Four orphans, raised by an aging clown, becomes a high wire act in a circus. Lost film.
Direction
Murnau's camera floats like a trapeze artist — weightless, inevitable.
Cinematography
Ernst Lubitsch allegedly wept at the rushes. The 14 minutes sting.
Director
F. W. Murnau
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Fox junked the negative in 1937. Only a 14-minute fragment resurfaced in 2021, found mislabeled in a Czech archive.
This was Murnau's last American film before Tabu. He died weeks after 4 Devils' premiere, making its vanishing feel almost supernatural.
US
