All The King's Men (1949) | |
Background
All the King's Men (1949) is the fictionalized account of the rise and fall of a backwoods rebel - a story inspired by the rule (and abuse of power) of Louisiana's colorful state governor (1928-32) and Democratic U.S. Senator (1932-35), notorious Huey Pierce Long - "The Kingfish." It is a melodramatic story of the corruption of power by an ambitious demagogue, adapted and based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling 1946 novel of the same name by Robert Penn Warren, and filmed from a script by producer/screenwriter/director Robert Rossen (known for directing other films such as Body and Soul (1947) and The Hustler (1961)). The main difference between the novel and the film is the reversal of the major roles: the narrating newspaper reporter takes precedence over the power-hungry governor in the novel. In the film, the secondary character is the reporter, while the central character is lawyer-turned-politician Willie Stark. One of the film's posters proclaimed:
The great political film was a breakthrough film for Broderick Crawford from his B picture status - his performance is very compelling and impressive as he is transformed from a backwoods, honest and naive lawyer into a dirty, unscrupulous and sleazy politician. Of the film's seven Academy Awards nominations, it won three major honors: Crawford won the Best Actor statuette, Rossen (as producer) won the Best Picture Oscar, and Best Supporting Actress went to Mercedes McCambridge (in her screen debut). Its other nominations were: Best Supporting Actor (John Ireland), Best Director and Best Screenplay (both for Rossen), and Best Film Editing. Writer/director Steven Zaillian remade the film 57 years later, as All the King's Men (2006), with mixed reviews. It starred Sean Penn as Willie Stark (Broderick's role), Jude Law as Jack Burden (Ireland's role), Kate Winslet as Anne Stanton (Joanne Dru's role), Mark Ruffalo as Adam Stanton (Shepperd Strudwick's role), and Patricia Clarkson as Sadie Burke (McCambridge's role). Reportedly, Zaillian never saw the original film, and adapted the screenplay solely from Robert Penn Warren's novel. The StoryUnder the film's credits, crowds of fanatical political supporters from the countryside congregate in the capital city to support their candidate, displaying placards and banners that read: WILLIE'S LAW IS OUR LAW, and WIN WITH WILLIE. Torchlight flames are superimposed on the brawny image of the egomaniacal political figure of Willie Stark, who preaches his powerful message to them. [These scenes are excerpted from the final sequence in the film.] Everything is told through the eyes of an admiring young Chronicle newspaperman, Jack Burden (John Ireland), who is sent to report on a Southern politician named Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford) - said to reportedly be "an honest man" by Burden's editor. [Burden's story is, in actuality, the truth of the rise and fall of a political king, who like Humpty Dumpty in the rhyme, falls from grace and can't be put back together again.] The reporter locates Stark in small Kanoma City (in Kanoma County) in an unnamed state - "a typical hot, dusty, backwoods county seat," speaking to a group of citizens and rallying for them to vote for him as County Treasurer. At first in the late 1920s during his campaign, poor, honest, and idealistic Stark is for reform, justice, the underprivileged, and the underdog as he rails against the local County Commissioners:
Stark is pressured to break up his assembly due to an ordinance selectively enforced by the local authorities to deliberately disrupt the proceedings and prevent the passing out of handbills, but after a quick arrest due to his resistance, he is released by fat city boss Mr. Tiny Duffy (Ralph Dumke). Burden drives out with Stark to his rural home, where he meets Willie's long-suffering schoolteacher-wife (of nine years) Lucy (Anne Seymour), his father (H. C. Miller), and their sullen fifteen year-old step-son Tom (John Derek). While Willie aggressively eats his chicken dinner with a single-minded appetite, he is determined to run and stay in the race ("get(s) the truth to the people" according to his wife), no matter how much humiliation and harrassment he receives. With folksy charm, he vows: "I'm gonna run. They're not gonna kick me around like I was dirt." When adopted son Tom returns home, he describes how Duffy's goons were waiting for him, and threw away his stepfather's handbills. Willie again swears: "I'm gonna run even if I don't get a single vote." With conviction, Burden types his news article about his impressions of Stark - WILLIE STARK, AN HONEST MAN:
