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All the King's Men (1949)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
January 1950 (USA)
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Tagline:
He Might Have Been A Pretty Good Guy . . . If Too Much Power . . . And Women . . . Hadn't Gone To his Head ! more
Plot:
The rise and fall of a corrupt politician, who makes his friends richer and retains power by dint of a populist appeal. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Awards:
Won 3 Oscars.
Another 11 wins
&
7 nominations
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NewsDesk:
(7 articles)
Top Ten Movies About U.S. Politics
(From CinemaSpy. 3 November 2009, 9:45 PM, PST)
Geek Deal: Columbia Best Picture Collection for $60
(From Slash Film. 17 September 2009, 11:30 PM, PDT)
(From CinemaSpy. 3 November 2009, 9:45 PM, PST)
Geek Deal: Columbia Best Picture Collection for $60
(From Slash Film. 17 September 2009, 11:30 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
Politicians corrupt? You're kidding!
more (50 total)
Cast
(Complete credited cast)| Broderick Crawford | ... | Willie Stark | |
| John Ireland | ... | Jack Burden | |
| Joanne Dru | ... | Anne Stanton | |
| John Derek | ... | Tom Stark | |
| Mercedes McCambridge | ... | Sadie Burke | |
| Shepperd Strudwick | ... | Adam Stanton | |
| Ralph Dumke | ... | Tiny Duffy | |
| Anne Seymour | ... | Mrs. Lucy Stark | |
| Katherine Warren | ... | Mrs. Burden (as Katharine Warren) | |
| Raymond Greenleaf | ... | Judge Monte Stanton | |
| Walter Burke | ... | Sugar Boy | |
| Will Wright | ... | Dolph Pillsbury | |
| Grandon Rhodes | ... | Floyd McEvoy |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
110 min (copyright length)
Country:
Language:
Colour:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Recording)
Certification:
Sweden:15 |
Netherlands:AL (VHS rating) (1998) |
UK:A (original rating) (passed with cuts) |
UK:U (tv rating) |
Argentina:13 |
Australia:PG |
Canada:PG (video rating) |
Finland:K-16 |
UK:U (video rating) (1992) |
USA:Approved (MPAA rating: certificate #13747) |
West Germany:12
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Producer-Director Robert Rossen offered the role of Willie Stark to John Wayne. Rossen sent a copy of the script to Wayne's agent, Charles K. Feldman, who forwarded it to Wayne. After reading the script, Wayne sent it back with an angry letter attached. In it, he told Feldman that before he sent the script to any of his other clients, he should ask them if they wanted to star in a film that "smears the machinery of government for no purpose of humor or enlightenment," that "degrades all relationships," and that is populated by "drunken mothers; conniving fathers; double-crossing sweethearts; bad, bad, rich people; and bad, bad poor people if they want to get ahead." He accused Rossen of wanting to make a movie that threw acid on "the American way of life." If Feldman had such clients, Wayne wrote that the agent should "rush this script... to them." Wayne, however, said to the agent that "You can take this script and shove it up Robert Rossen's derri?re..." Wayne later remarked that "To make Huey Long a wonderful, rough pirate was great," he said; "but, according to this picture, everybody was s - t except for this weakling intern doctor who was trying to find a place in the world." Broderick Crawford, who had played a supporting role in Wayne's Seven Sinners (1940), eventually received the part of Stark. In a bit of irony, Crawford was Oscar-nominated for the part of Stark and found himself competing against Wayne, who was nominated the same year for Sands of Iwo Jima (1949). Crawford won the Best Actor Oscar, giving Rossen the last laugh.
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Goofs:
Continuity: When Tommy first takes the field, the referee is towards the left and Tommy is to the right, really not anywhere near each other, yet the ref's arm is visible in the close up.
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Quotes:
Willie Stark:
I'm the hick they were gonna use to split the hick vote. But I'm standing right here now on my hind legs! Even a dog can learn to do that. Are you standing on your hind legs? Have you learned to do that yet?
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Movie Connections:
Featured in The 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008) (TV)
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (50 total)
Message Boards
Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for All the King's Men (1949)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
|---|---|
| TV Version | magida |
| This movie is so true... | Pwilliam73 |
| Huey Long | richsass |
| No blacks? | smoogy_smooger |
| Bathrobe Monogram - Goof? | schreiberbike |
| Capitol Building | williamgstraub |
Recommendations
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There are lots of movies about the rise of some obscure person into the celebrity life, and the person turns out to be an ambitious and unscrupulous phony. Some of them are pretty good -- "Citizen Kane," "All About Eve." Some are mediocre -- "Keeper of the Flame." This is one of the best.
The acting honors generally go to Broderick Crawford and he's not bad. He's rather like a switch who can toggle either into thoughtful candor or blustering Hickhood. (He used the latter persona to good effect as a New Jersey junk man later.) He also had a third position, the incredibly dumb goof, which he never used after becoming a serious actor, but see, "Larceny, Incorporated" for an example of what I mean.
If there's a problem with the script it's not his fault, although it involves his character. Hung over, still a bit drunk, Crawford steps on stage and instead of his usual boring "tax" speech he gives a redneck-rousing go-getter. And he never changes after that. Rather too quick a transition.
The direction is very good. There's a scene in which Mercedes McCambridge enters the hotel room in which John Ireland has been cooped up for four days in a depressed state. "Whew, lots of smoke," she says. "And lots of whiskey." The scene is almost perfectly staged, with Ireland crumpled on the bed in the foreground and reaching for his liquor out of the frame, while McCambridge busies herself emptying ash trays in the background and staring at her face in the mirror. "Smallpox," she says. (She's not nearly as attractive as Crawford's new girl friend, JoAnne Dru, nee Joanne Letitia LaCock, a name that could have come straight out of Andy Warhol's Factory.) Everyone's acting is quite up to par. It's John Ireland's best role. He was never Hollwyood-handsome with those squished up eyes, that deep hole between them, and that protruding nose beneath.
But the honors really should go to Mercedes McCambridge. Robert Rossen, the director, allows her a few seconds here and there to be unique. When Ireland slaps her face hard, she doesn't cry. She replies with a mixture of contempt and not entirely displeased surprise at having provoked him to violence. And that little speech about smallpox as she compares her face in the mirror to the glamorized portrait of Joanne Dru.
I won't go on, I don't think. If you haven't seen this, you really ought to. So should everyone inside the Beltway. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That's been attributed so often to Lord Acton that I'm beginning to believe he said it.