Public Domain Movies

Four Sons is a 1928 American synchronized sound drama film directed and produced by John Ford and written for the screen by Philip Klein from a story by I. A. R. Wylie first published in the Saturday Evening Post as "Grandmother Bernle Learns Her Letters" (1926). While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process.

In a quiet Bavarian village before the Great War, Mother Bernle (Margaret Mann), a warm, dignified widow, tends a modest home and devotes herself to her four beloved sons. The eldest, Joseph “Dutch” Bernle (James Hall), dreams of opportunity abroad and departs for America, where he marries Annabelle (June Collyer) and opens a small delicatessen in New York City. The remaining three—handsome Franz (Ralph Bushman), strong Johann (Charles Morton), and gentle youngest son Andreas (George Meeker)—remain in Bavaria under their mother’s watchful care.

Life in the village is filled with simple routines, enlivened by the visits of the pompous yet kindly postman (Albert Gran), gossip at the inn run by the innkeeper (Hughie Mack), and pronouncements from the Bürgermeister (August Tollaire). But the peaceful rhythms are overshadowed by the presence of the arrogant Prussian officer Major von Stomm (Earle Foxe), whose militaristic posturing foreshadows the coming storm.

When war breaks out, Bavaria is swept into the conflict. Joseph, now an American citizen, enlists with the American Expeditionary Forces, while his three brothers are conscripted into the German army. One by one, Franz, Johann, and Andreas march away through the mist-shrouded countryside, their departures marked by the tolling church bells. Mother Bernle endures the separations with quiet courage, even as the military machine strips away her comforts and the officers treat the villagers with cold disdain.

The war’s cruelty reaches its height when Joseph, serving in France, comes upon a battlefield where his brother lies dying. In the fog, the wounded man calls weakly for “Mütterchen” (“Little Mother”), the cry carrying all the way back in the audience’s mind to the lonely woman in Bavaria. Soon after, news arrives from the postman—three times over—that Franz, Johann, and Andreas have been killed in action. The grief is overwhelming, yet Mother Bernle sits steadfastly at her supper table, the same place where her boys once gathered, refusing to let despair consume her.

With the Armistice, Joseph returns to America to find his delicatessen thriving, now the heart of a small chain of stores. Longing to care for his mother, he writes for her to join him. To qualify for immigration, the illiterate woman attends school under the guidance of the kindly schoolmaster (Frank Reicher), struggling to learn her letters among children.

At Ellis Island, however, the pressure of the examination proves too much; she forgets her lessons and is detained. That night, in a moment of innocent confusion, she wanders out of the detention area into the streets of New York. Lost in the rain, she faces the crush of the subway and the chaos of traffic until a patrolman takes her in hand. Eventually she is brought to Joseph’s modern apartment, where, in a tender final image, he returns from a frantic search to find her by the fire, cradling his young son (Robert Parrish) in her arms.

Cast
Margaret Mann as Mother Bernle
James Hall as Joseph "Dutch" Bernle
Charles Morton as Johann Bernle
Ralph Bushman as Franz Bernle
George Meeker as Andreas Bernle
June Collyer as Annabelle
Earle Foxe as Maj. von Stomm
Albert Gran as The postman
Frank Reicher as The schoolmaster
Archduke Leopold of Austria as a captain
Hughie Mack as The Innkeeper (uncredited)
August Tollaire as The Bürgermeister (uncredited)
Robert Parrish as Joseph's son (uncredited)
John Wayne as Officer (uncredited)