Jack, there’s something on everybody. Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption.
Today on Classic Movie Review, we are taking on Film Noir All the King’s Men (1949).
I want to shout out to the Nebraska Welder. Thanks for the review. It is greatly appreciated. Keep sending reviews, comments, and emails. They really help the show grow.
On iMDB.com, this film has a 7.5 rating[1]. On Rottentomatoes.com, this film has a 97 percent on the Tomatometer and 78 percent audience approval.[2]
Bosley Crowther actually liked the film, saying in a November 13, 1949 review:
“…the other is a roaring social drama from Columbia, called “All the King’s Men.”…The scene of this ríp-roaring, picture is a backward American state and the principal character in it is a Huey Long type of demagogue. Furthermore, its absorbing interest is in the weakness of people toward power, and it pretty well shatters all illusions about the decency of man before it’s through…But it’s a two-fisted, hard-hitting picture, full of shatteringly realistic scenes of vicious, corrupt and wild maneuvering in the area of cheap politics…Although its illuminations of the motives of its characters are dim, it gives a tremendous visualization of the sprawling growth of a fascist incubus right here in our own country.”[3]
This movie won three Oscars; Best Motion Picture, Best Actor Broderick Crawford, and Best Supporting Actress Mercedes McCambridge. It was nominated for four more but did not win; Best Director Robert Rossen, Best Supporting Actor John Ireland, Best Writing, Screenplay Robert Rossen, and Best Film Editing Robert Parrish and Al Clark.
Mercedes McCambridge as Sadie is one of the best reasons to watch this movie as she walks through the background. Another great actor in this movie is Walter Burke as Sugar Boy. He doesn’t say much, but he is always in the background, standing sentinel over Willie.
On my ever-changing list of All Film Noir Movies, today’s film consistently rests at 15 out of 917 entries. So, I clearly like it. This was one of a few films that I loved long before I heard the term Film Noir.
Actors – All the King’s Men (1949)
Returning
John Ireland played reporter Jack Burden and Joanne Dru was in the role of Anne Stanton. These married actors were covered in the western Red River (1948).
Broderick Crawford played the role of Governor Willie Stark. Crawford was first covered in Human Desire (1954).
New
Mercedes McCambridge played assistant to Willie Stark, Sadie Burke. McCambridge was born in 1916 in Illinois. She later became a member of the Mercury Theater Group. McCambridge began working on radio in the 1930s. She had a very raspy voice that sounded like she was on a two-pack-a-day bender. All the King’s Men (1949) was her first film, for which she won a best-supporting actress Oscar for the triple crossed lover.
In addition to being successful on television, McCambridge had a career as a character actor. Some of her more memorable roles include Johnny Guitar (1954), Giant (1956), A Farewell to Arms (1957), a small role in Touch of Evil (1958), where she was terrifying, Cimarron (1960), and as the voice of the ‘Demon’ in The Exorcist (1973). McCambridge died of natural causes in 2004.
Anne Seymour played the long-suffering wife of Willie as Mrs. Lucy Stark. Seymour was born in 1909 in New York City. Her mother was an actress and her family had been involved with theater for seven generations. Seymour trained at the American Laboratory Theatre School under Maria Ouspenskaya. She began working with a theater group in New England. Seymour made her Broadway debut in 1928.
Seymour began working on the radio and successfully participated in several long-running series. Her first film role was in All the King’s Men (1949). Other films include The Subterraneans (1960), Stay Away, Joe (1968), and Field of Dreams (1989). I’m not crying. Seymour was successful on television and was in “Follow Your Heart” 1953. Seymour died in 1988.
Walter Burke played driver and bodyguard to the governor, Sugar Boy. This character was handled amazingly in the book. Burke was born in 1908 in New York City. The child of Irish immigrants, Burke had an interesting look. He was 5 feet 4 inches and had a chiseled face. These assets allowed Burke to play roles from tough guys, to jockeys, to leprechauns.
