of this film). She and Garfield made a great pair, for further evidence see "Dust Be My Destiny".

DAUGHTERS COURAGEOUS (Warner Brothers, 1939), directed by Michael Curtiz, with title inspired by the box-office success to CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1937), is one that often gets confused with the studio's earlier hit of FOUR DAUGHTERS (1938), even to a point of classifying it as its sequel. FOUR DAUGHTERS did have a sequel, in fact, two, titled FOUR WIVES (1939) and FOUR MOTHERS (1941), Capitalizing on the success of FOUR DAUGHTERS by using the same major leading players and its director, DAUGHTERS COURAGEOUS is an original screenplay that happens to be a rehash of FOUR DAUGHTERS, if nothing else. Though there are comparisons regarding its characters in both films, the format in general plays more like a tear-jerker from the silent movie era. Yet its direction and how it's performed feels quite modern and agreeable making both FOUR DAUGHTERS and DAUGHTERS COURAGEOUS to be of equal status, if not, a notch better than the original.

The story opens with plot development involving the Masters family: Nan (Fay Bainter) who has raised four daughters to adulthood: Buff (Priscilla Lane) Tinka (Rosemary Lane), Linda (Lola Lane) and Cora (Gale Page), after her husband, James, had abandoned them twenty years ago to drift around the world. Buff is loved by playwright, Johnny Heming (Jeffrey Lynn); Tinka goes for football player, Eddie Moore (Dick Foran) while Linda loves George (Frank McHugh). Cora is a serious-minded girl wanting to become an inspiring actress by taking a small role in Johnny's upcoming play for the Colony Players. The Masters household also consists of Penny (May Robson), their housekeeper who helped raise the four daughters since birth. Now beautiful young ladies, the four daughters learn their mother intends to remarry, to a respected businessman, Sam Sloane (Donald Crisp). Sam looks forward to his new family and becoming the head of the house. Aside from Buff taking an interest in Gabriel Lopez (John Garfield), a fisherman whom her mother disapproves, their lives are interrupted by the arrival of the girls' father, James (Claude Rains). His one ambition is to win back their love and respect lost to him now that his four daughters are all strangers to him. Featuring Berton Churchill (Judge Henry Hornsby); George Humbert, castly Hobart Cavanaugh, Eddie Acuff and Tom Dugan in smaller roles.

Regardless of star billing going to the up and coming John Garfield, the story centers more on Fay Bainter, Claude Rains and their "Four Daughters," as they are castly billed. Rains as usual is excellent. He and Garfield outshine the material as does the rest of the cast. Although a drama, the movie features amusements, such as its opening set on the beach where a lifeguard is saved from drowning. The one that stands out for me is how Rains attempts to win the sympathy from his daughters individually by shivering while sleeping on the living room couch near an open window blowing wind his way. Fay Bainter, on loan from MGM, having two earlier 1938 Warners successes as JEZEBEL and WHITE BANNERS to her name, along with Donald Crisp, are two performers added to the assortment of the FOUR DAUGHTERS cast consisting of Rains, The Lane Sisters, Page, Garfield, Lynn, Robson, McHugh, Foran and Robson. Though no sequel was made for DAUGHTERS COURAGEOUS using a title like WIVES COURAGEOUS for example, this sole venture stands on its own through its fine blend of humor with sentiment for much of its 107 minutes.

Available on DVD, DAUGHTERS COURAGEOUS often plays on Turner Classic Movies cable channel for fans of the FOUR DAUGHTERS franchise and beyond. (***1/2)