Customer Reviews

All the King's Men

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

i was mesmerized by this film from the beginning.i thought the story was great,i as was the writing.the dialogue was also well written.especially the first fiery speech given by Broderick Crawford's character,Willie Stark.i can find no fault with the acting,especially Crawford.i thought he was brilliant.i couldn't take my eyes off him.talk about a powerhouse performance.the movie really packs a powerful wallop to the stomach.the story of political corruption and greed is just as topical(if not more so)today and could easily be based on one of many of our present day politicians.would the film be as good without the brilliant performance of Broderick Crawford.we'll never know.and that's just fine.for me,All the King's Men is a (1949) is a 5/5

select group of actors who peak early in their career. In his case it is 1949, he won an Oscar, & never again got close. Eventually Crawford moved to the small screen where we,of a certain age, remember him on "Highway Patrol". But his best was better than most. His character, in All the King's Men, is Willie Stark, an idealistic, honest, populist politician bucking the system. He is also ambitious & seeing his opportunity, seizes it. His greed, lust for power & ego run amok & turn him into the very thing he had fought against only worse. He corrodes everything & everybody he touches & comes to a fitting end a 'la Huey Long, the man on which the film & presumably the book were loosely based. Highly recommended for all who like this style of political noir or junkies.

All the Kings Men(Released Nov/49)was Broderick Crawford's shining moment as he took the best actor award away that year for his role as Willie Stark.His co-star Mercedes McCambridge as Sadie also snatched the best supporting actress node.Out of the remaining five nominations it took another OSCAR and that was for overall best motion picture.It is still easy to see why as the film still packs a powerful punch.The story is loosely based on Louisiana Governor Huey Long's rise to power and it is a look at how absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The story begins,as does the main characters',in humble backgrounds.A rural boy comes to the city(Willie Stark)in order to fight those that would subvert the political system for their own crooked gains.Naive about the "game" he is playing he is cajoled and bullied by his opponents.His seemingly honest attempts to do something for the people and their plight gets the attention of the state capitols newspaper which sends a man to check it out,one Jack Burden(John Ireland).Stark loses round one but the more he gets his hands dirty in the political arena the tougher he gets.He goes on a bender after hearing that the very people who have been financing and steering his campaign are just using him to split votes in order for their real choice to get in.At a rally the next day a hungover but new born Stark throws away his wooden speeches and comes out swinging.From this moment on all bets are off and Stark,although losing the election,doesn't let the grass grow under his feet.He goes to college and gets a BA in law and opens up his own practice as a lawyer.When the re-elections come around again he is more than ready to start the fight all over again;this time with a new fire.
Stark's rural ideas become a thing of the past and his disguised feelings for the little guy or "hicks" become just a cover for his real personal ambitions.His methodology has become the same or worse than the very people he first campaigned against from the beginning.
The newspaper man who first covered Stark is now on his payroll,as are many of the very people who tried to squelch Stark from the beginning.He says he keeps them around to remind himself of what he had to overcome,but it is by all appearances something else;to use those same and very corrupt hands to do his dirty work.Along for the ride is rough and tough Sadie who falls in love with Stark as does Jack Burden's own girlfriend,all the while using his own wife and adopted son as pawns for political gain(nothing ever changes)whenever the occasion calls for it.Stark by now has given a plum job to a prominent judge as Attorney General and a plum position for a doctor as head of the new Stark Hospital,both close friends of Burdens.Time however reveals the ugly truth behind Starks motives not only to these men but to all of Starks staff.When the judge backs a motion at the state capitol for now-Governor Stark's impeachment Stark confronts him with evidence of a wrong doing many years before that he had forgotten about.Stark wants the judge to call off the vote then and there but the judge tells Stark he will get his answer in the morrow.While Stark and Burden are outside of the room talking and about to leave a shot rings out and they find the judge has committed suicide.Problem solved for Stark.
Things go from bad to worse however as the impeachment hearings at the state capitol resume.Stark has called on his henchmen to get the "hicks" out in support and they do.The plaza around the capitol building is jammed with humanity.The vote comes in and Stark,as would be expected,comes out in triumph and makes a speech.However out from the shadows of the capitol steps comes the distraught doctor who guns down Stark,who in turn is gunned down by police.Stark has flown too close to the sun and his wings of wax have melted sending him plummeting to earth and his inevitable death.
Crawford's performance is mesmerizing throughout.Mind you with this Pulitzer prize winning book and resultant script,how could he have missed? McCambridge gives a very memorable performance as the tough as nails Sadie,with a yearning for the grace and beauty of other women that she will never have.The entire cast is solid in fact and watch for performances by by Paul Ford as the Senator that instigates the impeachment process;you may recall him better as Sgt Bilko's Colonel Hall.Also watch for Bert Hanlon as the newspaper editor,he is the self same actor who appeared as the plastic surgeon in Bogies film Dark Passage.
Technically speaking this print has quite a few surface flaws,dirt specks,scratches,etc..It could use a good cleaning(even though it says it has been remastered in Hi-Def!),but overall the picture is quite crisp.It is full frame a/r(as it should be) and the only extras are two trailers for the tepid 2006 remake,which is very odd indeed.
All in all a very good film that deserved every award it got in /49.It is a must have.Recommended.

