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Released by: Twilight Time Releasing
Released on: March 8th, 2014.
Director: Robert Rossen
Cast: Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Joanne Dru, Mercedes McCambridge, John Derek
Year: 1949
Purchase From Screen Archives
The Movie:
Directed by Robert Resson in 1949 and based on Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, All The King's Men not only earned Best Picture at the Academy Awards the year of its release but so too did it land Mercedes McCambridge and Broderick Crawford the Best Supporting Actress and Best Actor Awards respectively.
The story unfolds through the eyes of Jack Burden (John Ireland), a newspaper reporter in the American south who is assigned coverage of a local election for county treasurer. Here Burden meets Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford), a man of the people who is running against the incumbent. Stark presents himself as honest and in stark contrast to the boys club that's run the state for decades. Willie is big, bold and brash - fearless even - and Jack takes a liking to him, soon befriending the man and his wife, Lucy (Anne Seymour). Willie doesn't win this election, but sees the silver lining to his loss when he decides to get his law degree and open up a legal practice, again, to help out the common man.
A few years later, Willie's upstart political career gets a fresh start. The men behind the scenes of the Harrison campaign want to get their man re-elected but they figure the less affluent voters in the area will vote against him. What they need to do is find a 'man of the people' who will appeal to those voters but not to the point where he'll win, and in turn give Harrison the win. Willie fits this bill and they figure they can con him into doing this. Willie, however, soon figures out what they're up to and decides to really give this election his best shot. He fills himself full of liquor and delivers an impromptu speech of such fire and passion that he makes quite a name for himself. A few years later, Willie wins a gubernatorial where he fills the various positions of his cabinet with loyal trustees, including Jack and his campaign manager, Sadie (Mercedes McCambridge). As Willie becomes accustomed to the power and influence he now wields, however, it soon becomes obvious that he's just as corrupt as those he initially set out to overthrow years back and his life begins to crumble.
It's an interesting coincidence that this movie has been released to Blu-ray at the height of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's 'Bridgegate' scandal as it goes a long way towards solidifying the timelessness of the themes that the film conveys so effectively. While there have been plenty of stories told over the centuries of men with good intentions being corrupted by the system around them, Crawford's powerhouse of a performance in this picture makes this one all the more interesting. In fact, so strong a screen presence does he demonstrate in this film that as good as the supporting players are, each and every one of them winds up in his shadow. It works well in the context of the story Resson and company are telling, however, as Willie really does wind up becoming a larger than life personality as his career begins to take off. Crawford handles this transformation and subsequent downfall remarkably well and the relationships that develop between his character and those played by both John Ireland and Anne Seymour become stressed in ways that give all three actors plenty of solid material to work off of.
Inspired by the true story of Louisiana Governor Huey Long, the script moves at a good pace and while it might seem a little ham-fisted by today's standards there's no faulting the movie's message or the solid character development that it contains. The black and white cinematography captures both the outdoor scenes of southern life and the back room dealings equally effectively and all in all, this one holds up well and remains worthy of all the critical acclaim it received in its initial theatrical run.
Video/Audio/Extras:
All The King's Men arrives on Blu-ray from Twilight Time framed at 1.33.1 and presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition. This is a sharp and crisp looking image that shows very good detail and nice black levels but no obvious signs of digital manipulation such as noise reduction or edge enhancement. Twilight Time seems to great work with older black and white titles and this release is no exception. Contrast and texture are both very strong from start to finish and far surpass what we could get out of a DVD release. Aside from a few specks here and there, the image is free of any major print damage though a natural amount of film grain is present throughout the movie. This is a respectfully film-like transfer and it presents the movie very well and it's hard to imagine it looking a whole lot better than it does here.
The only audio option for the feature is an English language DTS-HD 1.0 track which comes with optional closed captioning provided in English only. Though the source material is limited in range, clarity is good here. Dialogue is perfectly easy to understand, the score has nice balance and presence and there are no issues of note with hiss or distortion.
Extras are slim but in addition an isolated score in DTS-HD format, menus and chapter selection we do get the film's original theatrical trailer. Inside the Blu-ray case is a booklet of liner notes written by Julie Kirgo that offer up some welcome information about the cast and crew involved in the movie as well as some astute observations about what works in the film. Some nice stills and poster art images illustrate the booklet.
The Final Word:
Twilight Time's Blu-ray release of All The King's Men is light on extras but it offers up an important and thought provoking film ripe with great performances in a beautiful high definition transfer.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
