And Then There Were Four is a 1950 Scare 'Em Straight driver's education film focusing on the tragic outcome of a car accident involving one of five people viewers are introduced to at the start of the film.
Famously narrated by James Stewart (yes, that one), and sponosred by the General Petroleum Company and Socony-Vacuum Oil Company (today's ExxonMobil), the 26-minute short depicts Los Angelenos from different walks of life: a young salesman, the teen-aged son of a middle-class family, a working class family father, a wealthy doctor and a recently-widowed mother of two young children struggling to make ends meet.
Each of these five drivers are guilty of various driving vices – speeding, reckless driving, failure to concentrate, habitual offending, failure to maintain their vehicles and so on – but four of them have luck on their side and make it home that night. The fifth ... well, that's what is revealed when a young police officer has to break the news to the survivors, and it is heartbreaking, to say the least. It's the mother, leaving her two children orphaned due to being no surviving family.
Originally shown in movie theaters, And Then There Were Four was later distributed to schools for viewing in driver's education classes, where it was a mainstay through the mid-1960s. The movie received an award from the National Committee on Films for Safety in 1950.
And Then There Were Four provides examples of these tropes:
- Breaking News: Shortly after the accident, the scene cuts to each of the five houses, where family members of each of the five people are listening to the news (on the radio; TV was still in its infancy) describing the deadly accident. As each of their loved ones is late returning home, the families all worry that it is their loved one who was involved. The news story is inserted in between two state-related stories.
- Disappeared Dad: The widowed mother has two young children; her husband and their father had died a year earlier.
- Drives Like Crazy: In particular, the teenager, who was once caught driving 110 mph(!).
- Every Car Is a Pinto: A fiery car accident kills both one of the five characters previously introduced and the driver of a semitrailer truck also involved in the crash.
- Imagine Spot: Each of the families pictures their specific loved ones being the (as-of-yet-unidentified) accident victim.
- Jerkass: At the end of the film, once the potential victim list is down to two, a police officer is notifying the victim's surviving family of the death. The other survivor is heard musing to his family about how he was unfairly ticketed by a "badge-heavy" police officer for a minor traffic offense. The officer's beat partner gets a disgusted look on his face as he overhears the man complain about his traffic ticket ... shortly before one of the survivors sits there in shock, barely able to hold back tears.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: The wealthy doctor is sentenced to spend a day in a high school driver's education class. At first peeved and humiliated that he has to work off a fine for a seemingly minor traffic offense this way, he (fortunately) learns his lesson.
- Safe Driving Aesop: The whole point of the film: Drive recklessly or without full attention to the task at hand, you might leave behind a family.
- Tearjerker: The ending ... as the camera pans onto the shocked reaction of one of the victim's survivors.
- Teens Are Monsters: The teenager is straight out of the post-war stereotype, complete with rebellious streak, a leather jacket and hot rod.
- Tonight, Someone Dies: Jimmy Stewart reminds viewers at the start of the film – even going so far as to mention the intersection – and then again after introducing the five characters.