What can I say -- I found this film to be so incredibly trite, so simple were its morals and weak its characterization. John Ireland is a lump at the center of the film, Mercedes McCambridge's character arc is severely underdeveloped. As for Willy, we never see his true motivations for an instant, and this is most maddening. I have read a small portion of Warren's book, and it so so vastly superior to the piece of Hollywood pap it's ridiculous. It's hard to imagine a book that is considered the greatest political novel in American history is represented by this connect-the-dots fare.

I'm not much for political movies and thrillers, but I was pleasantly surprised to find this old classic still packs a considerable punch. Based on the life of Huey Long, it chronicles the rise to power of an obscure but ambitious backwoods Louisiana lawyer, Willie Stark, who initially seems to stand for honesty and reform in contrast to the entrenched and corrupt political machine he is fighting, which is determined to defeat him at all costs, rightly perceiving an honest man as a threat to everything they stand for.

Stark triumphs, however, and we watch as he himself takes on the trappings of official power, which he takes to like a duck to water. Stark builds new schools and colleges, hospitals for the poor, improves the roads, and seems to be everything the common man could hope for in a champion and leader. But there is a darker side to Stark, as he himself ultimately becomes assimilated by the corrupt machine he sought to topple and reform, and evidence surfaces that he has not only tolerated and even fostered corruption himself but was possibly involved in the murder of an innocent man who dared to challenge his authority. In the end, we see Stark using the same means and ends to further his power and to hold it at all costs that his enemies used against him at the very beginning of his career.

The movie raises the question as to whether Stark was really any different from the corrupt cronies he replaced, and the schools and hospitals he built just monuments to his ego and arrogance, or whether he was a good man who ultimately went bad in his quest and thirst for power. The question is left open for the viewer to decide, as Stark's career comes to a sudden and tragic end during a campaign where he's fighting for his political survival after he's finally implicated in the murder of the innocent man.

Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, and Mercedes McCambridge are really superb in their roles, and the movie is shot in dark, film noir style, which helps create an appropriately dark, conspiratorial mood and ambience. Overall, still a great movie and as I said, one that still packs a considerable punch and continues to be relevant today in its message about the dangers of demogogues and the abuse of raw, unchecked, political power.

"All The King's Men" is the political melodrama that swept the Oscars and made actor, Broderick Crawford a household name. Pity that in the intervening decades he's all but been forgotten. Crawford is Willie Stark - an honest man butting heads in the political arena until he finally gets his chance to rule when he sweeps the every man's election. Too bad for Willie that the power goes to his head. John Ireland costars as the reporter who wants so desperately to believe in Willie that he's willing to overlook the slow spiral out of control. Mercedes McCambridge is a publicist with only greed in her heart and poison on her mind. John Derek is cast as Willie's son - the tragic victim of his father's scaling to great heights.
TRANSFER: Somewhat of a disappointment. Though the gray scale is reasonably well balanced though at times the contrast levels seem to be a shade too low. A lot of wear and tear has gone into this film's original camera negative. Scratches and age related blemishes are glaringly obvious. Some sections of the print appear to have been lifted from third generation masters instead of the film's original camera negative. There are moments when aliasing and pixelization crop up but these don't terribly distract. The audio is MONO but nicely balanced.
EXTRAS: NOT A CHANCE!
BOTTOM LINE: The drama is compelling. If you can get through all the surface issues with regards to the print elements, then you are in for a very stirring film.

