All the King’s Men **** (1949, Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridge, Joanne Dru, John Derek) – Classic Movie Review 3045

Writer-director Robert Rossen’s 1949 drama stars Broderick Crawford, who won a Best Actor Oscar for his role as decent but ambitious Southern politician Willie Stark. But he loses his scruples climbing up the ladder to political success as he gets voted first mayor and then state governor.

[Spoiler alert] And he turns into a ruthless bigshot as he is warped by the trappings of high office – ‘nobody will tell me how to run this state’ – and destroys the lives of those around him. He finally is then destroyed himself by a killer’s bullet.

Based on the true story of the Louisiana governor Huey Long, this well-made story of an American dream going horribly wrong and indictment of the US political scene picked up three Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Crawford) and Best Supporting Actress (Mercedes McCambridge) and gained writer-director Rossen nominations in both his categories, Best Director and Best Screenplay, as well as nods for John Ireland as Best Supporting Actor and Robert Parrish for Best Editing.

It is certainly intelligent and grippingly acted, but somehow it just slightly lacks the bite and flair that would put it in the very top rank of political movies. This is partly because it seems a little stagey, artificial and set bound. Rossen’s screenplay is taken from Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book.

Also in the cast are John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridge, Joanne Dru, John Derek, Anne Seymour, Shepperd Strudwick, Ralph Dumke, Katharine Warren, Raymond Greenleaf, Walter Burke, Will Wright, Richard Hale, Houseley Stevenson, Grandon Rhodes, Paul Ford, King Donovan and Helene Stanley.

It was remade by writer-director Steven Zaillian in 2006 with Sean Penn, Jude Law and Kate Winslet.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3045

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