Burke made his Broadway debut as a teenager in 1925. He worked extensively in theater until he began making movies in 1948. He continued to work in theater throughout his career. Burke’s first film role was uncredited in the Film Noir The Naked City (1948). He really made a mark in Film Noir with his best-known film role in All the King’s Men (1949). This film was followed by Dark City (1950), Double Deal (1950), Mystery Street (1950), The Killer That Stalked New York (1950), M (1951), and The Crimson Kimono (1959).
A partial list of Burke’s other movies includes The Guy Who Came Back (1951), Beauty and the Beast (1962), How the West Was Won (1962), Jack the Giant Killer (1962), My Fair Lady (1964), The Plainsman (1966), Double Trouble (1967), Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969), Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971), and The Stone Killer (1973).
To put it mildly, he was a very in-demand television actor. Burke appeared in 103 episodes of various television series, including the biggest shows such as ‘Perry Mason’ 1957–1966 and ‘Bonanza’ 1959–1973. Burke traveled between Hollywood and his horse farm in Pennsylvania. While he was in the east, Burke taught acting also. He died in 1984.
John Derek played the rebellious son of the governor, Tom Stark. Derek was born in Hollywood in 1926. His father was a director, and his mother was an actress. Derek was in Since You Went Away (1944) and another film before being drafted into the Army. He served in the Philipines at the end of the war.
A handsome young man, he returned to acting following the war. His best-known films include Film Noirs Knock on Any Door (1949) and Scandal Sheet (1952). Other important roles are All the King’s Men (1949), The Ten Commandments (1956), and Exodus (1960).
Derek directed 11 films and is better known for who he married rather than what he directed. Much of his directorial work was designed to promote his current wife. After leaving his first wife, he married up-and-coming actress Ursula Andress. He divorced her and married Linda Evans, who starred in television’s “The Big Valley” 1965-1969 with Barbara Stanwyck. Derek directed three terrible movies trying to promote his fourth wife, Bo Derek. These are Tarzan the Ape Man (1981), Bolero (1984), and Ghosts Can’t Do It (1989). John Derek died in 1998.
Story – All the King’s Men (1949)
The credits roll over scenes of the rural folks flowing into the towns to support the governor. This is something that happens later in the movie.
The story begins with newspaperman Jack Burden (John Ireland) reading a news story about the woman of his dreams, Anne Stanton (Joanne Dru). Jack’s editor calls him into his office and assigns him to a story upstate in Kanoma County concerning Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford). Stark is running for local office, but the story is that they say he is an honest man.
Jack makes it to the small town, where he finds Willie making a no-nonsense speech to the locals. Some men come out of the pool hall and send some deputies towards the speech. Willie mentions that there was some chicanery with the bids for the new schoolhouse. The deputy orders the crowd to disperse, Willie asks his stepson Tom to pass out flyers. The deputies stop that also, and in the scuffle, Willie is arrested. Jack’s camera is seized as well.
Having witnessed the breakup of the rally, Jack goes to the pool hall to speak with Tiny Duffy (Ralph Dumke), the man that sent the deputies over, about getting the camera back. Most of the men in the pool hall are county commissioners. Willie is brought in and allowed to go free.
Jack and Willie meet. The local boys goad Willie about his wife not letting him drink. Tiny makes fun of Sugar Boy (Walter Burke) because he stutters, but Willie speaks up for Sugar Boy.
Jack and Willie drive to his home. At the house, Jack meets Willie’s father and his much older wife, Lucy (Anne Seymour). They are waiting on Tom to return from handing out flyers. Tom was an orphan that Lucy and Willie took in. Lucy was a school teacher that helped Willie with his education. She was fired from her county jobs two weeks prior. Lucy has the vision, but Willie is more interested in eating chicken.
Tom comes in and has been beaten. Shortly after, a rock comes flying through the window. Willie is enraged, but they don’t see who through the stone.
Back in the Capital, Jack writes about Willie and his honesty. Jack takes a vacation and goes to his home of Burden’s Landing. A ferry is required to reach the location. At the wealthy enclave, Jack has a mother (Katherine Warren) who drinks too much and a stepfather (Grandon Rhodes) that despises him.
