"Four Devils" - a film by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau , shot in 1928 in Hollywood based on a work by Herman Bang and not having success with the public. The film is lost, the reason is her borrowing Mary Duncan; rumor has it that the film is drowned in the ocean. Currently, there is only a series of photographs, sketches of the artist and the script.
| Four devils | |
|---|---|
| 4 devils | |
 | |
| Genre | drama |
| Producer | Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau |
| Producer | |
| Author script | |
| In the main cast | Charles Morton Janet Gaynor Mary duncan Anne Shirley |
| Operator | |
| Composer | Erno Rapi |
| Film company | |
| Duration | 97 minutes |
| A country |  USA |
| Language | |
| Year | 1928 |
| IMDb | |
Story
Four orphaned children, previously raised by an old clown, perform in a circus, showing amazing acrobatic tricks: they are known as the “Four Devils”. One of the acrobats won special attention of a rich and beautiful woman who came to their performances: she gives him various signs of attention, and later he comes to her house. They begin a passionate romance, a young man can’t think of anything except her, and this does not benefit his training. One of the “devils", a girl, is in love with him and, worried about what is happening, is trying to talk to him; when this leads to nothing, she sneaks after him and learns about his relationship with a rich lady. A desperate girl tries to talk with her too, but to no avail: the lady does not need to let the young lover go. Marion seemed to be able to persuade Charlie to break with his passion; on the eve of the performance, the young man comes to her to say goodbye, but the fatal woman gives him wine, asks for a farewell kiss, and ... Charlie remains to spend the night with her passion, and in the morning realizes that he overslept: there are only a few minutes left before the performance begins. Having barely managed to run in time, he appears in the arena, but his terrible well-being prevents him from successfully performing the trick: he falls, but when Marion manages to grab his hand, she cannot hold him for a long time and they both break.
The fate of the film
At the premiere of the film on July 2, 1928, questionnaires were distributed among the public. The 49 completed questionnaires that have survived after Murnau’s death and are stored in the Berlin Film Museum contain comments that concern not only the characters of the film and the actors, but also the ending of the film. Murnau was forced to listen to the viewers and change the ending of the film to a happy ending.
A few months after the release of the “Four Devils”, Fox Studios decides to voice it; Murnau was against, but this did not affect the decision of the studio management. The voiced version was also distinguished by its ending: somehow only Marion fell, and then after the fall she survives. Murnau himself was very unhappy with the processing. This version is 3 minutes longer than dumb: 100 minutes instead of 97.
In 2003, a "film about the film" was made, entitled "Murnau's 4 Devils: Traces of a Lost Film", telling about the fate of this picture. This is an attempt to reconstruct the film with the help of the surviving photographs from the place of shooting (naturally, the angle was not at all the one that was supposed for the film), the sketches of the artist and the script.