Four Wives (Warner Bros.) (1939)

yy pitti TOTO | SS SSS —and so the Four Daughters were married! Be COOOL LOLOL OL STORY SYNOPSIS: (Not for publication) The rambling home of the Lemps is as you saw it first in "Four Daughters", apple trees in bloom, music and all — only that Adam Lemp (Claude Rains) and Aunt Etta (May Robson) have lost two of their girls. Thea (Lola Lane) is married to wealthy Ben Crowley (Frank McHugh), and Emma (Gale Page) is married to Ernest Talbot (Dick Foran). Ann (Priscilla Lane) widow of Mickey Borden, is engaged to the young composer, Felix Dietz (Jeffrey Lynn). Kay (Rosemary Lane) is still freelancing. Ann's romance with Felix gets a temporary set-back, however, when she learns that she is going to have Mickey's baby. Meanwhile, Kay is setting her cap for young Dr. Clint Forrest (Eddie Albert) and invites him to the house under the pretense of consulting him about Ann. Clint persuades Ann to put the past behind her and marry Felix. But even after their marriage she is unhappy. Unknown to her, he writes a modern symphony around Mickey's unfinished song. While she is in the hospital, after giving birth to a little girl, she is listening to the radio when she hears Felix conducting his orchestra in the "Symphonie Moderne", which he credits in full to Mickey. She is happy at last. Another spring comes, Thea presents Ben with twin girls and wedding bells are ringing for Kay. Fe eT ee ee ‘FOUR WIVES’ COMING TO “Four Wives,” the “by request” sequel to last year’s best loved hit, “Four Daughters,” will have it first local showing at the Strand Theatre on Friday. The original cast of “Four Daughters” is back again—Priscilla, Rosemary and Lola Lane, Gale Page, Jeffrey Lynn, Claude Rains, May Robson, and _ all the others, with the notable addition of Eddie “Brother Rat’) Albert. John Garfield, who met an untimely death as Mickey Borden in “Four Daughters,” will be seen, too, in “Four Wives,” but only as a vision. Yet it is this vision which motivates a goodly portion of the plot of the new film. In the earlier story, he was married to Priscilla Lane, who plays Ann, youngest of the four Lemp daughters. After his death, she is prepared to marry Felix (Jeffrey Lynn), whom = she jilted because she felt that Mickey needed her. At the beginning of the new story, Felix comes home from a concert tour to claim his bride, but on the day of his return, Ann learns that she is to have Garfield’s baby. She broods about her dead husband, feeling that he ended his life and what might have been a brilliant musical career because of her. It is in this phase of the story that she sees the “vision” of her husband, sitting at the piano playing his composition that had no beginning, no ending, only a middle. Meanwhile the affairs of the rest of the family are literally “expanding” while Adam Lemp (Claude Rains) and Aunt Etta (May Robson) look on with loving joy and sorrow. Kay (Rosemary), the only daughter who had no romance in the earlier picture has fallen in love with the young doctor played by Eddie Albert, and, aided by her sisters’ advice, is busy luring him to the altar. Thea (Lola Lane), the daughter who married money, in the person of Ben Crowley (Frank McHugh), adopts a baby girl, only to learn Lane Sisters, Priscilla, Rosemary and Lola and Gale Page, Eddie Albert, Jeffrey Lynn, Featured in Delightful New Film Sequel to ‘Four Daughters’ a few weeks later that she is to have one of her own, while Emma (Gale Page), the daughter who married Ernest Talbot (Dick Foran), is desolated to learn that she can never have children. When twins are born to Thea and Ben, later in the film, they let Emma and Ernest have their adopted daughter. The family is deeply concerned about Priscilla, who seems unable to for get her former marriage. Jeffrey is waiting for her to marry him and at last she consents. The whole family puts their collective heads together to provide a big wedding for Priscilla and Jeffrey. But on the appointed day Priscilla, haunted by the memory of her runaway marriage with Garfield can’t face the idea of the big ceremony, and she and Jeffrey elope. But marriage doesn’t stop her Original Cast of ‘Four Daughters’ Back in New Film Sequel, ‘Four Wives’ “Four Wives,” sequel to last year’s “Four Daughters,” will have its local debut Friday at the Strand Theatre. “Four Wives,” in which Priscilla, Rosemary and Lola Lane, and Gale Page play .the title roles, features the same cast as “Four Daughters,” including John Garfield, who died in the original story. He returns in vision form in the new picture. Others in the original family portrait who are prominent in “Four Wives” are Jeffrey Lynn, Claude Rains, May _ Robson, Frank McHugh, Dick Foran and Vera Lewis, the gossipy “gate-swinger” of “Four Daughters.” There’s a new and very delightful addition to the family, too. Eddie Albert, the young comedy star of “Brother Rat”, plays the young doctor for whom Rosemary Lane successfully sets her wedding bonnet in the film. Rosemary, you will remember, is the only one of the four daughters who didn’t “get her man” in the earlier picture. Also added to the cast [4] is Henry O’Neill, in the role of Albert’s father. Still other additions to the family tree are four girl babies. First of these to make her appearance in the film is the yearold child which is adopted by Lola Lane and Frank McHugh in the story. Then Priscilla gives birth to a girl baby, and Lola caps that by having twin girls. “Four Wives” takes up the story of the Lemp family where “Four Daughters” left off. The two oldest daughters are already married, Priscilla, the youngest, widowed in the earlier film, is about to marry her first love, played by Jeffrey * Lynn, when she learns that she’s to have a baby by her dead husband. The fourth girl, Rosemary, puts on a matrimonial campaign, as mentioned above, with the help of all her sisters. Suggested by the Fannie Hurst novel, “Sister Act”, the script was written by Maurice Hanline, Philip G. and Julius J. Epstein. Michael Curtiz directed. * Still FW423; Mat 307—45c Gale Page, Lola, Priscilla and Rosemary Lane, the "Four Daughters" of last year's film hit, are now "Four Wives", in the new film sequel with the same cast which is scheduled to make its local debut on Friday a: the Strand. STRAND from brooding and finally, on a wild chance, Jeffrey secretly goes to work composing a beginning and ending for Garfield’s music. He has to go on a concert tour but soon after he starts, he receives a wire from Priscilla asking him to come back. By the time he arrives she has given birth to a little girl. He has to leave again, and their true reconciliation occurs while he is away, for Priscilla, listening to the radio from her hospital bed hears her husband conduct a symphony orchestra, playing the Garfield composition, now finished. It receives a great ovation and at last Priscilla is satisfied. She is the happiest bridesmaid at Rosemary’s wedding, where the strains of the wedding march are mingled with the wails of the four Lemp granddaughters. The same quality of warmth and humanity which won the hearts of all who saw “Four Daughters” is said to emanate from “Four Wives.” While the new story is a separate entity that in no way depends on its predecessor, and can be fully appreciated by those who did not see “Four Daughters,” it should prove a joy to those who fell in love with the Lemps last year. The producers have avoided giving the film any sort of serial treatment, except that the story concerns the same family and characters who were introduced in “Four Daughters.” Michael Curtiz, who guided the destinies of the Lemp family through “Four Daughters,” also directed “Four Wives.” Suggested by Fannie Hurst’s novel, “Sister Act,” the screen play was written by Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein and Maurice MHanline. Max Steiner wrote the symphonic musical score which accompanies the film. The “Symphonie Moderne,” the music which is played by the 110-piece orchestra, conducted by Jeffrey Lynn in one of the big climactic scenes, was written by Max Rabinowitsh, in collaboration with Steiner. oe