City reporter John Ireland (as Jack Burden) is sent to cover an unusual small-town campaign for county treasurer. The underdog receiving media attention is populist candidate Broderick Crawford (as William "Willie" Stark), uncommonly known as an "honest politician." Upon arriving, Mr. Ireland finds corrupt local officials threatening to arrest Mr. Crawford, who draws crowds with his campaign speeches. They have Crawford's schoolteacher wife Anne Seymour (as Lucy) fired and beat up his handsome son John Derek (as Tom). Crawford's political career is a certainly a challenge. Ireland would rather be with pretty Joanne Dru (as Anne Stanton), but becomes attached to Crawford...Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1946 novel by Robert Penn Warren, "All the King's Men" has things to say about political corruption that are still relevant, today. The story is very skillfully adapted, by director Robert Rossen. He keeps the narrative flowing briskly and elicits great performances, all around. With many scenes involving multiple characters, the director keeps everyone in place. There are times when Mr. Rossen and crew covey much with three or four players and only a few seconds of silent screen time. Obvious artistic moments strengthen scenes without being too showy; for example, children at a carnival provide chaos as Broderick experiences the aftereffects of alcohol...Sexual and romantic relationships are telegraphed by studying the faces and manners of Ms. Seymour, Ms. Dru and Mercedes McCambridge (as Sadie Burke). You could turn down the sound and gather much information by watching the faces of "All the King's Women". In her first feature film appearance, Ms. McCambridge won most of the year's big "Supporting Actress" awards. She's marvelous, but the story should have had at least one "romantic" scene between McCambridge and Crawford; filmmakers may have felt the two would look unappealing together, and may have cut love scenes somewhere during the process. Crawford was clearly the year's consensus "Best Actor" winner...The often misplaced, but most coveted, "Academy Award" for Rossen was as "Best Picture" producer rather than director. "Oscar" nominated Ireland as "Supporting Actor" and he very likely outperformed that group, but he lost; it's just as well, Ireland is one of two leading, not supporting, performers in "All the King's Men". Others in the cast to keep an eye on include doctor Shepperd Strudwick (as Adam Stanton) and devoted Walter Burke (as Sugar Boy). The film makes a strong case for incorporating an "ensemble" acting award. To spite the strong effort and acting impressions, the characterizations are sketchy and secondary; the main characters are politics and corruption.********* All the King's Men (11/8/49) Robert Rossen ~ Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridge, Joanne Dru

Reporter Jack Burden is sent by his editor to Kanoma County to cover political newcomer Willie Stark. Stark is railing against corrupt officials and is arrested by the corrupt police. He is the overwhelming underdog and loses the race for treasurer. He studies law at night to become a lawyer. He rises in fame when he takes on the government for shoddy school construction that killed some children. The governor needs help to win and his handlers pick Stark to split the opposition hick vote. He starts off poorly but eventually becomes a populist who wins it all. In turn, Stark's idealism is corrupted by vanity and greed turning him into yet another corrupt politician.This is a terrific political drama. The acting is terrific from Broderick Crawford in the lead. Mercedes McCambridge is also terrific as political operator Sadie Burke. It takes a gritty dark look at the political system and its inherit corruption. It's also a character study of an idealistic man falling in love with his own persona. It is a long winding story which may be its only minor drawback. However Crawford's magnetic performance shines through.

