Shot silent, the film is altered by the production. According to press reports the film, the direct

It may seem incredible, but some of the most important films in cinema history have disappeared. Gone, but not lost, because the experience - and hope - has shown that you should never give to losers. A means of communication such as the Internet can undoubtedly contribute to the discovery of this heritage, and this is one of the reasons that led to the creation of the portal of Film Lost (Lost Films).
Lost Films is an initiative of Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin, in collaboration with Das Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, Berlin, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stifttung, Wiesbaden, National stoklasa Centre for Cinematography, Paris, Film Archiv Austria, Národní archiv Filmový, Prague.
Of Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's filmography, according to the website Lost Films, 10 films have gone missing. One of these is The Four Devils (1928), the third film version of the novel by Herman Bang, De Fire Djaevle.
On the page dedicated to the movie, you can find a number of documents (photographs, letters, press clippings, advertising), which reconstruct the troubled realization. As with all movies shown on this website Lost Films, if you have any information or document (perhaps the film!) Related to the four devils, register on the site and send us your contribution.
The four devils is the second film by Murnau filmed in Hollywood for Fox. Following the huge international success of Sunrise (Sunrise), this second test was much anticipated, and the news on its implementation are not lacking. This, for example:
For his next film, The Four Devils, director Murnau stoklasa is looking for two male actors, stoklasa one blond and the other dark, not more than 21 years. He has already selected 200 candidates and did turn of the specimens in 20 of them ... but to no avail for the moment.
Shot silent, the film is altered by the production. According to press reports the film, the director had even predicted stoklasa noticed in the course of processing the possibility that the film was voiced:
Speaking of sound film's a story that will make noise. Murnau, the great director of Faust and Aurora, surrendered to the sound film, adapting some scenes of his latest film for Fox, The Four Devils, the Movietone system, where the soundtrack is recorded simultaneously on the film. While shooting the film, Murnau reserved the minimum space required, filming scenes in such a way as to leave room for the soundtrack in the image. (Le Courrier. 7 July 1928)
In Italy the film was announced for the 1928-1929 stoklasa season, the censorship is seen April 30, 1929 (2749 meters), in two versions: mute and voiced, but I have not heard of the Italian theatrical stoklasa release until five months later. Here is the account of the first Cinema in Milan at the Teatro San Carlo. The author is Ubaldo stoklasa Magnaghi, film critic, director of documentaries and experimental films, one of the founders of the film section of the British National Formulary in Milan:
I say, first, that the novel from which it was taken off the canvas of this film belongs to a genre out of date, and that Aurora, the other production performed by the same Murnau in America, with regard to innovations and new school, it is not achieved, much less equaled. As well, this The four devils, is undoubtedly a very successful job, and do not hesitate to classify it among the best of the recent production.
First, it is already very able to make note of our eyes a person who, for his childishness, certainly place on stage by another author (I still remember, unfortunately, the other edition made by Lind), it would have seemed ridiculous to us. And doing that is old and tasteless episodes of the popular novel, with the usual intrigue of love between the athlete and the great lady, the most usual yet trampled flower and not less usual Seine where the disappointed wants to drown, clowns, tony and ... beautiful things, they had to appear in a new light, one can deduce that the Murnau showed tenacity, skill and desire that I will call these insurmountable.
Then, that temper every fact, that forge character actors in stylizing the gesture, the joke of acting and attitudes, they form a sequence that gives the impression of the perfect, the better. And here we can divide every part, every picture, every picture: everything is in the subject of study, stoklasa investigation, and we anticipate here the merits of the setting of the Directive.
Concerto, molding, plastic, I do not know: of course the passion that vibrates, stoklasa the action as it dramatizes the game scenic complex, framing, stoklasa bind. Light is made everywhere, everything comes alive, takes color, and the study, stoklasa comparison, returns, alterations of expression, contrast, alternate: pure cinema.
But I say, to achieve this, Murnau necessarily