Jack goes to see the neighbors and his old friends. They are Judge Monte Stanton (Raymond Greenleaf), newly minted doctor Adam Stanton (Shepperd Strudwick), and Jack’s one genuine desire, Anne Stanton. Jack has a great vacation being around his friends.
At a diner with his parents and the Stanton’s, Jack’s stepfather attacks his articles about Willie Stark. The stepfather says any man can be bought. The Judge is optimistic about the future. The stepfather tells Jack that he has already been bought with his money. Jack throws a drink in the man’s face. Later, Jack says that their real-life will be on the mainland, far from Burden’s Landing. Anne’s father was a former governor and she wants Jack to be more ambitious and make more money. Jack then decides he is not ready to take Anne away, asking her to wait for him.
Jack returns to work early from his vacation. The editor lets him know that Willie lost the local election.
With the aid of Lucy, Willie studies hard and earns his law degree. He begins a career working for poor people. The lost election and local corruption are never far from his mind. At the newly built school, the kids have a fire drill. The emergency stairs pull away from the cheaply made bricks. Several children are killed. At one of the burials, Willie is lionized for telling the truth about the corruption. Willie shows his first sign of weakness as he basks in the limelight. Willie leads the fight against local corruption.
Jack is sent to Kanoma to report on Willie.
A group of politicos working for a man running for governor are worried about the rural, or as they call it, the hick vote. They want another candidate to siphons off enough of the hick vote that their guy will win in a three-way race. Tiny says he has the man.
Willie tells Jack that he is not interested in politics. A car comes down the dirt road blowing its horn. Tiny and another local commissioner come with some state-level politicians to recruit Willie as an unknowing strawman to run for governor.
Willie joins the race in earnest, but he is not dynamic enough for the non-local crowd. Jack follows as a reporter, Sadie Burke (Mercedes McCambridge) is assigned as his assistant, and Tiny stays as manager.
Sadie is a tough, no-nonsense worker with a husky voice. She is as cynical about life as it is possible to be. One day Jack talks to Sadie about Willie. Jack asks about Willie being set up as a fall guy. Sadie talks about how badly Willie will have it when he finds out.
Sadie is trying to sleep while Willie and Jack work on his speech. Jack helps Willie sharpen his speeches. Willie knows he is going to lose the race. Sadie comes in for a drink. Willie rambles on about what he would do for the state. Sadie lets it slip that Willie is being set up. She is hard on him for not getting anything for the fall. Sadie gives Wille a drink and chews him up.
After his night of drinking with Sadie, Jack takes Wille to a speech at the fairgrounds. Jack treats him with some hair of the hound. Hungover, Willie makes the best speech of his life. He gets through to the hicks. Sugar Boy is in the audience. Willie denounces Tiny from the stage. When Tiny’s men try to usher him off the stage, Sugar Boy jumps on stage with a gun to protect Willie.
Jack writes, and Willie preaches to the hicks. Sadie is surprised by what is taking place. When Willie surges in the polls, the state politicos send out goons to attack the campaign. Jack is stopped from reporting as the paper changes its policy. Jack quits, saying he is too rich to work.
Sadie and Sugar Boy have formed a team around Willie, but Willie loses the election. Willie is drinking hard and says he now knows how to win.
Jack drifts around for four years, constantly changing jobs. Jack feels his journey has taken him away from Anne and Burdon’s Landing. Willie is still making speeches and writing. Even Tiny joined Willie’s team.
Jack notices that Willie is making deals and spending vast amounts of money on his campaign. Jack goes to work for Willie. Sadie is working hard for the campaign. The plan is to have Jack do research for Willie.
Jack returns to Burden’s Landing with Willie. He thinks it is time for him and Anne to get married. Willie talks to all of the rich folks. Adam asks about Willie making deals with people that he is against. Willie offers to build a hospital for the poor people. Anne is starstruck by Willie. Judge Stanton makes a deal to support Willie in exchange for being attorney general.
