I must admit I was surprised to see that this film was so highly regarded on original release, being nominated for five Oscars including best film, director and supporting actor for debutant John Garfield, although none of them won. For director Michael Curtiz, it came between two absolute classics of Golden Age Hollywood, "Angels With Dirty Faces" and "The Adventures Of Robin Hood" but really this particular movie isn't of the same quality.
It's very slight indeed, concerning the highly musical family of cantankerous but soft-hearted widower dad Claude Rains, his widowed sister, mother-hen May Robson and his four pretty and vivacious daughters of the title. These daughters are so giggly and doe-eyed about men, you could be forgiven for thinking that Deanna Durban had been cloned times four but they all live blissfully together in a big boarding house. We join the action as four very different menfolk come onto the scene, the only problems being that two of them love the one girl, being the youngest sister, Priscilla Lane, while the oldest sister, Gale Page ignores the obvious attentions of an apparently bumbling florist and thinks she's in love with one of Anne's two suitors.
For the first half hour the film plays out in a rather light fashion with lots of lame dialogue and silly scenes before Garfield's character, Mickey Borden is invited into the house and immediately throws a spanner in the works with his cynical, nihilistic approach to life and later, his pursuit of the already engaged Anne. Things get darker before they get better and a sacrifice is made but it's fair to say that because, rather than despite this, things work out as they should for each of the four young women.
Like I said, I wasn't really taken with the film. The four sisters and at least two of their boyfriends are irritatingly ditzy and giddy and are landed with lovey-dovey dialogue that would make infants blush to use it in the school playground. The dramatic situation blows in out of nowhere and the final resolution is very pat indeed.
I loved John Garfield's work in the next decade but Oscar-nominated or not, I found his performance rather gauche, while the experienced Rains hams it up as a sort of early Baron Von Trapp character. The three other boyfriends hanging around leave very little impression either and of the sisters only Priscilla is given anything to really work with.
In closing, I have to say that if this piece of fluff received five Oscar nominations, the competition this particular year must have been pretty weak.
It's very slight indeed, concerning the highly musical family of cantankerous but soft-hearted widower dad Claude Rains, his widowed sister, mother-hen May Robson and his four pretty and vivacious daughters of the title. These daughters are so giggly and doe-eyed about men, you could be forgiven for thinking that Deanna Durban had been cloned times four but they all live blissfully together in a big boarding house. We join the action as four very different menfolk come onto the scene, the only problems being that two of them love the one girl, being the youngest sister, Priscilla Lane, while the oldest sister, Gale Page ignores the obvious attentions of an apparently bumbling florist and thinks she's in love with one of Anne's two suitors.
For the first half hour the film plays out in a rather light fashion with lots of lame dialogue and silly scenes before Garfield's character, Mickey Borden is invited into the house and immediately throws a spanner in the works with his cynical, nihilistic approach to life and later, his pursuit of the already engaged Anne. Things get darker before they get better and a sacrifice is made but it's fair to say that because, rather than despite this, things work out as they should for each of the four young women.
Like I said, I wasn't really taken with the film. The four sisters and at least two of their boyfriends are irritatingly ditzy and giddy and are landed with lovey-dovey dialogue that would make infants blush to use it in the school playground. The dramatic situation blows in out of nowhere and the final resolution is very pat indeed.
I loved John Garfield's work in the next decade but Oscar-nominated or not, I found his performance rather gauche, while the experienced Rains hams it up as a sort of early Baron Von Trapp character. The three other boyfriends hanging around leave very little impression either and of the sisters only Priscilla is given anything to really work with.
In closing, I have to say that if this piece of fluff received five Oscar nominations, the competition this particular year must have been pretty weak.