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Customer Reviews of Adam Had Four Sons

Ingrid Almighty
I'm a fan of Ingrid Bergman, but I didn't expect her to be so good in her earlier films. This is not a great film but very entertaining. The story seems a little mild but it all leads to a jaw-dropping confrontation between Bergman and Hayward. Ingrid's intense righteousness in the face of amoral Hayward is a pleasant revelation after the kind meekness she portrayed up to that point in the film. Only then does it register how towering and solid a woman she is compared to Hayward. Ingrid fans shouldn't skip this one. The woman doesn't ever disappoint. <
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A little bit of film history for Bergman and Hayward fans
In this, Ingrid Bergman's second American film, she once again plays the nubile love interest of a much older man (as she did with Leslie Howard in INTERMEZZO, which was a remake of her Swedish film by the same name). This is a period film, made in the 1940s, it is set back before WWI, so it has that "old world" feel about it, and her accent is used to great advantage, as she plays a nanny from "the old country." In the 1940s many many films had a rosy remembrance of the 1890s and early 1900s, just as today we have sweetened remembrances of the 70s, like " Almsost Famous" - a film that turns a band-following sleeze into some mythological dream girl/woman of easy sex and maternal sweetness. (Ah yes, the early 2000s, they will be saying in the future, where once again, the only purpose of a girl in a film is to be a willing vessel for a man.) <
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>But I digress... which your mind might do during this film, because it is a pretty bland and predictable story, despite the catty game playing of a young Susan Hayward. It's also a little ikky by today's standards, when we realize that we are supposed to be rooting for Ingrid to pair up with a man who looks at least 30 years older than she is. But we must remember what financial stability meant in a post depression era world. <
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>Susan Hayward has a very interesting role here. It became a prototype for her later roles, sexually and personally aggressive, and morally bankrupt. It is also interesting because you can see her acting never really changed or progressed. She had everything here in this powerhouse performance that she had as an older actress. Lots of strength and pizzazz, not much nuance. (Watch VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, and she is interchangeable - just older, with a better script.) <
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>Consequently, this film gives us a stark contrast between Hayward & Bergman, heightened by this contrast in acting style. Susan Hayward hits you over the head while you're on the doorstep. Ingrid quietly lets you come inside. This makes their scenes like fire and ice, and wisely, the filmmakers let the story build to a confrontation between them. That is the best part of this film - at heart a woman's story. <
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>Being that this is essentially a woman's story, it is oddly overrun with little boys and men, older men and little boys who need to be looked after and catered to, young men in uniform who parade in like colorful birds - who need to be looked after and catered to. Ah yes, the war years. <
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>One real irony here is that Susan Hayward's character is introduced in uniform. It is not commented on at all, but instead of this conferring respect on her, we know immediately that this shorthand means she is hard, aggressive and probably sexually promiscuous. Definitely NOT what those boys were fighting for; they may have wanted Susan in the field, but they wanted Ingrid to come home to. Amusing in retrospect, and also a frustrating reminder that women who give their lives in service to their country are still regarded with an odd mixture of intangible suspicions. <
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>Somewhere in this mix is Fay Wray (I didn't recognize her)... She played the sainted, oddly healthy looking mother of the boys who dies. In the titles she is identified only by her first name, and the mother is never called by the first name within the film, it is "mother" or "Mrs.". I can only assume that audiences at this time would have known her on sight, so they couldn't conceive that one day people would be trying to figure out which one she was. Wray did a lot of work on the stage, and actually kept pace with the times, acting-wise she grew, and her work fits nicely with the more subtle work of Bergman. It is her features and profile that pinpoint her as a beauty of the silents and early talkies. Very similar build and look to Gloria Swanson. (I second the kudos for the adorable small role of young June Lockhart! She just makes you smile.) <
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>Solid, studio bound production from this period, with some unexplainable gaps of logic in the story and large gaps of time left unmentioned. This period of films was a little suffocating even for those who like it, so you can probably skip it unless you really want to see the early work of Bergman and Hayward. <
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Bergman shines
You can tell when someone is a truly great actor, because they can bring some life to even the most tepid, uninvolving movies. That's the case with "Adam Had Four Sons," a predictable and rather artificial melodrama, which is only given life by the legendary Ingrid Bergman. Nothing else really stands out except her. <
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>Bergman is Emilie Gallatin, a young governess who comes to work for the Stoddard family's four young boys. But then the mother (Fay Wray) dies of cancer, the family loses all their money, and Emilie must be sent back to France. But the father Adam (Warner Baxter) promises that when the fortunes change, she can come back. <
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>About ten years later, he keeps his word. But while all four young men still adore her, one of them has impulsively gotten married to a young nurse (Susan Hayward). But when Hester starts seducing her new brothers-in-law, Emilie becomes determined to somehow protect the family of the man she loves. <
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>"Adam Had Four Sons" is not so much a terrible movie as it is a tepid, predictable one. You know who's a slut, who's a sweetie, who'll die tragically, and that good guys will live happily ever after while the nastier ones will Get What They Justly Deserve. There are even the eager young men Going To War. <
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>The plot is a fairly straightforward one, with average dialogue and average direction. The problem is that the plot has some very artificial plot twists, such Hester "protecting" the family by not telling them about Hester sleeping with her brother-in-law. Credulity is stretched to the breaking point too -- I mean, would Emilie just sit around for ten years, waiting to be summoned? <
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>The cast is rather hit-and-miss: all four young men are virtually interchangeable, and Baxter looks kind of uneasy. The women of this movie are what keep it from sinking: Bergman sparkles as the loving young governess, in every scene she's in, while Hayworth is a very credible skank. Seeing them clash is the high point of the movie. <
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>Bergman is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise forgettable family melodrama, and remains the only reason to see "Adam Had Four Sons." Tepid, but Bergman and Hayworth are excellent.