Filles courageuses

With John Garfield making a sensational debut in Four Daughters with an Oscar nomination there was quite the demand for a sequel. But sad to say Garfield died in Four Daughters.

Jack Warner remedied that with acquiring a play by Dorothy Bennett that ran 247 performances during the 1935 season on Broadway called Fly Away Home. It's the story of a family on the eve of the matriarch's second marriage to a respectable businessman. Out of the blue comes the first husband who left years ago and would like to reclaim his place as head of the family. He starts working a charm offensive to do just that.

Nearly the whole cast of Four Daughters slip into parts that were rewritten for them as the Masters family in Fly Away Home is not all girls. The Lane Sisters and Gale Page are the daughters again and Fay Bainter is their mother and Donald Crisp the businessman she is scheduled to marry. Bainter and Crisp are new to the ensemble.

Claude Rains is the patriarch, not the music master of Four Daughters, but the confirmed vagabond who left his family. He finds a kindred soul in John Garfield who has sparked an interest from Priscilla Lane away from playwright Jeffrey Lynn and toward himself.

If you know what happened in Four Daughters you know what happens here in terms of the pairing ups.

Rains is the best one in this cast by far. You'd go just about anywhere and do anything for him, he's got such charm and apparent knowledge of the world. In the end though he realizes he can be a bad influence as well as a good one.

The same standard for Four Daughters is maintained for Daughter's Courageous.

... 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".

It is impossible to resist a cast as great as the one in 'Daughters Courageous', part of a film series that also was made up of 'Four Daughters', 'Four Wives' and 'Four Mothers'. Of which it is the second (unofficial) one. Claude Rains, Donald Crisp, Fay Bainter, May Robson and Priscilla Lane are reasons enough to see any film on their own, so seeing them together as part of the same cast further made me excited and likely make anybody excited.

'Daughters Courageous' could have been better than it was and it has its faults, but it was also very well played and enjoyable. The entertainment and charm factors high on the most part. Compared to the other 'Four...' films, 'Daughters Courageous' isn't as good as 'Four Daughters', which delivered on almost everything apart from more development for some characters needed and one rushed subplot. It is on the same level as the solid 'Wives', which had most of the same good things with a couple of improvements and a couple of disappointments. It is also though better than 'Mothers', which was a disappointment while still watchable.

Will start with what could have been done better. Again, only found Ann properly developed of the sisters (although they are all likeable still) and generally the character writing had a lot of rushed or out-of-the-blue decision-making that didn't make sense, or at least one doesn't buy.

John Garfield to me lost the spark that he had in 'Four Daughters', he made such a big impression in that film but here what made his performance in that work so well is missing here. He was bitter but also eloquent before, here he was just mean-spirited.

However, the cast do a great job here and extract as much as they can out of their flawed character writing. Lane is charming, while Rains manages to bring likeability and dignity to a problematic character (one where one questions his motives and constantly is feeling that things don't add up). Robson brings a smile to the face, while Bainter is touching as the film's most sympathetic character. Crisp shows a stuffy exterior but deep down he shows a good heart, a kind of role that played to Crisp's strengths.

Again, 'Daughters Courageous' is well made and photographed, never elaborate but never static-looking either. Curtiz's direction is distinguished and the music score is sumptuous but never too overwrought. The script is gently amusing and sincere and the story may have felt rushed and underdeveloped (as well as lacked originality) but it is very charming, human and a relaxing watch.

On the whole, quite good but not great. 7/10

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.