All the King's Men (1949)

Release date: 1949-01-01
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Robert Rossen
Production Co: Columbia Pictures
Genre: Drama
Rating: 7.5/10
Length: 1h 50min

Storyline

Jack Burden is a newspaper reporter who first hears of Willie Stark when his editor sends him to Kanoma County to cover the man. What's special about this nobody running for county treasurer? He's supposedly an honest man. Burden discovers this to be true when he sees Stark delivering a speech and having his son pass out handbills, while the local politicians do their best to intimidate him. Willie Stark is honest and brave. He's also a know-nothing hick whose schoolteacher wife has given him what little education he has. Stark loses the race for treasurer, but later makes his way through law school, becoming an idealistic attorney who fights for what is good. Someone in the governor's employ remembers Stark when the governor needs a patsy to run against him and split the vote of his rival. The fat cats underestimate Stark; but Jack Burden, Stark's biggest supporter, overestimates the man's idealism. To get where he wants to go, Willie Stark is willing to crack a few eggs - which ...

Plot Keywords

politician, governor, rise and fall, election campaign, political corruption, based on novel, ambition, rags to riches, rise to power, politics, reference to abraham lincoln, political candidate, woman slaps a man, man slaps a woman, rural setting, american south, death, punctuation in title, photograph, mistress

Short Review

The cast Is tremendous, though only three or four carry the heavy end of the log. Broderick Crawford makes a very good job as Stark, whom he portrays as a likable U.S. reprobate, in whom there are still sparks of decency.