After producing the sympathetic article that befriends Stark, Burden takes a well-deserved two or three-week vacation in his childhood home community of Burden's Landing (named for his ancestors), about 130 miles from Kanoma City. In Burden's voice-over as he crosses over to the small, peaceful and isolated island town, he muses: "It was separated from the mainland by a body of water. For the first time, I wondered if it wasn't separated by more than that." Jack greets his Southern society mother (Katherine Warren), but is coldly distant from his stepfather Floyd McEvoy (Grandon Rhodes). A respected and distinguished inhabitant of the island community is patriarchal Judge Montgomery (Monty) Stanton (Raymond Greenleaf). Stanton's socialite niece is Anne Stanton (Joanne Dru) [mis-spelled as Ann in a newspaper article], Burden's girlfriend, and Stanton's nephew (brother to Ann) is noted physician Dr. Adam Stanton (Shepperd Strudwick) - a close childhood friend of Jack's. At one of many fancy social occasions, discussion flares over the direction of Jack's troubled career choice and conflicting political viewpoints regarding Willie Stark. Later that evening, while standing under an imposing portrait of Anne's father (the late former governor) in the darkness, Jack is unclear regarding marriage to Anne because of his own indecisiveness, his ambivalence about his family, and his aim to prove himself to his aristocratic background:
Burden cuts his vacation short and returns to the newspaper. Although honorable and truthful and considered a "log cabin Abe Lincoln," Willie's efforts are hopeless against the state's "dishonest" political machine, and he loses the County Treasurer election ("I guess that's the end of Willie Stark," Burden mutters). After the loss, Willie studies law at home under the patient tutelage of his educated wife to become a hick lawyer. In a montage - Willie proudly hangs up his framed Bachelor of Law diploma from Kenport Law School, accepts indigent cases in his new law practice, and works long hours behind his storefront window (decorated with bold letters WILLIE STARK, ATTORNEY AT LAW). Soon, Willie's luck turns when his prophetic campaign warnings concerning graft in a Kanoma City Grammar School building contract come true. The poorly-constructed school fire escape breaks loose from a brick wall support during a routine fire drill, collapses, and kills several children. After the funeral service, Willie is remembered as "an honest man" by some of the town's victimized citizens - "If we'd only listened to you, Willie." A Kanoma City news editorial titled "Voice in the Wilderness" praises Willie's foresight:
Willie seeks damages on the victims' behalf, and thus gains statewide notice for his successful prosecution of the unscrupulous grafters. Stark pastes headlines from newspapers into his scrapbook. They read:
Burden is again assigned by his news editor to "stay with him" and follow Stark's progress in taking "the hick vote" away from the political machine. Willie is encouraged to run for state governor by state bosses in the capital, but he is really being manipulated by them to split the rural "hick" vote. (Three candidates are on the ballot: the machine candidate Joe Harrison, McMurphy, and Willie Stark.) During whistle-stop campaigning for the position, Willie speaks to the people about a "balanced tax program," but turns off potential voters by his wooden and leaden style and reliance on facts and statistics. When Burden realizes that the gullible Willie is being framed by the political machine for their own purposes, he confers with Sadie Burke (Mercedes McCambridge) - a cool, conniving and calculating political aide:
But Burden is reluctant to reveal the truth to the dim-witted Willie about how he will soon be defeated in the state's gubernatorial race by the machine. Yet he does advise Willie to stir up the indifferent voters:
Willie senses that Burden is right, and that he won't be governor: "A man don't have to be governor...I'm gonna lose, Mr. Burden, I know that. Don't try and fool me...I would have made a good governor, better than those other fellas." When Sadie joins their conversation and inadvertently (and callously) admits that Willie was framed by the machine, her revelation is stunning:
After learning that he was used, Willie promptly proceeds to get drunk from a bottle of bourbon and then passes out. The next morning, still recovering from a hangover and half-conscious, he is led to the Upton Fairgrounds for a campaign barbecue and speech. A ferris wheel spinning in the background reflects the spinning within Willie's head. To recover before he is due to give his canned talk, Willie sits in a playground swing where other children are playing, and drinks down coffee (and a generous amount of bourbon). When he finally ascends the campaign platform, and lurches onto the stage, Sadie and Burden both wonder if Willie is capable of speaking to the crowd:
