Four Sons is a 1928 American synchronized sound drama film directed and produced by John Ford and written for the screen by Philip Klein from a story by I. A. R. Wylie first published in the Saturday Evening Post as "Grandmother Bernle Learns Her Letters" (1926). While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process.

Plot

In a quiet Bavarian village before the Great War, Mother Bernle (Margaret Mann), a warm, dignified widow, tends a modest home and devotes herself to her four beloved sons. The eldest, Joseph “Dutch” Bernle (James Hall), dreams of opportunity abroad and departs for America, where he marries Annabelle (June Collyer) and opens a small delicatessen in New York City. The remaining three—handsome Franz (Ralph Bushman), strong Johann (Charles Morton), and gentle youngest son Andreas (George Meeker)—remain in Bavaria under their mother’s watchful care.