Four Devils
| 4 Devils | |
|---|---|
Janet Gaynor and Charles Morton
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| Directed by | F. W. Murnau |
| Produced by | William Fox |
| Written by | Carl Mayer |
| Based on | "Les Quatre Diables" by Herman Bang |
| Starring |
Janet Gaynor Charles Morton Mary Duncan Barry Norton |
| Music by |
Ernö Rapée Lew Pollack |
| Cinematography | L. William O'Connell Ernest Palmer |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Fox Film Corporation |
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Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes (Sound version) 97 minutes (Silent version) |
| Country | United States |
| Language |
Silent film English intertitles |
4 Devils (also known as Four Devils) is a lost 1928 American silent drama film directed by German film director F. W. Murnau and starring Janet Gaynor.
The plot concerns four orphans (Janet Gaynor, Nancy Drexel, Barry Norton, and Charles Morton) who become a high wire act, and centers around sinister goings-on at a circus.
4 Devils was released by Fox Film Corporation, and was produced by William Fox, who had hired Murnau to come to the United States. A sound version, incorporating "synchronised sound effects, music and dialogue sequences", was made without Murnau's cooperation.
No copies of either version of the film are known to exist, and 4 Devils remains among the most sought after lost films of the silent era. Details about the movie can be found on the DVD for Sunrise, released by Fox as part of their 20th Century Fox Studio Classics collection.
Film historian and collector William K. Everson stated that the only surviving print was lost by actress Mary Duncan who had borrowed it from Fox Studios. Martin Koerber, curator of Deutsche Kinemathek, is more hopeful, writing that the print was given to Duncan, and that her heirs, if any, may yet have it.
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