Filles courageuses

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.

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.

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)

This merely acceptable movie depicts the kind of moral and social values Hollywood was encouraging during the aftermath of the depression. The "Daughters" series had better production values and less clowning than the Andy Hardy ones. But Daughters Courageous manages to present the family values as terrible dull. As dull as the daughters' beaux. The picture itself is nothing. The four daughters are as interchangeable as the pieces of an Erector set. The only positive features are John Garfield and Claude Rains. Garfield caused the picture to be made, and repeated unashamedly his character of Four Daughters, with less redeeming features. His performance had the high standard to be expected of him. But the real star of the picture is Rains. His part is not very well written; the Epsteins and Michael Curtiz forgot to explain him and his motivations. But what an actor! He gives life to the picture, makes you love one of the most despicable characters in movie history, and you go all the way with him even if you know that he is poison to the whole life of his former wife and former(?) daughters. One cannot root for the sort of dull life Fay Bainter, Donald Crisp, the daughters and the daughters' beaux embodiy. But you cannot root either for the kind of social irresponsibility Rains and Garfield represent. But, anyhow, the picture is very entertaining and Priscilla Lane was adorable.

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