Film Review: All the King's Men (1949)

Otto von Bismarck allegedly remarked that “laws are like sausages” and that “someone would lose taste for them after seeing them being made”. This remark can be applied to concept of democracy in general – a noble ideal that often leaves much to be desired when put into practice. You can find many such examples in history of United States and one of them served as inspiration for All the King’s Men, 1949 political drama written and directed by Robert Rossen, one of the most celebrated works of that genre in mid 20th Century Hollywood.

The film is based on 1947 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Robert Penn Warren, inspired by author’s first hand experiences with Huey P. Long, popular but controversial governor of Louisiana. The plot of the film is set in unnamed US state and begins when the narrator Jack Burden (played by John Ireland), a newspaper reporter gets assigned to backward rural county to cover campaign of Willie Stark (played by Broderick Crawford), crusading candidate for county treasurer who accused corrupt political establishment of shady deals. Stark loses election but, thanks to his honesty and zeal, leaves good impression on Burden who would later follow his political career. Stark through years defies odds and, despite his humble background and lack of education, becomes successful lawyer and champion of impoverished rural people and manages to take on political establishment even on state level. Following cynical attempt to manipulate his rising popularity, Stark ultimately wins governorship and begins to enact broad and ambitious plan of building roads and hospitals. Burden, who in the meantime became his close associate, begins to notice that some of Stark’s methods of governance include bribery, intimidation or worse, himself being tasked as governor’s “hatchet man” who must find compromising information about Stark’s enemies. Those include highly respected Judge Monte Stanton (played by Raymond Greenleaf), friend of Burden’s family and uncle of Anne Stanton (played by Joanne Dru), beautiful woman with whom Jack has been in love. Much to Jack’s displeasure, even she becomes seduced by Stark’s power and begins relationship with him, despite governor being married.

While the novel had clearly put the plot into American South, the setting in Rossen’s script was changed to more generic US state. This not only helped the film to evade thorny issue of race, but also allowed producers to use more convenient Californian locations and use of locals as extras, especially in scenes of campaign rallies and demonstrations, that often look that they have been borrowed from newsreels or genuine documentaries. This cinéma vérité approach is, on the other hand, mixed with more conventional style, including some scenes that led some critics to put All the King’s Men into the genre of film noir. The case of that too stretched, but not without arguments. The main argument is that the main character of Willie Stark represents typical “noirish” anti-hero – an ordinary man who starts by trying to do the right thing only to get seduced by money, power and women and pay the ultimate price for his wrong choices.

The theme of All the King’s Men is, however, more universal and, in a way, more depressing because it deals with politics, something that tends to affect people whether it corresponds with their personal choices or not. Rossen’s film tells all-too-familiar tale of people who might have started their path to power with noblest intentions only to succumb to temptations that come with success, thus joining the ranks of noble freedom fighters who so easily transform into oppressive tyrants at the earliest opportunity. Or, in this particular case, grand saviour became “just another politician”. Rossen in his film shows that this phenomenon isn’t limited to single individual or group. Almost any character in All the King’s Men is corrupted one way or another. Either out of material interest, greed, pride or some deeper emotional issues, they all find ways to, directly or indirectly, get involved into Stark’s shenanigans and be dragged to ruin together with him. Because of that, All the King’s Men is very dark and depressive film.

All the King’s Men was released in politically sensitive time at the start of the Cold War, when Hollywood tried hard to portray USA as different as possible from its ideological adversaries. Film that depicted dark underbelly of democracy didn’t sit well with Hollywood’s right-wingers, including John Wayne who had refused role of Stark, considering it as “unpatriotic”. This created opportunity for relatively unknown character actor Broderick Crawford to deliver one of the most powerful performances in history of 1940s Hollywood. Crawford, a middle-aged and stocky man who obviously lacked physical attributes of a film star, took his job enthusiastically and carefully studied film footage of Huey P. Long trying to make depiction of his fictional alter ego as accurate as possible. He easily gives combination of folksy charm, strength of conviction and seductive power of master populist who can easily win people’s hearts only to betray their trust. Crawford has won Oscar for Best Actor for his role, accompanied by Mercedes McCambridge who won Oscar for Best Supporting Actress by playing his cynical campaign assistant and former lover Sandie Burke. The rest of the cast is also very effective, with the possible exception of John Derek, young actor and future Playboy photographer, who isn’t that convincing as Stark’s troubled son.

Rossen didn’t win Oscar for the direction and screenplay, and his career was almost extinguished soon afterwards, when Communist past briefly made him target of McCarthyst purges. Ironically, American Communist adversaries have embraced Warren’s novel and gave it their own interpretation with 1971 television miniseries produced in Soviet Belarus. New, much derided, Hollywood version, directed by Steve Zaillian, came in 2006 with Sean Penn in main role.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)

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