This review is dedicated to one of my oldest film review buddies on Epinions, the redoubtable Macresarf1, who was and still is one of the elder statesmen of Internet movie criticism. His highly individual takes on films great and not-so-great well deserve your attention. Please visit him and you will be rewarded with sterling film reviews that are sure to increase your appreciation for fine film. Alex, this one’s for you!

All the King’s Men is a fairly low-bucks treatment of the fascinating subject of power politics.

Probably the earliest frank appraisal of American demagoguery, it was Broderick Crawford’s first leading role and one that won him the Academy Award for Best Actor. The film also won Best Picture of 1950 – pretty good for a film that was really a “B” movie! A third Oscar was snagged by film newcomer Mercedes McCambridge for Best Supporting Actress. McCambridge would later become best known as the voice of the demon in William Friedkin’s frightening religious-horror drama, The Exorcist.

Broderick Crawford, who had performed supporting roles in a host of forgettable “B” movies through the ‘30s and ‘40s, probably had his biggest previous part as Gary Cooper’s American friend Hank in 1939’s Beau Geste - a story of the French Foreign Legion in North Africa. Later, as Macresarf1’s review noted, Broderick Crawford became best known as the trench-coated Dan Mathews, barking “10-4” into the microphone of his police cruiser on the TV series Highway Patrol.

Fairly closely based on the career of Huey P. “Kingfish” Long, a famous Louisiana governor who met a bad end, the protagonist Willie Stark (Crawford) moves from a lumbering, uneducated, good-natured sap who thinks the best man wins in politics to a scheming, conniving thug who will stop at nothing to maintain his political clout. Some have seen this as a harbinger of Willie J. Clinton; I am not one to believe in the occult, but who knows?

The film appears dated and has its flaws, most likely due to its mosquito-sized budget, but the one thing that causes it to maintain its relevance is the story – the rise and fall of a politician in the American South.

Stark tries to run for local office and is spurned by the small town political machine who has had the elections sewed up since Creation.

Nonplussed, Willie rails against a low bid building contractor, saying they are building a school building with substandard materials. He is vindicated, in a left-handed sort of way, when a stairway collapses killing and injuring some students. This (fresh blood) provides Willie with the platform he needs to get into politics despite opposition from the creaky old local machine (remind anybody of “Reverend” Jesse Jackson??).

He runs for governor and attracts a manager (McCambridge) and a press agent Jack Burden (John Ireland) who is of the old money of the area. Ireland is uncomfortable with his silver spoon upbringing and wants to pull his own weight but is too weak-willed to cut the ties back at the ole plantation – thus he is susceptible to the allurements of power that begin to cloak the character of the brutish Stark.

But there is a Trojan horse in the campaign committee. In a moment of candor, McCambridge admits that she is a spy and her advice is intended to split the hick (their word) vote so that the machine candidate wins. This verbal slip-up occurs after a night of drunken debauchery at the campaign office with the formerly clean-cut Stark.

Horribly hung over and almost unable to function, Burden drags the groggy Stark to the venue for his scheduled speech. Instead of acknowledging his defeat as planned, Stark takes some whiskey courage and delivers a blistering tirade against the powers in the state party and calls on the hicks for support.

He is elected and attracts a following of prominent people, including Burden’s relatives and influential friends. Stark now begins to show his true colors as he milks the rich for contributions while placating the masses with free medical care and so on. Everybody who wants to do business with the state has to cut Willie in on a piece of the action, preferably in cash.

Governor Stark begins to come through with all his campaign promises, building all sorts of public works-- to all appearances improving his backward state -- however, the bribery, intimidation, and yes, murder, form an ugly undercurrent to his popular programs. He has an affair with a young admirer (Joann Dru) and ruins the career of her uncle, a well-respected judge. Dru’s brother, a doctor who is the head of Stark’s state medical program, reacts with vengeance, pumping Stark full of .38 caliber justice. This, by the way, is almost letter-by-letter the fate of real Governor Huey Long, so I am informed.

Directed by Robert Rossen (The Hustler, Alexander the Great), who also adapted Robert Penn Warren‘s novel for the screen, All the King’s Men is quite a compelling viewing experience, showing the sleaze on the glitzy underbelly of American politics.

As Macresarf1 stated in his excellent review, the film hasn’t aged well in light of the cynicism that has infected the American populace post FDR-HST-JFK-LBJ-Watergate-Bush I-Clinton, but I believe it is unfair to detract from a film that was totally electrifying on its release to the naïve Depression-era generation who couldn’t believe their leaders would LIE to them…

All the King’s Men is an unforgettable primer on men who would promise people anything in return for their vote. Four stars.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening