4 Devils(a.k.a. Four Devils)
US (1928): Drama/Lost
Arne Andersen writes:
"The theme of the seduction of a good man from a good woman by a vamp echoes the plot of SUNRISE. A sound version (the last two reels) substituted a happy ending, where only Aimee falls but survives. Neither version has survived. Although Eisner reports that the negative is in the Fox vaults at the time of her writing (1964), this may have been only hearsay.
"Hollywood tampered with Murnau's vision of the film due to the lukewarm boxoffice reception of his masterpiece SUNRISE the year before." From contemporary reviews this F.W. Murnau film -- featuring Anders Randolf, Barry Norton, Charles Morton and Janet Gaynor -- was exquisitely photographed, earning an Academy Award® nomination for Cinematography. Unfortunately, the film is among the lost. No negative or print materials are known to exist.
1 nomination"After reading Lotte Eisner's biography of MURNAU, one learns that the film was about four orphaned children, protected by a clown, in a travelling circus. They are daredevil trapeze artists. One girl, Aimee, loves one of the boys, Fritz, but Fritz' head is turned by a glamorous woman, who throws him roses and eventually seduces him into a wanton life, so wanton that he misses the trapeze during one of the rehearsals. Aimee goes to the woman to plead with her to give him up, but is rebuffed. She tries to win Fritz back but fails. In an act of suicide and murder, she deliberately lets go of the trapeze during their act, plunging them to their deaths in front of the vamp.
· Cinematography 1928-29: Ernest G. Palmer