De vier mullers (1935) review - A wonderfully petty family feud

Skip this one if you hate old, creaky black-and-white films where men in giant suits yell at each other in dusty offices. But if you have a soft spot for weirdly intense family drama and *gloriously petty* business rivalries, this Dutch relic is actually kind of a blast. 🎥

It is definitely not a masterpiece, but it has this chaotic energy that kept me hooked. You can practically smell the musty wool through the screen.

The Great Textile War

The whole plot is basically about three generations of Müller men who cannot stand the sight of each other. Otto, the grandson, gets so sick of his father Max's terrible attitude that he teams up with his grandpa Philip to launch a rival company.

Yes, a grandpa-grandson alliance created purely to ruin the middle-aged dad's life. It is the kind of spiteful family dynamic you usually only see at Thanksgiving.

There is some moments where the audio just cuts out or sounds like it was recorded inside a tin can submerged in pudding. Still, the actors scream their lines with so much passion that you do not really need to hear every syllable to get the vibe.

"I never want to see your face in this factory again, even if the looms stop spinning!"

The grandpa is easily the best part of the whole thing. He has this incredibly aggressive way of pointing his finger at people that made me laugh every single time. He reminds me a bit of the eccentric characters in The Old Curiosity Shop, just completely locked into his own little world.

A few weird things I noticed:

• The suits are massive. Everyone looks like a cardboard box with legs. 👔
• There is a truly baffling amount of paperwork on every single desk, yet nobody actually seems to write anything down.
• One extra in the background of the factory scene clearly has no idea where to look and just stares directly at the lens for a solid five seconds.
• The music swells up so dramatically when someone just... opens a door.

It has that same loud, stubborn family energy you find in Kohlhiesel's Daughters, where everyone is just perpetually annoyed at their relatives. It makes you realize that family bickering has not changed at all in ninety years.

There is a scene near the middle where Max stares out a window while a clock ticks *incredibly loudly* in the background. The shot lingers for about twenty seconds too long, to the point where it becomes funny rather than dramatic.

But honestly? The movie gets noticeably better once you accept that it is basically a 1930s soap opera about blankets. It is short, it is angry, and it does not try to be anything more than a solid family squabble. 🧵