Review of Four Wives

Four Wives (1939)
6/10
Adequate sequel
5 August 2012
Follow-up to Four Daughters is okay but pushes the mawkish sentimentality pretty hard.

Most of the cast perform well. Frank McHugh is most appealing as Lola's flummoxed husband and Priscilla Lane is good in her bruised sadness unable to move on or get over her guilt after her sudden loss in the original. Claude Rains and May Robson add their special brand of enjoyment but really are wasted in small supporting parts.

The one actor who is terrible and throws the whole enterprise off is Jeffrey Lynn, supposedly an ideal man he is attractive but a dull, bland presence and the constant comparison to the magnetic John Garfield who is superimposed throughout only makes him worse. Plus he must be the most unconvincing orchestra conductor ever!

Curtiz gets the job done direction wise but he must have recognized the mediocre quality of the script and just moves the story from point A to point Z with none of the flourish he could infuse into a superior project like The Adventures of Robin Hood.
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