All the King's Men Information

All the King's Men is a 1949 drama film based on the Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name. It was directed by Robert Rossen and starred Broderick Crawford in the role of Willie Stark.

Plot

All The King's Men is the story of the rise of politician Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford) from a rural county seat to the governor's mansion. He first teaches himself law and becomes a lawyer, championing the local people and gaining popularity. He then decides to go into politics. Along the way he loses his innocence, and becomes as corrupt as the politicians he once fought against.

The main story is a thinly disguised version of the rise and assassination of real-life 1930s Louisiana Governor, Huey Long. Also included is a series of complex relationships between a journalist friend who slowly sours to his ways, the journalist's girlfriend (who has an affair with Stark), her brother (a top surgeon), her uncle (a top judge who is appointed Attorney General but eventually resigns).

When his son becomes paralyzed following a drunk driving accident that kills a female passenger, Stark's world starts to unravel and he discovers that not everyone can be bought off.

The story has a complex series of relationships. All is seen through the eyes of the journalist, Jack Burden, who admires Stark and even when disillusioned still sticks by him. Stark's campaign assistant, Sadie (Mercedes McCambridge) is clearly in love with Stark and wants him to leave his wife, Lucy. Meanwhile Stark philanders and gets involved with many women, most notably Jack's own girlfriend, Anne Stanton.

When Stark's reputation is brought into disrepute by Judge Stanton (Anne's uncle) he seeks to blacken the judge's name. When he eventually succeeds the judge commits suicide. Anne seems to forgive him, but her brother, a doctor and the surgeon who helped saved his son's life after the car crash, cannot. The doctor eventually assassinates Stark after he wins an impeachment investigation. The doctor in turn is shot down by Sugar Boy, Stark's fawning assistant.

Cast

• Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark
• John Ireland as Jack Burden
• Joanne Dru as Anne Stanton
• John Derek as Tom Stark
• Mercedes McCambridge as Sadie Burke
• Shepperd Strudwick as Adam Stanton
• Ralph Dumke as Tiny Duffy
• Anne Seymour as Mrs. Lucy Stark
• Katherine Warren as Mrs. Burden (as Katharine Warren)
• Raymond Greenleaf as Judge Monte Stanton
• Walter Burke as Sugar Boy
• Will Wright as Dolph Pillsbury
• Grandon Rhodes as Floyd McEvoy

Production

Rossen originally offered the starring role to John Wayne, who found the proposed film script unpatriotic and indignantly refused the part. Crawford, who eventually took the role, won the 1949 Academy Award for Best Actor, beating out Wayne, who had been nominated for his role in Sands of Iwo Jima.

The film was shot at various locations in California using local residents, something that was fairly unknown for Hollywood at the time. The old San Joaquin County courthouse in Stockton, built in 1898 and demolished about a dozen years after the film's release, was featured prominently.

Awards

Academy Awards 1949

All the King's Men was the 36th film to get more than six Academy Awards nominations.

It won three Academy Awards.

Award	Result	Winner
Best Motion Picture		Robert Rossen Productions"Columbia (Robert Rossen, Producer)
Best Director		Robert Rossen Winner was Joseph L. Mankiewicz - A Letter to Three Wives
Best Actor		Broderick Crawford
Best Writing, Screenplay		Robert Rossen Winner was Joseph L. Mankiewicz - A Letter to Three Wives
Best Supporting Actor		John Ireland Winner was Dean Jagger - Twelve O'Clock High
Best Supporting Actress		Mercedes McCambridge
Best Film Editing		Robert Parrish and Al Clark Winner was Harry W. Gerstad - Champion

In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. To date, it is the last Best Picture winner to be based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

American Film Institute

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies"?Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
  • Willie Stark"?Nominated Villain
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)"?Nominated

See also

• Politics in fiction
• All the King's Men, a 2006 film also based on Warren's book