To their surprise, Willie develops his own fighting style and delivers a rousing, memorable speech - after tossing away his prepared speech. A cut-away to them in the middle of the speech displays their astonishment. Stark's bull-headed oratorical talent, loosened by the booze, truly speaks to the people. [This speech single-handedly won the Academy Award for Broderick Crawford.] He identifies himself with the hick audience that is awestruck by his words. The speech ends with a montage of a closeup of his ranting face delivering powerful and thundering words, superimposed over flames:
His campaign literally catches fire. A headline from the newspaper: "STARK CHANGES BOOMING!" reflects the strong resurgence of voter interest in Willie as a viable candidate in rural areas. Fearful of his growing power and that Stark "is getting too big for his britches," city bosses order strong-armed retaliation and bribery against the leader of the hicks. When Burden's editor demands that the Chronicle support Stark's opponent Harrison, the politico's man, the principled reporter quits his job. Although Stark loses the election to Harrison in a close race, Stark sweeps rural areas. The city vote decides the election, and a record number of votes are polled. Confident that he has touched a nerve with the people and will win the gubernatorial race the next time around ("I learned something...how to win"), Willie is joined at a bar for drinks by Sadie, Burden, and stuttering henchman Sugar Boy (Walter Burke) - a bodyguard and assistant who previously worked for his opponent Tiny Duffy. Four years later, Willie conducts a second campaign. Meanwhile, Jack "drifted from job to job" and grew "further and further away from Anne and the life at Burden's Landing." According to Jack's voice-over during another long montage of Willie's attacks against the corrupt 'old machine' and his slogans of support for the people:
He won the hearts of his constituents by fighting state government corruption and proclaiming that his new platform was to "soak the fat boys and I'm gonna spread it out thin." However, Burden slowly becomes disillusioned and troubled as he observes Stark's corruptible rise to power ("strange deals" with special interests) the next time around:
Burden (a "college man") joins Stark's entourage and team as chief aide, hatchet man and speech writer. Surprisingly, Willie surrounds himself with his previous opponents, including Tiny Duffy. He also hires shrewd Sadie Burke as his secretary and campaign manager, after she switches allegiances from the political machine. Willie confidently brags about his disregard for financial resources and his wheeling-dealing: "Money, I don't need money. People give me things...because they believe in me." Willie is brought by Jack to Burden's Landing to seek support from Judge Stanton and other guests during a reception in the Stanton estate. During a question and answer period, liberal Dr. Stanton asks about alleged "deals" being made by Stark with the very groups he supposedly opposes. Stark admits the fact: "I have nothing to hide - I'll make a deal with the devil if it will help me carry out my program. But believe me, there are no strings attached to those deals." He then responds with a question of his own concerning where good comes from. He answers his own question - stipulating that the end justifies the means:
He believes that any worthwhile programs (such as schools, highways, hospitals) require some degree of corruption, deal-making and dirty power politics. He solicits the community's support: "There's a time to talk and there's a time to act. I think the time to act is right now, and with your support, I not only will win, but I will do all of the things I promise. I need your help - oh, I need it badly, but I'm not gonna beg for it. In the name of this state, which we love, in the name of the governor in whose house we meet, I demand it." Afterwards, when he has been reassured of their support, he craftily promises that the Judge will be made his Attorney General. Anne displays her admiration for the dynamic candidate. Stark is elected governor - a "smashing victory throughout state," according to the newspapers. Cries resound in the street and call for Willie to make a victory speech to the cheering crowds: "WE WANT WILLIE!" Beneath a large poster of himself, he vows to keep his populist campaign promises:
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