Anderson's movie is derivative.It looks like lite Douglas Sirk: the spoiled kid sister (played by Susan Kohner who worked with Sirk) is not unlike Marylee (Dorothy Malone) in "Written on the wind" ;besides ,Ruby's funeral will fatally make you think of that of Annie in "Imitation of life" ,a black choir singing "Free at last" replacing Mahalia Jackson.The screenwriters also borrow from Kazan's "splendor in the grass" as far as the two leads' fate is concerned.And the baby trick was used a hundred times or more in the thirties and forties melodramas (notably Bette Davis' "the big lie" and "the old maid" ;Olivia De Havilland' s "to each his own").Having said this,one must credit Natalie Wood for making the best of the stereotyped part of a go-getter;Robert Wagner's moody looks work wonders too when he plays the trumpet and in the scene when he backs Pearl Bailey's impressive vocals.This is the kind of movie they don't do anymore;this is the kind of story which could go on and on and on and on;in a word,it's the perfect soap opera ,and it still exists today in the form of the TV series.Like this?try these.......Peyton Place Mark Robson 1957Imitation of life Douglas Sirk 1959

Better still, buy the soundtrack on CD. Dated, pretentious angst-ridden nonsense that is saved only partially by the fine music; and certainly not by an over-the-top Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner. I usually like Wood (not quite so sold on Wagner), but here she seems shrill and the whole film looks and feels awfully dated. I'd rate it just ahead of the truly criminal Subterraneans of the same year (with another of my usual favourites, Leslie Caron). That also had a great soundtrack, including the great Gerry Mulligan, but in it's case it wasn't enough to induce me to watch it all the way through.This one I did, but I'm not sure it was worth the bother.

I happened to see this film years ago in a sleepless night, zapping through some of the less commercial public canals we still had at the time in Europe. It really opened my soul because of the music included. I will not comment on the quality of the script or the acting of the young couple Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner; others can do better than I. But I like the slow pace, the melodramatic story, the dialogue lines that stay in your head, and - above all - I was thrilled by the singing and acting of Pearl Bailey as Ruby Jones. If ever you have to explain the feelings that gave rise to the blues, ahead of the ubiquitous slavery hardships and working in the cotton fields, then this movie is a 'must-see'. When Chad is in the lowest of spirits and ends up in a morning-after hang-out, he runs into this Ruby Jones, an alcoholic, but warm-hearted black singer. And she treats him with a song, unaccompanied, raw voice, that expresses his feelings so well, and gives him the idea he is not the only unhappy, lost man on this globe. I don't know if Mrs Bailey sung the track herself or was dubbed, but she succeeds in getting the blues feeling across as I've never heard thereafter. Same when later on in the movie she sings to Chad, playing the trumpet: "What am I heading for? Blues is knocking at my door". Alas! this song is spoiled by a dubbed in band and even background vocals if I remember well - anyhow, it takes away from the simplicity of just a singer and a "horn player" (as she puts it throughout the picture). The sad story of the twists and impossibilities of human relationships is to me more real-life than most of the soapy Hollywood plots that come to us by shiploads these days. Endearing, that's probably the word that says it all.

You see the provocative title ALL THE FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS. Then you see the cast; NATALIE WOOD, ROBERT WAGNER, PEARL BAILEY and you think, this one's going to be good ! Very glossy with obviously decent production values hardly compensates for this awful movie. Four young and very attractive actors (WOOD, WAGNER, HAMILTON & KOHNER) interact with one another in over the top soap opera that has got to be one of the most unnecessary melodramas of all time. Actresses (NATALIE WOOD & SUSAN KOHNER) are gorgeous and dressed and coiffed to the nines thanks to Helen Rose and Sydney Guilaroff, but they almost come across like little girls in dress up as you watch them wallow in miseries of their own making. WAGNER tries too hard as hip trumpet player who is befriended by PEARL BAILEY, an alcoholic singer hellbent on self-destruction over a lost love. All involved must have thought that they were making something 'cutting edge' because of the relationship of white boy WAGNER with black woman BAILEY. WAGNER evens gets to get on a soapbox, slap KOHNER afters she refers to BAILEY'S character 'Ruby' as the 'N' word and then describe the black woman as the only truly decent person he's ever known ! Aside from the visual richness of the film, you'll quickly realize that the story is so apparently vacuous that it's like witnessing a vicious circle in motion. TRIVIA : The piano player 'Redd' is none other than REDD FOXX, a good dozen years before the success