Robert Rossen’s 1949 movie ‘All the King’s Men’ was inspired by Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the rise and fall of a rabble-rouser Southern governor, a home-grown fascist.
The triple Oscar-winning production features Broderick Crawford in the role of the ambitious and sometimes ruthless politician, Willie Stark.
The main difference between the novel and the film is the reversal of the major roles: the character of the narrating newspaper reporter takes precedence over the power-hungry governor in the novel. In the film, the secondary character is the reporter, while the central character is lawyer-turned-politician Willie Stark.
Of the film’s seven Academy Awards nominations, it won three major honours: Crawford won the Best Actor statuette, Robert Rossen as producer won the Best Picture Oscar, and Best Supporting Actress went to Mercedes Mc Cambridge (in her screen debut). The movie remains a hallmark political film with excellent performances throughout. When the film was released, it received wide acclaim.
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