Adam Had Four Sons is a 1941 drama film directed by Gregory Ratoff. The film stars Ingrid Bergman, Warner Baxter, Fay Wray, and Susan Hayward. Adam Had Four Sons is an adaptation of Charles Bonner’s 1940 novel Legacy.
Director: Gregory Ratoff
Production Company: Columbia Pictures
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Warner Baxter, Susan Hayward, Fay Wray, Helen Westley, Richard Denning, Johnny Downs
US Box Office: Unknown
Film Format: Black & White
Genre: Drama
Release Date: February 14, 1941
Plot Summary: In 1907, French woman Emilie Gallatin (Ingrid Bergman) is hired by American businessman Adam Stoddard (Warner Baxter) and his wife Molly (Fay Wray) to be the governess of their four sons. Emilie is very popular with everyone, and quickly becomes part of the family. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes: Molly dies of an illness, and most of Adam’s money is lost during the stock market crash, Emilie is forced to leave. Ten years later when Adam’s business is doing well again (and the sons are now adults), Emilie is able to come back to the household. However, Emilie is forced to confront a new problem when Hester (Susan Hayward), the manipulative recently-married wife of the second oldest son David (Johnny Downs), threatens to tear the family apart.
Production: In 1940, former radio announcer Robert Sherwood bought the film rights to Charles Bonner’s novel Legacy (1940) shortly after it was published. Sherwood then made a deal with Columbia Pictures that allowed him to be the producer of the planned film, in exchange for Columbia serving as the production company and distributor. The script for the film, then titled Legacy, was written by William Hurlbut and Michael Blankfort. Legacy was later retitled Adam Had Four Sons.
Shorewood chose to cast Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman as the main character Emilie Gallatin. Shorewood was able to borrow Bergman from David O. Selznick Productions. Adam Had Four Sons was only Bergman’s second American film after Intermezzo (1939), which was a remake of a 1936 Swedish film that Bergman had previously starred in. Shorewood hired Gregory Ratoff to direct Adam Had Four Sons because he had previously directed Bergman in Intermezzo. Warner Baxter was cast as Adam Stoddard. Baxter had been a major star in the 1920s and early 1930s, but his career was in serious decline, and he later suffered a mental breakdown after the release of Adam Had Four Sons. Susan Hayward was cast as Hester in the film. Hayward had recently become a star due to her role in the adventure film Beau Geste (1939).
Filming on Adam Had Four Sons began in October of 1940 and ended in November. Being a medium-budget drama film, Adam Had Four Sons was shot almost entirely on set at Columbia Pictures Studios in California. A small amount of background footage was also shot at Palms Railroad Station in Los Angeles. Bergman got along well with director Ratoff during filming. She was allowed to make some changes to script to humanize the character of Emilie, making her less of a “cardboard saint.” According to Bergman in her autobiography, the script was still being modified, even after filming on Adam Had Four Sons had begun. She wrote, “We had a script to work with but the dialogue was made up minute by minute as we went along, and they had no idea how to end the picture.”
Fun Facts and Trivia: Vance (Phillip’s girlfriend) was played by actress June Lockhart. Lockhart was about fifteen years old at the time and Adam had Four Sons was one of her earliest film roles. She would later become famous for playing mother characters on the television series Lassie (1958-1964) and Lost in Space (1965-1968). Gilbert Emery (Dr. Lane) appeared in more than eighty films, and was also a playwright, having written seven Broadway plays between 1921 and 1933. Ingrid Bergman was responsible for adding the scenes where Emilie does gymnastics and plays basketball with the boys, as a way of humanizing the character. Bergman would later add athletic aspects to her character in The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945) as well.
Reception: Adam Had Four Sons was released on February 14, 1941 in the United States. The film received a somewhat positive response from critics at the time. The staff at Variety gave the film a generally positive review. They praised Ingrid Bergman’s performance as Emilie. Elena de la Torre of the Spanish-language Cine-Mundial magazine also gave the film a positive review. Adam Had Four Sons did not receive any Academy Award nominations, being overshadowed by other drama films that year, such as John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley. The film was re-released in 1948 after Bergman became a major star. On April 4, 1957, Lux Video Theatre broadcast a television adaptation of Adam Had Four Sons that starred Leon Ames and Valentina Cortesa in the lead roles.
Despite being one of the early pre-Casablanca American film roles for Ingrid Bergman, Adam Had Four Sons has been largely forgotten in the twenty-first century. David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews gave Adam Had Four Sons a positive review. He noted that the film’s “sleaze” content (as infidelity is a major part of the story) made it interesting enough to be recommended.
Why You Should See It: Adam Had Four Sons is a good drama film. Ingrid Bergman is very good in her role as Emilie. She has the perfect demeaner, mannerisms, and line delivery for the character. Fans of Bergman will probably enjoy Adam Had Four Sons. Director Gregory Ratoff does a good job developing the film’s characters and giving them all screen time, something very important for a character-based drama like Adam Had Four Sons. Susan Hayward is also good as her manipulative “bad girl” character Hester. Adam Had Four Sons is not a “family film,” but it has good themes about the importance of family and learning to overcome loss.