The
October film for this season “Classic” movies at the Edge is a 1949 Film Noir
classic, “All the King’s Men.” The movie won three Oscars including Best Film.
The plot is about a small time political want-to-be politician who rises
from a rural county seat to become governor of a state. It’s a thinly disguised
story of Louisiana
politician Huey Long who rose to power with a similar anything-goes approach to
politics in the 1930’s. The movie’s success is not just the story in the movie,
which is compelling by itself, but the incredible editing done on the first
attempts to tell the story that ended up being much to long and complicated.
This October Movie Classic will be shown at the Edge Theatre in Bigfork by Jack
Nachbar. It will be accompanied by Jack’s presentation providing a better
understanding of the time period of the movie. Date: Thursday October 11th. Time: 6:30PM.
Price: FREE of charge.
The
movie ended up so long after the “normal” tinkering done by editing that it
made some of the management panicky to say the least. Production team members
Robert Parrish and Harry Cohn were instructed to take just the best part of
each scene and cut the rest, music and all. Then they cut another 100 feet from
the beginning and end regardless. What ended up is a 109 minute movie “diamond
in the rough” with a “jagged urgency” that is “compelling and Oscar worthy”.
You got to see it knowing the back story to appreciate what happened. Don’t
know if it was ever done that way again, but it worked.
The
stars in the movie were Broderick Crawford, who won the best actor Oscar and
Mercedes McCambridge who won the best supporting actress Oscar. The acting
talent does not stop there because John Ireland was also nominated for the Best
Supporting Actor. That is some special talent on in one film. In
total the film was nominated for seven Oscars. Great acting, great
directing and a film “miracle” all combined to make this one well received by
audiences and film critics then and now.
I think
maybe this is one of those times where we should stop trying to restate what
the critics said and let those reviews speak for themselves. Then you decide
whether a trip to Bigfork is worth to see what the nice accolades were all
about. As a footnote to the reviews: in 2001 it was selected for
preservation in the United States National Film Registery and to date it is the
last Best Picture winner to be based on a Pulitzer Prize winning novel.
Bosley Crowther who reviewed
films for thr News York Times, who said, "Robert Rossen has written and
directed, as well as personally produced, a rip-roaring film of the same title
... We have carefully used that descriptive as the tag for this new Columbia
film because a quality of turbulence and vitality is the one that it most fully
demonstrates ... In short, Mr. Rossen has assembled in this starkly
unprettified film a piece of pictorial journalism that is remarkable for its
brilliant parts. Critic William Brogdon, for Variety Magazine, said “As the rural Abe Lincoln, springing up from
the soil to make himself a great man by using the opinionless,
follow-the-leader instinct of the more common voter, Broderick Crawford does a
standout performance. Given a meaty part, his histrionic bent wraps it up for a
great personal success adding much to the many worthwhile aspects of the drama’”.
Those
strong opinions most likely mean there is something special on the big screen
in October. Come and see a film that will make you think. Place: The Edge Center for
the Arts, Bigfork. Date and time: Thursday October 1tth at 6:30PM.
It will be worth going to Bigfork, because Jack will provide you with
background about the movie and a cartoon of the period. An appropriate
snack will be served courtesy of Jack and his wife/projectionist, Lynn. The
Classic Movie Series is part of the District 318 Adult Education Program.
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