Poster for the film “Four Sons" (1940)
Extent and Medium
Overall: Height: 41.000 inches (104.14 cm) | Width: 27.000 inches (68.58 cm)
Creator(s)
- 20th Century Fox (Production Company)
- Joseph H. Tooker Litho. Co, Inc. (Printer)
- Ken Sutak (Compiler)
Biographical History
The Cinema Judaica Collection consists of more than 1,200 objects relating to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical subjects, from 1923 to 2000, from the United States, Europe, Israel, Canada, Mexico, and Argentina. The collection was amassed by film memorabilia collector Ken Sutak, to document Holocaust-and Jewish-themed movies of the World War II era and the postwar years. The collection includes posters, lobby and photo cards, scene stills, pressbooks, trade ads, programs, magazines, books, VHS tapes, DVDS, and 78 rpm records. Sutak organized these materials into two groups, “Cinema Judaica: The War Years, 1939–1949” and “Cinema Judaica: The Epic Cycle, 1950–1972” and, in conjunction with the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum (now the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum in New York), organized exhibitions on these two themes in 2007 and 2008. Sutak subsequently authored companion books with the same titles.
Archival History
The poster was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur
Scope and Content
Poster for the American feature film “Four Sons,” released by 20th Century-Fox in June 1940. The film was a remake of a 1928 film by the same name, set in Bavaria before and during World War I. The 1940 remake was set during the late 1930s in the Czechoslovakian region along the German border known as the Sudetenland. It focuses on a mother and her four sons, who have divided political loyalties. One son enlists in the Czech army and clashes with his brother who joins the Nazis. A third brother is drafted by the German army after the Sudetenland was annexed in 1938, while the fourth brother, an artist, escapes the same fate by immigrating to the United States. Three of the four brothers are killed as a result of the war, and the mother, her daughter-in-law, and grandson set out to immigrate to the United States. Advertising for “Four Sons” was the first to use imagery of the “specter of death,” a common theme of interventionist political cartoons and editorials. This led to threats on the studio from the German consul-general. This object is one of more than 1,200 objects in the Cinema Judaica Collection of materials related to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical themes.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Restrictions on use. Copyright status is unknown.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Lithographic poster printed on rectangular off-white paper with illustrated images from the film “Four Sons.” In the top left corner is the movie title in large, bold, yellow letters with black shadowing. Right of the title is the face of a woman with her hair pulled back with a center part. Across the center of the poster are the faces of four men, shaded in pink, orange, purple, and green, overlaid on the faded images of three soldiers and an officer. Their roles are identified by their hats. In the lower right corner are the film credits, including the principal cast, in a block of large, blue text. The producer and company credit are next to it in the left corner. In the background of the poster is a landscape with a distorted image of a town across the center. There is a small line of blue text containing copyright information in the bottom two corners and center bottom margin. The poster is creased with tears along the edges and the central fold lines. There are several large losses along the central fold lines, as well as some smaller, surface losses in several places. Left to right: Don Ameche as Chris, George Ernest as Fritz, Alan Curtis as Karl, Robert Lowery as Joseph, and Eugenie Leontovich as Frau Bern
People
- Leontovich, Eugenie.
- Stossel, Ludwig.
- Hughes, Mary Beth, 1919-1995.
- Curtis, Alan, 1909-1953.
- Ernest, George, 1921-2009.
- Ameche, Don.
- Lowery, Robert, 1916-1971.
- Rumann, Sig, 1884-1967.
Subjects
- Film adaptations.
- Nazis in motion pictures.
- United States.
- Soldiers in motion pictures.
- Germans--Czech Republic--Sudetenland.
- Sudetenland (Czech Republic)
- Historical films.
- Germans in motion pictures.
- Anti-war films.
- Nazis--United States--Drama.
- National socialism in motion pictures.
- Armed Forces in motion pictures.
- Motion pictures--History--20th century.
- World War (1939-1945)
Genre
- Posters.
- Posters
- Object