{"id":43417,"date":"2019-04-23T11:49:39","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T18:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=43417"},"modified":"2020-11-26T10:23:28","modified_gmt":"2020-11-26T17:23:28","slug":"all-the-kings-men-1949","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=43417","title":{"rendered":"All the King&#8217;s Men (1949)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Poster-300x232.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"232\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-43418\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Poster-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Poster-128x99.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Poster.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA small-town farmer-turned-lawyer (Broderick Crawford) rises to prominence in politics, aided by a hard-talking political aide (Mercedes McCambridge) and a sympathetic reporter (John Ireland) whose girlfriend (Joanne Dru) becomes Crawford&#8217;s lover. However, as Crawford becomes increasingly corrupt, he puts the well-being and reputations of many &#8212; including his own son (John Derek) and Dru&#8217;s esteemed uncle (Raymond Greenleaf) &#8212; at risk.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Broderick Crawford Films<\/li>\n<li>Joanne Dru Films<\/li>\n<li>John Ireland Films<\/li>\n<li>Journalists<\/li>\n<li>Mercedes McCambridge Films<\/li>\n<li>Political Corruption<\/li>\n<li>Robert Rossen Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nLoosely based on the life of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Huey_Long\">Louisiana politician Huey Long<\/a>, this adaptation of Robert Penn Warren&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/All_the_King%27s_Men\">Pulitzer Prize winning novel<\/a> &#8212; directed and scripted by Robert Rossen &#8212; won an Academy Award as Best Picture of the Year, and a Best Actor of the Year award for Crawford. Peary disagrees with both these choices in his <em>Alternate Oscars<\/em>, where he notes that &#8220;cynical movies about the simultaneous moral corruption of individuals and society &#8212; with the sheeplike masses just waiting to be manipulated by false prophets &#8212; flourished in the postwar years&#8221;, including such 1950s titles as &#8220;Billy Wilder&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=42315\"><em>The Big Carnival\/Ace in the Hole<\/em><\/a> and Elia Kazan&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=38273\"><em>A Face in the Crowd<\/em><\/a>&#8221; which &#8220;made viewers ashamed of themselves&#8221;. He writes that while some elements of <em>All the King&#8217;s Men<\/em> &#8212; particularly &#8220;those [scenes] that illustrate how our political system &#8216;works'&#8221;, as well as the many &#8220;authentic crowd scenes&#8221; &#8212; remain powerful, &#8220;the politics get lost because of some romantic subplots and a conventional secondary story involving Stark&#8217;s relationship with his disrespectful son&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>Regarding Crawford, Peary asserts that he &#8220;became arguably the worst actor ever to win a Best Actor Academy Award&#8221; (!), cynically noting that &#8220;after a dozen undistinguished years of performances that failed to prove he deserved anything better than to be in films nobody saw&#8221;, he was lucky enough to be &#8220;perfectly cast&#8221; here as &#8220;a two-fisted corrupt politician.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Crawford.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Crawford.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-55022\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Crawford.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Crawford-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Crawford-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Crawford-360x270.png 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>While I&#8217;m not well-versed enough in Crawford&#8217;s career to comment on him, I&#8217;ll agree this character study remains one of the lesser (though still intermittently powerful) attempts by Hollywood to expose political corruption and herd-like adoration of a Strong Leader &#8212; which, it should be noted, remain salient themes today. The framing narrative by and about Ireland is particularly weak; we lose respect for him fairly early on, as he remains committed to a man who may once have had good intentions but has clearly turned rotten. However, the direction and cinematography are strong, and the final scenes remain shocking and unexpected. Check out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tcm.com\/this-month\/article\/157035%7C0\/All-the-King-s-Men.html\">TCM&#8217;s article<\/a> for a fascinating overview of the unconventional editing process that pared this film down to manageable size. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Effective direction by Rossen and cinematography by Burnett <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Direction.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Direction.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-43421\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Direction.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Direction-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Direction-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Cinematography.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-43423\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Cinematography.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Cinematography-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/All-the-Kings-Men-Cinematography-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, for its historical importance as an Oscar winner. Listed as a film with Historical Relevance in the back of Peary&#8217;s book. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?page_id=1784#oscar\">Oscar Winner or Nominee<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0041113\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.filmsite.org\/allt.html\">FilmSite Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tcm.com\/this-month\/article\/157035%7C0\/All-the-King-s-Men.html\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s4459king.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1949\/11\/09\/archives\/all-the-kings-men-columbia-film-based-on-the-novel-by-warren-at.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption.&#8221; Synopsis: A small-town farmer-turned-lawyer (Broderick Crawford) rises to prominence in politics, aided by a hard-talking political aide (Mercedes McCambridge) and a sympathetic reporter (John Ireland) whose girlfriend (Joanne Dru) becomes Crawford&#8217;s lover. However, as Crawford becomes increasingly corrupt, he puts the well-being and reputations of many &#8212; including his own son (John Derek) and Dru&#8217;s esteemed uncle (Raymond Greenleaf) &#8212; at risk. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Broderick Crawford Films Joanne&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=43417\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43417"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55023,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43417\/revisions\/55023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}