Really liked 'Four Daughters', which could have been overly-soapy, cliched and stereotypical, but turned out to be very warm, human, charming and well written and performed. Also liked 'Four Wives', if not quite as much, it had a lot of the previous film's good qualities with one or two improvements but also a couple of underused cast members and one unintentionally creepy scene. So 'Four Mothers', which also saw a good deal of the cast return, was seen with quite high expectations with no bias for or against intended.
Sadly, 'Four Mothers' left me quite disappointed. It is not a terrible film, far from it. To me it actually takes a lot for a film to fit that distinction, regardless of how it may seem from some of my reviews (which aim to be balanced, un-biased and encouraging and hope it comes over that way, enormous effort has always been made to be so) It also could and should have been a lot better, and it is quite infuriating actually that it wasn't better.
'Four Mothers' does have good things. It is nicely filmed and although Heinz Roemheld is no Max Steiner (a huge ask) his music score at least fits nicely and is appealing to listen to.
There are some amusing and charming moments, May Robson having some of the best material, and some cosiness that is true to the previous films. Regardless of the material, the acting is more than serviceable on the most part. Claude Rains, despite deserving more and better material, is charming and humorous despite the character being nowhere near as likeable and Priscilla Lane brings a lot of heart to Ann.
However, 'Four Mothers' mostly lacks the warmth, humanity and charm of the previous films, somewhat too dark and mean-spirited for the series, which makes it feel very bland excepting the fleeting cosiness. It doesn't deal with the subject with as much subtlety and at times too simple. In terms of individual scenes, nothing stands out really. Also found the story quite cobbled together and not as cohesive from trying to throw in too much and underdeveloping most of it, also with not as much energy, and although William Keighley's direction is competent it is also not particularly distinguished. Michael Curtiz is missed.
Jeffrey Lynn again like with 'Four Wives', whose role gets more underwritten and duller with each film (liked him actually in 'Four Daughters', since then he lost his spark), is bland. Did feel it did get contrived towards the end.
Overall, underwhelming but worth a one-time watch. 5/10