Willie wins the election for governor. The hick crowds pour into town to support their leader. Willie has Tom and Lucy on the stage, but he and Lucy are estranged. Jack is enjoying the work, Adam remains skeptical, and Anne has drunk the Kool-Aid.
Willie gets to work building roads, dams, schools, and hospitals. But Willie was willing to use whatever he had to force people to his will. Jack kept the book on anything that could be used to blackmail people into doing Willie’s bidding.
By now, Tom was a football star at some school in Louisiana.
One day, Jack comes into the governor’s office. Sadie is mad because Willie has been running around with other women. Sadie says Willie is two-timing her, but Jack says Willie has been two-timing Lucy. Hence, there is another arithmetic for Sadie. Later, Jack gets a slap for his words.
Willie gets Jack and Sadie because Dolph Pillsbury (Will Wright) has been caught skimming money. Willie sends Jack to get Judge Stanton. Downstairs, Sadie is present while Anne talks to Willie. It is clear that they are now an item.
Willie destroys Pillsbury and makes him sign an undated resignation. Judge Stanton disapproves of the way the man is being handled. Willie orders a man in the legislature to take care of the Pillsbury issue by blackmailing him about an upcoming mortgage. Jack tries to stand up to the Judge and is rebuffed. The Judge also resigns as attorney general.
Later, Sadie sees Willie and Anne together. Anne does feel some remorse about the affair. Sadie tells Willie that the Judge gave the story to the press. Willie’s political foes move towards impeachment. However, through blackmail and violence, Willie’s side suppresses the movement. Willie orders Jack to get some dirt on Judge Stanton. Jack insists that there is no dirt to be found.
Jack returns to Burden’s Landing to look for dirt on the Judge. Jack starts his questioning with Anne. Adam has been selected to be the director of the new medical center. He doesn’t want to take the job. Jack and Anne give him the hard sell. Anne gets really upset with her brother. But it could be more about her relationship with Willie.
Jack starts researching at the county archives and slowly finds some dirt on Judge Stanton. After Jack gets the information, he holes up in his room, drinking and smoking. Finally, Sadie comes to find out why he is not working. Sadie looks at a picture of Anne and talks about how Anne’s skin is smooth, and hers is rough from smallpox. Sadie tells Jack that Willie plans on making Anne a governor’s wife. Jack slaps Sadie this time.
Willie goes to sit with the football coach and watch Tom practice. Tom is not doing well at practice. Jack lies and tells Willie that he didn’t find any dirt on the Judge. Willie says that he knows that Adam has turned down the job. Jack realizes this could only have come from Anne. Tom has been drinking and goofing off at practice. Willie gives him a lecture on playing by the rules.
Later, Tom and a girl speed down #56, Willie Stark Highway. They are both drunk as coots, and the young lady encourages Tom to go faster. Tom wrecks the car, and the girl is badly injured. Two state policemen cover up the booze at the accident because they recognize Tom as the governor’s son.
The girl’s father, Richard Hale, using his own name, accused Tom of being drunk and causing his daughter’s injury. Hale comes to the governor’s mansion and accuses Tom of being drunk. Tom admits to being wrong and being drunk. Tom stands up to Willie and says he doesn’t want him to fix the problem. Willie tries to bribe Hale with a state contract. Hale says he was a supporter and that Willie’s words were good, but Willie is not.
Hale’s daughter dies, and it hits the newspapers. Mr. Hale is missing, and Willie claims the man is in hiding. Tom is at the game, but the coach doesn’t send him into the game. Willie’s cops and goons rough up anyone that tries to ask Willie about the Hale incident.
In the locker room, Tom says he is dizzy and having headaches. Willie only wants him to get into the game to help shake off the scandal. Willie slaps his stepson before leaving. Tom goes into the game and does well, but he still has headaches. Tom takes a brutal hit and is out cold.
Adam has to do the surgery in the hospital because all flights are grounded by fog, and a specialist cannot make it in time. Adam says Tom may live, but he will be paralyzed. Willie is worried that Adam will not do an excellent job because of their history. Willie asks Jack what Adam knows about him and Anne’s relationship. Jack says he doesn’t know anything.