Attention high school English students everywhere! Do NOT use this video to cram the night before the big test and expect to pass. Director Rossen throws the book in the blender, and the result resembles the novel only superficially. The plot, the thematic emphases, the names of characters and places...nothing is safe. I am made to understand that this movie is generally well-regarded, but for fans of the novel it will be a big disappointment.

There are certain subjects that films in general and Hollywood in particular never handled very well--and chief among them are politics. But even some fifty years after it first hit theatre screens, ALL THE KING'S MEN still has plenty of power. Filmed in a "noir" style and based on the famous novel which was in turn based loosely on the rise and fall of Louisiana's Huey P. Long, the film offers the story of Willie Stark, a small-town lawyer who is nominated for govenor by a political party seeking to defeat their opponet by dividing the rural vote. When Willie gets wise to the plot he turns on his false benefactors and rockets to political power--but once in power the honest small-town-joe becomes even more corrupt than those who sought to manipulate him for their own gain.

Broderick Crawford justly earned an Oscar for his performance as Willie Stark, whose ego and thirst for power grows to horrific proportions--and whose corruption gradually taints even the most honorable people around him. The supporting cast of John Ireland, Joanne Dru, Anne Seymour, and Walter Burke (to name but a few) is also quite good. But the real knockout here is actress Mercedes McCambridge as Willie Stark's hard-edged assistant and sometimes lover; it is an astonishing performance which, in spite of its supporting status, remains locked in mind long after the film ends, a role for which McCambridge won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress.

The script doesn't really do full justice to Warren's novel, the film is a bit slow to start, and the story itself feels a bit dry in the telling--but the performances and numerous memorable scenes carry it through to tremendous effect. ALL THE KING'S MEN is so explicit in its portrait of how corrupt politicians manipulate the public that it should be required viewing for every one of voting age. Recommended.

Starring Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark, the charismatic politician whose story is based on the life of Huey Long, this film was nominated for seven academy awards in 1949. The book, written in 1946 by Robert Penn Warren won a Pulitzer Prize. I loved the book. I can't say as much for the video.

Robert Rossen, who wrote and directed the screenplay, tried hard. But not only did he change the story to fit the confines of the screen, he kept it plot driven, thereby losing the complexity that gave the book its power. Without the beauty of the words and the layers of meaning in the story, it became the simple story of a politician's rise to power and his eventual downfall. The book was dense with meaning; the film a mere shadow. And in spite of fine acting by Broderick Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge as Stark's political aide, I found myself soon becoming bored. I was surprised that John Ireland, cast in the role of Jack Burden, the narrator and most complex of all the characters, was also nominated for an academy award. I found his acting wooden and at times I almost laughed out loud at his amateurish performance.

However, even though the story was boiled down to a mere shadow of the book's plot, it still made its points about the realities of politics and the compromises that have to be made along the way. It's a good theme and is as meaningful today as it ever was. And so this video still has some worth. I therefore reluctantly give it a very mild recommendation. However, for a truly worthwhile and memorable experience - read the book!

All the King's Men is a wonderful movie about the corrupting effect of politics. It is a little abrupt in its transitions and glosses over the honest man becoming a demogogue to a great extent but it is still a brave and true film in having the guts to portray a system that leaves no character unmuddied. There are no heroes in this movie. It is not just about power corrupting but also about how appealing power can be to people in its vicinity. It turns strong men into toadies and women into, well let's just say it's in the Bible and Babylon had one. The script and direction by Robert Rossen are both very effective. There are also good performances by most of the actors, particulary Broderick Crawford. The stand out, though, is the stunning portrait by Mercedes McCambridge who allows the standard character of the fast talkin' dame to seeth with anger under her sharp tongue. There is more pain and defiance when she looks in a mirror that the other actors manage throughout the entire movie. A film that is still true and still powerful. It is the portrait of someone who kept his ambition on the outside where now a politician keeps it on the inside but it is the same ambition.