For any movie buff, the simple thought of putting "All the King's Men" on the same level than "Citizen Kane" is a blasphemy but I'm not afraid to say it: once you see both movies, you realize how much they have in common and how sometimes the humblest "All the King's Men" slightly beats Orson Welles' masterpiece in its portrayal of power's corruptive effect. So, the title might sound derogatory but it's not meant that way."Citizen Kane" was about a man with guts and vision, who got so alienated by his obsession to be the voice of people that he ultimately lost his touch with people and ended up miserably with no connection whatsoever with his cherished past. He was misunderstood, but he had it coming. "All the King's Men" is a character study chronicling the same psychological process but rhyming this time with success, it's about a Southern politician named Willie Stark who never forgot where he came from and never lost his touch, which made him even more dangerous.The story is adapted from a Pulitzer-prize winning novel of the same title written by Robert Penn Warren, and based on the rise and fall of the legendary populist politician Huey Long. The ascension of Willie Stark, played by a mesmerizing Broderick Crawford, is a fictionalization of Long's life and one of the most powerful political movies ever made, for the simple reason that it hasn't lost any of its relevance, as long as politics exist, there will be men like Stark. Yesterday, France was shaken by the victory of French Populist Party in the European elections, politicians acted surprised while they could have seen it coming. Basically, the winners spoke the people's language.It's as simple as that, you've got to put yourself in people's shoes and it's not any politician who can accomplish it. Some see their vocations as something that elevated them above the crowd, they're not leaders but prophets allowing people to embrace their own visions, but men like Willie Stark are within the crowd, not above it. The pivotal moment occurs when after failing attempts to seduce people by talking about fiscal measures and other non-inspirational stuff, good old honest Willie Stark, understands he was the puppet of his own detractors, gets drunk, tears up his paper and enraged by his own anger, gives one of these great roaring speeches tailor-made for the big screen.And the film, directed by Robert Rossen, features the kind of editing the genre requires, crowd close-ups, big headlines, and an unforgettable gallery of flawed characters, starting with the protagonist himself, Willie Stark, who starts out as a nice and honest fellow, struggling to raise his voice, a man of the people, and undeniably for the people, a man revered by the journalist played by John Ireland, but whose rise to power's collateral damage will be a decline of honesty. Power would plant the seeds of a cynical mind. "All the King's Men" starts like a Capra film but ends in a film-noir mood. After World War II, world turned out to be more disillusioned and cynical for "Mr Smith" figures, and it's only voices like Willie Stark's that can be heard.Indeed, good old Ma Joad said 'we're the people', but in 1949, only Stark could make this statement audible, embodying in his huge body and larger-than-life personal those "Grapes of Wrath". And once Stark realized he had a natural charisma and capability to move the crowds, it's like Forrest Gump's braces breaking, the repressed ego finally implodes to the face of the political scene and from respect, the eyes and hearts are fueled with admiration and fear, starring with his titular inner circle, Mercedes McCambridge plays a sort of Jean Hagen-like character, going from antagonist to main counselor, she delivers her first and greatest (rightfully Oscar-winning) performance as a little woman with the toughest heart, venting her lack of seducing appeal in her infatuation with Stark.The rest of the cast includes Joanne Dru as Ireland's girlfriend, she's literally blown away by Stark's appeal and although her performance might be the one aspect of the film I disliked (God, how many times she had to turn her head theatrically!) the twist in her character –in all the meanings of the words- was quite gutsy and politically incorrect for its time. And there's Broderick Crawford as Stark, in the role of a lifetime, earning him the Oscar for Best Actor. My other favorite performance from him is in Fellini's "Il Bidone" and it's quite ironic and befitting that he played a swindler in the film, while Rossen would also direct another classic and favorite of mine "The Hustler", after all, isn't a politician a kind of hustler with power as the pay-off?But I'm still puzzled with Stark's character (this is how fascinating he is): did he turn into a bad guy or was he prone to corruption from the very beginning, it's hard to tell, but some of his insightful thoughts say a lot about his vision of politics: "good comes from evil" "but, who defines evil?" retorts one of the film's reasonable minds. Stark doesn't care, as long as he builds roads, schools, hospitals, as long as he puts his state on the maps, and allow people to stop seeing themselves as hicks, he'll believe in anything he says and does. Tyranny? Dictatorship? Well, we live in a Macchiavellian world where ends justify the means, but as the narrative progresses, we're in the eye of the tornado and can't see if power is an end or a mean for Stark.And maybe this is the power of "All the King's Men", Best Picture winner in 1950, a powerful film about power … even more because it has the kind of straight-forward appeal as if it deliberately embraced the simplicity of the very people targeted by Stark... hence my title as the poor man's "Citizen Kane".

This movie, although almost sixty years old now, is still interesting today mainly because human nature and thus the fundamentals of American politics haven't changed. What has changed is the average American's cynicism towards the political process, thus rendering this film possibly more interesting today than it was when it was first made. As others have mentioned, this film is based on a novel that was based on the life of Huey P. Long, governor of and then senator from Louisiana. The politician in this film is Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford), who starts out running for local office, but comes up against a corrupt local political machine that quickly shuts him down, even having his wife fired from her teaching job of many years. A few years later the same corrupt political machine is looking at their polling data and realizing that their candidate for governor will lose unless they can split the populist vote. They enlist Stark to run for office as governor, and his flattered pride doesn't allow him to see what their true motives are. Stark gives a few uninspired speeches until Sadie Burke (Mercedes McCambridge) explains to him what is really going on - that he is a patsy in a larger scheme. From that point forward he is a man transformed. He gives fiery speeches that rile up the people and almost actually wins the race. However, four years later he returns and does win. In order to do so, he has to "make some deals" with some moneyed interests. He starts out using power to help the common people of the state, but in the end he is helping the common people of the state just because he wants power, making sure that everything accomplished by his administration comes complete with a large landmark bearing his name to assure his legacy. His misdeeds in office - both professional and personal - escalate until they become even too large for him to cover up, leading to his ultimate downfall.The one character I found somewhat hard to understand was that of Jack Burden (John Ireland). He starts out covering Stark's story because he is assigned to do so by the newspaper for which he is working. He has such high ideals that he even quits the paper when his boss tells him that the state political machine no longer wants Stark's race covered. However, long after it is obvious what Stark has turned into, even after he knows that Stark has rewarded his friendship and loyalty by taking the girl he loves, Burden remains by his side. It takes Stark indirectly causing the death of Burden's long time mentor before he finally walks away.There have been plenty of movies made about how power corrupts otherwise good men, but in this film there is more than a hint that Stark was never actually a good man. He was just a man who wasn't in a position to be corrupt until power gave him an opportunity to do so. In the sixty years since this film was made we've seen offenses committed by Presidents of both parties that leave the average man wondering "What WERE they thinking?". However, in order to reach the top of the political heap, you probably need to possess a tendency for risk taking along with a great deal of self-confidence, just as Stark had, and these traits can be your enemies as well as your friends.