Outside of the hospital, Anne is waiting to learn about the surgery and how Willie is doing. She follows Jack down the street, and at last, he asks why Anne had an affair with Willie. She begs Jack not to leave Willie. Jack gets mad and gives Anne the dirt on her uncle Judge Stanton.
Willie has convinced Adam to take the job as the head of the new hospital. Business goes on as usual, and Willie becomes more powerful and looks towards a national office. Willie begins a reelection campaign and heads to Kanoma because he needs Lucy and Tom, who is now in a wheelchair, as props. Lucy is as cold as a well-digger’s butt. They all hear on the radio that Hale’s body has been found and that he was beaten to death.
Willie’s political enemies plan to impeach him. Willie wants Lucy and Tom to come to the Capital as political props. Even Willie’s dad is turning against him. Willie and crew speed back to the Capital, but he has already been impeached by the time they get there. He will be tried in the state senate. Willie wants the dirt on Judge Stanton.
Willie makes speeches, organizes protests, and orders suppression of opposition. Willie and Jack go back to Burden’s Landing. Jack talks to Judge Stanton alone. Willie and Sugar Boy come in and confirm that the Judge is behind the impeachment. Willie tells the dirt on the Judge. Apparently, the Judge sold out a client to get his first big job. Willie and the crew head out as Anne and Adam come into the house. Jack realizes that Anne provided the dirt on the Judge to Willie. They hear a gunshot, and the Judge has taken his own life.
Jack does not go back with Willie. Adam accuses him of giving the information to Willie. Jack says he kept his word not to reveal the information. Adam now knows that Anne gave Willie the dirt.
The hicks pour into the Capital to support Willie. Jack sees Anne crossing the street. She comes to his room. She breaks down and cries because Adam knows about her and Willie. Anne says that Willie is going back to Lucy. Jack calls her out for betraying the Judge. Jack goes to find Adam before he does something rash.
Jack goes to the Capital and warns the cops about Adam. The trial is going on, but the crowd is having an effect. Willie is found not guilty. Willie comes out on the steps to speak to the crowd. Adam rushes in and shoots Willie. Sugar Boy blazes away and kills Adam.
Jack and Anne go to Adam’s body, while Sadie and Sugar Boy go to the governor. Jack is doing his best to console Anne. The dying Willie asks Jack to come to him. Jack asks Anne to wait, and she nods yes.
Willie is rambling about what Willie Stark could be. He asks why and then dies.
Conclusion – All the King’s Men (1949)
This movie is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Robert Penn Warren titled “All the King’s Men” in 1949. Jack is the focus in the book, while the movie tells more of Willie’s story. It is an excellent read.
In 2006, the film was remade as All the King’s Men (2006). Sean Penn as Willie Stark and Jude Law as Jack Burden were excellent. I don’t usually go for remakes, but this one is worth your time.
A Lion Is in the Streets (1953) is based on a 1945 novel by Adria Locke Langley. This film tells the story of a similar rise to power and stars James Cagney, Anne Francis, and Lon Chaney Jr. This movie is also pretty good and worth the time to watch.
Of course, these movies are based on Huey P. Long 1883-1935. Long was nicknamed ‘The Kingfish.’ He was governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and a U.S. Senator from 1932 until his death.[4]
After helping pass a bill designed to destroy the career of his political opponent Judge Benjamin Pavy, Pavy’s son-in-law, Carl Weiss approached Long and fired a single shot. Weiss was gunned down by Long’s bodyguards. There was a persistent rumor that Weiss was unarmed, and the firing of the guards killed Long.
World-Famous Short Summary – You dance with the Devil, the Devil don’t change
Beware the moors.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041113/
[2] All the King’s Men – Rotten Tomatoes
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/1949/11/13/archives/pictorial-dynamite-praise-for-battleground-and-all-the-kings-men.html
[4] Huey Long – Wikipedia
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